For those of you suffering the current snowy weather in UK

I measured the temperature on the roof of my house this morning - fairly early, before the day really warmed up - it was over 34 degrees centigrade.  I did like the satellite image I saw on the web the other day
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/8447023.stm

Walking to work a couple of days ago I stopped to watch the paddy fields being ploughed.   There were 3 teams pulling the ploughs, I think one pair were water buffalo but the rest were oxen.  The herdsmen had bare feet.  I don't think my feet are tough enough to survive such rigours.


On arriving at the office I met 3 colleagues on their way out to the car.  After our initial namaskars and subha sakālas (hello and good morning) I asked them where they were headed and on being told that they were heading for the village of Ramagiri to a meeting with the district sub-collector and development officer to tell the villagers about development plans for the surrounding forest.  This is required under the Forest Rights Act but it's good to hear that the act is being followed.  When they asked me if I wanted to join them I jumped at the chance.  I wasn't carrying my really nice camera which is much too heavy and bulky to carry around with me all the time but at least I had a nice little compact camera that J gave me for Christmas and I now carry with me at all times for those unexpected photo opportunity moments.  In I jumped and off we went over the very rough roads to Ramagiri, close to the Chattisgarh border, stopping for a cup of particularly delicious cha en route.

This being a meeting held to tell the Adivasi community of the area about the future of their forest it was well attended and held outside, under a tree for some shade.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the official visitors chose not to use the chairs and desks that had been provided for them, instead sitting down on the ground with the people who had come to listen to them.

As usual, I suffered the language problem although this may also have been an issue for the visitors as the local community speak their own tribal languages.  However, despite my pathetic inability to understand the words that were being spoken the body language of all participants told me a lot.  It got noticeably more relaxed as the meeting continued.

After a while I wandered off roumd the village.  This was my third visit to this settlement and each time it's been a real treat.  The place is spotless, kids play in the streets and the people very welcoming despite me shoving my camera in their faces. 

I spotted a couple of very recent arrivals among the population.  I didn't go too close, she looked a bit fierce and probably would have given me a good butting if I'd gone any closer to her new babies which were very wobbly on their legs.

This man made it look really easy to create a neat, dense, woven bamboo fence.  I can just imagine how it would end up looking if I had tried to do the same thing!