A recent trip to Goa took me to the hot spot in town on a Friday morning—the Mapsa market, bustling with vendors hawking everything you need to run an efficient home: clothing, kitchen equipment, vegetables, spices, fruits, meat, fish, live poultry, straw broomsticks, and rugs. I felt the presence of all of Goa in this market square, the size of one city block. As I maneuvered through the sea of humanity, I stumbled across a string of women who were squatting on the blistering concrete unde