Sometimes you look at workers through a tourism car window and you think: they may be doing the same gestures that their ancestors were doing centuries ago.

I’ve seen very little heavy machinery used here in India, even on building sites. Looking at tea collectors in the Western Ghats made me feel ambivalent.

The weight these women were carrying through the fields seemed exhausting. However the absence of mechanization preserved their employment and collaborative work.

The joyful colourful assembly they formed when sorting tea leaves in the fresh air of the hills seemed more healthy and welcoming than my cubicle back home.