Rubble

There is a narrow, winding lane leading up to our building. It is raw and rude, refusing to be called a driveway. On both sides of this lane, there was once subtly hilly, overgrown land. A shortcut to our hill. Home to rats, snakes and such. Now, on one side there is major IT-hub construction happening. Trucks, lorries, cranes filled with brick and cement and other such necessary hardnesses roll up and down the lane and like to park themselves so that no other vehicle may get past. The creatures who had made their homes in the soil now seek human company through the medium of drainpipes and open balcony-doors.
On the other side are makeshift shanties where the builders live. They are fleshless. The women wear heavy, gold bangles, nose-rings with chains and clusters of earrings. They lift piles of materials and deposit them into shape. Their hands are dusty and unafraid. The men are not resigned to their livelihood. Yet they work tirelessly as if saying...one more brick in place...and maybe I can think of a different life. They look tired of this tireless hoping.
I usually walk up the lane around 9:30 at night. Rickshawwallahs in Pune are not known for their industriousness, especially at night. Sometimes there is a watchman positioned about 1/4 up the lane. Sometimes there is emptiness for the first half. I hear a radio in one of the workers homes. I hear a Bengali curse-word and half-turn. There are at least 9 children living in those shanties. They are in constant danger of being run over. At night they are stowed away. As I near our building, the lane is slightly uphill. My breath fragments. I see lights from the shanties. I hear comments about my body. Sometimes there is silence and just before I reach our gate, I feel eyes on me. I enter a void with the eyes on either end and my choice is to be intensely scrutinised or to be erased.
I have been told that the lane is not safe. It shuts out the hills and exposes me to blue-collar sensibilities.
But the two-minute walk is potent. And it's my only way home.