Monday, October 20, 2008

Brick Carriers, Badshahpur, India

We got stuck in a traffic jam in a village south of Gurgaon so I got out of the car to walk around. I saw these women carrying bricks. There is a building going up in the area and, to give you an indication of the cost of labor, I could see no mechanized tools, not even something that had a wheel or pulley attached to it to facilitate the construction the building. Just one person for each and every task. The women in the pictures here were on brick duty. I have seen women here doing hard labor and for some reason, the contrast between the harshness of the heavy labor and the beauty of the sarees they wear always amazes me.



On another, hopefully un-associated note, a bridge in New Delhi collapsed ( http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/19/asia/AS-India-Bridge-Collapse.php ) yesterday. We were nowhere near the area at the time and it is considered accidental, not terrorist related. They are calling it a bridge but it is more like a raised subway like the El in Chicago or the old raised subways in New York City.




Note the tattoo on the right forearm of the woman on the right (in green) in the top picture. You might have to click on the picture to see it. I see a lot of that here.


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