2 RUPEES = 0.028 EUROS

"Have you got change", a familiar cry in India - but what is strange is that it is usually the shopkeeper who asks the customer for change !  Frequently, when small change is unavailable, you are offered toffees, or sometimes even a small piece of dairy milk chocolate, instead !

But today I was handed a 2 rupee note - I hadn't seen one before - the coin is more common currency.  This beautiful little note, about half the size of a 10 rupee note, has the image of a magnificent tiger on the back.

MARKET VALUES

A visit to the Market in the main piazza of Le Cure in Florence, was always a high point in the morning.  The stall holders would arrive early - about 4 a.m., to set up their tables.  Depending on the time of year, there would be heaps of artichokes, porcini mushrooms, celery, juicy tomatoes, cucumbers, bunches of onions, a variety of lettuces - a fabulous array of fruit and vegetables.  The quality of this produce has justifiably made Italian cooking famous !  Further down the market, were the olives, bottles of wine, cheeses and cold meats - I admired the way the  proprietor would lovingly slice the thinnest pieces of prosciutto crudo, to lay carefully onto individual paper sheets.  If you were treated with a smile during your purchases, you knew that it would be added to your bill - but it didn't really matter - they would also crunch a bunch of basil and flat leaf parsley and tuck that in with your veggies for free !  What a fragrance - it made everything right with the world.

In India, after an early visit to the central market, the barrow boys come round to your street corner - their vegetable carts supported on huge wheels - they each have their own individual call - everyone has their preferred veggie seller.  They arrive with coconuts, which they obligingly prepare for you by cutting off the top with a huge knife - this makes it easy to store in the fridge - the little plug can be cut out and a straw inserted, when you are ready to drink the coconut water.  They spray the produce with water to make it look more appealing in the surrounding heat and dust.  And instead of a complimentary bunch of parsley and basil, you get the Indian equivalent - coriander and green chillies !

WATER

Access to drinking water is something which concerns everyone and since it is not available on tap, there seem to be a variety of different methods of dealing with this.  There is the portable plastic purifier which needs to be manually filled and the filter changed periodically.  Then the more up-market apartments have electric purifiers - the contraption is connected near the sink in the kitchen and the water automatically flows through and is cleaned and filtered through bottles of chemicals at the back of the purifier, a thin blue tube rests permanently in the sink, to allow excess water to escape from the system.  You can also buy 20 litre bottles of fresh water, which when upturned, on a special pedestal, provide water via a little tap.

But the bungalow was different.  Built in the 1960s with hipped roof and large glass windows, it looked like a typical western style suburban house.  "You'll get fresh drinking water from the right-hand tap in the kitchen between the hours of 8.30 and 9.30 a.m. and you will have to collect this water in containers to supply your needs during the day"  I was told.  I waited in vain, turning the tap on sharply at 8.30 in the morning, but never a trickle of water came through that tap.  I tried leaving the faucet open, permanently, but to no avail.  Giving up on it, I opted to have 20 litres of water delivered to my door every week and forgot about the tap.

One year later, unexpectedly hearing the sound of running water, I walked into the kitchen and to my astonishment found clean water coming from the right-hand tap !  Sure enough, for one hour in the morning, I can now fill various jugs and bowls with clean drinking water until 9.30, when, like clockwork, the phenomenon comes to an abrupt end, until the next morning !

COLOUR

The minute you walk into the Audience Chamber on the upper floor of the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence), Francesco Salviati's frescoes draw you like a magnet.  After the controlled use of symbolic colour in the 15c,  following the protocol laid down in previous times for religious art, these mid-16th c paintings are a thrilling riot of indulgence.  Non religious subjects allowed artists to experiment with different hues in depicting fabric, like shot silk, long before the advent of Impressionism and its  en plein air theories.

But the Renaissance colour palette doesn't prepare you for the explosive force of colour in India - there are no rules - brilliant colours and shouting dissonances, extravagantly jostle together, embellished with shiny sequins and braids, shimering under the hot light of a continuous regime of sunshine and heat - overwhelming to an eye used to the veiled luminosity of pastels in Europe.



Construction workers (left) making cement in Gujarat.....