India Three: "Feet on the Ground"

Physical space, and how one lives in it, seems to have a different meaning in India. In my Western mindset, when I want to do something, or when I want to rest I look for a chair at a table or desk, or I look for a bed. Or whatever else that will enable my body to position itself. In India we see life lived much closer to the ground. As our train passes through stations, and villages and fields we see many people, often small family groups happily sitting on their haunches around a common pot of food chatting and eating. Or simply watching the passing show, for hours, feet on the ground, knees bent, back straight. Even old men and women seem to be totally comfortable in what we would feel to be an awkward position. Poor people whose whole livelihood happens right next to a railway track. Or sitting in a small folded position, eyes averted, on a station platform. Any public thoroughfare has people like this. Sometimes lonley-looking children or those that are clearly homeless. There is a family with several children living on a rubish- dump-open-plot with just a makeshift tent and a small fire cooking goodness-knows-what We see a wizened old woman sitting on the "middle manetjie" of a busy road, just staring ahead of her. A cow being hand-fed by some children nearby. I realize that we are much more focussed on private space. The Indians, also like poor black people in South Africa, seem to have a much greater tolerance for standing very close to another.
We can easily feel "invaded".
Wherever we move I am aware that each person we come into contact with is out there, somehow, making a living. I find out later that there is no form of social security or "dole" in India, so you have to make your own living to survive. At each stop along the way we are confronted by very forceful persuasive sellers of every conceivable thing. Annoying at first and then we learn to manage it. We hear ourselves saying "don't make eye-contact!.."
Not many just beg. When they do it is a young mother, often with a baby in her arms. The old and young sellers and pushers are earning their income. They simply want your business.
As the train passes through the countryside we see women working in the fields, barefoot, wearing their signature pink saris.