Kolkata defines organised chaos. There is not a bin for miles and as such rubbish has no home. Instead of everyone simply dropping it everywhere as you'd think, they dump it in accumulating piles in the low points of drains. The streets are by no means immaculate as a result, but this scenario works. On top of this the driving is manic, in theory everyone drives on the left hand side, but any slow auto-rickshaw is promptly overtaken via the right hand side of the road, even if there is oncoming traffic. Such a situation would cause great stress for any Remuera mother, but instead of panicking they simply move over and proceed as if all is well. And that's the crucial thing, for these people 'all is well' in all of these situations - there is no revulsion at the piles of food scraps or panic at speeding oncoming taxis, because this is normal for them. It is this that will take me a while to get my head around.
Reuben McGregor-Sumpter
No comments:
Post a Comment