An-'other' India

Pintoo is 11 years old. His gaon is in Bihar. For the past two years, he has been living in "Poona". He sells moomfali(peanuts) in front of KFC in the Deccan area. He has four types of moomfali - a red coloured one, a green coloured one, a masala one and a non-masala one. He has no parents. Everyday, he stands in front of KFC from 10 in the morning till 10 at night. When there are no customers, he spends his time observing people and occasionally working as a parking lot boy who looks after the bikes.

Such people constitute the 'other' India - the India without which our life would lose all its colors. Their existence fills up those small gaps in our lives which are left over from our daily hectic schedules. They fill those 2-3 mins of break we get when we are going from one shop to the other or when we are waiting for someone or when we merely want to do something just because we don't have anything to do.

This Blog aims to look at the life of these 'other' Indians through whom the pulmonary arteries of our lives run. They are the ones who actually provide us with the breathing space (and time) which has become such a great necessity nowadays. This Blog will also look at such types of small businesses run by these Indians which fulfill some basic needs which the big corporates or the shops in your locality can not. These people include the moomfali wallas(people who sell peanuts) like Pintoo, pani puri wallas(people who sell an Indian on-the-go snack called "pani puri"), istiri wallas(people who wash and iron other people's clothes), nariyel paani wallas(people who sell tender coconut water), parking lot boys, boot polish wallas etc. Every article will focus on the life and business of a particular type of people, which are based on my explorations of the cities of India.

India-Bottoms Up! reveals the soft underbelly of the Indian society which comprises of those people who add a dash of color and hope to our lives - who fill up those quintessential moments which help make our life a complete whole and whose stories remain untold to the outside world. They are like those varied moomfalis who get lost under the gloss-and-glamour of the KFCs & McDees but remain an inseparable part of our life...