The house in which I live. It's certainly constructed quirkily (unreachable cabinets, spotty water service, etc.), but is luxurious in many ways too (21 ft ceiling, marble floors and stairs, 2 balconies etc.) The house is owned by the son of a local contractor, and was built of scrap from various construction projects through the years. All recycled. I didn't know 5x5 pieces of marble were ever scrap.

Coworkers and I with some of the masons with whom we work. Hanging out with the masons is my favorite part of the job.

From Khushwant Singh's Joke Book 1:

Question: What is the difference between members of teh Dal Khalsa and members of the Hindu Suraksha Sangathan?

Answer: One have Khalistan in their heads, the other have Khali sthaan in theirs.

This is the caretakers' house for the house in which I live. Apparently the family living there is squatting with the knowledge of our landlord. I was told they are being forced to leave, I'm afraid for the sake of us foreigners living in the main house. I asked those in charge not to eject the family, and was told it wasn't for our sake that this was being done, though I don't believe it. I feel terrible. Such are the curses of being the one to please.

A brightly colored Hindu temple is never far away. They range from a couple of feet tall (the sort which I naively/foolishly/insensitively/unsarcastically asked if were for dogs) to solidly covering acres. The Hindus I've come to know so far are mostly very devout. They visit the temple every morning for prayer, as evidenced by the powdery red or yellow smudge on their foreheads.

This temple is surrounded by ricefields. Rice, too, is always close at hand. It is now some sort of replanting season, so I regularly see people carrying bundles of partially developed riceplants on their heads.

Cows really are sacred here. They're not as prevalent as water buffalo, though, from which most of the milk consumed comes (in little plastic bags). The cows are definately more prestigious, and are allowed to do as they please. The other day I saw a couple of cows walking down the (very busy) main street of town. They entered a store and one went behind the counter, unhindered by the shopkeeper who stood two feet away. The other urinated gallons all over the place. Noone in the store payed this any mind at all.

Night driving is particularly dangerous, with semis, cars, motorcycles, scooters, bikes, rickshaws, pedestrians, et al. doing as they please, passing four-wide, with or without lights on. When lights are on, they're always on highbeams. The possibility of cattle (among other things) being around any corner doesn't help make things any safer.

Along with the mold and algae, insect life accompanies the Monsoon waters. The head of cauliflower I bought at market turned out not to be an edible vegetable but a multigenerational weevil/slug biopod. The lizards that live on our ceiling take care of many of our inhome pests, though not all. Garbage disposal is not as regular/existant as I'm used to. We put our trash on the front porch the other day, and the next afternoon found ants feasting on the flies that had feasted on our garbage that morning. This picture is the wall (not the floor) of our front porch, ants passing passing a fly groundward. I think they tried to pose as a flower for the picture,

The most immediately apparent different between where I am in India and where I was in the States is that here we have Monsoon. I've never seen rain like this. There's water everywhere, everyday. And also the things that come with nonstop moisture, most notably fungi. I picked up my cowboy hat for the first time in a week today and it was full of spider-webby mold. The walls in our house are black with a fungus. Fresh vegetables rot withing minutes of returning from the market.

This picture was taken at some stinky old 2500 year old caves. The caves, of which you get only a suggestion from this image, were carved into the side of a mountain by Buddhist monks seeking refuge from... Monsoon waters.