The Old Soldier
Osean India 2004
A chowkidar is a watchman. I got that word mixed up with Chandigarh once when I introduced a man who was attending the university there. I said he was attending “chowkidar”. Luckily, he just laughed to himself and carried on. It took me a while to get it.
It’s hard for me to remember Indian names and places and even harder to pronounce them. Once I was in a town called Vadodara. It took days of practice until I could approximate the correct pronunciation. It has an emphasis on the ‘do’ and the rest is said almost with just a rolled ‘r’ sound. Indians speak rapidly compared to us. The fastest spoken language in the world is in Kerala. It sounded like babble to my ears.
The photo above is a ‘walk-by’. The town of Osean is considered beautiful because of the colorfully painted home exteriors. This man with his military bearing graced the entrance with its huge doors. As I pointed my camera at him, he straightened his shoulders as if coming to attention and his look became even fiercer, if possible.