Thursday, September 01, 2005

the view from my balcony

sorry for the delay on the wedding report--been extremely busy this week. it's coming.

in the meantime...

this morning i heard someone playing drums outside my window. i ventured out onto my balcony and saw that a tightrope had been set up on the street below, the rope suspended from a few bamboo poles about 8 feet off the ground (which consists of your typical head-splitting pavement). there was no net or safety equipment of any kind.

as the man drummed away and a woman collected money, a little girl walked the tightrope doing various tricks along the way. she looked about 8 or 9. i was horrified. this girl was being exploited and put in harm's way for the gain of her parents (if they were her parents). but my neighbors were delighted--everyone seemed to enjoy the show and showered them with rupees. and i'll admit, the show was impressive. after 15 minutes, the girl's brains still safely tucked away inside her skull, the show wrapped up and moved on to the next block. i guess it's better than starving--until you die from head trauma of course. i was sorry that my camera was at the office.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

how much rupee "donation" does your sympathy worth?