Picture of India
Caption: @shelleydark INDIA in love with
Picture
Caption: We arrive in India.
It's love at first sight.
Mumbai
Caption: 2am first morning I’m awake thinking about my first few hours yesterday in Mumbai. Trying to distil and capture in my head that amazing first impression so that I can keep it forever. Wondering why we fall in love with some places and not with others…. I’m in love with this place, I know that already. Even as we landed, and I saw slum housing pushing up against the high fence of the airport with its wide open mown spaces, confronting me with the contrast between the riches of international travel with the reality of life here. On our way from the airport, even as we drove past ramshackle shanties where people busily went about their day’s business, past tall unfinished buildings like open mouths with no architectural plan, to the fading crumbling mildewed grandeur of glorious old buildings, to the centre of Mumbai. The people chatting to each other as they sit on the dusty footpath. The crush of humanity everywhere. The busy-ness. The tooting of horns as cars career from lane to lane in the mess of traffic.
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: there is something about
crumbling fading grandeur...
Mumbai
Caption: A beggar at traffic lights tapping with the stump of his arm on our window to get attention. The sudden appearance of a huge open park stretching away in the centre of Mumbai where men in turbans are playing cricket in whites, then swallowed up again by the throbbing city full of cars, trucks, taxis, red buses, a man looking vacantly out of a bus until he catches my eye, a crazy youth on a motorbike and flapping shirt zipping in and out and around the traffic at a crazy speed. A woman in a pink sari moving in the breeze, sitting sedately on a new pink scooter with pink fingernails, driving perilously close to the gutter. The security at our hotel swarming with staff, where an impressive doorman in an amazing white uniform welcomes us, directing us graciously to place our belongings in red velvet trays with silver trim before they go through an xray machine.
The opulence of the hotel foyer with a central flower arrangement taller than 2 men, pyramids of pink roses everywhere, a table of white flowers: an abundance of tulips and chrysanthemums in an extraordinary display. ....
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: One of our
colourful
guides
Hemali
Mumbai
Caption: The welcome by a refined and elegant girl at the front desk who puts her finger into a real-rose-rimmed bowl of red powder, to mark my husband’s and my forehead and then places around our necks the heady fragrance of garlands of tuberose. The coolness of the grey and white marshmallow marble floor of the bathroom in our hotel room – slabs over a metre square. The view out of window of the Gateway of India, throngs of people, pigeons flying up in the air, yellow police barricades, the dirty ocean. So many boats. The light. And then out in the street again, picking our way along dusty uneven footpaths strewn with goods for sale, sleeping dogs and bicycles being repaired. Trying to make an ATM work – it allows me on my second attempt to take half the amount I wanted. Enjoying a cold beer in the coolness of an arched corridor near the hotel pool, intimate tables hidden between the huge columns, fans on the patterned ceiling slowly whirling. The animated exaggerated almost Bollywood performance of the Cultural Director who takes us on a historical tour of the hotel, smiling, laughing, allowing the cadence of his voice to hypnotise me as I
Picture of The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai
Caption: A very meta photo - my husband photographing me photographing
the Gate of India, pigeons and boats
from the Taj Palace window. watch his brown fingers swooping to illustrate a point, his white teeth, inviting the largish crowd of guests to “Come closer”. Later, picking our way through a menu, trying to find something to eat which will not upset our stomachs. I am intoxicated and exhilarated by what I have seen today. I’m in love.
Picture of The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai
Caption: fans whirl slowly above shaded verandahs
Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai
Picture of Dockyard
Caption: A soft drink vendor Mumbai Dock. Small, lean, hard and wiry, like a walnut. I ask for the photo, he agrees then afterwards asks for money; our guide says we have none (true). She has told us earlier to leave money to her. As we leave the dock later, he sees us, follows doggedly, and back at our car, she pays him.
Picture of Sassoon Dock
Caption: Before dawn we visit Sassoon Dock where all the fishing boats are unloaded. Nothing can prepare you. Smelling of fish and urine, wet underfoot, pushing, shoving, yelling, haggling. Women with huge plastic dishes of fish on their heads, men pushing long wooden carts into our legs. There is no railing. I am nearly elbowed off the edge. I smell like a fish.
