I'm just not interested however much you love me!

Fabulous day in the humpy Araveli hills to the northwest of Udaipur - tribal lands -  where the bird life flourished  and people too. We ate our picnic in a dried up river bed and looked around for panthers which live around these parts.  There was a Sufi hermit living nearby till he died 8 years ago and the panthers used to congregate aound him - they are seldom seen now. We stopped at one farmstead where the extended family seemed to have an amazing number of children under 5 that  I was trying to photograph when a huge screaming and shouting started in the neighbouring field.  Two children were throwing stones into their house.and keeping their distance.  Apparently there was a mongoose inside (known to bite children if they are hungry) and mother had to come and eventually chase it out. It skidaddled  so fast I couldn't even raise my camera..The self sufficiency here is amazing - there was an extension to the house being built with cement, sand and gravel having been delivered.  But they had made their own terracotta roof tiles from mud in the fields and stacked in a cone and covered with more mud for firing (see extras) and the wood beams came from local trees. The hills around become totally green after the monsoon and grow a very stiff grass that reaches 1 1/2 m.  The rest of the year after it has dried it is cut and hauled home from the hills mostly by women and used as cattle fodder.  Vast quantities are chaffed and taken away by lorries with bulging canvas sides.  The group of ladies sitting on a wall with their children all had their faces veiled until one of them said, come on, uncover and so they did as there were no men near. 
I loved Mr Cool  and the boy with his toy tiger.  The outfit of the  lady in traditional skirt and blouse with peplum was rather spoiled by the wearing of slippers I felt.