No Flamingos

An afternoon out on the streets of Mumbai tends to inspire at least a mild headache. If the dehydration from not being able to drink enough water doesn't do it, the sun will, or the horns and the general stress of being in the midst of so many people, or the dust, or the constant assault of smells - these days it's mostly garbage, sewage and truck exhaust since the dry season doesn't lend much moisture to the greener smells that filled the city when I first arrived. And then there is jar and chatter of biking on these roads if I chose to ride. For the most part, I'm keeping a low profile these days, holed up at TIFR and eating at McRajan's or the canteen, heading out just one or two times a week.

But today, I was lured out by the promise of seeing hundreds of flamingos who had stopped off in their migration at the mud flats of Sewri, just a few miles north of my part of Bombay. Arvind and Yogi went there this weekend and took some pictures. The theory was that if I went at high tide, I'd have the best chance of seeing them up close. Theory didn't pan out, but I did encounter some kids swimming off the end of a pier,



and a parade of people holding up buckets of water on long steel poles pierced through their cheeks,



and towing cars attached to hooks through the skin of their backs.



I also played in traffic on the way out. The string holding my tripod to my bars came loose, so part of the time the camera was looking at the ground, but you get the idea.