Chennai to Pondy (Part 5)

As we get closer to Pondy the sides of the roads begin to be filled with higher concentrations of people and dwellings.

Sometimes I catch sight of a little home in a shady clearing whose sweetness just takes my breath away -- a lovingly cared for little pastel place with prominent stairs leading to the walled rooftop terrace. Beautiful flowered plantings about the yard. Maybe someone sitting on the main steps. It just looks so welcoming.

And then a mile down the road is a new four story apartment building which had been built and plastered and painted and roofed, and then abandoned. Open holes where the windows were to go, skinny ladies of indeterminate age squatting in the window openings, obviously moved in for the duration.

A thought flashes -- when the owner comes back to finish the building, when his financial future improves, will he be able to remove or cover the smells of humans -- of living and cooking and peeing and babies and goats -- from the concrete of the structure? Or will his profits be reduced because he had to abandon construction for a while?

Bad girl! Always the Capitalist!