Tuesday, March 4

We have come to Trivandrum for several reasons, some of them dog related. At this moment we sit in a traffic jam somewhere in the city centre, on the way to Pothys.

I look out of the window and, briefly, see an image of the three types of rickshaw. They come colour coded.

The black and yellow rickshaw runs on fossil fuels. It might use gasoline or it might use diesel. The green and yellow one runs on CNG, compressed natural gas. This causes much less pollution, although I confess I know less than I should about the manufacturing process.

The blue and white power represents the new electric generation. These also come in a fetching blue and light blue colour scheme.

They have remarkably small engines. The CNG–powered rickshaw has a sign on its side announcing that it has a 336cc engine.