This year October was a disaster for me...
My wife became ill, with a herniated disk that immobilized her in bed and brought unbearable pain. We tried all sorts of therapies but the inevitable could not be... avoided, so on her birthday she was forced to have surgery.
It was a successful operation that cost us all our savings and even more.
You may be wondering why I am telling this story so personally and, of course, unimportant to anyone else. The answer is that an evening visit to the hospital led me to this unusual sight that left me speechless and without action.
Usually, I am always prepared to photograph on all walks or trips to different destinations.
That evening, this happened a few days ago, I had to buy some medicine. I always get this way, whenever I have a list of drugs to buy, I easily find all of them... except one.
This unapproachable drug forced me to make a tour of several pharmacies in the evening, in a neighborhood unfamiliar to me.
This was the setting and the ambiance of the meeting I want to talk about now.
I saw something that intrigued me, amazed me, and delighted me. Anyway, I was so amazed that I was unable to take any pictures. Not even from a distance, because it couldn't have happened up close, for several reasons, but mostly out of common sense.
I now have to do something I usually do with a photograph. I have to describe, as accurately as possible, what I saw.
From a distance, I saw a young girl on a bicycle moving in a circle. There was a small intersection with a pedestrian crossing and this girl was circling her bike. Well, nothing unusual for young people to do such things in their neighborhood.
I got closer and then I noticed that the young woman was riding the bike with only one hand because, with the other hand, she was holding the phone. She was riding her bike in a circle, in an intersection, talking on the phone! Still nothing special in this action, in this movement in a circle in an area that fortunately had very little traffic. The willingness of young people to do things that somehow defy the rules is well known...
I get closer and the situation starts to change, becoming dangerous. I saw that the young woman had a small child strapped to her chest in a backpack. She kept going in circles and this movement seemed incomprehensible to me but I thought maybe she was trying to put the baby to sleep.
I finally reached the curb and the lady with the bike passed less than half a meter from me. At first, I didn't understand what I saw, or I didn't believe it, so I stood still waiting for the movement in circles to bring her back to me, but then I realized it was true.
The young lady was riding her bicycle, which she was only one-handed, in a circle around the pedestrian crossing, talking on the phone and holding a baby to her chest. She was bare-breasted because she was breastfeeding the baby!
Can you believe that?
A beautiful young lady, a slender and beautiful bike, a beautiful baby, beautiful breasts! Only the phone I couldn't see too well...
I swear it's true what I'm telling you here. Besides, I lack the imagination to think such a thing.
I crossed the intersection reluctantly but, of course, I couldn't stay on the sidewalk and watch the show. In the first moment after realizing what was going on I was tempted to consider that mother as crazy, but then, still thinking about what I saw, I began to think admiringly of her.
I think she wanted to show that she felt and was free or maybe she was an advocate of breastfeeding outside the home, an attitude generally frowned upon by people.
The most astonishing sight I've encountered in Bucharest, Romania, the city where I live.
This is the first time I've posted here that the photos are unrelated to the story. However, there is a connection, they were taken at night in Bucharest.