Yes, they are what you think!

We are staying in Nagaur and each day taking a route out in a different direction. Our first encounter was with a family of piglets underneath the car.  We saw more chinkara deer, hundreds of eagle vultures, a road kill white desert fox (hugely endangered so so sad), endless sand dunes and ventured into homesteads made of traditional round houses made from dry grass.  Huge steel pipes encased in concrete caught our attention – they are for carrying water from the Punjab through the desert and we watched the ladies carrying cement to the mixer while the men watched on as the huge steel pipes were encased in wire netting and then covered in concrete.  We also found a large group of ladies, superintended by a portly man, who were hoeing up furze looking plants that had little white woolly seeds.  They were employed by the Mahatma Gandhi employment project which pays about 300 rupees a day.  The ladies told me the woolly seeds were useful for the lady’s monthly and were so pleased to be photographed.  There was an enormous courtyard – half the size of a football pitch that was thinly spread with mung beans.  Ladies spread them this way and that way to help them dry.  We then were invited into a mill where there is a modern machine that grinds them to powder.  The old machine was still in situ and covered in cobwebs.  We then made our way to the Rat Temple that is home to many, many rats and mice. I had to remove my shoes but luckily could keep my socks on for it was impossible to walk inside without being run over by a rat – unbelievable that no one was screaming or even tiptoeing. There is no excuse for the amazing number of photographs taken today – the extra of the dung patties is especially for ceridwen  and in the photos are some tractors for waipushrink Enjoy the day