Around the Neighborhood

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Here are photos that were taken from Prasanna and Santhana's yard or near their home. They lived on a fairly quiet street with businesses just a few blocks away, easily within walking distance. Their local temple was about a half block away down the same street.

All the homes (pretty much everywhere in the country) had walls around them which defined their yards. Someone told me that if there weren't walls around the homes, how would people know where the street ended and private property began? ... and what would prevent people from coming into private yards?

Some walls had large double gates which would permit a car to be driven in and parked in the "yard". While we were there, Santhana parked their car on the street, but as you can see in one of the photos, motorcycles or scooters were sometimes parked inside the gate. With the business upstairs, there was often a good amount of people coming and going, both employees and clients. I assumed the bikes belonged to them.

Santhana and Prasanna had recently painted their entire home, inside and out. It is the custom that when there is a wedding, close family members paint their homes. Mutachen, Praveen's grandfather, also painted his. I'm thinking that although it's a little late, we should paint OURS too! Well, only the inside, since the outside is brick.

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Photos

The Vegetable Man
The vegetable man pauses with his cart for a photo. You can see the scales he uses to weigh the purchases sitting on top the vegetables. Also, you can see how all of the homes have walls around them. This is the norm.

Front Yard
This is Prasanna and Santhana's front yard, it's more like a patio area to those of us who live in the US. This shows the front entrance to their home. Often shoes are left on the steps or just inside the door, as street shoes are not worn inside. The side steps lead up to the office (for their business) which is on the second floor of their home. I found those steps a convenient place to sit and watch the world go by (largely un-noticed, which is not easy when you are a white person in India.)

Taking a Walk
Taken from my observation point on the steps...Two women walk down the street, literally, in the street, as you can see there is no sidewalk. They may be going shopping or possibly to the temple which is just down the block. Most of the women I saw in Southern India wore traditional attire such as these who are wearing saris.

The Ironing Lady
This lady set up her ironing business every morning on the side of the street across from Prasanna and Santhana's home. She always seemed to have plenty of business. Check out that iron....pretty heavy duty, huh? It doesn't "plug in", it's heated on coals.

The Ironing Lady
This time she looks at the camera. I'm not sure, but I think that motorcycle is her delivery vehicle. Perhaps the man makes the deliveries. At a different time I think I saw him ironing also. Maybe they are related and own the business together.

Goat
Again, taken from the stairs....This little guy was trotting along down the street like he had someplace important to go. Animals such as these don't generally seem to be owned by anyone, they just take care of themselves.

Neighborhood Overview
Again, taken from the stairs... looking down into the neighbors' yard. You can see the vegetable man approaching. Across the street there is a pile of sand which is part of a home construction project that I watched. (The actual building is hidden behind the tree.)I never saw any heavy equipment... all construction seemed to be done "by hand". Also across the street you can see where the ironing lady set up her ironing stand (in the mornings), but here, it is closed for the day. The white design on the pavement is done by some in front of their homes. Sometimes it's done in color, other times white.

The Coffee Boy
This little boy delivered coffee or tea (in cups) to the workers in Santhna's office twice every day. He made his deliveries on a bicycle, using the little carrying basket you see at his feet. He would leave the drinks and then return a little later to pick up the dirty stainless steel cups. I never saw disposable cups or plates used, the whole time I was in India. You can also see how the banana leave shelter (that was put up for the wedding) was lined with white sheeting on the underside, making everything look very clean and fresh. The little boy is bare-foot, which is quite common. Even some of the clerks in the "classy" sari store, to my surprise, were bare foot.

Side Yard
This is one of the sides of Prasanna and Santhana's yard. Those are coconut trees with the white paint on their trunks. They are very tall and have a lot of coconuts on them. The whole "yard" (patio?) was tiled as you can see here.

Beware of Dog
The picture of the dog on the gate is meant to be a "beware of dog" sign to deter uninvited "guests". No, they don't have a dog, but who's to know that? On the other side of the sign is another dog,(a shaggy cute one) but it must have looked too friendly. Prasanna opted for slightly fiercer breed.

Design Making
This across-the-street-neighbor was making one of those pretty snowflake type designs on the street in front of her gate.

Comments

[Praveen]

Okay, now everyone knows the secret of my mom's "dog"! :) Our neighbour has a dog that he keeps in the backyard so for anyone (solicitors) approaching the gate, the barking from the back and the fierce dog sign in front is pretty convincing.

[santhana]

beware of dog
the sign board incidently is the very basic and most economic security system for the house, where as the high technical ones are dealt in the business house.

[Betty Veninga]

Pictures
We thank you for letting us view the photos. Angela has RESUMED her teaching duties and her India aventures and the wedding are amazing to hear her recount.

[deb65251]

I think the dog sign is a great idea. I'm thinking we need one for our own driveway. We don't own (or want) a dog and I don't think a picture of our cat would do much good.