women at work

Yesterday I set a photography challenge of documenting women at work. Of course this seems a simple task, as there are women at work everywhere, but not all want to be photographed just going about their everyday business. Firstly I headed to the local market to see all the fruit and veg sellers and it soon became apparent that the more lucrative butchery and fish selleing were the male domain. Then I walked along the back streets and found a small production line of four women along with their children. By the woman is a pile of sheep lower legs. They had to be firstly boiled and burnt and then scrapped to get all the hair off, then hacked up so they could be used in cooking. The butchers waste became someone else's industry and income. These hooves and shins were not wasted. India is cramped with entrepreneurs. There's seldom a chain shop, just small holdings selling independently, from the fruit seller with their bike, to the flower garland seller by the temple and the millions of small shops throughout the high street there's a market of 1.3 billion people to sell to!!!

Would you like to sit in the corner?

No I bloody well wouldn't. At the best of times no one knows what to do with the lone female. You are often asked "would you like to sit in the corner? And this just happened to me at breakfast! I've now splashed out and am staying in a huge beautiful hotel in Mysore, my room is so huge it has a desk, air con and mini bar. Believe me this is not my usual travel style, but a treat for the end of my travels. As the Indian economy improves and the wealth of individuals increases then their aspirations do in line with this. This hotel is full of affluent Indian tourists, which is great to see, but also a tour of dizzy elderly Americans, who judging from their comments really should not have been allowed past passport control. Would I like to sit in the corner? No way, I want to be in the centre of it all!!!  Actually I would prefer to be in my usual class of hotel, where they knew my name, talked to me as a person and not just a the guest of room 115, and were not bound by the rules! Don't worry, I'll make the most of my time here, must dash as my personally cooked omelette has just been delivered to my table along with my requested cold coffee!

Someone has turned the temperature down

Thank goodness, as the 28 degree humid heat was getting unbearable! These hill stations were established by the British to escape the oppressive heat of the plains in the summers. They relocated govt for those hot months and enjoyed a climate reminiscent to England. Now I need a blanket at bed time and not a fan and my shoes and fleece have ventured out from being stuffed in the bottom of the rucksack!

Wow I'm on the Nilgiri steam train

This is the whole inspiration for my trip! Not that I'm a railway buff but I have have always wanted to go to the famed hill stations in India which have been served by railways for over a hundred years. There's three such hill station railways, all with UNESCO World Heritage status, Darjeeling (where had to take as I arrived so late, Ooty and Shimla, which is on my destination list as it's the gateway to Daramasala, the home of the Dalai Lama. So After watching the BBC three part documentary in these hill stations I decided I had to go to Tamil Nadu and go across the Nilgiri range on a stream train!

So sixty days ago I booked my ticket, second class for 30 rupees. I had a mammoth journey to get there, leaving Thanjuvar  on the 19.15 and arriving in Salem at 00.45. I then had a very slow wait at this station for two hours .... Joining the sleepers on the station I sat on platform 1 willing time to whizz past. Luckily an inquisitive policeman joined me on my bench and we whiled away some time conversing in broken English. His children were both engineers, in fact most students I meet on buses etc are engineer students, send the guy I was queuing behind in the incredibly chaotic immigration booths at Chennai Airport was here to have a 25 year graduation reunion of his engineering class and he now lived in The States.

So I got my second train, arrived just in time to get the steam train and started the spectacular journey shrouded in mist! Slowly it broke and we were rewarded with incredible views as our carriages were pushed by the 125 year old steam train named Nilgiri Queen. We made several stops, as the engine had to take on thousands of gallons of water as it inched up hills. In total it took us 5 hours to go 30 miles, but it truly was a fantastic experience. Squeezed into my carriage was a coup,e of families and when they heard to my long train travels I was given a homemade biryani and it had just turned 7.30! I was not going to starve on this journey! It's wonderful to see how many home tourists are always travelling around. The westerners sat in first class, but I was definitely having more fun and food!

Just one more temple

Before I head off to the hill station of Ooty in the Nilgiri range there's one more temple to head to. The thousand year old chola temple to the north of Thanjavur. Yesterday in the unexpected constant rain I travelled by train to the nearby town to see the urban temples and the rural 1000 year old chola temple complex famed for the its miniature statues. I had to get the rickshaw driver to stop off for me to get umbrella to cope with either unexpected deluge of rain. My planning hadn't factored in this, I have sun screen, mosquito repellent, hand sanitiser and now a new umbrella! Must make the most of temples, as I am moving west and there are other sights to seem.