On the sidewalks

They call them pavements I think and they say don’t step on the cracks in the pavement! But what do you do when the pavement is made from small blocks?

Interesting question? But even more interesting are pavements you walk on and what you find on them!

At the place where I stay the pavements are on both sides of the street. They are paved in different fashions. Some are with regular terra cotta tiles geometric and red. Some are in small concrete interlocking blocks something like unshelled peanut in shape and grey in color. Some are just made up of concrete paving.

The sidewalks I walk on have drains under them and one has to watch whether any of the drain covers have fallen in.(to ensure that you don’t follow).

Interesting when I pass by a series of car accessories shops closed at that time of the morning. I find shiny pieces and geometric boxes lying scattered. The boxes are in various medleys of colours .Dark blue and sky blue, lettering in gold and silver. Etched and plain. With photos of shining cars and attractive and sometimes skimpily clad girls with dark glasses, pieces of shining plastic papers floating about. Pieces of felt cloth sometimes rags sometimes geometric ovals and ribbons.

There are also one or two shiny flat washers, hexagonal dark grey nuts and bolts lying about and show up like shining jewels in the morning sun. Sometimes these pieces fall together form a pattern of colors textures and plays of reflected light.

On the pavements you will sometimes find a tree still growing abut 10 feet tall and at its base where the soil is exposed a small brave blade of grass waving ,shining and with the bravado of life.

You will see a soft drink bottle cap waiting to be kicked down the road to tinkle as it shoots off!

Some of these pavements are fenced off from the street. I suspect it has more to do wih where to spend money for kickbacks rather than for any other purpose. The fencing is in the form of geometric metallic grills. Perfect for rattling a stick as you walk (since you’re too old to run) alongside.

There a big patch of oil at one place. As you stand there you can look into a apartment compound where a small temple is built. The patch is where a street vendor sells Vada pav in the evenings literally as they say like hot cakes/In he evenings next to his place would be a series of parked two wheelers, cars and a crowd waiting for the deep fried lot to be taken out of the cooking hot oil and served piping hot.

Places on the pavement also tell a story where the key maker has made two sets of holes to anchor pegs to ensure his display of keys and locks stays in place. These are in turn fixed by hooks on flat boards supported by these pegs to forma tent like structure.

At places the street side vendor protects his wares from the elements by a small cover of plastic above the wooden box which supports his display of wares and the poles are again cleverly anchored in existing or made cracks and holes.

Of course pavements differ from place to place. The most unusual one I saw was made of pieces of tree trunks cut into pieces and fixed firmly Vertically!.

And of course stone paved pavements, stone tiles are quite common. However pavements by themselves are quite interesting and have im sure always as story to tell.