These days we have some other visitors at our windows, apart from mynahs, sparrows, crows, the hateful pigeons and the disdainful parrot.
Their shouts are as cheerful and as incomprehensible.
They seem fearless, but our hearts pound as they cross our windows. Sometimes, they perch outside and ask for a glass of water. Sometimes, one of them answers his cell phone, or decides to switch on the music.
It’s when you watch them build the scaffolding as they climb up, or open it up as they end their work, that you realize fully what a feat it is to get the outside of a 30-storey building painted.
The very thought is terrifying:(
And yet they go about their work without a trace of tension visible. Phew- nerves of steel and/or dire necessity. Tough combination.
I know, Dipali. My heart is in my mouth, every time I watch them. They have some very basic harnesses on, of course. But these don’t seem very reliable.
I have so many pictures of scaffolding in India—it’s incomprehensible to me that construction workers/painters/window washers/etc. don’t just plummet to the earth in droves.
Well, maybe they do and nobody talks about it.
Yes, they are always a sight. There are some accidents, of course, but not as many as one would expect. Thank God for that!
It’s quite a sight though when they are outside your 13th floor window.
Man-birds!
I knew a youngster who became a paraplegic after a fall on a construction site. He was given some compensation and was kept in a Cheshire Home, but what an avoidable tragedy it seemed.
How terrible, Dipali. Yes, how avoidable these accidents are. It is a shame that we can’t put basic health and safety measures for the majority of our work forces, in place, in any industry.
A complete post on construction workers, that’s innovative, the photos make my head spin, where is this building?
Shilpi, This is where I live, Mumbai.
Striking pictures. Scary too. What’s scarier though is how undaunted the construction workers themselves look!
Thanks, P. Yes, it is quite something to see how casually the workers themselves move so high above the ground.