I shouldn't blog this, but I have to. A cow just walked past the big plate glass window that separates me and this computer from the muck and grime of the Agra streets. Such a rippled, glossy flank; like an image from a chocolate ad.

I know, I know - I should be 'like, so totally over' the cows in the streets phenomenon by now, but I'm not. They are an integral part of the streetscape here, drifting by like huge, ruminant jellyfish in an eddying swirl of litter and mud and cars and humanity.

One wandered on to the train tracks yesterday as we waited in Jhansi for a train to carry us to Agra. The train approached and blared its horn, and the cow just stared it down, seeming to say, 'metal cow - you will back down before I do!' Like a big fraidycat, I screamed and ran to the other side of the platform, imagining the cow mincemeat this train approach was about to create.

But swiftly, cunningly, the cow sidestepped its metal nemesis and gave it a long, hard stare as it passed by.