Boys on the market

Mysore is known for its markets and this was one of the boys who knew how to get our interest. I was a bit worried: did he go to school? Wasn't he exploited for his exceptional incense making skills? Or his fascinating ability to learn foreign languages? This guy seemed to notice our Dutchness and started talking to us (how are you? what's your name? bye! in Dutch) which seduced me to watch him make incense and buy a bottle of perfumed oil.

Of course I asked him if I could take his portrait in return, and he didn't refuse. He grinned like a shy school boy, so I asked him to repeat everything he knew in Dutch. Here he's doing that, very seriously as you can see.

After the visit, we went to my aunt's house which was a 3-hour bus ride in an old, for European butts quite narrow bus. But it was worth it, especially when we saw our aunt screaming alongside the road to stop the bus and get us out, into her lovely home in the Nilgiri hills.