Elephant, Men Working, Coconut Stand, Kind and Just

The first time I saw an elephant in the wild.   He was dark, almost black.  Along the road to Mysore from Ooty.

Hey Steve look. That's a Px Vespa fender he's sanding.   I took photos of this young man's friends who were circling us.  They were in about second grade.  The digital camera's display comes in handy I show them their photos..

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A common site are these coconut stands.  For 10 rupees the fellow whacks off the top of the coconut, you drink the juice (slightly sweet, slight coconut taste...but not much).  After you drink it he then cuts it in two and scoops the meat so you can eat it.  See photo.  It's soft and creaming.  The meat is thin like in the photo. It has a very faint coconut taste but mostly it's texture is like raw fish until you bite it than it snaps a little.  It's creamy and buttery kind of.  ...you have to try it.  

Along with the scooters and cows that roam the busy thoroughfares you have this...
Drivers are careful not to hit each other, cows, scooter people and dogs.  And no one seems to get
angry. It's simply the situation they have.

 In the hot midday sun the ditch diggers dig
with poles and shovels and toss the rocks into a nearby truck.  No Catepillar backhoe here.

Kind and Just:
I don't recall if I shared this you in this blog or that was an email to a friend but...
Something I'll never forget was the time last week I was being kicked off a bus but the other passengers saved me.   In Hyderabad in the dark night, at the side of a highway, under a bridge the bus driver asked me to get off the bus.  He said I should call the ticket agent on my cell phone because my ticket was wrong.   The bus was overbooked.   One passenger was standing.  I had my suitcases a pocket full of money and an expensive camera.  I pictured myself in the middle of nowhere at the side of the road in India in this vulnerable, somewhat dangerous situation.  I said, "There is no way I'm getting off this bus.  That's crazy."

My cell phone doesn't work and I don't speak Hindi so a passenger took my ticket and called the number but got nowhere.   Then after about 10 minutes at a stand off a young man in the back of the bus takes his luggage and walks off the bus so I could have his seat. I tried to give him 500 rupees for a rickshaw but he wouldn't take it.  I thanked his as he walked by.  I can still picture him standing at the side of the highway in the dark.  And then the other passengers started arguing with the bus driver.  He was trying to collect more money from me.  Four people spoke up and they didn't like what was happening.   It was pretty darn touching.  In the mean time all the other passengers sat in silence for 15 minutes as the discussing went on.  They let me stay, I gave the driver the fee and 12 hours later we arrived in Bangalore.