a walk doing errands on the streets of shiroda

we have been back in india three weeks now and have some errands to do in town so we park the car close to our first stop. that is an electrical repair shop. our mixer is making strange noises so we drop it off at the repair shop in hopes that he will be finished in time to pick it up when we are done. the shop is diagonally across the street from the high school. while the scene of the boys in uniforms gathered outside after class has not changed over the years, just a few years ago there were all bicycles instead of mopeds and scooters

we have a problem with monkeys eating our mangoes before they are ripe enough to pick so we asked arond for some advice. one suggestion was to hang bottles of red water in the trees. supposedly the monkeys will assume they are fruit and avoid red fruits, assumeadly they suspect they are poisonous. anyway it is worth a try so we stop to pick up some powdered paint. across the street sitting at the entrance to a bank, there is a vendor selling long beans, bananas and papayas

next we go to naik's. none of the grocery shops here are self serve. as is typical, the entire front of the shop opens to the street and shoppers stand outside telling the owner and his daughter what they need, item by item.

if a customer is buying just a few things the total price is calculated in the shopkeepers' heads but when there are many things, especially in bulk with all different weights the items are listed and added up on paper which functions as a receipt

here a customer is waiting for us and a man with his young son to finish before it is her turn.

a couple of weeks ago there was a fire where five small shops were demolished due to an electrical short circuit in one of them. they are being rebuilt quickly. the subcontractor for the mason work is someone who has done work for us earlier. he does not do so much himself but oversees a group of hard working laborers, mostly couples. here new reinforced concrete columns are under construction. the main contractor in the background.

i am not sure what this woman is doing but i am sure whatever it is is heavy. the laterite stone building blocks weigh about 35kg

concrete is mixed by hand by two men (out of view) and carried to the columns by two women, most likely their wives, with buckets on their heads

with the proper technique, the women are able to carry the heavy load and hand it over to the sub who pours the concrete into the column scaffolding. recently their wages have dramatically increased but with inflation and all they are still way underpaid

the last item on our list is some milk. there is only one shop in town that sells full fat milk in 1 liter packets. we don't buy it often but that is a story for another post. this woman was standing just outside the dairy bar

now with any luck our mixer is repaired. few things in india are amazingly simple and fast, but repair work is one of them