JETALPUR ROAD

You haven't lived until you've resided on Jetalpur Road.  It must be the heart and soul of the town - it has character in every pothole.

Getting up at 6 a.m. to go power walking, is one way to see life begin on the road.  As the dawn breaks, you hear the chorus from the mosque, a dark shadow on the street corner, turns out to be a woman selling plastic packs of milk.  "Is it safe to drink", I ask my companion, a Canadian,  "Only if you boil it" is the reply.  Packs of dogs are also shaking off the chill of sleep and beginning their quest for food, marking out territory with growls and snarls and  full-blown fights.

On the walking track round the field, other walkers have started their peregrination in the half light.  With a polite 'good morning', we ignore each other, as we repeatedly pass on the circuit.  One elderly man is sitting cross legged on a bench and doing his yoga breathing exercises, pinching a nostril and exhaling loudly.  It's getting lighter and the full moon is beginning to fade.  We've done our 20 laps -  back to Jetalpur Road....the chai wallahs are setting up shop, auto rickshaws are taking children to school and I pass a man who is on his haunches shivering and washing himself in cold water under a garden hose, his hair lathered with soap !

Jetalpur Road, is under permanent reconstruction, with new holes and ditches being dug along its course every day and now the gangs of sari clad women are arriving to begin their labours.  Missing my footing in the ups and downs of this problematic road, I land up in the chaiwallah's basin of washing up water - and am helped to my feet.  Shops open at 11 a.m., but until then, life on the road  is dominated by the breakfast canteens gearing up for business.  Groups of men gather round them, some read newspapers, some smoke, some stare at nothing much.  Poha is made, samosas and pakoras are deep frying in deep  pans on portable gas cylinders and spring onions are being cut up, to be added to the rice.  Cows snuffle through the rubbish heaps - the early light is being replaced by another sunny day.