LIFE in an Indian city couldn’t be further removed from that of West Somerset, you would think. But not so, as Elizabeth Atkinson, from Carhampton and a regular contributor to the Free Press, is aiming to show over the next few weeks.

For two months, she will be living in Udaipur, in Rajasthan, which she first visited five years ago and was struck by the many ways in which the old city was a parallel to Minehead.

Not on the surface, of course, but the similarities are striking once you get under the city’s skin. Both are characterised by close-knit communities, where everyone seems to know everyone else, and the everyday lives of the Udaipur residents revolve around many of the same concerns and priorities as ours.

In a series of letters during her stay, she will feature, in words and pictures, some of the people and practices she comes across and highlighting how they are both ordinary and extraordinary - just like those of West Somerset!

Her first letter, in tomorrow’s Free Press, begins .. Okay, I’ll admit it – my first thought as I stepped out of the Delhi metro a week ago was “This was a big mistake”. ...