Naturally, when I have pictures of important nature significance and utterly meaningful insights to post, I will, instead of doing that, post….

A whole lot of signboards (or Shine Boards as Paul Fernandes calls them) that kept me entertained….

I must start with Valparai, I saw this message:

No, that doesn’t mean that someone’s wife backs all those items…it’s just M R S Bakes, advertising their tea, coffee and stuff!

Then, in Hampi, I was overwhelmed by so many lovely signboards around me. Here’s the first, very positive message that I saw just outside one of the wonderful monuments of the Vijayanagar Empire…

"pAni" is water in Hindi; this was the first time I saw a centre advertising pure water, when they actually meant "pani poori", a lovely spicy dish that cannot be described, only relished: Some of the eateries offered Breck Fast as well as lunch and dinner: And a variety of foods; surprisingly the only entry spelt unconventionally in this board is the Indian "thali" (a variety of dishes served with rice and chapaatis or pooris) and what "thaly nise" is, I don't know: My son-in-law has an aunt, Denise, who is called Aunt Nise; maybe she would know! I just loved that last line, that the place needs water, not war! Other restaurants offered truly deadly Italian stuff: The owner of this particular joint, the New Shanti, apparently speaks Hebrew fluently! We did go there, but when they told us that they served only fried and not steamed momos, we decided to eat elsewhere. Apparently, there is one dish called "Hello to the Queen", because I saw it on several signboards (can someone tell me more about this? ?) , and though I can barely recognize it in this signboard ("Helco to the Quin"), I do need help deciphering some of the others... I can get Rasiayn Salad, and Anti Pasta, but Crosteni Vasviw and Ruspi Pizza defeat me completely. Help! Of course there were shops offering ot her goods, too, like shols and old cloth gujrathi bedcovers: I could have opted to be sheved or to have a pedicore: Of course, it was OK whether I was a woman or a man (or a main): Would the hair cuting make me cute? I don't know. </lj-cut> But after all those assurances about Woman Cuting, there was, finally, this gloomy gus who had this message up on the back of his auto: Well..it certainly made THIS woman smile! I was quite staggered to see the variety of international cuisine that is available in a small town like Hampi, because it is a World Heritage site. My friend Santosh said that he brought an Israeli (who was languishing in Bellary) to Hampi, where she ate to satiety of the authentic home food that she was so sorely missing, and never thought to find so close by! Oh, well, here's Ms. Worse-Than-Snake-Poison signing off, hoping that she will be able to upload all the photos and take you on last weekend's wonderful trip.... I want your help to decode several of the dishes.