The woman with a luggage over her head was talking to the man selling potatoes

Woman with a load on her head and man selling potatoes

Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, is hot. The average maximum temperature exceeds 30 degrees Celsius most months of the year. The humidity is also very high, making the heat very hard on the body. Unless you are inside a building, there is no shade on the streets, and walking around the city is a strenuous activity. The streets are quite different from the streets influenced by the Chinese culture that created the so-called “qílóu,” or “building overhang".

A “qílóu” is an architectural structure in which the second floor of a tenement-like building extends above the passageway of the first floor to create a continuous eaves area, and the sidewalk is like an arcade. This type of architecture is common in Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries where Chinese people live, but is not used in India, where the sun is equally strong. Walking around Mumbai is a battle against direct sunlight. Even if there is a qílóu, it doesn't matter much if the humidity is high.

As I was walking along, I saw a goat in the shade of a small tree on the sidewalk. It was tied to a tree with a string, and although it was not free, it looked very happy as it grazed on its food.

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