BAHAK

vorherige ISBN 978-3-86895-313-8 The bengali term for carrier is "bahak", which means a life as a day labourer living at the bottom of the social pile. Exploitation and drudgery for minimum pay; dicing with danger in a daily struggle with the Kolkata streets; little or no appreciation for vigorous physical effort, which can all end in total exhaustion. No load seems too heavy or too large to be manhandled through the narrow, crowded streets of Kolkata (Calcutta). Whether their burdens are carried on their heads, or on a yoke over their shoulders, on two-or three-wheelers or on a hand-drawn-rickshaw, all manner of goods and essentials - furniture, building materials, groceries, books and coal - are all humped, hauled or carted as they are shifted from one place to another.