'India Week' - Way of Life - Part I

The remaining pictures I will share with you belong to several subcategories. I'm sure that all those of you who are not Indians and have asked me how have I adapted to live here, will find this very interesting.

The famous CST railway station in Mumbai is now a World Heritage Site. Travelling by train in the city of Mumbai can be quite challenging because of the dense population and I am proud to say that I've managed to do that on my own a couple of times. I took the following picture of a toilet sign at that train station because I thought it was very interesting to see the lady dressed in a sari. Notice that the sign reads 'STOP AIDS' at the bottom.

Ever since I came to India, I've been living in the largest planned new city in the world. Vashi is a very nice place to live (it's far away from the hectic city life of Mumbai downtown). Unlike other places-for example, Germany-where you have to plan in advanced your weekly shopping, here you can rely on vendors that come EVERYDAY to your doorstep. There's a man who comes with a cart full of fruits, another one who comes with a cart full of vegetables...

... another vendor offers all kinds of (green) leaves...

and another vendor specializes in onions and potatoes. Each of these vendors have their own distinct way of calling out their goods, for example you hear them shouting "Here comes the one with vegetables!!!"

Also notice the dog in the picture below. It's one of the several street dogs that live in this lane (i.e. block). Those dogs are so popular in the neighborhood that they even have names and they bark incensantly at other dogs who don't belong to this area. I think the one in the picture is 'Sparky'.

The following three pictures are all related to the construction industry :) What safety laws do you expect in a place where it's legal for babies and little kids to ride in the passenger front seat of a car, or for entire families to ride in a motorcycle? Well....homemade scaffolds made out of bamboo...

...or acrobatic workers who can come down by jumping out the window (without shoes!)

The person carring bricks on the head is a woman. She has a small baby - a little younger than Fabi - who hangs out near this construction site. I didn't like the feeling I got the first time I saw women doing this type of job. :(

On a drastic change of topic, I'll show you a picture I took with my cellphone camera. It shows my arm with the most number of bangles I have ever worn at one time. The dark green bangle (first one from left to right) and the golden bangle (last one from left to right) are traditional and have a specific meaning. The other ones are just to decorate and they match the outfit I wore for the 'function' of my 'Indian baby shower'. The sequence in which I wore the middle bangles was designed by Ishan's Dad. He actually came up with several options and I discovered it takes imagination to come up with a good design.

This is a picture of a baby crib. When I put it together to see what it looked like, it reminded me of the toy one I had when I was a little girl. I was surprised to see how low the crib is. It was mostly used in Fabi's Naming Ceremony.

Sopan and Priya showed up one day with a surprise for 'Golu' (as they call Fabi). It turned out to be a toy mask with a face of Hanuman. "Who is Hanuman?", you ask...and so will Fabi...so now I have one more reason to go and learn about Indian Mythology!

I wrote about this before: I mentioned that fair (white) skin is considered an asset in India. Here's a picture of the products for women and men who want to believe that white is better.

(Click to enlarge image.)

Tomorrow I will post the last set of pictures for this 'India Week'.