Out and About in Puttaparthi

These buffalo drawn carts carry everything from bags of rice to cement and building blocks and can be seen everywhere around the town and surrounding villages.

The bullocks are so placid as they slowly wend their way through the noisy traffic. They often have bells on their horns and the jingling sound amongst the honking horns of the auto-rickshaws heralds their approach.

Ian was hanging out for a Big Mac or at least something with a meat theme but in this strictly vegetarian town the best he could manage was a tofu burger at the Wild Flowers Cafe.

The local Chai Wallah sets up each afternoon in the streets below our hotel and sells steaming hot chai to the locals who gather for a chat.


Not the latest Sunbean Steam and Dry but just as effective in the hands of our local Dhobi Wallah. He gets our clothes washed in the local river (Ian will elaborate more on this) and then fills the iron with hot coals and irons our clothes. All this for 4 rupees a piece... that's about 12 cents!



The main street of Puttaparthi with the ashram on the right. During normal business hours ... 9am to 1:30pm and then 5pm to 9pm, this main street is chock-a-block with traffic, carts, beggars and people.



A village just outside Puttaparthi. This one is typical of hundreds of thousands all over India.



Primary school kids in class just outside our hotel. Whenever we walk past, they all call out "Sai Ram", the local greeting in this town. The teachers don't seem to mind the interruption and they even invited us in to take photos.