Another lorry

Today we took a trip to the south east – still through the humpy Aravali hills (see first extra). In the forestry nature reserve we only saw and eagle and naughty langoor monkeys with their lean bodies, long limbs and tails. A few years ago a tribe of them visited my hotel and stole all my underwear that was hanging on the washing line on the roof! Later on we saw a date palm with a colony of weaver bird nests – they are such perfection with barely a twig allowed out of place. They are designed like that to prevent snakes and other predators from getting in. The young birds don't manage the tunnel straight away hence the ones without. A mongoose ran across the road and hid in the twiggy hedge which made it difficult to focus and a beautiful partridge posed for me. We visited a Sufi shrine where I spotted a woman tying bits of rag to window bars – one for freespiral – prayers for something (no photo).  There were many brick kilns alongside the road - such huge labour.  They were shovelling up coal to fire a kiln but mostly they use wood.  The bricks are built around the coal with airvents and after the building mud is used to cover it and and the coal torched through a vent. We found our way home via Route 8 which is the north/south dual carriageway from Delhi to Bombay which is still under construction as they want to make it 6 lanes. There is no lane discipline here except if you are grinding along in a lorry you stay in whatever lane you are in and everyone else weaves their way around you, sometimes even on the hard shoulder – hence the need for all the notices on the rear:
KEEP DISTANCE    BLOW HORN    WAIT 4 SIDE (wait for signal from driver or his sidekick)   USE DIPPER AT NIGHT   STOP   OK    notices detailing emergency numbers for police/ambulance etc. But I liked the way a scene was painted on this lorry as well. The brahminy bull lying outside our house this evening shows how useful the hump is for pulling the plough as the yoke just has to rest on his shoulders with a light strap underneath his neck to keep it in place. We were out on the scooter this morning when a rampant bull after a cow in season kept all traffic at bay for a short while – it was fun to watch the screaming housewives living alongside the road chasing them away with heavy sticks