an English in India: Karnataka is on strike for the day...

....So why not start this post with a few pictures of monkeys I took the other day!?:

So yesterday was Ganesh Chaturthi - a festival day in honour of the god Ganesh, who looks like this:
We ventured into Ujire's town centre after work to check out the celebrations- there were fireworks, lots of orange bunting, decorated cows, flowers and dancers performing traditional dance (as well as more people than usual there to ask me "what-country!?" and look confused at the presence of a foreigner in this little town). Apparently later on in the week traditionally people build models of Ganesh and float them out on rivers or the sea.

Today is the second day of beautiful weather we've had in a row- yesterday was all blue sky and sunshine and today is much the same. We even did a little sunbathing in our lunch break [insert photo here]. Today is also the second day of not many people being around the college campus. People all across India are striking to oppose some bills that were passed in government last week. Auto drivers aren't driving, teachers aren't teaching and shopkeepers aren't shop-keeping. I'm told that Bangalore (a city of 8 million people) has pretty much ground to a halt The protest is against a bill which would allow foreign companies to own up to 51% of businesses here. This essentially means that companies such as Tesco and Walmart could open up supermarkets here and potentially kill off many small businesses. It however be a good thing for the Indian economy though, the idea being that it will boost the economy (which is currently not doing very well) and create jobs. On top of this, there is also the 14% diesel fuel price increase and changes to domestic cooking gas allowances which won't be making anyone happy.

Work continues at SELCO labs despite the strikes however, and we have been able to get some progress on the rice paddy separator Seb and I are designing. Here's a sneak preview (which probably won't demystify how on earth the thing works... but never mind- use your imagination)

We've found some suppliers for various components such as bearings, and have tracked down materials at some local workshops- the whole thing is designed so that it can be built here in the little town of Ujire. Engineering drawings have been produced- however I have a feeling it will be a little more of a challenge getting them created than just passing them over to a manufacturer. We'll see.

On our day off last week, Seb, Sam, Anantha and I were able to get out into the countryside to visit some waterfalls, see some more of rural life and go for a bit of a swim. Here are a few photographs of our adventures (which, unfortunately, don't feature elephants making noises very close by in the forest, or me sliding into a fast moving waterfall...)