The Indian Rooftop

I have discovered the Indian rooftop and in so doing have slowly begun to soak in the rhythm of life here. What a wonderful place the Indian rooftop. Without peaked roofs, the roof is used as an additional level. I go up in the day and find it is a few degrees hotter, and in the night a few degrees cooler. From the rooftop I can see all around our little village in the suburbs of town. If I go to one side and look down at the ground I can see ours and our neighbors garbage strewn about and pigs rummaging though the piles (I can hear them doing this through my window when I wake in the morning). In the afternoon they will take a break and sleep in the garbage while their piglets suckle. It took me awhile to figure out how my garbage was getting down there, until one day I caught the lady who comes to clean, going to the rooftop and dumping it over the edge. Sometimes I stand at this edge of the roof and examine what exactly our neighbors have been consuming and throwing away, hey, I’m sure they do the same thing to us, besides, I can’t help it, it’s the anthropologist in me. From the other side of the roof I can see the construction of houses across the street, houses with yet more rooftops. The construction team appears to be 60% women, who carry the sand and cement on their heads and dump and form as directed by the other 40%. There are giant sand piles that they are using it mix with the cement, and I can see two boys in clothes that looked as though they were recently clean playing in the sand and I imagine the sound of their mother’s voice when she sees them return from whatever errand the sand pile distracted them from. Nearby I see about 5 village dogs sleeping in the construction rubbish pile. In the distance is a marshy area where water buffalo soak and more pigs rummage. The Water Buffalo are my favorite part of the days here. They walk by the house twice every day, out to the water in the morning then back in the evening. There is usually someone walking behind them, but they have the air of having done this walk so many times that they really pay him no attention. In their walk is an easiness, even a wiseness, they are large and their leathery backs are black and glossy, yet they are pleasant and seem to walk at their own pace in life. Sometimes in mid-day a few will wander off and do their own thing in other parts of the village. No one seems to mind and they always find their way back to the herd. I always stop to look at them when they walk by. One morning as they were walking out to the marshy field, I paused to watch and started saying to myself out loud how much I loved the Water Buffalo. Almost as if on cue, the Buffalo in front of me relieved himself of some moist and smelly cargo, and I was forced to rethink my position on the Water Buffalo. Before I had a chance to turn away and move onto other things in life, a village woman came and excitedly scooped up the manure and put it in a bag. No doubt to form it into patties and dry and sell as fuel for fire. Aaaaah the circle of life.
In the evenings when it starts to cool a bit (if a one degree decrease is actually considered cooling) I go up to the roof. I see women taking in the clothes that were drying, husbands and wives walking back and forth across their roofs, children flying kites, or the lonesome kite that has been tied to the clothesline that is flying itself. It is in the evening when I am inspired to become more active and exercise a little bit on the rooftop, doing lunges or wall sitting, anything to attempt to keep fit. I am sure I am putting on a show since I have seen people wave to me from the ground before, but it is much better to exercise on my private roof than to try to run through the village (especially in this heat). My favorite thing to do on the roof top, is to go up after dark. It is wedding season and there isn’t a wedding without fireworks! During a few hours in the night you can not go up to the roof without seeing two or three different firework displays in several directions. I feel like I am at Disneyland every night, only without all the rides. When the fireworks are over, I love to lie down on the big beam that combines our two roofs into one (exactly the width of my body) and listen to the sounds, the music from a party, the crickets chirping and look at the stars (while swatting mosquitoes). Aaaah peaceful.