The miller

Stood on the rooftop watching the sunset this evening as the boys practised flying their kites from the roof below – I haven't seen a boy with any toys or computer games and these kites are small and square and have to be worked at to keep them up – the hotel 'son' is allowed half an hour with his kite in the evening and then he has to do his homework. A spiral of at least 40 bird kites slowly ascended a thermal over the far side of the city and as the sun sank wave after wave of cormorants flew past to their roost at the far end of the southern lake. They came in parties of 8, 12, 20, 40 - determined fliers giving way to no one – but why were there other smaller parties going north? These ones were passed by groups of squawking parrots who easily out flew them. The egrets had already taken their positions on their usual roost on the island straight in front of the hotel and one by one larger herons flew down to adjacent trees and the hawk of Sunday took his place on the highest tree. Do they all know there is a crocodile sleeping underneath? When the sun had gone everything changed – flocks of pigeons came like ghosts against the darkened lake and the lights of the wedding venue opposite suddenly lit up as if on cue. All the Shiva shrines have been well attended today with offerings of flowers, incense, coconuts and little butter lamps. There has been lots of singing from the women sitting in groups in front of the larger shrines – haven't seen any men today.

The blip is of the miller down my street. The woman was cross with me for wanting to photograph but she has brought a bag of wheat to be ground and he is patiently waiting for it to be completed. Beside him is a large bowl of maize which will be ground immediately afterwards – same machine, no cleaning. Most people buy their grains whole but tonight I actually found a supermarket with the help of Yusuf where practically everything can be bought in bags – lots of foreign imports. We went to try and find ingredients for a fruit cake because his wife and daughter want to learn how to make one. Because they are Muslims I won't be able to doctor the cake with brandy which is sad. He says Muslims are allowed alcohol in medicines but it mustn't exceed 2% in volume – am wondering what percentage 3 tablespoons would be in a cake... Yusuf doesn't have an oven either – am going to try using a tandoor with a rack in it. Failing that we will have to go next door where they have a more modern kitchen.

Because most of the old city sits on hillsides all the little alleyways and paths leading between the closely built houses are often steps up with a ramp in the middle for motorbikes. Anyone building or converting to a hotel/guest house has to be connected to mains sewers that have been buried down these paths to a larger main that runs along the lake shore roads. But there are still open drains beside the paths for the rest of the houses and it is quite unnerving to be creeping along, perhaps looking at some wonderful 17th century windows up above, when a flood of water is heard rushing down towards you as someone in a house has pulled the plug or thrown away the washing water. Although Mr Modi has really got many people thinking about litter and cleanliness and Udaipur sweepers really work incredibly hard early in the morning to make everything as dust free as possible, still people think nothing of throwing down boxes, peel, paper whenever they feel like it. I have often been hit by the jetsam from a shop keeper and they don't usually apologise either! Everyone puts out their peelings as offerings for the Holy Ones but they get so much they quite often ignore it. The open drains get clogged up very easily with all this stuff – especially the plastic bags – I admire the patience and endurance of the sweepers enormously.

Had my eyebrows threaded today - I must have lost thousands of little hairs for every pull felt and sounded like the concentrated fizz from aerated drinks.  Not painful exactly but definitely noticeable.  Will need them done again in a month she says but I will be home by then!