Mumbai Lullaby

As far as I know, there is no official siesta in Mumbai, but as much as the city is fully awake, blaring and hooting, it is also asleep during the hot noon/midday: often you see people in alcoves, or especially in cars (like the taxi-driver above), switched off, unplugged, getting some shuteye. I guess most hot cities have this interior feel, a proper living/bed room in which any part of a street or vehicle may double as a mattress or couch. At night there are plenty of families, mothers with babies, etc., unselfconsciously stretched on pavements, their hands and limbs dreamily entangled. It's part of the in-your-face intimacy of India. For a blow-in tourist like myself, it is utterly beguiling and has the effect of both enveloping and distancing. Besotted and sleep-deprived, I moved about in my own kind of dream.