55th - photos

This day in photos

We got up early and had a walk. This is their other dog who sleeps outside the flat at the top of the stairs. I feel so sorry for him as he has a big tumour on the top of one of his back legs and always looks so sad.

This 'monkey man' god (that I've forgotten the name of) stands opposite the turning onto our road and I see him every day.

Izzy takes her morning chai in the sunshine.

An essential street light

The view from the vikram auto rickshaw - a public microbus service that runs to the metro station and back and costs 5 rs each way.

I worked all day at Mandy's house and Alka herself cooked chole bhature (I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd had it the day before). On the walk back to Moolchand metro station I took this photo of what I imagine to be a silent war between sewage construction site workers and the people who live in the makeshift houses.

At Moolchand I got on the same metro as Izzy and we went to Khan market for a drink. We bought some rum and sat at the only place I knew nearby. The place that me and Mandy had drunk at. In the light of day this wasn't quite as nice a spot as I'd remembered. It was just a roundabout in the middle of a busy road. This Christian graveyard was on the other side of the road and - this probably reveals that I was on the verge of tipsy when I took this because - at first sight I thought this fire was a funeral pyre.

We left the roundabout and walked up Janpath until we got to where it intersects with Rajpath. We finished our drinks and had a long look at India gate and got offered loads of tourist crapola by these guys.

Further up Janpath we saw a pretty savage post-accident scene. I couldn't work out which people had been involved because everyone seemed to have so much to say.

We then sang songs until we got to Rajiv Chowk at Connaught Place. Here we caught the train to Paharganj and had some more drinks at My Bar. We met a lovely Frenchman called Michel there and arranged to meet him the following day and see the Lotus Temple.