Its the street life

I have a regular beat to go to my mom's place everyday. The sights and sounds and smells are fascinating. It is a regular life on the streets  that I witness everyday. It is less than a kilometre but the scenery and life varies by the minute!

It is now peak summer in chennai. The trees are bare and the heat is beating down from heaven above. Thankfully good samaritans had planted avenue trees along the road and civic activists in the neighbourhood are ever vigilant about the health and well being of the trees.So there is good shade. The copper pod tree is in full bloom and every hundred metres or so you step on soft yellow carpet.You look up and the dark brown buds and the rich green canopy are a real feast for the eyes. Neem tree is also decked up with flowers and while not a feast for the eyes, it gives out a very heady healthy smell. The road is also full of the tender neem flowers of yesterday , some of them swept away to the corner in bunches by the conscientious corporation workers. You have the jungle badam tree shedding copious seeds. The leaves are so broad and the shade is really cool and sun is totally kept at bay.

You have any number of roadside eateries which have recently sprung up. Yes the idli sambhar kadai is the most popular. The customers are the call taxi and auto drivers and the watchmen from the numerous flats that are sprouting. There is an occasional woman customer who wants to take her morning breakfast as take away. There is also the health drink kadai. It sells all healthy porridges(koozh) and I dont see milling crowds there. A lone stall with a umbrella stuck into the stool on which a mudpot with the words'mor' ( buttermilk) written in chalk . I have not seen much custom here too. But then I dont venture out, mor or no mor at midday, which must be the peak custom for this shop. The tender coconut stall which has now become a roadside departmental store with water melons and a mixie and a juice kadai is seeing regular clientele.

The vegetable vendors are spreading their wares on the pavement and are doing brisk business before they cart them into their vehicle and go door to door. Go for a early morning walk and on the way back pick up vegetables and fruits  seems to be a common practise. I really wish these health conscious people also carry their own bag and not the think plastic bags that the vegetable vendors carry in abundant measure.

A new men's hairdresser has opened shop on the busy thoroughfare.A garage has been recently converted into this 'men's saloon'. The newly painted board announces it as 'sabari saloon'. Quite an unlikely name for a saloon. What did sabari do to have any remote connection to men's hairdressing? But then the other one further up the street is ' vinitha saloon'. So there!

An old lady used to sell bananas in a small cart and would religiously call out to me to buy some. Now she has expanded her shop to sell water melons and also recently flowers. Why flowers I was wondering.Then I realised that chennai women, whether they have anything to eat or not, want to sport mallipoo on their hair and also buy flowers to take to the temple. This road is leading up to a siva temple and a church and the beach, so there is a good weekend crowd there. Summer holidays have added to the floating population and flower seem to be a logical addition.

On some days when I am fairly early, many of the shops(carts) are yet to open. A simple tarpaulin covers their wares on the pavement. I wonder everyday how they are safe. Anybody on the road can pick up a few or more and the owner would be none the wiser.  But then some sort of 'street dharma' seems to be prevailing, and the goodies seem to be intact!.

Life in the open!