Delhi's Conundrum

toragstorags Registered Users Posts: 4,615 Major grins
edited April 28, 2019 in Other Cool Shots

If you travel and take photos, you can get good shots, file them (or print some) and forget about them....

On a recent trip to northern India - I took my share of shots (1,000+) & got some good - most not so much...

Going thru them I realized I was documenting something bigger...

Thru out the farms in India; these cuttings used to be burned... Now they are thrashed (govt ruling)...

Many women gather wood .... (millions out of a population of 1.3 billion)

To cook Non.. the bread of India... (it's good, I prefer crispy.. :) )

Then there's this collection of wood...

For this; open air cremations... (govt trying to get electric ovens accepted)

These mounds on the roof, are drying cow dung - to be used for heat during the winter...

These are sources of air pollution for Delhi and equivalent to a forest fire a day .. Delhi, the city with the dirtiest air in the world...

Still.. it's a place to visit... (bring a mask)

Rags

Comments

  • black mambablack mamba Registered Users Posts: 8,323 Major grins

    Really excellent stuff, Rags. You have a real knack for exposing daily life you witness in your travels. About the open cremations.....what sort of protocol exists, if any? Does the family or friends just find an open slab at one of the sites, place the deceased upon the slab and start a fire? Who cleans up the aftermath when it's all over?

    I always wanted to lie naked on a bearskin rug in front of a fireplace. Cracker Barrel didn't take kindly to it.
  • toragstorags Registered Users Posts: 4,615 Major grins

    In Varanasi (other places may differ) there's no protocol first come first serve (for lack of a better term) - 24/7.

    The cremations are conducted by outcasts... The mourners I suspect, pay for the wood plus...

    On the way into town, I saw two cars with wrapped bodies on their roof on the way to the pits...

    The ash is thrown into the river; but some use it for religious purposes...

    Like this naked baba who is having ash applied to his body before meditation on the river...

    When told I took a picture, he charged me with a 2' piece of thick bamboo.

    We were nose to nose before the guide got between us...

    The baba was pissed because he wasn't ready (dressed?) to have a pic taken...

    As a photog, how could I not take the shot?...

    Here is a shot I took in Bhaktapur, Nepal of an adult (father & son I suspect) cremating an adult and the boy cremating an infant in the river..

    Notice the spoils in the river... swimming not encouraged...

    Rags
  • black mambablack mamba Registered Users Posts: 8,323 Major grins

    Love the additional shots. Considering your work ( past and present ) and that of many friends who have traveled to India, my overriding impression is that India.....certainly in congested areas, and with 1.3 billion folks that might be the entire country.... may well be the filthiest country in the world.

    I always wanted to lie naked on a bearskin rug in front of a fireplace. Cracker Barrel didn't take kindly to it.
  • StumblebumStumblebum Registered Users Posts: 8,480 Major grins

    I like the cooking shot best Tom! If you got a link to a gallery or something, I want to check it our rest of them! Cheers!

  • CornflakeCornflake Registered Users Posts: 3,346 Major grins

    Fascinating shots. I can't say these make me want to go there, though. Thanks for posting them.

    Don
    Gallery: http://cornflakeaz.smugmug.com/
  • toragstorags Registered Users Posts: 4,615 Major grins

    Thanks folks, much appreciated

    Rags
  • willard3willard3 Registered Users Posts: 2,580 Major grins

    Nicely fotoed informative set, Rags, they are attention getting

    I

    It is better to die on you feet than to live on your knees.....Emiliano Zapata
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