Morning sights

The nightwatchman is ready to go and has changed from his uniform. He is waiting for the replacement to come. Three car cleaners are washing the cars. One watchman is reading shlokas from his prayer book. The remains of a bonfire lit near the pavement are there but the ash has cooled down. The men with a tooth brush in their mouth are walking to buy milk at the Milk Depot. Some have carried half naked children with them. The child is without bottom but with a woolen cap. Some old men are wearing the cap that covers their ears only. The Milk depot owner 's silver Mercedes is shining with the rising sun. His two sons are not seen these days. Maybe they have exams.

The garbage dump is overflowing. The truck comes to collect garbage only by eight o clock. There must be a party in the area with loud music till midnight. The plates are strewn and one can actually make out the dinner menu from the leftovers which even the stary dogs are wary of eating. The Udupi across is doing brisk business. The paanwala next to the Udupi is popular as all cab drivers stock up their paan, cigarette and Mawa or tobacco from him. The Bombay Glass works is an old strong huge building with a very sophisticated chawl. It has an open corridor running thru all the houses. Some men are reading their newspapers outside in the west facing veranda. The child in yellow and green waits for his school bus under this mammoth structure. His mom is watching from top in her night gown. The tempo parked close by is very fascinating. Two people live inside.Their only possession is a water tank on the pavement which has a lid and is secured by a lock and chain. They make their rotis in the stove in the tempo and their clothes are hung to dry in the lines inside. These days due to the cold wave, they are waking up late. So one doesn't get the aromas of hot fulkas. The milk booth ext to the auto has a woman clad in her cotton night gown with a petticoat underneath, manning it:) Morning walkers are buying their daily bread before thanking the Lord for it. The watchman at Starcity cinema is still sleeping on the chair. The movie hall opens only at eleven am. The Chai wala outside the Loop mobile office is doing brisk business. The morning office goers with their smoke n chai, the walkers with chai and newspaper. He has already lit his agarbattis and prayed. Two cab drivers are washing their cabs vigorously. The small Dutt temple under the Banyan tree near Starcity is open and the Pandit is removing the previous days flowers, before bathing the idol and cleaning up the place. Lot of office goers pray to this temple and touch the old priest s feet before going.The Pandit goes to his village for Ganpati for five days and those days this temple is not the same, though someone else cleans it.

The Municipal school is just starting and lot of kids come in 'share a cab' here. The political office which is an orange cage captured on the footpath is shut. The Manmala Devi temple from which this road gets its name is just waking up and buckets of water are filled from the well inside the compound to bathe the idols. The concrete chawl after that has woken up. The men in a household sit on the bed to have tea while the women cook in a standing kitchen. The north Indian men in the next house are reading a Hindi Newspaper while chewing daatun. Again a milk booth run by a couple from their ground floor balcony is making money. The encroachers of the park continue to sleep. They are not bothered by the yoga class or the Om chanting. India is all the same in my ten minute walk to the Yog class.