India is such a country of contrasts. The streets are dirty and full of rubbish, the buildings are decaying, even so called smart hotels are dirty and have cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. But every one is dressed immaculately, every shirt freshly pressed, every salwar kameez colour co ordinated, every school child in neat and tidy school uniforms.
While we were sitting on the platform at Trichy we watched people throw rubbish on to the track, and then watched two guys pick it all up again. OK,so this is the system, and it gives them a job but it seemed so pointless for them to have to collect it all out of a putrid gully to put in a big bin. Again on the platform, a beautiful girl with a rose in her hair, sweeping and mopping, dressed beautifully for a thankless task.
Every town we have been to is manic , day and night, so many people, bikes, rickshaws, cars, cows...but yesterday as we drove through the lush green countryside from Madurai to Tanjore we saw hardly anone, hardly a car on the road.
