Mornings in Mumbai

With the heat climbing (it's 33 degrees centigrade here now) sticky humid mornings call for gems of pomegranate, yielded from the dense stubborn flesh. Rolling and pressing a pomegranate before cutting facilitates the release of its seeds - with less digging and cursing required. This fruit is plentiful here, sitting in pyramids at streetside stalls along every road. Although far cheaper than back home, it's still a food that inherently demands to be treated as a luxury - perhaps it's the jewel-like nature of the fruit, or the effort required for the reward. Best enjoyed on a table to match.

India's sleeping dogs

Found on every corner and in every doorway, dozing. Once the sun sets however, the lethargy of daytime gives way to the martial side of their nature; barks rattle through the streets and territory is contested. 

5 additional ingredients for enjoying chai

Masala chai is a common drink throughout India, best experienced at a roadside chai stall from tiny paper or glass cups. Tea is blended with spices and hot milk.

• Old oil cans for seats, bent and buckled from years of duty.

• Milk skin. Not to be discarded, it holds extra flavour.

• 2-5 older gentlemen, wrapped in scarves with their legs crossed just so. Moustaches are common, and kept immaculate by the many local barbers whose stores fit little more than a chair or two (see below).

• Morning sunlight, filtered through the soft haze of pollution that engulfs many cities and towns.

• A lone cigarette (if that’s your weakness). Most chai stands and shops sell single cigarettes for ten rupees - a denomination available in both note and coin.

On the street: barbershops

In formation

Children from the many schools of Jaisalmer practicing their performance for Republic Day 2018 under the hot sun.