People of India
Photographed on a trip in February and March 2014 with Tropical Ice
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Part of the reason I enjoy visiting India is the warm-heartedness of the local people. And their gentle ways. That is, of course, a monumental simplification... recall the events of partition, and the ongoing situation with Pakistan... but never lose sight of the fact that there is also truth in what I've just said.
This page needs to have repeated something I've also said elsewhere: These pictures do not give a balanced view of "India". They are just bits and pieces of what was available to me.
I am going to "organize" the photos by when they were taken. That won't always group things entirely logically, but it may be as good a means as any. And when I took something may not be particularly relevant... but at least there won't be clashes due to mixing images from different regions. The Tropical Ice Passage To India package does cover some distances!
And, lastly, before we get to the pictures... Yes! There are pictures of local people elsewhere around the site. This page is for those which just didn't find a home elsewhere.
At Humayan's Tomb, Delhi. I hope you like the frieze across the top? I had the camera slightly tilted, and only got the full height of the design at one end. The rest has been loving, Dear Reader, recreated with PhotoPlus tools. I really don't want to go do the things I ought to be doing just now. However, my back and shoulders are seizing up, my eyes are crossing, and this is the last image for now. (First on page at the moment, but created late in page creation process. If only Orwell had known how easily we now change "published" works...)
Right hand image: It's not just the kids who like to have their picture taken!... Sorry it is a little blotchy... It was taken through the car's window, with the usual result. Be glad you didn't see it before the half hour's work with PhotoPlus.
Train station street kids. This particular group on railway platform, Pipariya, where we boarded train to Jabalpur. The boy on the right is showing me the tennis ball I had recently given to the smaller boy on the left. Of course, a ball is a "community" resource, but maybe you can read things into the two expressions. Also, I had a moment of second thoughts. Watching the kids' early play with the ball suggested that it be take less than a day for the ball to go onto the tracks at the wrong moment, with children in hot pursuit, just as a train arrived. (The first part of that arose several times in less than ten minutes, but the train element was absent, thank heavens.)
Train station, Right: Brilliant Marcie! Never again do I fail to pack balloons for the delight of street kids.
Speaking of kids and balls: Everywhere, of course, and not just kids, people were playing cricket. But even kids playing cricket on the sheer slopes around Shimla were noticeably careful that the ball didn't get away from them, and start down the hillside. I did a poor job of photographing examples of the Indian love of cricket... if you are going out there, and will publish a photographic trip diary, I challenge you to assemble a page of 20 photos of varieties of cricket. It wouldn't be hard, and it would be a fun page, done well.
The Narmada is an important holy river (-WP-)... but there's a pragmatism in India. This scene of domesticity is only about a mile from a complex of temples and pilgrimage steps down to the river, at Mandla.
As an example of the sort of Indian beliefs I enjoy, to quote Wikipedia...
"To Hindus the Narmada is one of the five holy rivers of India; the other four being Ganges, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri. It is believed that a dip in any of these five rivers washes one's sins away. According to a legend, the river Ganges, polluted by millions of people bathing in it, assumes the form of a black cow and comes to the Narmada to bathe and cleanse itself in its holy waters. Legends also claim that the Narmada River is older than the river Ganges."
On the evening of March 5th, we were invited by King's Lodge, Bandhavgarh, to visit the local village where many of the staff lived, three quarters of a mile west of the lodge... I've marked it on the interactive Google map I've done of the trip. It is at 23.73138, 80.98529. The green push pin is the village, the blue is our lodge. Zoom in on the village. In the Google aerial photo at the time I am writing this, the green gardens... enjoyed by just one family... odd? time of year?... belonged to the household we visited.
Now... I love to see local realities almost more than I want to see the fancy temples, big museums, etc. You might say that they are the "setting", into which the gems of a beautiful ring are set. And they are, at the end of the day, more important than the things that draw the tourists.
But I've had mixed experiences with "village visits" organized by hotels. However, if you, too, have had the bad ones, let me encourage you to keep trying? The good ones more than make up for the bad ones... and this was one of the good ones.
As we walked into the village, straight away, there was something interesting... a section of the track through the village was being upgraded to concrete. I am guessing that the cost of the concrete was born by the lodge, or by central government... it was exceedingly interesting to see how money from Delhi does seem to be reaching the remote rural areas... But! The local people were doing the work, to make their village a nicer place to live. Not sitting back while "the gods" "give them things".
Our visit was somewhat "managed"... we walked through the village, but spent our time in just one family's home. No problem... kept us out of the hair of the rest of the village!
Anyway... at last... photos! ...
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On right: Yes- Right by the back door out of the house, on the narrow path into the food growing area. (The black thing in the aerial photo, if you zoom way in... but the wall you see in the photo isn't obvious in the aerial.) Yes- It really is that big. No- not bottomless... you can just see the surface of the water. I suppose if you kept your wits about you, and didn't hit the walls on the way down, and the water is deep enough (it seemed to be), and someone came along with a rope for you... (no, there was no fixed ladder)...
I would love to know the history of this well. How old? Built by whom? For what? It would, I suspect, more than supply the village, but appeared not to be a village resource. Look at the map. Doesn't seem that there was an army garrison here, or former palace. Anyway... not a defensible position. One of those mysteries. (I encountered an equally dangerous, if less magnificent, and not right on an everyday route, well in the grounds of one of our lodges.)
Left: The calves were in a corner of the home.
Right: The bed- Made by a local craftsman? When? Re-made how often? How long in this family? I was listening to a programme on the radio about Copeland's Appalachian Spring. I think this bed could be loved by a Shaker, don't you? Or by me!
(Oops... I think maybe these photos of the village visit need to move to the "culture" page, don't you?.. Oh well.)
Left: A street vendor's child, I think, in the busy street outside the Khajuraho temples. I'm not sure I would count myself a fan of kohl for boys' eyes...
Right: Preparing a refreshing drink from sugar cane in the street outside the park containing the Khajuraho temples.
Just north of the Khajuraho temples, Shivsagar Lake, about 500' across, rectangular, has the usual steps down to the water for pilgrims, housewives, and small boys. (The "lake" seems to be an artificial body of water, a large example of a "tank", I believe.) I believe that the germ theory of disease is accepted in India, and these bodies of water are often less than pristine, but you often see them being used for all sorts of purposes. However, note the boy at the left. He is "magnet fishing". The pilgrims sometimes throw offerings... sometimes bought from such boys... into these "holy waters". If the offering has any iron in it, a little work with a magnet on a string can reap rewards!
Ah! To know the details! This clearly wonderful lady seemed to be in charge of this curiously disparate... and yet somehow coherent... group of boys, just outside the Khajuraho temples. It looked as if she was taking them on an outing to the temple complex. But what was the relationship between them? One of the boys was barefoot. Note the ill fit of some of the clothes, the torn shirt on the boy to the left. The boys seemed fond of her... I doubt she had much difficulty obtaining good behavior from them.
(Above) Carnival atmosphere, Shimla Mall.
The horses were there for the children of parents who couldn't say no. For a small fee, the horse handlers would let the children have a ride (be led around). No dozy seaside donkeys, or, worse, modern soul-less static electro-mechanical "rides" for the children of Shimla! Speaking of whom...
Playing at the east end of the Mall, Shimla. Sculpture was about 15' high. School uniform. As they were also using the sculpture for a slide, and the surface was far from smooth, I suggested that Mother might not be too pleased if trousers were ripped... with as much effect as you might expect.
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