Urchin Acrobats

The banging of drums attracted me out on to the balcony. There was also the clanging of a hammer on metal. Bang bang bang clang clang clang. What’s going on today!

There on the newly concreted street below was a woman in a grubby saree hammering a metal stake into the ground. “What new piece of municipal vandalism is this?” I thought. Metal poles were erected and a rope across them like the base for a tent.

Another puja blocking the side street? The drumming continued and eventually all became clear when the dirty unkempt child of the banging clanging couple positioned herself on the rope about six feet in the air. She proceeded to walk along the rope stepping delicately along inside an old bicycle wheel. Balanced on her head were three metal spheres. Such grace and poise from a small grimy urchin.

The itinerant workers watched and may have donated the odd rupee. Within a matter of minutes the drumming stopped and the structure was dismantled leaving only a few holes in the new concrete. The family drifted off, the child carrying the basket filled with the wheel, rope and thin mat. Mum had her hammer and dad had the poles and the drum.

I went back to my spreadsheet development. There are a lot of people in India who are struggling and very little I can do. –