February 13, 2014, Kumily, India word picture

India, a kaleidoscope of colour.

Black haired, amber skinned women

Floating along in shiny silk saris,

Often embellished with gold.

Seems as if no two saris are the same.

The women cajole and chat in a sort of musical chirping.

Even on a motorcycle,

The women look like joyous peacocks.

The delivery trucks could be circus vehicles,

With their paintings of elephants, goddesses and flowers.

Some trucks actually carry real elephants.

Most trucks are overloaded with sacks, people, tools.

House are every shade of intense violet,

Hot pink, turquoise, emerald and bright orange,

Sometimes with a loud complimentary trim,

More often with an intense jarring trim colour.

Magenta bougainvillea spills over roofs and walls.

In front and above the shops

Are a hodge podge of huge colourful signs,

All with amazing curving script.

Not a hope of sounding out any words.

The shops themselves are full of plastic,

Mops, brooms, pails, dust pans,

In primary colours as well as viridian.

Some of the shops feature only aluminum and brass.

These pots, candle sticks and kitchen utensils

Gleam in the hot India midday.

It's a visual feast

Presented on a  platter of dusty ochre and sepias

Mixed with jungle greens.

The men and monkeys

Exude a restful calm

In this loud landscape.

The macaw monkeys are brown.

A female has a baby clutched to her chest.

The black monkeys are larger with a low throaty howl.

Both kinds of monkeys cavort in trees and garbage.

The men have long thin brown legs

That stick out from under their longhis.

One minute the longhi is full length.

The next minute, it is being waved about

Or flipped up

And knotted at the waist.             

If the man is wearing a shirt, 

It is light coloured.

White cloths are draped over their heads,

Or  shoulders

Or knotted bandana style around the head.

They men quietly stand or sit,

In shops,

In front of shops.

Sometimes they are working with shovels and pick axes.

Or they are delivering heavy sacks on their heads.

Only when they are close to any sort of vehicle horn

Do  they really join this cacophony of sound and colour.