Downtown Tirunelvelli

I thought a blip of some street scenes was due.
After school today, we were driving home in the auto when we came across one of the many herds of goats to be seen around the town. This group were very smart and had found some shade to rest in. There are goats, cows, water buffalo, buffalo and hens all around the town, many exist on only the rubbish in the streets. Some of the poorer areas have herds of little black pigs too.
The two shop fronts are in one of the nicer residential areas, NGO A Colony to be precise. I haven't really got to grips with the way places are named here. Some areas are named after a local employer who provides homes for its staff. Note the number of different varieties of banana!
The last part of the collage are two of my oldest friends here. Like Caroline, I met them in 1997, Prem is a doctor, an ophthalmic specialist who should have retired years ago but still runs clinics. He did a huge amount of work in the leper colonies too running free clinics not just for eye conditions but for other medical needs too. He also built a medical clinic in the largest leprosy colony and has done a lot of work removing the stigma.
Ida, his wife was the principal of the top women's college in the area and later the largest and most esteemed men's university college. They've been very encouraging of all I do here and are good friends. We went out for a very tasty posh dinner.