You know, sometimes I forget I live in India. Like, it’s become acceptable to me that (of course) a family of four can fit on one motorcycle, that weddings involve parades with lots of drumming and fireworks on weeknights, that a successful grocery shopping trip results in a sense of accomplishment that can only be compared with winning an Olympic gold medal and that on a good day, it only smells a little like rotten fish and poop.
Recently, I’ve found myself slipping into the sudden realization that although I’m becoming more and more acclimated to life in Mumbai, there are still things around me that cause my face to morph into a quizzical expression.
Today, I have two examples to share with you.
If you’re ever in Mumbai, or any large city in India, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of construction. Progress – it’s everywhere. Buildings going up, buildings be renovated, buildings being painted and prepped for monsoon season – the city is in a constant state of growth and up-keep. I suppose that is not unlike many large, historical cities…but one thing that has always struck me as an interesting practice, is the creation of bamboo scaffolding that goes up overnight and spans across entire high-rise apartment and office buildings. The bamboo is cut into even sized stalks and secured together by rope, creating a waffle pattern of wood and twine that scale the sides of concrete structures.
A few weeks ago, I came home from work to find that some construction workers had been busy building a web of panda food that quickly encircled Palm Acre like a rudimentary jungle cage. For almost a year and a half, I have seen similar scaffolding structures encasing buildings all over the city - Construction workers, painters and handy men, king-kong their way up and down buildings with bare feet and no hard hats - I’d look and think, “Hm. That’s interesting.” But when the open-toed acrobats descended upon my building – I became captivated.
I started taking pictures (and I never take pictures) of the bamboo stalks tied together outside my windows.
I would stick my head outside and look up and down to see if I could spot one of the nimble workers dancing up the sides of my eight-story apartment building. Each day I would mark in my mind the amount of progress the painters made, taking note of the paint drippings that had fallen onto the pavement in the car park. Then, finally – today – the painters reached my level. I was busy in the living room cleaning (which, side bar, was very therapeutic…the woman who usually cleans for us is on vacation for the next 20 days) when I realized I was not alone. There, on my balcony, a mere five feet away from where I was dusting one of my end tables, was a painter suspended by a rope, dangling right in front of my window applying a fresh coat of white paint to the walls around my balcony.
So weird! I ran into my bedroom and got my camera. I capture him in mid paint stroke. Awesome. Why does this fascinate me so much? I don’t know! Maybe it’s because my dad used to paint houses and I have a fondness for men covered in paint splatter. Maybe it’s because I love Cirque du Soleil. Or, maybe it’s because something I had previously only looked upon with interest from afar was actually happening right before my eyes. Regardless, it kind of made my day…hey…whatever works, right!?
So. That was the first thing. The second has to do with my new commute to work (which is going really well, by the way). The only thing I really have to say is that on my way to the train station the other evening, my rickshaw passed a dude riding an elephant. Hahaha. I still can’t believe that happened.
I guess I really do live in India!
Hey, I always loved that scalffolding! And the only time we saw and elephant in the city was when we had gone out a ways for the Christmas party. Where are u going to for your new office?
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