An Auto

This is an Auto - a type of Indian taxi. It is a 3 wheeled scooter with a body! If there are one billion people in India, I think there must be about 500 million of these Autos! They are amazing little vehicles, they zip in and out of buses, trucks, cars, other Autos and whatever else happens to be speeding down the road! Three adults can squeeze into the back and here you can just see Jonti sitting on the seat in front with the driver! You can also see a piece of cloth wrapped around the yellow pole behind the driver. That is to act as a side when it is raining, you unravel it and it is like a curtain next to the passenger in the back!

Peak hour traffic in Bangalore!

As you can see, I am sitting on the right side of our Auto. Close beside me is another Auto, in front of that one with not much room to spare is another Auto. Next to those 2 is a guy on a motorbike and you can see 2 more Autos in front of him! We are really squashed together and that is what you call congested traffic!! Imagine travelling in that everyday.

Not far from that spot, we saw the guy on the motorbike stopped at the side of the road. He had been swiped by a vehicle and he had badly hurt his hand, maybe broken it. Not surprisingly there are a lot of accidents.

School bus-auto

This Auto is full of precious cargo on the way to school in Nagercoil!

Auto delivery van

This is an auto delivering Jackfruit - see the 3 Jackfruit lying on the ground. They are a big fruit which grow on trees. It takes a while to open the fruit and take out all the segments and seeds but it is worth it. The segments are so sweet and tasty!

Insence maker!

This lady was making insence sticks. She would pick up a stick from the bundle, roll it in a paste made from the powder, roll it in the powder, put the finished stick down, pick up the next stick and repeat. She was soooooooooo fast! She is paid 14 rupees per thousand and there are about 34 rupees to the Australian dollar.

Buji with her students and Jonti

Buji is the Head mistress of a Special School in Bangalore. Jonti is the tall one in the middle with the red t-shirt! Surrounding them are some of Buji's students and the photo is taken in her classroom.

Look at these yummy mangoes!

Ambika is buying some mangoes from this lady who comes to the stairwell in their house. This lady has been visiting the house and selling fruit since Ambika was a little girl. (Ravi and Ambika bought this house from Ambika's mother a few years ago.)

These mangoes were so superb, the best I have ever tasted.