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For big city people like me, forays into small town India are endlessly fascinating. This time, I swear I was on my way from Pune to Sangli without even really knowing how to locate the town on the map! Now I know that the Sangli-Kupwad-Miraj urban boundaries are home to about half a million people. That more familiar names like Kolhapur (chappals) and Pandharpur (reigning deity Vithoba!) are neighboring cities. That sugarcane and turmeric are the flavors of this area and its main industry. The feel of the city is semi-rural and people are simple, expressive and friendly.

Here are a few snapshots of the creatures (human and otherwise) and frames my lens encountered in Sangli!

Quaint, decorated carts selling bananas...in the mid-morning heat, this guy was nearly asleep though!

Volunteer workers from the slum explain the process of convincing communities to move to flats. Their eyes lit up!

Life as a construction worker...

Radiant "bhabhi" again; a volunteer with Shelter Associates, she really caught my fancy with her brisk mannerisms and quick smile!

Construction workers framed against the setting sun, almost as if they were posing!

Gujarati contractor and labor on site; we tried hard to bring a smile to this girl's face, but she wasn't obliging!

And life goes on....

I could not figure out if this one was threatening me or thinking of yummy grass....her horns were impressive though! We also learnt these buffaloes charge is you carry a black umbrella 🙂