By Eve Hall We left Poona at about 5am and drove into the sunrise. The dawn came up like thunder but the straight road lined with Banyan trees had such a hypnotic effect I kept dozing off. Drove for hours through moonlike country. The road is also lined with drab men and women cracking stones --part of the millions doing the same building relief work all over Maharashtra State. The intention may be mobilising, and even the result -- but not the actual labour. Because of the drought and relief work, India has already reached its 1974 target for roads. There were more men than women working on this stretch. The cattle is hideously bony. Women wear sombre sarees here -- maroon, dark purple, olive green, dark red. Men all wear white turned to dun., but huge and brilliant turbans in red or yellow -- the only splash of colour, even the red on the painted horns of the bullocks had faded. Sholapur At the Hindustani Christian Church Mission here we met Stina Larssen, who runs three village feed...
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head