Picture of Gateway Of India Mumbai
Caption: A water carrier at the Gate of India. He doesn't want his photo taken, but then again he does. There is a nobility about him as he pushes the tanker along with a co-worker. He is about to unload the water on to a boat below.
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: At the flower markets
our guide ties a
fragrant bracelet
of real flowers
around our wrists
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: A pale sun rising over the Arabian Sea, between two rows of water carts which supply hundreds of boats each day.
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: Giant dried cow pats provide cooking fuel in country areas, artfully arranged everywhere to dry, on roofs, fences, on the ground. The smoke of cooking fires fills the air.
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: I see her at the other end of a cave. She looks down shyly for the photo, and asks me to show the photo to her husband.
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: Lined up at a toll booth. He is driving a truck inches from my window. I indicate the camera. This is his response.
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: when an elephant's makeup
is better than your own
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: a quiet moment
washing clothes and bathing
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: a soigné Sikh
a squeak of orange
Picture of Mumbai
Caption: The wedding industry is huge with guest lists of 1000 not uncommon and days of celebrations. The groom rides up on a beautifully decorated horse.
Picture of Taj Fateh Prakash Palace
Caption: Udaipur - the Fateh Prakash Palace is almost beyond description. A labyrinth of turrets, domes, arches, cloisters, narrow secret passages, steep stairs.
Picture of Jaipur
Caption: in the main street of Jaipur on a chilly morning - a millisecond later they break into huge smiles and wave at me.
Picture of Agra Fort
Caption: the massive fort at Agra
across the river from the
Taj Mahal. It's made
from red sandstone
and one wing from
marble left over
from the
Taj Mahal
Picture of India
Caption: an age-old means of transport
Picture of India
Caption: Purdah meant that the maharana's wives could not be seen in public. They could look out through this coloured glass.
Picture of Agra Fort
Caption: a land of contrasts - colour, hordes of people and a cacophony of noise, then quiet, elegant, empty open spaces. Inside the red fort, Agra.
Picture of India
Caption: The maharana's mirrored bedroom inside the Fateh Pratesh Palace - one candle could light it . I wonder if I would stay sane.
Picture of India
Caption: Ganesh, the god of new beginnings, is my favourite - Shiva cuts off his own son's head (not intentionally) and quickly replaces it with a passing elephant's head to appease his wife. Ganesh often rides a mouse who can sometimes be holding Ganesh's sweets.
Picture of Taj Mahal
Caption: We went inside the mausoleum before any other tourists. Our guide whistled softly and it echoed purely inside the dome for 16 seconds. Goosebumps.
Picture of Taj Mahal
Caption: The colours. The eyes. It's not hard to imagine him as a soldier in Shah Jahan's army. I'd prefer him on my side.
Picture of Taj Mahal
Picture of Taj Mahal
Caption: She went with him wherever he went, even on military campaigns. She died at the birth of their 14th child, aged 39, after 19 years of marriage. He never married again.
Picture of India
Caption: like something out of a story book
Picture of India
Caption: The other face of India
Picture of Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur
Caption: The Lake Palace, Udaipur
no hotel room has ever changed my life, but some have made me surprisingly happy - anon
Picture of India
Picture of India
Picture of India
Caption: a modest load in comparison to many
Picture of India
Picture of Ganges
Caption: The orange umbrellas signify the presence of a Brahmin. As the male relative of a cremated person, first you have your head shaved by barbers located on the ghats, then the cremation. You must pray with a Brahmin high priest, and only after that may you cast the ashes of your relative into the waters of Mother Ganges
Picture of India
Caption: elegance
Picture of Ganges
Caption: Dhobis (men only) washing sheets in the Ganges. There are horizontal rocks propped up in the water, they beat the linen on the rock, swinging it over their heads, an arc of spray following. It's chilly and they must be freezing.
