Thursday, February 6

All my life I have accepted that autumn follows summer, and that when it arrives the trees start to shed their leaves to form carpets on the ground. This does not happen in India.

The weather here never divides into seasons as it does in Europe. The weather remains hot all year, with the primary difference being the amount of rain. During the monsoon season(s) a lot of rain falls a lot of the time. When the monsoon ends so does the rain. Not entirely, of course, but mainly.

This means that trees seem to have their own private schedules, which cycle more than once a year. This in turn means that the roads have piles of leaves all year round. I thought all this as we came out of Thozhichal anganwadi and I looked around.

I walked back later to photograph one of the better looking piles. It hasn’t moved very far.