  For the last couple of days, I’ve had very fast internet connections, so here are are a bunch of pictures. I was thinking, perhaps you’d like to see more everyday stuff. So here it is. First, here’s a working class neighborhood on the outskirts of Mysore.
  Here are some people at work in that village. A butcher…
  This girl is making incense sticks. She moistens charcoal and forms a soft ball which she rolls onto the bamboo sticks. then she rolls that, in this case, in sandlewood sandlewood dust. Sandlewood is prevalent around this part of Karnataka state.
A guy making beedis, the thin cigarettes many Indians smoke…
  The next few are at the big temple on the hill in Mysore. As I said in the last blog, people get dressed up nice to go there on a nice Sunday afternoon.
 And there are vendors aplenty. Here are bangles for sale…
 It’s customary to present flowers to the deity inside the temple. Many vendors are there to sell you flowers.
  You can get something to eat. Fruit sellers like this are ubiquitous anywhere in India, anywhere in the developing world really…
   Holy men are all around to give you a blessing and put a tikka on your forehead. Note the devotional flame on his tray…
  Next are some pics of people at work in Mysore. Here is the shoemaker at the corner by my hotel repairing my pack. Shoemakers are the ones to go to for any heavy stitching.
 Here’s a tailor…
Here are scribes. Many people in India are illiterate or don’t have the means to write and send a post, or need to send a formal typewritten letter.
Here is a rice vendor. If you can afford it, you can buy a bag. If not, you can buy a small amount like you see in the trays. This might especially be the case if you want a high quality rice like jasmine. He has many kinds for sale.
Here is a sculptor of sandlewood. This is a valuable section of sandlewood trunk.
Here is a sight you see several times in the length of a block, or by the road, or anywhee. It’s a paan stand. You can get fresh paan, but most buy a packet from the selection hanging there from a guy like this for 1 rupee, about 2 cents. Paan is a mixture of betel nut, spices, sugar and lime paste, wrapped in a paan leaf. Sometimes it contains tobacco. I think it’s disgusting, but many men love it. I just can’t stand the amount of juice you have to spit out. Red splashes are everywhere on the ground and in the street in India. Also in this picture are a guy selling lottery tickets and a paper boy.
This man is doing a horoscope for a passerby. Indians are big believers in astrology. Weddings have been called off because it’s not in the stars.
Here are monkeys grubbing in some coconut hulls. Monkeys are everywhere inside and outside the towns.
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And last but not least… The street boy bangs his drum. Bangbangbangbangbang. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present for your enjoyment and AMAZEMENT… bangbangbangbangbangbang… the LOVELY and ASTONISHING…. bangbangbangbangbang…. U-U-U-U-Uma, the WORLD’S STRONGESTÂ 8 year old! She will now before your very eyes break this two inch thick slab of 2 inch concret with her BARE FOREARM! Just look at her muscles!
 She did it after about 8 whacks at it, then sat on the curb behind a street cart, rocking, and cradling her very black and blue arm. 15 minutes later she was back out in front of a new batch of passersby, doing it again.