STOP PRESS
I’ve just seen something totally unique in India: a motorcyclist wearing a HELMET! I haven’t seen any here except in a few TV adverts. Even in adverts, most scooter and motorbike riders don’t wear them.

This morning’s other surprise was persuading my hotel’s restaurant to make me black tea. Yesterday I couldn’t get this across and the milky tea made me feel slightly queasy. Today, by firmly but politely saying the little Marathi I know that’s relevant, I got what I wanted. I feel much better.

Finally, I’ve seen a new variant on women’s dress this morning. A group of women (apparently ranging from young adult to old age) wore their sarees as wrap-around skirts. (I have no idea whether the saree material was the same length as a regular saree.) They also wore regular saree-blouses but draped bath-towel-length pieces of material over their shoulders and around the front to cover most of the blouse. Some of them also used this material to cover their heads.

I’m very curious whether the different styles of dress have caste, social-status or religious connotations but at the moment I have no way of finding out.