The Porter

The wide and dusty street known as Khari Baoli in Old Delhi is the location of the biggest spice market in Asia.

Here spices and other foods from throughout India and the world are traded at wholesale and retail. Cash is always changing hands. Deals are always being made. Someone wins. Someone loses.

It is more than a market. It is a gathering place. A place to find work. A place to eat. Sometimes it is even a place to sleep for the porters who begin the task of moving tons of goods by shoulder carry and on carts from trucks to stalls and back again early each morning.

The men wait with their carts in the middle of the street for a gesture or wave that signals the merchant need to move a load of goods. There is order in the disorder.

It is strenuous work under Indian heat. The porters are lean, exhausted and ready. 

The middle of the street is scattered with mud puddles and strewn with cow droppings, food waste and other garbage. Most everyone is wearing open sandals as they trudge through the muck that seeps between their toes and over their arches. Stray dogs sleep on the sidewalks and on top of bags of food glancing up only occasionally looking for new developments before slowly rolling back into slumber. At night, when the people are gone, they will feast on what is left behind.