Won't you be my neighbor?

Emma and I had fun today on our morning walk. Now that we have our new Ergo (yay!) walking with Emma is easier. At over 18lbs, she had outgrown the Baby Bjorn carrier and it would put a considerable strain on my back. Today, we ventured out into the unexplored reaches of our neighborhood.

Here are some of our sightings:

There is a lot of construction going on down the road from us. We live in a suburb of the city that is quickly developing. 

Construction workers live in the basement or yard of the building they are constructing in blue tarp-covered lean-to's. 

It is fascinating to see the lady construction workers with their plastic flat-topped caps that have large sandbags on top. They stroll gracefully in colorful sarees to where the sand will be dumped into a mixture to make concrete. Their male cohorts are shoveling sand into bags, mixing concrete, laying bricks, and shimmying up bamboo scaffolding in mini lungies (a wrap-around skirt, that I've been told has boxer shorts underneath). Other men are in light button-up collar shirts and khakis. 

Two ladies approach us, and gesturing with their eyes and cheeks to Emma say, "Naam?" (Name?) I reply, "Uska naam Emma hai." (Her name is Emma) They smile, snap their fingers and make interesting sounds with their tongues and teeth to get Emma's attention. After smiling together and realizing that they don't speak Hindi or Telugu, much, we are interrupted by one of the men asking the ladies to come back to carry another sandbag.

As we continue walking, ladies and gentlemen in suits and name badges walk past us toward the main road to catch rickshaws or the bus to their jobs in HiTech City. I speculate about which are ITs and which are other professionals. 

Closer to our complex as we come back home there is literally a hole-in-the-wall barber. He has a turn-style chair, like those in his profession, and it is in the middle of a concrete slab building that is my height and the width of two port-a-potties. He is too focused on washing the tools of his trade in a bucket to notice our presence. 

A few steps down from the barber is a pan (pAHn) shop where chewing tobacco and mini candy bars is sold from a little carnie booth. It is 10am and this man is setting up his shop.

A block away from the barber is the dumpster. Next to the dumpster is a woman in a dusty saree, re-folding the bottom wrap that goes around her hips. I think it might be her job to sort what is in the trash bags into separate bags, then to load those bags onto the bicycle in front of her and cart them to another location. I ponder to myself about how one man's trash actually could hold another man's treasure here. She may hope to resell some items in those bags. We catch each other's eye and I smile at her. She quizzically looks at my carrier, "Paapa?" (Is that a baby girl?) we give greetings and continue our walk home.

Just wanted to paint a little word picture for you of the opposite side of our neighborhood.