Bombay 4


Slazz slazz slazz slazz slazz Jingle Bells’ bellows out of the house next door. A truck thunders past. My simple neighbour growls in front of my window. A religious group enters the street with drums and bells. The rickshaws hoot in the distance. A rattling merchant goes from window to window with a big green cardboard box. The water in our building is again not running. And I’m still dusty of the night behind my computer trying to concentrate myself on my work. Not always that easy, especially not on this quiet Sunday morning when everybody is home. It took some time but I found it again. Bombay is cleaner but it are mostly the main streets they polished up. Behind everything it is the same, women do their washing in the open sewer, dirt is all over the place and in the night the city is sprinkled with sleeping bumps. And the men… the men still shuffle slazz slazz slazz slazz, giving the base beat of this hectic city.

(The hands of groom and bride). My friend and her husband to be bought a house and a priest came to bless the house. Since the family asked me to video all the functions I’m seeing this wedding really from inside out. It’s fantastic. Parents bringing the invitations to their friends and neighbours. The unpacking of all the sari’s to show to an aunt that can’t come.
The nervous planning because all important guests arrive around the same time but all with different transport. The negotiations and bargaining with the priest, the tailor, the flower-men and all the others.

(During the function)