I had visited Nepal last year and fell in love with the country’s friendly people and beautiful landscapes, the history of Bhaktapur and the bohemian energy of Kathmandu and now I cannot believe that most of the monuments in these photos are no more.
Ladakh is like a song set to the music of the stars.
Leh, September 2012.
New Delhi, 2012
December 2009, New Delhi.
It has been a long time since my last post so here is something I shot towards the end of 2009 to kick start things again.
December 2008, Hyderabad.
Here’s wishing you all a happy new year! Hope the new year will bring you and your loved ones loads of good tidings and happiness.
August 2008, Delhi.
After visiting the Jantar Mantar I made my way to Raj Ghat. Raj Ghat is a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi and also the place where he was cremated. Nowadays, it has a mostly ceremonial function, used by politicians from India and around the world for photo opportunities. It is a pity that Gandhi and his philosophy of non-violence have largely become irrelevant in contemporary India. Even more shocking is the contempt with which most Indians of my generation view him. He is blamed for everything from the partition of India, appeasement of Muslims to not doing anything concrete for the Untouchables. In a world being torn apart by religious extremism and unnecessary wars I feel that his teachings still hold great relevance.
In an interesting side note, I met a lady from Aachen (which is about 30 minutes away from Cologne) at Raj Ghat. She had come there with her husband to pay her respects and we got to talking a little bit about India and Germany.
(To read this mini-travelogue in sequence from the beginning please go here.)
August 2008, Delhi.
I made my way to the Jantar Mantar on a hot Monday morning. The Jantar Mantar is an observatory consisting of a series of scientific instruments built in the form of buildings and used to make astronomical measurements (the huge block you see in the middle of the above photo is actually part of a giant sun dial). It was built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur from 1724 onwards. A total of five such observatories were built in various cities in North India of which the ones in Jaipur and Delhi are most popular. Incidentally, the area to the right of Jantar Mantar is the officially designated area in which protests/demonstrations can be organized in Delhi by anyone with a grievance. The day I was visiting the observatory there were a group of Hindu holy men protesting and criticizing what they called ‘the appeasement of Christians and missionaries (while being hard on Hindus)’ by the current Indian government.
(To read this mini-travelogue in sequence from the beginning please go here.)
August 2008, Dehradun.
As our plans to visit Mussoorie kept getting put off day after day due to the weather we decided to explore Dehradun. We walked around the center of the city for a while and suddenly found ourself wanting a drink. After talking to a local we were pointed to a pub, a part of which you see in the above photo. Apparently, this was one of only two pubs in town (we ended up going to the second one as well later).
(To read this mini-travelogue in sequence from the beginning please go here.)
August 2008, Dehradun.
Another one from FRI. As we came earlier than planned to Dehradun we had a lot of time on our hands. So we decided to visit Mussoorie, a popular hillstation about an hour and a half away by bus. But the weather as usual was bad. It was raining almost every day and therefore we cooled our heels in the IMA guest house watching the Beijing Olympics and cheering the few Indians who performed well there.
(To read this mini-travelogue in sequence from the beginning please go here.)
