Slices of Life
A day is full of so many quick little glimpses of ordinary, and yet different, life. Here are just a few......


Milk is delivered here. I'm told you can also buy it in the store. But here's what I've seen: milk is delivered. The man on his cycle rings a bell to signal his approach. when he stops he measures the purchase by the cup into the housewife's container. The milk is fresh from the cow.

Another drink is sugar cane juice. It's squeezed from the cane by presses and smiling men. No, I haven't tried a glass. It sounds so sweet by the glass. However I have chewed the juice from the cane and have enjoyed it. Maybe it's the presses that concern me.

This neighborhood father spotted me with my camera on the balcony one morning. He signalled I should snap a photo before they pedalled off to school. I'm sorry about the wire through his face. (Guess I don't see those wires anymore!) Can you see the large book bag on his son's back? The son rode behind his father on the bike. The daughter rode sidesaddle in front.

Here's an auto rickshaw full of primary-aged students headed to school. It's 8:30am. Their books are on top of the vehicle and their lunch baskets hang on hooks down the side.

This rooftop garden is visible from the balcony outside the kitchen. One of YRTV's young teachers wears a fresh rosebud in her hair often. She tells me they grow roses....perhaps in a garden like this. Viji will be moving to her husband's home place over summer vacation. One of the bonuses she' looking forward to is a terrace on which she can grow flowers.

I asked the kitchen staff, one was Hindu, what these faces are. They are on many houses and businesses. I was told they are decorations, a Hindu decoration. Only? Yes. I said I'd heard they were to frighten away evil/bad. They laughed, but were frustrated with their inability to translate the Tamil term. Later one came to me with his mobile and a text message: It means buffoon. That's what they are, he said. Viji calls them scarecrows.

I'm trying to limit my picture-taking. But it's difficult. There are so many of these slices of life.

Something else to think about.....we think it's been 100 plus this past week. Summer begins in a month!