It's been a busy couple of days here and Internet access broke down so I'll bring you up to date.

We celebrated Indian Independence Day at Asha Kiran School on Tuesday, a day early, because the school was closed on Independence Day itself. The children and their parents all turned up in their finery and the schoolchildren put on a display in the playground. Then there was a further programme indoors. Then we all had lunch and went home.

The following day was a public holiday with lots of flag waving, fireworks and street parties. Went out for a walk and enjoyed the spectacle.

Later that evening Rita took us to a mall which demonstrated very forcibly to me the two faces of India, one very poor and the other fabulously rich! This mall stretched to 4 floors and was packed with some very expensive shops.

You could buy anything from a CD to a £50,000 necklace in here!