Today was Holi, the Hindu “festival of colours”. Given that I’d already been targetted by local kids with water-bombs and supersoakers last night, I decided to stay home, relax and enjoy my day off. Maybe do some studying. In the end it was way too noisy. Starting from very early. Which was unexpected, as I live in a really peaceful neighbourhood. So this put me in a pretty weird mood for the rest of the day. (Or maybe I […]
A week ago I was bitten by a street dog, right outside my flat. I was walking to the shops about 8pm, along a badly-lit road, and it jumped out from behind a parked car, snarling, and bit me on the ankle. I was more surprised than anything else. It’s a dog that I see every day—street dogs are everywhere in my neighbourhood—and I didn’t even know it was there until it had nipped me. I checked out the […]
Around 5pm, on a busy main road in Naraina. A small, wiry woman–a daily wage labourer–walks briskly along the road after work with her three children. All of them are animated and chatting over the noise of the traffic. It’s clear that she’s a daily wage labourer because as she walks she has a full-size pickaxe perfectly balanced on her head, hands-free, and with the handle pointing directly forwards.
