Everyday India: The Roundabout Family

Caption: I took these photographs 45 minutes before catching my taxi to the airport, to head home. But I'd been thinking of this family of strangers since stepping foot in Delhi on my first day, weeks earlier, when I hesitantly walked past them, stopping and staring in interest, on my search for bottled water. I thought: how strange to build a village in the middle of a roundabout; Is that allowed here? Will they be gone tomorrow? I’d been continually considering how societies distribute opportunity and how individuals get in and out of poverty. I expected them to be gone but nothing had changed in the time I left Delhi, and in my return to Padam Singh Rd weeks later. I had assumed they’d be removed from the roundabout by authorities or nomadically moved on to a new temporary home, but very little was different. The same clothes hung, the ladder to the tree still stood, the same children played with sticks, rocks and plastic toys near the roundabouts edge, the tarp beds still scattered about, buckets for toilets in the same spots. Maybe it was my nearing departure that forced me to approach them, knowing I wouldn't have the chance again. It's been said that the loss of life matters less in India than in other countries (because of Hindu faith in reincarnation, and) because of the scale of population. What a horrible thing to think, but the immunity builds the instant you start seeing malnourished or barely alive people just about everywhere you go. You can't help everyone, even if you want to, so as a traveler and observer you do nothing because a few rupees or one meal can't change their life. But maybe talking to them can change their day I thought, and mine, too. And it did. I crossed the 'from a safe distance' imaginary line and said hello, which led to broken conversations, smiles, and this photo series, along with a better understanding of the corruption, scant resources, and chronic uncertainties faced in everyday India. The world doesn't move in everyone's favor and for some, it doesn't get any farther than a roundabout on Padam Singh Road.