We tour the new Cummins Engine Plant Phaltan...

is a Professor at the college here in Phaltan....you can see tham behind him. This is a man that beams with pleasure when talking about his four children.

The Engine

We tour the Kamble Family Farm.

Kamble Farm Wheat

Kamble Farm Sugar Cane...Dr. Kamble leading us through the farm land...

Kamble Farm Beans and Cilantro

Madhuri carrying sugar cane.

Some of the flowers on the Kamble farm.

Sonali, holding one of the many gifts that we have recieved from this family. Sonali is in college studying to become a doctor of dentistry.

mother, Madhuri, is a lovely woman. Her smile is quiet and inviting. She is graceful and has been a pleasure to be with. It is clear that she loves children.

Madhuri calling the children over for a picture...they are delighted. This is the road that runs in front of the new Cummins plant...these roads are all being vastly expanded from two lanes (...two lanes being the size of one American lane...) to six lanes. The children walking home from school often walk just off the road...you can see their heads on the left side of the picture...so they came popping out of the ditch to join the picture.

mother is so pleased that the children are pleased.

The little girl in the yellow dress was not overly pleased with us....she backed away as I approached with her eyes fixed on my face. I gave her as much room as possible as we made our way through the narrow walkway.No amount of smiling from me gave her any reassurance.

Grandmother and Grandfathers Village....some of the neighbors.

I think if we stayed long enough we could have had a photo of the whole village gathered...which I would have enjoyed.

The little girl in yellow, just barely visiable in the lower left hand corner, is staring at Bruce....she is very unsure about him....no smiles from her :)

Road work in Goa....

Courtesy of Rhonda....

Hanging out while mom works...

Workin on the roads of Goa...

You can take the Farm Boy out of Indiana but....

Rhonda with the baby goat....and her new friends.

Rhonda, American Brick Maker in India...

Work in the brickyard.....

Pictures courtesy of Rhonda

Young Girl Brick Maker....

Young Brick Maker on Break....

Ganesh in Phaltan

Young girl in the early morning watching the train go by...

Jackfruit....

Jackfruit is commonly used in South and Southeast Asian cuisines. It can be eaten unripe (young) when cooked, or ripe uncooked. The seeds may be boiled or baked like beans. The leaves are used as a wrapping for steamed idlis.


 The skin of unripe (young) jack fruit must be pared first and discarded and then the whole fruit can be chopped into edible portions and cooked to be eaten. The raw young fruit is not edible. Young jackfruit has a mild flavour and distinctive texture. The cuisines of India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam use cooked young jackfruit. In Indonesia, young jackfruit is eaten as gudeg (whatever that is). In many cultures, jackfruit is boiled and used in curries as a staple food.

The wood of the tree is used for the production of musical instruments. In Indonesia it forms part of the gamelan and in the Philippines, its soft wood is made into the hull of a kutiyapi, a type of Philippine boat lute. It is also used to make the body of the Indian string instrument Veena and the drums Mridangam and Kanjira, the Golden yellow coloured timber with good grains is used for building furniture and house construction in India. The ornated wooden plank called Avani Palaka made of the wood of Jackfruit tree is used as the priest's seat during Hindu ceremonies in Kerala. (wiki)

Jack Fruit

Bruce does love Bamboo...and this is BIG Bamboo!

He was trying on his sisters hat....girls always have the best clothes....colorful and fancy.

The Eyes of India

We met this young woman in the Botanical Gardens Bangalore. The man with her asked if I would take a picture of them standing with Bruce. She seemed unsure about the whole idea until I showed her the photo then she smiled and shook my hand.
We had multiple requests to stand with one or more people while their friends took a picture. They were always polite and shook our hands afterwards saying thank you. It takes some getting used to....random requests for your photo. I'm not used to it yet. Bruce is quite easy about it..."sure" he says. I am more along the line of..."what?"

Another BIG Tree...and tree hugger Bruce Fairbairn