Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Demolition Crew - Indian Style

In my Adyar neighborhood in Chennai, lots of construction is going on. Two-story homes are being demolished and apartment buildings going up in their place. So now instead of hearing birds chirp last Saturday morning, I heard the sound of jackhammers and pounding. Demolition vehicles are not shown in the picture - because they weren't used at all. Manual labor is what is preferred in India. After all, you can employ more people and pay them a small wage. A palm thatched wall hides most of the construction, but if you look up, you will see several men using hand tools to knock down the walls. No hard hats. No shoes either. Below, you see several women wearing saris who are often used to carry things during construction, such as bowls of cement on their heads.

2 comments:

Pat said...

I'm looking for the little stuffed 'dummy' that they hang somewhere to ward off evil....he's not there; oh...

Melissa Enderle said...

I haven't seen that in demolitions, just constructions. I suppose they feel they don't need luck or prevent evil spirits from making a mess of things, as they are just tearing it down...