Day 11 Lunch?

I spotted this little scene on the way to school this morning. It is very common for there to be small Hindu shrines around town and I've passed this one just by the old bazaar area several times. The red grille is normally across the front of it though and there is a small oil lamp burning inside. Today however it was very different so we stopped and I asked if I could take a picture. She gestured to explain that the food was being prepared as an offering and that it would then be shared out amongst friends and neighbours. She is cooking a large pot of biryani on a wood fire built on the street and surrounded by bricks. There are also fruit and flowers around the shrine and some brass vessels of oil and water on top. The statue of the God is adorned with a garland and there are oil lamps burning too.
Biryani is very much a local celebratory meal here and is cooked very slowly all in one pot, it's usually eaten at lunch time.
A busy day in school today with guests from a local church visiting and providing lunch. In the afternoon I went to a local upholstery shop and commissioned some replacement foam mats for the classroom as the others are rather the worse for wear now. Raja is always a great help at translating and explaining what it is I want to do and today was no exception.
Back home for a rest then I walked up to the tea shop. My plans to do some more walking before dinner were foiled when some friends stopped by to say hallo.
I did however manage to book my flight tickets and hotel room for my visit to Chennai for the weekend of the 23rd, something I've been trying to do for a while, so I'm glad that's done!
I'd only done 6600 steps by the time I'd been for dinner but I decided to have a walk at the VOC ground on the way back I managed 8.5 times around, which at 600 steps a circuit and combined with walking home, gave me over my 12500 steps so very happy to have done that and met my weekly target with a day in hand.