Day 4...home stretch...
Trip Start
Oct 29, 2006
1
4
5
Trip End
Nov 05, 2006
Mumbai,
India
Saturday, November 4, 2006
Roof Day
The hardhats and safety goggles were donned and we started to look like professionals! The GI sheets (sort of steel sheets) were handed up to the 'roofies' and laid one on top of the other, over the perlins to form an incredibly strong roof. To my absolute delight, I was handed a power drill and a pack of 2 inch screws and asked to secure the GI sheets on the roof...Its hard hard work..and after many lost screws, much fumbling, failed attemps and repeated tries I started to get the hang of it!
The satisfaction of getting a screw through steel and cement on the first attempt - Unparalleled!!!. I was unstoppable now! Exchanging stories later that night, I realised that many other people felt the same way that day!....As I took a water break - sitting on the roof I looked around me: 100s of people perched on their roofs - all pespiring and sun burnt under the mid-day sun concentrating on getting the roof on right, the sound of power drills and hammers, bollywood tunes blaring frm the loud speakers, people yelling instructions in a littany of languages: Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, French, sounds of laughter....this was what a Habitat Build was all about and I was truly enjoying myself.
During the breaks (everytime the sun got too hot, or the rain came down..or if the cement blocks became too heavy) there was the thrill of star-spotting! - Brad Pitt (YES! Brad Pitt
Brad ..ooh Baby!
, the Carters, Aishwaria Rai, Steve Waugh, John Abraham...all pitched in (for a few hours to a few days)
John Abraham..
and provided a very welcome distraction for us volunteers...Cameras in tow, 10X zoom shots set up...we would sneak up to the houses they were building or simply stand and and gape while the frazzled secret service and security tried to contain our curiosity. True to the Habitat spirit though, there were never large crowds or big groups standing around - everybody there had a job to do and after the initial hype the stars became volunteers too.
