Champion sleepers, squatters, and sitters
Riding in a rick back from the shopping mall, the rick driver pointed to a curious sight. We were stopped at an intersection. We were first in the line of stopped vehicles. A man was sleeping on the street. His feet were flat the butt-end of the road’s central concrete divider. The divider ended there because it doesn’t go out into the intersection. So this man was sleeping at the end of the divider. Looking out from the rick, he was lying parallel to the way we were facing. So he was slightly removed from heavy traffic, but someone pulling a tight u turn around the end of the divider could have hit him. Why was he sleeping there? Was he just so tired from working all day that that’s where he fell? Does he just kind of want to die?
It is notable that these Indians here in Mumbai are champion sleepers. There are always people sprawled into all sorts of positions on the sidewalks, on tops of concrete walls, on push carts. They can sleep on anything and are often curled or twisted into awkward positions. There was a boy sleeping right in the middle of the square in front of the Gateway of India. I took a picture and will post it. There were throngs of people walking around him.
Indians also have an uncanny ability to squat with their hams to the rear end with their feet kept flat. When I squat like that I have to bend my feet in order to keep my balance. But people here sit like that for long periods of time – be they selling vegetables, begging, or resting.
Indians can also sit cross-legged for long periods of time. These paan wallahs are usually sitting cross-legged on a piece of plywood at counter level, bent-over making the paan on the plywood.
It is notable that these Indians here in Mumbai are champion sleepers. There are always people sprawled into all sorts of positions on the sidewalks, on tops of concrete walls, on push carts. They can sleep on anything and are often curled or twisted into awkward positions. There was a boy sleeping right in the middle of the square in front of the Gateway of India. I took a picture and will post it. There were throngs of people walking around him.
Indians also have an uncanny ability to squat with their hams to the rear end with their feet kept flat. When I squat like that I have to bend my feet in order to keep my balance. But people here sit like that for long periods of time – be they selling vegetables, begging, or resting.
Indians can also sit cross-legged for long periods of time. These paan wallahs are usually sitting cross-legged on a piece of plywood at counter level, bent-over making the paan on the plywood.
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