Nurse in waiting

Nurse on duty at a basketball match, she doesn't look particularly impressed with the action.

Detail of painted metal garden swing

It's bright, colourful, dusty and messy and welcoming and a bit rough around the edges in places.
I'm really liking India.

Village People

I'm not really one for pushing my camera into peoples' faces, at least not strangers, hence I have lots of distance shots, back shots and side shots. Children are different though, I am perfectly comfortable interacting with them with a camera in between us. Here are a few kids I took pictures of in the Maharashtran countryside.

One day I'll get over my difficulty in taking direct portraits of adults, but until then there are always children and animals.

Dog with star quality

This handsome dog was found in a restaurant in the countryside which had a play area and open space attached. Clearly used to strangers he barely acknowledged anyone approaching him but patience paid off and the proffered hand was eventually granted a sniff.

Toran, Door Garland

I spent a day out in Malegaon around three hours outside Mumbai. It's my first visit to the Indian countryside, it was good to get out into fresh air and open spaces.

Swimming Against the Tide

The last in my current collection of pictures taken from Mumbai trains. I love that I can hang outside the doors and get angles like this, at least I can during the relatively quiet times when I travel. I wouldn't want to attempt it during rush hour, in fact I wouldn't want to attempt the trains during rush hour if I could possibly avoid it.

Fruit stop

Netted tubes of fruit for pulping and gulping

Second Class, Women

Womens' carriage, local train in Mumbai.

Helping Hand

Mumbai local train, getting a hand up.

Don't touch me!

AutoRickshaws: They don't like you touching them.

Trading

I can't begin to understand how difficult it is to make a living from selling simple paper garlands.

Street Eaters

Dogs, cats, rats and cows are all fairly common eaters of things on the the street. I don't have any pictures of those at the moment so offer some alternatives:

Found everywhere but usually moving too fast for me to capture them.



Pigs were unexpected scavengers in Jaipur but they seem to do a pretty good job in clearing up the edible, and less obviously edible, junk.

Morning

Sunrise isn't usually as spectacular as sunset but, since Indian cities don't tend to get moving very early and I do, it's a quiet and lovely time of day.

Up On The Roof

When I lived in Vietnam I had a roof terrace, I miss that outdoor space now that I am in a flat without even a balcony. The closest I can come to outdoors is sitting on the window seat with the windows opened to maximum but it isn't the same. Our hotel in Jaipur had a roof terrace where we spent a lot of time with views of other people doing the same.

Produce

The range and quality of fresh produce is a constant pleasure whether you just take pictures of it or actually get around to cooking the stuff.

Chili emporium



Farm goods on the way to market

Jantar Mantar, Jaipur

Jai Singh's amazing stone astronomical observatory built in the early 18th Century and a perfect blue sky.

BBC Radio 4 did an excellent programme on this place if you want to find out more about it. In Our Time, Jantar Mantar.

Jaipur

Amber Fort tout



Amber Fort bird

The Joy of Sets

I got very excited recently to find a matching set of plain white crockery, no patterns, no gilt, no flora or fauna. Thank you ShopperStop, saved from eating from the beige plastic stuff that came with the flat.

Since getting the crockery I haven't done much cooking but I can confirm that eggs taste much better out of plain white egg cups than out of shot glasses stuffed with kitchen towel to stop the egg wobble.

The Big Balloons of Bombay

Giant Balloon Guy

Puzzled. Every city has its own brand of hawkers specialising in selling tat to tourists. In Vietnam it was photocopied books, anywhere there were tourists there were girls lugging tottering stacks of Lonely Planets and The Quiet American around. If they didn't have what you were looking for the would hop off to a central warehouse and be back with your Bill Bryson of choice in minutes. This is a practical and popular product ideally suited to the target market.

In Mumbai they sell giant balloons to tourists. I know you would buy an uninflated version but the questions are still begged...

Who buys them?
How much do they pay?
What do they do with them ?
How long do they take to blow up?
Why?

One Day

The views from two of the flat windows at different times of day.

Morning



Evening

I say "the view", for the morning shot what I mean by that is the view if I lean out over the child safety barriers and trust in luck to snap the sun. The sunset is from the spare bedroom and requires careful framing to avoid the big black buildings on either side of it. Still, it's nice how the light filters through the smog.

Bandra Thursday

I was caught up by a passing parade so I pulled out the camera and prepared to be be besieged by beggars, hawkers and other itinerate earners.

My guess is Durga but my Goddess-identification-skills need a lot of developing, as do my avoiding-McDonald's-signs skills.

Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai

I'm a sucker for museums, The Prince of Wales Museum, or more properly, The Chatrapati Shrivaji Museum, Mumbai called me in.  It's an excellent looking building and, should you wish to shop, has a fantastic gift shop.  I paid my foreigner ticket price for which I got a "free" audio tour, a pamphlet and a postcard.

 It's a fine museum although the second floor is currently closed and looks as good inside as out but

far too many wet afternoons in Chamber Street Museum, Edinburgh, as a kid make me feel that the central well is incomplete without goldfish.

The exhibitions are well laid out and informative and there's plenty to see to while away a couple of hours.

 

The most memorable part of the visit though was The Man catching up with me somewhere between Miniatures and Coins.  He was delighted to tell me that he'd been offered a range of drugs ... in a museum!  OK, on the streets, sort of expected especially since we most certainly still have a touch of the wide eyed tourist look about us.  But a museum!  Definitely a Memorable Mumbai Moment. 

Fireworks for Ganesh

Just one of the elements of the Ganesh Chaturthi celebration. Good photography practice for Diwali.

Mumbai mixture

There's no theme to this post, just a collection of pictures taken recently. I've got over whingeing about grey skies and poor light and decided just to suck it up and take pictures anyway. No more excuses accepted, it's going to be like this for about half the year so I just need to adapt.

Repainting the Taj hotel tower, one little bit at a time.





Family outing Marine Drive, overexposed but I like how the family group are thrown into isolation against the mainly white background.

I was attracted by the vibrant orange, the only good thing about grey light is that bright colours are more eycatching.



This came out a bit softer than I hoped for and I'm quite shy about taking pictures of strangers so I didn't hang about to correct my mistakes. I like his face anyway and that there's a "big balloon" in the background.

Monsoon August

View over Aarey Milk Colony through the rain.



Mould resistant advertising



Wall foliage, colour saturation levels not fiddled about with, it really is this green.


The last day of August and the first hint of blue skies to come.

I admit, I was blase about monsoon. I'd been through four and half wet seasons in Saigon so it was clearly going to be more of the same. No. It's wetter; the rain is heavier and lasts longer, at least it does this this year. I'm not sure how this year relates to previous monsoon seasons. It's the levels of moisture in the air that's taken me by surprise though, everything is always slightly damp, and there are weird mildew like smells around the flat that I'm trying all sorts of things to cover up or clear. However, it's cool, the breeze is lovely and everything is green and sparkly so it's not all bad. I just want some more blue in the sky.

Mumbai August

The skies are still grey so the weather is still cool but there have been a few hopeful signs of blue from time to time.

I've been heading into Mumbai proper more often but usually without either a camera or a charged battery. The latter is infinitly more frustrating!

Lots of people suggested a trip to Mohammed Ali street for the Muslim food stalls during Ramadan. It's the first time I got overwhelmed by India but it was mostly fun. we went, I got lost, I got punched in the kidneys by a child, we found our way out, I didn't manage to eat a bloody thing. Next time maybe.