monsoon delhi: trash and beauty in the rain
Living in China as I do, and traveling the world like I have, I feel like I have seen a lot. But I have never seen the likes of Delhi in a major city of millions. The chaos of it all, is at once totally shocking and also photographically brilliant. Unfortunately I am unable to fully bring the experience to you through the lens, as the smell of the whole thing is really an integral part. Never have I felt so many cows, monkeys, dogs, beggars, autorickshaws, and everything else just simply assault every sense at the same time. Yet even with the constant rain and through this chaos, there was something very unique and beautiful about this place; gateway to India.
Religion seem to be a dominant force in the Indian psyche in the same way that money and freedom is a force in the American one. The most interesting thing about it all is that not only is India the source of almost all major eastern religions, but rather that almost all of them coexist with and borrow from each other, and have done so for thousands of years, while the western religions were busily crusading against each other.
unfortunately many if not all of them banned photography inside (but there are so good pics in the amristar album to come)
Forts, monuments, tombs, most of which were left there by the Muslim Mughal Empire which dominated northern India for hundreds of years. Notice the heavy influence of late Islamic architecture in much of the construction.
National Museum (unfortunately the collection is not as good as British Museum or the Lourve, or maybe even SF Asian Art Museum)There were definitely very good pieces in there, but the place is kind of a dump and the collection is poorly lit, I give this place a C- overall, however the Indian miniature art section is spectacular
streets and scenes
thank goodness I bough a raincoat for my camera before this trip, really came in handy.
people , despite the rain making most of the Delhi pictures crappy, here I was deliriously happy. Indians are the most photographer friendly people ever! They LOVE getting their pictures taken, as a general matter, some will even come up to me to ask me to take a picture of them. Unlike in other countries where ppl will give you a look (Germany, US), avoid you (China, Japan) or try to ask for a tip all the time (Egypt, Peru)
This guy was HILARIOUS, he asked me to take his picture, then posed for this photo, even looking slightly askew to make it look candid! LOL
that's all for now! next up, Agra and the Taj Mahal