Picture of India
Caption: a sahdu or holy man - they renounce worldly goods and live by begging - pretenders do it to earn money from having their photo taken. It's hard to tell the difference.
Picture of Varanasi
Caption: Varanasi is one of the oldest constantly inhabited cities on earth. We are high in an ashram - the theatre of the Ganges plays out below - cremations, ritual cleansing, bathing, yoga, clothes washing, myriads of row boats, tourists, the smoke of fires.
Picture of Qutub Minar
Caption: the ruins of Qutub at Delhi - a complex of structures built by the Islamic slave dynasty in the 13th century, beginning with its first sultan, who was known as the stumbling sultan. In 1210 he died accidentally while he was playing a game of polo on horseback: his horse fell and he was impaled on the pommel of his saddle
Picture of Varanasi
Caption: an untouched photo of a hot pink sun rising above the River Ganges at Varanasi.
Picture of India
Caption: An egg man on his distribution run - there are many street vendors selling boiled eggs
Picture of India
Caption: he has not renounced mobile phones
or fancy watches
Picture of Bharat Mata Temple, Haridwar
Caption: This temple to mother India, the only one, was dedicated by Gandhi in 1936. A massive marble relief map of India, made from 670 marble tiles carved to shape, covers the entire floor.
Picture of India
Caption: many hands make light work
Picture of India
Caption: Our guide Sushil, Renaissance man, loveable, affable yet irascible, forward-thinking yet anchored in the old ways, adventurer, actor, spiritualist, as full of contrasts as India itself
Picture of India
Caption: a potato vendor with a wild hairdo
Picture of India
Picture of India
Caption: It is not uncommon for a vehicle to travel the wrong way on a three lane divided highway. My view out of the front window of our bus - we are on the wrong side.
Picture of India
Caption: a green-grocer
Picture of Delhi
Caption: The memorial to Mahatma Ghandi in Delhi, on the site of his funeral pyre, is as modest as the man himself. Ordinary citizens flock here to worship a hero.
Picture of Delhi
Caption: What to do when the rickshaw
business is slow – smoke a little,
sleep a little.
You hardly see a soul
smoking in India –
it's illegal in public places
Picture of Delhi
Caption: I realise why meditation was born
on the sub-continent
Picture of Mount Everest
Caption: A Nepalese stop-off. The magnificence of Sagarmatha, mother of all oceans. Everest. An impossibly blue day.
Picture of Nepal
Caption: peppercorns and turmeric
Picture of Nepal
Caption: she worries that we may touch the priest who is about to come out - it's forbidden
Picture of Nepal
Caption: The eyes of Buddha look a little unfriendly to me, but I love the happy flags.
Picture of Nepal
Caption: temple offerings
if I were a god I'd like cornflowers
Picture of Nepal
Caption: it is not uncommon for babies to have their eyes rimmed with kohl, thought to ward off the evil eye.
Picture of Nepal
Caption: she has seen much
Picture of Nepal
Caption: a cute temple of modest proportions
Picture of Nepal
Caption: Namaste, old man. He shows his respect for me by putting his hands together. I do the same to him. There is a gentleness in him.
Picture of Nepal
Caption: checking his texts
Picture of Nepal
Caption: It has seen better days this flivver
Picture of Nepal
Caption: pigment colours
Picture of Durbar Marg
Caption: The capable hands of an old man who was born deaf, and because of his circumstance has never learned to speak. He is employed in the curio shop I visit in the Kings Road, Kathmandu. He is wrapping my purchase in handmade lokta paper made from the fibrous bark of daphne.
Picture of Nepal
Caption: a sahdu - colourful religious men who have renounced worldly possessions and live from the generosity of others.
Picture of Kathmandu
Caption: Cremations, Bagmati River, Kathmandu: a solemn Hindu ritual, not sad. It would be bad form to show grief, as this is the rhythm of life, a chance at moksha, escaping the cycle of death and rebirth. Photography from this distance is not considered disrespectful. A small quantity of expensive fragrant sandalwood is added to the pyre if the family can afford it.
Picture of India
Caption: part of me is still in India
