The Mix

I took an afternoon Pondy-adventure walk all by my lonesome. As a true white tourist, I took photos of many things I saw, including this construction site. While I won't mention the obvious OSHA violations, I will say I was wondering about the quality of the concrete mix. They seemed to just randomly dump water, cement, stone, and sand (by the bucket-, bag-, or basin-full) into the mixer, which slapped it into a cart that was shuttled up 4 stories via a diesel engine to where it was presumably poured.

I find construction practices in developing countries fascinating. In China, I saw crews mixing concrete directly on the street- like, right on the paver bricks. In Brazil, they piled up all the broken bricks and garbage on the site to build the base for the pedestrian pathway they were making. No tamping machines! I dare say none of these places uses the slump test or anything else to check the quality of the concrete itself.

Interesting, is all!

And to round out my tourist appearance, I went crazy with my purchasing power at a local department store. I have a sari now! I was a little ashamed of the number of bags I carried back to the hospital... but when in Rome?