A Room with Two Views

The view shown above is the view that I see when I step outside our door onto the landing, looking down to my left. Our apartment is part of a larger compound, the "Jaipur Heritage Home" where we live. Several other units are available, but for right now we're the only guests. As you can see, it's a lovely enclosure. We're surrounded by trees, a wall, and a variety of plants and birds. The seats and bench you see in the lower left hand corner provide a great place to read or talk in the late afternoon. You can't see them, but the exterior walls of the buildings have some paintings of Rajasthani scenes. We've enjoyed a couple of lovely breakfasts in the patio on the upper left with our landlady (actually nice enough that I hate to use the term--shall I say 'hostess'?) and two other sets of guests, a German university student and two British social workers touring for an NGO. All in all, a lovely place for us to spend time. 

Look closely

This if the view from our landing taking a few steps to the right. This looks out on the street past the gate to our compound. As you can see there's a great deal of trash strewn in the street. If the image comes out well enough, and you look closely, you should see the pig that it rooting around in the garbage. I've learned that this is not a unique seen, as I saw a herd (mom & piglets) on other occasions. In addition to the pigs, male passers-by seem to like to pee on the far wall. Further down you seen a stream, where trash collects as well. If you could travel further up the road, beyond the camera shot, you'd find a slum and, for lack of a better term, a garbage dump. (This apparently keeps the pigs in business; remember, neither Hindus nor Muslims eat pork, so the pigs are for clean-up only.)

Also, to the near left is an abandoned property (where the peacocks like to stay), as well as an abandoned lot across the street. Out of view, separating us from these areas, is a high wall surrounding the compound topped with glass shards and barbed wire. 

More and more I come to realize these scenes are typical of India: a juxtaposition of extreme poverty and deprivation along side ultra-modern malls,  communication centers, and homes. You can step from one world into another in a moment. Amazing. 

P.S. Because the photo above doesn't show the pig well, I'm attaching this photo taken at a later time at street level. 

Our apartment to the left out of scene