The Amazing Technical Dreamtown

Gandhi Road, opposite the hospital's second gate, is known for dirt, crowds, an outbreak or two of amoebiasis and the place where most of your shopping gets done. Walking down the small shop-lined street I was dazzled by Dawn Bakery, newly painted, that stood out against the bleak greyness of the sky in bright yellow paint with orange edges. I could be classy and call it marigold with a tangerine trim, but either way it would still hurt.

There seems to have been a revolution in housepaint sweeping the town. Standing on ASHA terrace you can pick out a house in fluorescent green, a pale blue, two yellows and a lavender. From a distance they seem forgivable. Up close, it takes some getting used to. There's a house on the 2 route that's a deep, dark blue. Pleasant, though unorthodox. There's another one that has a hot pink facade. I've heard rumours of a bright yellow one behind Schell, the eye hospital, but I haven't seen it yet. I'm not sure I dare.

Leaving housepaint alone, some of the houses have - interesting motifs on them: there's one, again on the 2 route, that has two huge human eyes carved into its parapets. Or rather, the parapet's carved into eyes, with blank spaces where the sclera ought to be.

Although a lot of house owners seem to be opting for unorthodox colour options, not all of them choose to dazzle - one of the most common is the colour of the hospital - a blue-grey that makes the building look a little like a large, sprawling thundercloud. Superimposed upon this are the temples at the streetcorners, which have large ornate figures of mythological characters mounted on their roofs. All painted. Brightly.

Few of these would meet any demanding aesthetic standards, but they're always interesting to look at. And if they make the people who live in them happy, I suppose that's all that matters.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7429/1455