Maybe not the best "typical" Indian scene but still this very English scene looked very natural in this Indian setting.

Just about anywhere you can find someone playing.

Chandni Chowk

One of the denest and busiest areas in old Delhi is Chandri Chowk - near the Red Fort. The grubby buildings still show some sign of their long lost class.

Christmas 2003

Intercontinental GC - the resort was nearly empty so these hired carolers came onto the golf course to find someone to sing to.

Golf is hard enough without dogs in the bunkers - at the Intercontinental Golf Course

One of the carolers at lunch.

India-Pakistan Border

Every evening, on the Border near Amritsar, the Indian and Pakistani Border Rangers have a flag lowering ceremony. These guys may look fancy but they are very deadly soldiers, fighting constantly with terrorists.

Hair Dressing

A street scene in Deli with many curbside barbers.

Golden Temple

The Sikhs most sacred temple, the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The scene of an Indian army attack against terrorists that led to the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi.

Carolyn in the temple (head covered) looking at the crowd waiting to enter. It took us 45 minutes.

Durga Puja

The Durga Puja is on of India's major religious events. The Durga is the many armed goddess who is the warrior incarnation of Vishnu's wife, Parvati She represents Good and here is slaying Evil in the form of the demon buffalo god.

Sacred Cows

Cows (sacred) on the road are a major source of accidents. This cow wasn't interested in moving. They can be found anywhere and everywhere. These were on a traffic island on a very busy Delhi road.

Fishing

Two boys and a dog fishing with home made rods on the Kalli River.

Murdeshwar

Site of a huge Shiva statue. Ravana, the King of Sri Lanka, stole Rama's wife, Sita. Consequently he was required to do penance which he dutifully did and so was granted a boon by Shiva. Ravana asked for immortality but Shiva was reluctant to grant this but said ok, if you can carry this linga (great big rock) back to Sri Lanka. If it touches the ground, no immortality. So off set Ravana and to Shiva dismay, he looked like succeeding. So Shiva sent Ganesha, disguised as a cow herder, to distract Ravana. At one point, Ravana needed to go to the toilet (what he did for the thousands of ks before this is glossed over) and asked the cow herder to hold the linga. Ok, but you must be back in a specified time. Unfortunately Ravana couldn't do what he had to do in the required time so down goes the rock, not to be moved again. Ravana throws a wobbly, tries to dig up the rock and eventually smashes it. Pieces fly everywhere and where they landed, each piece grew into a Shiva linga. There are many of these in this area and temples have been built around them.

Rama eventually got his wife back with the help of Hanuman, the monkey guy who can be seen beautifully carved in the musical temple at Hampi.

Ganesh on the right accepting the lignum from Ravana.

Traffic

Driving in India is some experience. The only rule is that size matters and the horn must be used very often. But not aggressively as in Oz but more as a signal - get out of the way I'm about to hit you are please let me pass. Notwithstanding this, the system works. The road conditions don't help as the are often in atrocious condition.

This is taken on the border between Orissa and Jharkhand. The Orissa State Government collects sales tax on goods entering the state. It seems they decided to seriously enforce this and hence a 10km traffic jam resulted. The good news was that we were going the opposite way. The bad news was that a number of the trucks wanted to jump the queue. Hence on a barely adequate 2 lane road, with 2 meter drops either side, there were trucks 3 deep on the road - 1 lot stationary and 2 moving at speed towards you. It was exciting.

Chidradurga Fort

Chidradurga, in Karnataka, has a fort with parts over 1000 yrs old. It is build around a huge granite outcrop and still has many buildings in very good condition.

Wiring

As with many 3rd world countries, electrical wiring is often very crude. Goa has many power cuts each day, not because of a lack of power but because of poor distribution systems. In fact Goan gets an allocation of power from the National Grid which exceeds its needs so it sells it to nearby power short states at a profit.

Here is a typical wiring situation. Don't worry about a plug, just bare the wires and stick them into the socket.

This is a pole outside the Hotel Venite, Panaji, Goa. And some more below.

Mumbai

Probably the most famous hotel in Mumbai or in fact Asia, The Taj Mahal. Built in the 1903. It has been restored and worth just walking around inside.

Gate of India

On the waterfront, across from the Taj Mahal, is the Gateway to India. Built in 1911 to commemorate the visit of King George the V and Queen Mary.

In August, 2003, a terrorist bomb exploded in a taxi, in a car park just to the right of this photo, killing over 40 people. The taxi was on a straight line from the front entrance of the Taj to the Gateway. I had walked this line about 2 weeks earlier to get to the Gateway.

Humayun's Tomb

Humayun was the 2nd Mugal ruler form 1530 to 1556. Built by his wife 1562 to 1571. A prototype to the Taj Mahal, built 70 years later.