This is Mandi in Himachal Pradesh
This pond was in front of my window. Perhaps during rainy seasons it carries water. On the green next to it there were the 2 donkeys most of the time.
The pictures are taken from my window which was right at the corner of the central place in Mandi town.
This is behind the pond. The huge stairs and yellow entrance buidling lead to the palace of the Prince of Mandi, which is now a very nice restaurant.
Turning to the left from my window there is the other street. The middle of the place is lower and at its sides is "Indira Market", all around the square are little shops on two floors below ground. There, one can buy virtually everything. I bought some nice hats and a data card, which never went into operation.
Here are the donkeys on the street. For some reason they left the green.
This is one of many, many groups who carry their gods into town for "Shivaratri Fair" which is much better shown in Heinz' blog (http://heinzf.blogspot.de/). The gods are carried and accompanied by drums and trumpets of various kinds.
At IIT Mandi students are playing tennis in a hall that is still nicely decorated from earlier festivities.
Heinz is really there and he works. His office is now protected with nice new curtains.
We spent every evening at the restaurant of the prince in the castle garden. It is very nice there, a little cold as it gets late. One day we meet Prof. Subramanian and his wife there.
The next day, we went to Kamand. And the building on the picture is where classes take place and Heinz gives his lectures. The area is beautiful, the drive is exciting, as is the trip from Chandigarh to Mandi.
This is one of the nice houses that are beeing built.
The campus is under construction!
In the guest house visitors can stay and Heinz has a room where he usually spends one night per week - when I am not there
Some construction is very similar to the building process in Kerala.
But there are also heavy machines in use. The children play or wash in the pond.
As in Kerala, the workers live on-site. Their houses are somewhat less charming and they bring their families along.
Nature is overwhelming, it was a lovely
warm and sunny day and we went for a walk.
Back in Mandi festivities are becoming more and more active.
Trivandrum
Next stop is Trivandrum. There is a pretty swimming pool on the roof top:
Tripadvisor recommends a cafe in this lively place
A solid down-pour in March. This is a little early for monsoon rain.
This hotel also has an impressive guard at the door...
... and a very nice place to sit outside on the roof.
Construction of the bus stop is remarkable
Kochi
Kannan on the ferry
Ernakulam harbour
Kannan thought this panel on the boat was worth a picture
Kannan took all the following pictures at Kochi Musiris Biennale, where we went on Sunday, March 17, the last day.
This is an exhibition of different types of rice, at least 200 different ones
This is a picture for Tobias
Grinding stones that were in every household in the old days
Jackfruit is getting ready
another picture for Tobias
another ceiling
and ornament
Bangalore
This is in Bangalore at Dr. AIT college with Mahadevi
with Anil and Mahadevi
with Shylaja and ....
another one on the sofa
the bunch of flowers that I got
with Ravinandan
and his friend
Berlin
after travelling in India my bag had lots of labels
2 young indian men
