The Night Workers Spied in Pondicherry

The other day, when I posted some of my favourite photos for Tina’s Lens Artists Challenge, I included a view from my room in the quiet French quarter of Pondicherry of builders with their bullock cart full of bricks . Here’s another snapshot from that same room. It would win no prizes in any exhibition, but it’s special to me.

Sleep eluded me in India. One night, I was watching, as I often did, the street cleaners – all of them women – sweeping the streets with the kind of brooms we expect witches to fly around on, exchanging light-hearted chatter. At about two o’clock, they sat themselves in a convivial circle in the middle of the street, produced their snacks, gossiped, laughed and generally gave the appearance of contentment and good cheer.

Doubtless they could never have afforded my simple hotel room: nor could they have dreamt of travelling half way round the world on holiday. Yet they seemed at ease and content. I hope so.

For Debbie’s Six Word Saturday.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

35 thoughts on “The Night Workers Spied in Pondicherry”

  1. Very evocative of life in India! No real quiet! But, yes, moments of content and conviviality. And yes, I remember being woken by night noises but also in Spain too with the nightly waste collections by the coast.

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      2. Indeed! So glad you’ve commented. I have been unable to comment on your last post, a lovely hymn to your London house and all its memories. It doesn’t, for some reason, appear in my Reader, and I’m currently in conversation with WP about why I can’t comment directly on posts – not even mine!

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      3. That happened to me on my phone with some, including you. I saved you somewhere as the email link never allowed comments. Not sure why but you do now come up on the reader. WP can have strange glitches.

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  2. I hope so, too. I remember sitting with a group of chatty women porters when trekking in Nepal back in the ’80s. I was wearing a pair of baggy shorts which they found hilarious and kept pointing at the freckles on my knees. No photos but a lovely memory.

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  5. I love this! So evocative of those special moments when travelling that have nothing to do with the big sights and everything to do with getting to understand how a country ‘ticks’ 😀

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  6. Well Margaret, special thanks for sharing this one! It’s a marvelous moment and while some may say it’s technically imperfect, I would strongly disagree. To me it seems impressionist in nature. The subjects are identifiable but rather dreamlike – how appropriate since you captured it in the middle of the night! And what a wonderful memory for you. The scene is really special, as (I’m sure) is the memory. I love it… a lot!

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  8. The best way to be happy is to appreciate the simpler things in life. Big expensive things are like dessert but the most important part is the meal. The women obviously understand that and it makes their work that muchless worklike. I like the dreamy quality that you produced in the image.

    Interestingly, we have a Pondicherry here in the states. It is a Wildlife Refuge in the state of Vermont. Embarrassingly, it is only a few hours from home yet I have yet to visit it. Maybe for foliage season.

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    2. It’s clearly quite a different place from the city it was named after. But apparently lovely. You must go! I like to slightly ethereal quality of that photo I showed today. The whole mood of the moment had a slight fairy-tale quality to it.

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  11. You and your sleepless nights! But I’m sure there are worse places to have them, Margaret. With all our opportunities and possessions it’s funny that we can still envy the contentment of those who don’t have them. A very different world but one where they belong and can enjoy the company of others in the same situation. Travel doesn’t make for contentment.

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