One thing I find very funny is the fact that all buses in Maharashtra (and in Pune, even autos) have their licence numbers written on the back in sides in numbers more than a foor tall. I can understand the route numbers being written so large in order to ensure that passengers can clearly see which route it is…but why the number plates? Do Maharashtra buses get into so many accidents that it must be easy for the other party to get their licence numbers?

With the Pune autos, it looks even funnier to see these HUGE number plates on the small vehicles!

But after Bangalore…how I loved the concreted, shiny, GOOD roads in many parts of Mumbai….

But in both Pune and in Vadodara, I have become familiar with what I call the “two-wheeler/terrorist headgear fashion”. NO ONE of course wears helmets while riding two-wheelers, but many people, mostly women, wear a scarf that fully encloses their heads, so that only their eyes show. This gives them the unnerving look of Jaish-e-Toiba terrorists…but all they are trying to do, I think, is to avoid the exhaust fumes of the traffic….