Some of these pictures were taken by Mum while she was visiting in November and December of last year. And some of these pictures have been taken by me as I noticed interesting things while out and about. Often times I will spot something very unique while we are driving, but not have enough time to pull out my phone and capture the moment. Some recent ones I rued not catching a shot of were a young girl tight rope walking beside the road, a pujari (temple priest) wearing minimal religious clothes riding a scooter (but wearing a helmet) and very cute little twin boys walking to school in their uniforms.
The building that we live in.
Our neighbours on one side. Wherever there is a vacant unsecured block of land, there will soon be somebody who will set up a house there. Likewise, where there is a vacant house or apartment that doesn't have security guards, somebody will move themselves in. Traditionally the laws in India have been skewed in favour of squatters. Legally evicting squatters is very time consuming and problematic. For private property, if a squatter lives there uninterrupted for 12 years they can acquire legal rights to the property. It's a longer period for government land. I think there have been some changes to the laws recently to help the rightful owners.
Cows on the road, everywhere. Today I was driving home from school with Clara and I pointed out a cow that was drinking water from a bucket, with a dog beside it. Clara gave it a momentary glance and went back to what she was doing. Limited interest now.
This picture (taken by Mum) encapsulates two things we see regularly in India - a lack of safety equipment and people gathering to watch and give their 2 cents. We've learnt that there is not much that goes on within a neighbourhood that all of the other neighbours don't know about. Except within our building, which is largely expat residents, though our drivers and maids definitely gossip with each other about all of us.
There are days in the Indian calendar where no meat is sold. Being foreigners we aren't familiar with when these will occur. Sometimes I arrive at the grocery store to find that there will be no meat for us today. Likewise, there are dry days where no alcohol is sold. This causes no issues for us, but sometimes catches expats by surprise, particularly when on a weekend.
It's amazing what can be balanced on the head. I watched a man at a construction site carrying bags of cement on his head last week.
Some of the wiring is incredible.
Collecting the garbage. All of the rubbish is picked over for materials and items that can be sold. Some of the residents of our building have tried repeatedly to get specific recycling bins so we can make it easier for the waste pickers, but no luck so far. I don't think the building management see it as very important to make the lives of the waste pickers easier.
I took this picture while we were driving to Church. That white car side-swiped us. I was catching the numberplate in case our driver needed it. This is what some of the Uber/Ola cars in India look like!
What the air looked like outside of our kitchen window the morning of Pongal, when the residents of Tamil Nadu burn their old things.
A common way to dry laundry.
A man with his coconut cart crossing the intersection. David randomly stopped our car the other week to hop out and help a lady with a similar cart who was bogged in the sand beside the road.
Our neighbours having a party. But really if there isn't fireworks in our neighbourhood at some point during the week, it's an unusual week. This is another thing the kids have become a bit immune to - fireworks and cows.
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