The Tamil word for windwheels - those pretty colourful paper fans you see at the beach - is kaathaadi. Kaathu, meaning breeze, and Aadi, meaning dance. Literally, that which dances in the wind.I was walking along Chowpatty beach, when I spotted the windwheel stand. They were selling bright dancing windwheels, colourful balloons, and all sorts of other shiny things.
Two women sat in the sand nearby, making windwheels.
When they finished some wheels, one of them would go stick them on their sales stand.
These were the tools of their trade:
- Frayed straw mat to sit on, so the sand doesn't get into everything
- A steel plate, in which they ate their lunch, and which doubled up as their work platform
- A steel box, in which they brought the lunch, which doubled up as platform 2
- Two tiny boxes of gum
- A plastic cup, to draw circles
- Small pair of scissors
- Lots of coloured paper
- Nimble fingers
- Sharp eyes - to watch for the police or the municipal van!
1 comment:
Aah, 'kaathaadi'. Somehow, just saying that word is uplifting. Reading that word brought back nice memories.
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