OF JEWELLERY, BEADS AND HARDSHIPS – THE LIFE OF A GYPSY

Wires, tin boxes, needles, pins, hooks, broken plastic dolls, huge polythene bags and greyish-brown rags – it is amidst this mess on a pavement, that a pair of hands meticulously string together colourful beads to make bracelets, long chains, ear rings, rings, chokers and anklets. Velliammal is a gypsy who has made this pavement in Besant Nagar her workplace for the last three decades.