Chennai Walk

Silhouttes of children playing on a fence.

Children playing on a fence Two boys posing for the photographer.

Older boys see their photo opportunity This page has photographs taken on my walk to work in the Madras of the 1990s. Children playing, laundry drying, cycle and auto drivers working or resting are seen against a background of an assortment of streets ranging from a dual carriage-way to dusty lanes. Much has changed since then, little of these areas will be left as it appears in the photographs. The walk reached the building inhabited by the project call ARFI, an AIDS prevention group working across that part of Tamil Nadu. Some photos of that team's workers are shown in praise of their sterling work. Children being instructed to line up to be photographed.

Children being instructed to line up to be photographed.

That group of children being assembled away from their play for a photograph by a 'helpful' adult - hey ho Lines of clothes billowing in the wind.

Clothes billowing in the breeze makes sense... Clothes drying on barbed wire and on the ground.

...on barbed wire and the ground, less so Blocks of flats, wheeled oildrum in the foreground.

Clockwise from left:
Blocks of flats with their washing and bicycles, a shopping area with the photographer as centre of attention, a main road with tricycle transport, a new Hindu shrine as yet unpainted, and autos gathering at a tea shop. Tricycle carrier in foreground, street beyond.

Tricycle carrier in foreground, street beyond.

A new Hindu shrine, with a little scaffolding remaining.

Tricycle carrier with a load of vegetables on a dual carriage-way.

A tricycle carrier on a dual carriage-way Tricycle carrier, two men and child.

And another tricycle carrier attends to the photographer Cows lying in the shade by a wall with cars parked beyond.

Cows and cars parked in the same orientation Lane with simple thatched houses on both sides.

Lane with wall on one side and thatched houses on the other. An auto is parked.

Lanes on the walk:
By huts, and flats and over a 'bridge' Block of flats by lane, children playing in distance.

Concrete bridge over a stream bed full of rubbish.

Path beside where a road has been removed and is now full of water.

Here the road to work had been completely excavated... Another view of the excavated road, with the intact road beyond.

...and so it stayed, in the best tradition, for several months The ARFI building.

My destination - the ARFI building - where sometimes there would be a balcony of workers to greet me with their Indian smiles, making up for the metal gates which are truly untouchable in the tropical sun! The ARFI team of 14 people posing on the turning steps up to the first floor.

The ARFI team of 14 people posing on the turning steps up to the first floor.

The ARFI team in a more formal pose Six team members working around a table.

Three pictures of the team at ARFI... EIght team members, including a westerner, working at floor level.

...working on problems together, the floor providing the easiest place to solve an origami problem, and... The team standing in a group holding attestations of their day's training.

The team standing in a group holding attestations of their day's training.

...celebrating a successful conclusion at the end of the session Trailers...

The next page has a very different walk - by the Swale near Muker in Yorkshire.

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Walking to Work in Chennai