I could take 20 pictures every day of items I find fascinating about this city, West Bengali culture. So wish I could speak Bengali well enough to stop & learn about what brought the people to the spot I catch them in during their daily lives. (There aren't any pictures...I'm trying to limit how many photos I take near my home so my neighbors don't feel like I'm a tourist & I respect their ability to live life without being part of my virtual scrap book!)
Today I saw:
• A man pedaling a cycle rickshaw - human power only - with a seven foot dining table laying on its back across the seat, & two other men using the table legs as seats, straddling them, legs waving back & forth as the rickshaw wallah stood, pushing so strongly on the pedals!
• A man perched in a tree along the canal, calling out to someone I couldn't see at first...then I noticed who he was calling out to...another man, perched in the next tree...with cable winding between them. Following the cable, tree to tree, there ended up being five men, all on their haunches on bending branches, peering out from thinly spaced tree crowns, stringing electrical lines from one patched pole to the next. Who needs a cherry picker when you have trees to climb!
• An Income Tax Cultural Conference - this was being held at a cultural mall near my home. I wanted to go in to watch the dancers & singers provided for the conference attendees, but everyone had on badges & guards were watching as folks entered the public area. Every sign said that the conference was being put on by the West Bengal Income Tax Department. Isn't that interesting?
• There are several press men in "sheds", small lean to buildings, along the canal I walk to home each day. One in particular is very nice, smiling & greeting me in Bengali as I pass. I watched early this morning as he lit a fire in pit in the ground, covered with a tall stove pipe, with a grill on top. He placed his iron - literal iron, like flat irons we see in a pioneer museum, with a worn wood handle - on the grill to heat & then push so hard onto garment after garment, steaming in the sharp creases everyone wears on their clothing here...enjoyed seeing the entire process..wish I could know what his background is, where he lives...I know I have looked into buying an ironing board - the market drives the price...it was 40$ US! Much easier, & cheaper, to hire a press man to iron your clothes...4 rupees, or eight cents - for an outfit.
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