It's an unusually quiet day - kids are home from school due to an unexpected day off, so I'm home too. Let me see if I can paint the image for you.
I'm sitting on the dusty tiled balcony of our 4th floor apartment, overlooking lake Banani. The grey-green water looks cleaner than usual because the surface is disturbed by the steady cool rain. From where I'm sitting I can't see the trash on the near shore and the rain has cleared out the smell of its burning. The tree across the street has died, so it's leaves are reddish-brown and falling; this, combined with the unseasonable breeze and rain is lending the morning a bit of the feel and smell of an early autumn morning in Maine. It's a peculiar feeling, here.
I look up and there are concrete apartment buildings in every direction, in varying stages of construction, a huge coconut palm about 20 feet from me, and I hear the sounds of the city in the rain. There's distant honking, motorcycles the crash and rumble of construction next door, car tires through puddles, rickshawwallahs (drivers) yelling, and many many different birds. And it doesn't feel so much like Maine.
I'm sitting on the dusty tiled balcony of our 4th floor apartment, overlooking lake Banani. The grey-green water looks cleaner than usual because the surface is disturbed by the steady cool rain. From where I'm sitting I can't see the trash on the near shore and the rain has cleared out the smell of its burning. The tree across the street has died, so it's leaves are reddish-brown and falling; this, combined with the unseasonable breeze and rain is lending the morning a bit of the feel and smell of an early autumn morning in Maine. It's a peculiar feeling, here.
But then, looking down, I watch workmen across the street tossing bamboo poles (used to hold up concrete forms) from the third story of a partially finished building, and watch two calfs cavorting in the drizzle - they are young enough to likely not have seen rain before. Usually they live down the street with some goats, but today they are playing on the sidewalk down on our end.
I look up and there are concrete apartment buildings in every direction, in varying stages of construction, a huge coconut palm about 20 feet from me, and I hear the sounds of the city in the rain. There's distant honking, motorcycles the crash and rumble of construction next door, car tires through puddles, rickshawwallahs (drivers) yelling, and many many different birds. And it doesn't feel so much like Maine.
The children have the ambitious plan of doing nothing at all today. So here they are playing on the balcony. Seems like a good day for that level of ambition. :)
I love your descriptions. Just like your Aunt Mospy's descriptions of Myanmar and Calcutta.
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