INFERNO

Clouds of dust created a smokey haze over the road as sari clad women,   bearing basins of sand on their heads, threw the contents onto the road and returned to a seemingly never diminishing pile to repeat the process.  To one side, three barrels of tar boiled on an open wood fire sending up plumes of smoke to add to the haze.  Women carrying basins of tar stepped over the rough stones in their slip slops, while others prepared for their shift at the cauldron.  Piles of stones of different grades waited to be tipped onto the road.  This image of human toil, heat and dust, blazing fires and 45 C temperatures, seemed worthy of Dante !  Jetalpur Road is under construction - every inch of it hand made.

In sharp contrast to this mayhem is the suspension bridge which connects north and south Mumbai, opened by Sonia Gandhi last year.  Suspended above the Arabian Sea, its elegant lines soar overhead and stretch for over 5 kms, the thin steel cables beautifully lit at night, look ethereal and suffuse, as one flies over a surface, seemingly held up effortlessly, by gossamer threads, with the glittering lights of the city,  as a backdrop.  The changing face of India.