Some of the most beautiful and inventive women lead very ordinary lives.
They cook, clean, care for their families and go about their daily chores like nothing's
changed; like nothing ever will.
I find that enchanting.
I find the everydayness - the mundane look of familiarity with oneself and one's
routine - enchanting.
Because their efforts are not made in expectation of anything larger. They simply are
as they are, as they have always been, as they may remain...
Kamala wasn't particularly excited about fetching a pail of water when I spotted her,
walking to the village well.
It was a task she woke up to every single morning of her life, ever since she could
remember.
I was, at the time, documenting desert life in the Thar. Somehow, the visual of her
brightly coloured apparel juxtaposed with the blasé look on her face, presented a
contrast that I wanted to further explore.
When I approached her, her face lit up so bright, nearly outdoing her clothes and
glinting jewellery. She was thrilled to be accompanied on a walk that hadn't felt very
different in years; a lifetime perhaps.
As for me, I had never before walked to a well, to draw up a few hours worth of
water. Kamala did it several times a day.
And on days, when it was scarce, she worked with the little she had. There, in the
depths of a desert, she said to me, water shone brighter than the ornaments she
wore.
Water - intrinsic, essential and indispensable to nearly every recipe known to
mankind.
It wasn't everyday that a walk to a well brightens a face a tad jaded and a mind that
had never made that walk!
