An average view from a balcony in India is strange in a way that is almost darkly comic…
The air arrives first thick tired and unmistakably polluted
It does not just enter the lungs it settles there leaving behind a faint burn and a heavier silence
There is always a smell lingering in it an indistinct but persistent stench as though the city itself is slowly decaying and has stopped trying to hide it…
Sound never rests..
Construction noises erupt without rhythm or apology
Somewhere a child cries unattended and unsmoothed blending seamlessly into the background chaos
As if this were not enough a DJ plays music from a distance the bass thudding faintly detached from any visible celebration existing purely as noise..
People walk their foreign breed dogs with a quiet sense of pride while local dogs bark from afar excluded yet alert asserting their presence in voices sharpened by neglect
Cars pass by and honk compulsively aggressively even at vehicles approaching from the opposite direction honking not as communication but as habit as release😆
Below a security guard argues with a food delivery agent both tired both trapped in a moment too small to matter yet too loud to ignore
Nearby a group of cattle sits motionless in a corner patient and indifferent as though they have learned to coexist with disorder better than humans ever could ))
At the side of a broken road lies a pile of waste plastic filth fragments of everyday life quietly accumulating unbothered by time or shame..
And over all of it hangs a peculiar gloom..Not dramatic not violent just a dull persistent feeling that this is normal and that somehow makes it heavier ..
#travelnotes