Text versus pictures

One of the most frustrating things about writing the book has been that I haven't been able to include pictures. Nothing shows the reality better than a photograph snapped in an instant of something unexpected.
Some of my favourite pictures show the way that the past and the present are always mingled together.

An elephant on the road

When we first went to India the Internet cafes were everywhere and always busy. For a few rupees you could struggle with the dodgy connections and eventually get an email through. Hotels were sometimes equipped with reasonable speed connections, but here too, you  needed patience and a non-urgent situation not to go mad as the times whirled and everything cut out at the crucial moment.

Today things are different almost everywhere you go, but a real revolution has come in the decision to skip land lines and go straight to wireless infrastructure.
Once there was a shack with STDC in large and wobbly letters on its side, where you could make a trunk call,. in every village and every stopping-place. These are now confined to remote areas, and even there the mobile phone is ubiquitous. Cheap tablet computers are advertised everywhere and the traditional PC has never arrived.
This picture of a mahout on his way somewhere is typical, phone clamped to ear for the next arrangement.