There was a water pump at the junction, right next to the wall around the park. One of the manual scavengers, a woman, was sitting there, totally indifferent to the dampness around the pump. Considering her age and chubbiness, there was no reason for her not to be wearing a blouse. Some of the children moved closer to her and stood, looking alternately at her and the man taking roll call. Her gaze, however, was totally focused on the tamarind tree.

“So many pods on that tree!” said the woman.

“Yes! Look at them hanging,” said a little boy standing next to her. Right away, his mouth started to water. He looked around to see if anybody had noticed before swallowing his saliva.

Just then, a gust of wind shook the tree, bringing down a shower of raindrops. A tamarind pod fell in front of the woman. That little boy bent down quickly and snatched it away. Just as he raised the pod to his mouth, the woman said, “Give me half, my dear. Be a darling, please.”

After a moment’s hesitation, the boy broke a little piece off and offered it to her. She stuck out her tongue and rubbed the fruit against it. At that moment, her cheeks trembled and her eyes rolled back. The boys laughed at the sight, and she laughed with them.

A younger woman, also a manual scavenger, arrived at the water pump. She was quite a shapely woman. The short-sleeved checkered shirt she was wearing over her sari really brought out her figure. And her hair was not unkempt. She had oiled and combed it neatly. She wore a stack of bangles on her right arm. She had the glow of a newlywed.

She asked the other woman sitting by the pump, “Did you get nauseous and throw up today?”

“Oh my God, I threw up so much! From the moment I woke up, I felt sick in the stomach,” she said, rubbing the fruit against her tongue.

The younger worker looked with some interest at the way the woman savored the tamarind fruit.

“Is it really sour?” she then asked.

“Oh yes! It is really, really is. It hits you right in the brain. Very comforting when you are feeling queasy,” she said, rubbing the fruit against her tongue a few more times.

The younger woman walked over to a group of male workers. In the middle of the crowd stood a young, well-built man wearing a khaki shirt. She went up to him, tapped his shoulder, and whispered something to him while pointing at the tree. He stepped away from the crowd, and she followed him.