What kind of iron is that? That was my first thought when I met this man ironing clothes outside his house in Jangareddigudem. Compared to the irons that you and I are more familiar with, this one seemed unusually large and heavy with all its metal construction and wooden handle. When I looked at it more closely, I became puzzled wondering how it could work without an electrical cord attached. Nope, it didn't have a charging dock either.
There was something else strange with the scene. How could this person have so many clothes to iron at once? Surely nobody in this impoverished village could have so many collared shirt to wear. This was, after all, a relatively remote and poorer part of India.
When I learned about what really was going on, I realized how foolish my initial thoughts were. The man was ironing not his clothes but for the people in this neighbourhood. This was his specialty business! And no, this iron didn't require any electricity to operate at all. This iron was heated with hot charcoals inside!
In the world that I come from, people have gotten so used to owning so many appliances and gadgets. Our struggles are not whether we have enough clothes to wear but what are more fashionable to wear. Our choices are not having a cell phone or not but getting this latest model or that. It is funny how we sometimes spend so much effort deciding to buy them initially, like reading reviews and comparing features with competing brands… and yet in the end, they are like disposables. We own them an year or two and then repeat the same process again.
There are much to learn from the lives of people in this another world. Sure, they don't have nearly as much as we do, but for what they have, they own them for life. An old charcoal iron can service an entire village, and the person using the iron is doing it with dignity.
農村的生活與城市分別很大，生活條件或許比城市落後二、三十年或更長。城市生活各方面都已是電器化、甚至電腦化，但鄉村中仍是很原始，就像洗衣、熨衣服。他們的熨斗是盛著燒熱的炭，靠著熱力把衣服熨平。無論原始、或是先進，事情也是可以做好，只是城市人省下來的時間不知會否用得好？鄉下人也不見得生活得很困難！
english description: Joe
chinese description: Violin
Photo by Joe Lee. Andhra Pradesh, India, 2012