Street vendors are very common here, especially concentrated in the shopping/commercial areas and sites frequented by tourists. Many of them sell all sorts of delicious-smelling food, while others sell handicrafts or baskets or drums or shoes or jewelry or pots or flowers. Encountering this book vendor took me back to my Urban Sociology class, taught by Professor Fitz Gibbon this past spring. Our capstone reading was Sidewalk by Mitch Duneier, a book which traces the development of different kinds of entrepreneurship among the homeless in the streets of New York City. In particular, Duneier examines the culture of the book vendors and the intricacies of their community, dispelling certain assumptions relating to whether this kind of an enterprise should be considered a public nuisance.
I appropriately purchased my own copy of Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani, one of the readings that will be used in the GSE Seminar course next spring. It’s discussion often focuses on different examples from Bangalore; in fact, we’re meeting several of the individuals and organizations that Nilekani mentions in his book, including SELCO India. It’s just one other example of how we keep discovering unexpected connections in the non-profit/social change community here.
I feel as though this picture symbolizes what is currently overlooked within the way we, as a global society, think about cities. Professor Moledina and I have both been talking a lot about the differences that I have noticed here in India; the sights, the sounds, the smells. It’s easy to label cities based on these differences, to contrast the developed metropolis of New York City or Singapore or Paris with the challenges faced by Bangalore or Sao Paolo or Cape Town.
We have much more in common than we realize when it comes to dealing with the challenges facing our cities. In particular, when it comes to climate change, it is a common fate that we share. We need to capitalize on the opportunity to learn from each other.
