MOVEMENT is everywhere all the time on the streets of India. It can seem as if all 1.4-billion Indians, and all of their visitors, are constantly going somewhere. They travel on foot, by bicycle, by scooter, by motorcycle, in auto rickshaws - what you might call tuk-tuks - cars, buses, trucks, boats and aircraft.
Often they are holding their children. Sometimes they're alone. Rarely are they not on some sort of mission. I find the extraordinary ordinariness of it all is oddly reassuring.
Crossing a street is a skill all of its own. As is operating any kind of vehicle on the same streets. It's not dangerous; you are highly unlikely to be struck by anyone or anything. But it is daunting. Still, people keep moving:
And yet, in the midst of what many of us would consider chaos, there is also calm:
But that is rare. Because everybody is always going somewhere:
Even the birds are busy:
Buildings are all that stand still long enough for other forms of life to take hold:
No vehicle? No problem. Taxi!
© 2026 Telford Vice. Words and photographs.