My tiny digicam is always handy (just one of the many things that add to the shoulder tugging weight of my handbag) ... this afternoon as I was driving past the oh-so-terribly crowded and chaotic road outside Andheri station... I was enamoured anew with the life on the streets of Mumbai
Awed and inspired, I had to ask my 15 year old how to create a blog, I was given a 'D-uh ?' look and asked to check online ...its simple and a few clicks later here I am with my own blog!
Its called Sadak Chaap for obvious reasons ... for the non-Indian reader - 'Sadak' means road and 'Chaap' literally means stamp, the phrase 'sadak chaap' is commonly used to describe a 'street-smart' person but rather derogatively; here I am however planning on posting images and stories of people who make a living on the streets... and where else but in the Maximum city - Mumbai of course
My next move and hope you will be back to read about it will be an attempt to interview these amazingly entrepreneurial people who live and make a living on the road
The lady in her mid-fifties or could even be sixties...had set up "shop" on a manhole ( this one was actually covered) with four bricks to elevate her basket of wares - hankies in plastic packets, what caught my attention was that she was actually sitting in the middle of the road - about 10-12 feet away from the entrance to a building, away from whatever little footpath existed, bang in the middle of traffic!
As I watched in astonishment, auto-rickshaws, scooters, cycles, motorbikes and even some smaller cars came to a halt just behind her back - amazingly she even had her back to the traffic, manouvered their vehicles to avoid her and went on ...why was she selling her hankies in the middle of the road? Didn't she fear being run over? especially by a monstrous bus turning the corner ... it was right outside the station and bus stop for godssake! I want to go back and ask her.... I will be back
Awed and inspired, I had to ask my 15 year old how to create a blog, I was given a 'D-uh ?' look and asked to check online ...its simple and a few clicks later here I am with my own blog!
Its called Sadak Chaap for obvious reasons ... for the non-Indian reader - 'Sadak' means road and 'Chaap' literally means stamp, the phrase 'sadak chaap' is commonly used to describe a 'street-smart' person but rather derogatively; here I am however planning on posting images and stories of people who make a living on the streets... and where else but in the Maximum city - Mumbai of course
My next move and hope you will be back to read about it will be an attempt to interview these amazingly entrepreneurial people who live and make a living on the road
The lady in her mid-fifties or could even be sixties...had set up "shop" on a manhole ( this one was actually covered) with four bricks to elevate her basket of wares - hankies in plastic packets, what caught my attention was that she was actually sitting in the middle of the road - about 10-12 feet away from the entrance to a building, away from whatever little footpath existed, bang in the middle of traffic!
As I watched in astonishment, auto-rickshaws, scooters, cycles, motorbikes and even some smaller cars came to a halt just behind her back - amazingly she even had her back to the traffic, manouvered their vehicles to avoid her and went on ...why was she selling her hankies in the middle of the road? Didn't she fear being run over? especially by a monstrous bus turning the corner ... it was right outside the station and bus stop for godssake! I want to go back and ask her.... I will be back
congrats, and well done. great start!!!
ReplyDeleteA great place-of your own. And the beginning is so REAL.
ReplyDelete