(Edited from notes written during the trip to India earlier this year. )

The sun sets in a blaze of passionate orange that within minutes turns into the violent passion of purple. Me and Daffodil are in Jodhpur, India, and after one of those perfect days we were looking for a place to eat dinner.

I find myself looking at the people here, amazed once again about the persistence by which people fight for the small things in life. Outside the cafe I’m sitting at, a man repares old shoes on the street. It is 40 degrees outside and the air humidity is easily 80 percent. It feels like walking through someone’s soul, filthy and dense; like entering an awkward situation; or like breaking someone’s heart. The temperature keeps the heart racing and sweat dripping from every piece of skin. Dehydration is a divinity here, at least I am forced to worship. Hence, I’m hiding inside the air-conditioned cafe, drinking insanely overpriced coffee, only to avoid the brutal reality of the outside. The man on the street looks like he is doing alright and can I imagine he works hard to pay dinner for his family.

On the streets and in the occasional hidden corner under a tree young women and men court each other. The slightest touch of the fingers immediately unlocked as we pass by as discreetly as we can. We don’t care, thinking it’s cute, but that sort of thing is not allowed here. In between the scenes of life, women of all ages dressed in saris ordain the plain and dirty streets with all possible colours. It adds a pequliar touch of beauty in an otherwise pale pallette.

I wonder what makes them happy. The masses of people sitting around, not appearing to do anything, either dealing with the heat best they can, not blessed enough to pay for overpriced coffee; or their unemployment; or perhaps, like us all, a lack purpose. I wonder if when there is not enough food on the table, the philosophical questions we ask ourselves make any sense. If you are fighting for food for the day, perhaps looking for something larger in life is reserved for a lifetime coming after this one, when a principle of rebirth is in play.