morning at the chai stall

This photo was taken in December,, since then I have been to the Big Isle, Maui, Los Angeles, Tucson, Bangkok and Hua Hin.... now it is mid March and we are back in Jaipur,, hit the street for chai before dawn as is my custom,, and found the same exact crew there,, me, the chai walla, and the same five girls.. thought I'd jot down a few words about the experience as it moved me then and it moved me again today. I don't really know the story,, but these girls are out on the streets every morning hauling around huge bags which they fill with plastic,, this is India's recycling program,, they get maybe the equivolent of a dime for every kilo they pick up,,, or five rupees.... I assume they do pretty well as there is so much plastic everywhere. Notice the plastic cups they are drinking out of,, well, there are no trash cans in these parts, when finished you just deposit on the ground,,, what doesn't get picked up in the early a.m. gets swept into a pile and burned, probably contributing to the fact that the sky is always 'hazy' over most of this country. I bought them a round of chai after taking their picture,,, showed them the image on the back of the camera which got them all giggling. Unfortunatly I am quite shy when it comes to taking pictures of people,,, unfortunate because in this country there are so many shots like this, everyday... yesterday it was the four beggar kids following us blowing a whistle,,,they were so cute,,, but I had already given my daily quota of rupees away, and these kids couldn't quite understand that,, blowing their whistle hoping we would tire of it and give in and give them some change,... it might of worked too had I any left.,,, I don't think they even owned shoes or other clothes than the rags they were wearing, but they were all smiles, obviously enjoying messing with this tourist... one of the few Hindi words I know is 'chelo' which means 'go!" and even when used as a command is completely ignored by all beggars... there are just too many people in India. It has been suggested that India implement a one child only policy like China,,, but I doubt this will go over,, especially with the Muslim population that seems bent on having as many children as possible,, 7-10 being the norm... this is a wild country,,, and this but one small facet of it.... the sun is up,,, the chai finished,,, ( I get five tiny cups in a plastic bag to bring back to my office here,,, ) and it is time to get on with our day...... aloha...