The sun's crackling down with its fierce March intensity. The heat forces a kind of dull inactivity. A couple of vehicles whiz down the road braving the heat.
Sitting by the pavement (sidewalk!) under his black umbrella for shelter, the 'chai-wallah' nonchalantly pours out cup after cup of piping hot 'chai' from his thermos flask for an unending stream of thirsty travellers stopping by. They'd rather quench their thirst or just have a drink of steaming hot tea in an already hot environment than move over to the 'ganna-wala' a few yards away. A couple of girls dressed in the fashion of the day - cotton kurtis and those famously popular leggings - trot by under the shade of their umbrella and gingerly climb down the rickety steps off the pavement into the lane below.
Standing in the shaded balcony of her home across the road, a girl impatiently fans herself with a folded newspaper while waiting for the power supply to be restored. A while later, the buzz of vehicles on the road has increased slightly. It's an hour to sunset and the state of limbo clamped by the sun ebbs as it sets. Down by the 'chai-wallah' an even larger crowd has gathered to enjoy an early evening cuppa and the relief from the heat...
