elephants

One of my favourite things about living in India; ELEPHANTS!

It is possible for me to pick up the phone and hire and elephant like a taxi,

to come to my house, say, for a birthday party. The one below was ferrying visiting children around the outside of Humayuns' Tomb garden. Right out on the road with the whizzing scooters and cars. I feel so sorry for the poor beasts who work in the city. They are almost all middle-aged females ( deserving more respect!) and suffer many discomforts. Besides the noise and hard concrete under their cracked feet, the elephant has in fact, very tender skin, that needs daily bathing. Up to a decade or so ago, the Yamuna river, which flowed through the city, provided their bathing grounds. Now the "river" is in a state of appalling decay, more like a giant sewer, and I guess that the elephants still have to bathe there, in the black slimy fluid. Poor beasts. Also, last year the traditional elephant-keepers ghetto at the river bed was razed to the ground by the city. I know, because I went looking for it. Nobody seemed to know exactly where they are living now.

But, the demand for elephants to ferry bridegrooms and children around the city has not ceased, so they are out there, plodding along...

elephants heading for work, crossing the bridge, from the far side of the river

Mixed transport,

in my neighbourhood.

elephants parked outside the Udaipur City Palace. The delicately freckled skin is very prominent on this elder. I think she's snoozing...

Royal Elephants, fighting.

miniature paintings, from Udaipur City Palace Museum