My Street.

I thought it was about time I let everyone at home see where I've been living for the past six months. I am currently living in a huge city. The population of London is 8.147 million and the current population of Hyderabad is over 13 million! Every inch of the city is constantly busy and the minute I step out onto the road its a bombardment of auto horns, stray dogs, children yelling, beggars looking for spare rupees and buttercup the cow. My road is called Mayuri Marg and it's a little sanctuary, where I can buy my snacks, fizzy drink and general day-to-day bits and pieces without having to face the dual carriageway that runs along the top of it and that I have to battle to get pretty much anywhere.

Photos from the little tiffin house on the street above the photographers. Rice, 4 curries, curd, pakora, chutney, chapati, poppadom and water for 50p! Not looking forward to UK prices! 

The dual carriageway at the top of Mayuri Marg! There are no traffic lights and the traffic pretty much doesnt stop EVER. Me and Fidra have to cross the road any time we want to go into the city;; it's just a case of holding hands, closing our eyes and making a break for it! 

The bin...or lack of it.

And directly next to the bin our lovely fruit stall, which I love simply because I know the man doesnt rip me off and I can get a watermelon for 70p.

Telephone lines are insane!

The little shop where I get money put on my phone once a month.

CHIPS!

I go here when I don't have proper money for food. This guy uses a hot dosa plate powered by a broken gas connection to cook chat and pani poori. Pani Poori is amazing! Broken flour shells filled with spicey chick pea mix and green spice water! Sounds awful but its beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tailor and dress shop. The guys in here are all really friendly and they do a really good job but you do have to be prepared for everything to take 3 weeks longer than your told to begin with!

I don't think Paritha was very happy with me for taking pictures of her road! 

'Good Luck is about right.

This chicken painted outside the second butchers on the street has definitely seen some things.

The road opens out at the end as we come up to the school. The white building to the right is another school but for normal children and the other buildings are all flats.

While I was out being a tourist this strange little orange bike came past. There was a shrine on the back and the two priests were chanting prayers and asking people if they'd like to be blessed in exchange for a few notes.

THE SHOP! I love the shop. Everything you could ever want in the shop: toothpaste, incense, Indian snacks, fizzy drink you name it. I spend most of my money here and have got quite friendly with the man and woman who work there- it's always a great chance for me to practice my Telugu. 

The local park.

I do hope you enjoyed that. Anyway, since I got back from Rajesthan all the teachers have been working hard trying to get everything ready for the 22nd Annual Day; the celebration of the day the school was opened. Sunday was the big event and the whole school was buzzing. I had to wear a fancy dress sari for the occasion and stand at the main gate to greet the guests- hands together, bow, 'namaste, welcome!'. The kids all did a really good job and I was blown away by their enthusiasm and dedication. 

I felt so tall! My function sair!

Swadrika enjoyed herself!

The rest of this week has been given over to preparing braille sheets for the Indian elections. This involves printing and cutting over 100,000 strips of brailled numbers so the blind voter can feel the number of the candidate they wish to vote for and press the aligned button- thus removing the need for a second person to cast the vote for the blind person who could change the vote. DEMOCRACY! So I've spent hours this week working for this aim- today we got through 6,400 strips in 3 hours to be sent to the voters of West Bengal.