A touristy Affair

Tourist vs Traveler. For me these two categories are distinctly different breed of human and I prefer believing in being of the second category. Not just that I also almost look down upon specimens of the former variety.
I often have a smirk when I meet people roaming around tourist buses in touristy towns. For me you need to explore cities by yourself not by being in a herd.
To top it all I don’t even browse through albums of such people. I can’t imagine people shooting even a single sensible picture while moving around in a herd and not in her/his own pace. Things change. Time and situations prove you wrong. And you start believing in life otherwise or rather life existing outside your stupid theory of generalizing people.
At times there are valid shortcuts to good traveling and they are the best option. Here are some pictures from one such trip.
My wife and me, a few hours to spend in Rome. We decided to pick tickets of the hop-in hop-off bus. A bright red bus pick us up. We are given earplugs to listen to the commentary which is gps based probably. It has 6 language options, English being closest to what we may understand. The trip was almost like sitting in a library and browsing through books to get the gist of the story without actually reading them. Though in that time this was the best option and not a bad option for sure. We came back with enough good memories of the Vatican, colloseum, trevi fountain, good house wines, great cheesy food and loud warm people (not to forget bangladeshi’s selling cheap chinese stuff to tourists).

I apologies to all the tourists of the world for detesting them so long. But trust me if so much I could have shot in just a few hour how much more a traveler can get from the city by exploring it his way.

ugly beauty

As i was driving back from Bandhavgarh a while after crossing Barhi could see a massive water body on both sides of the highway. Wasn’t too sure what it was but looked beautiful.

Was too big to be a Lake.

Was too spread out to be a River.

Was too far away from the see to be the Backwaters.

Kept asking myself what could it be.

Strange, trees were popping out from the water here and there. I had no choice but to stop the car and ask a local “What is this?” never new the answer to this beautiful thing will be so ugly.

It was nothing but the flood which had swept off a few villages around. And the water remains there with some people, cattle, houses and farms drowned deep inside it. Most of them drowned for ever.

Though later i could see the feeble effort of a temple to come back to existence. Looked like a symbol of hope. Must be to some, who still have hope deep inside them. The little temple will help them build back their dreams into reality, build back their lost world of joy.

tajwala

Shooting the Taj felt so shallow after spending a while with our guide. He knew exactly where to stand and what angle to shoot it from. in the first five minutes he figured out that we are more interested in shooting the monument than it’s history.

Mr. Guide took us to all those places where you get the best view from your camera. though i shot some pictures, the credit is not mine. to me the only few pictures that made sense was to be able to shoot a decent portrait of the man who knew Taj so well. wish he could see these pictures. he could see how comfortable and lost he is when talks about the monument. the same stories he must repeating days after days, but makes sure the passion remains as if it’s his first day of telling the story and you are the first one to listen to his stories. makes you feel special for being there at that moment.

he knows it all but doesn’t know how good interesting Taj can look with him on the foreground. to me it seemed Taj complimented him and not the other way round.

thank you Mr. Guide may you show the path to many more aspiring photographers and travellers.

the other end

as the taxi cruised through the almost empty streets of Calcutta early in the morning i could see bits of the massive structure looming behind the old buildings of the old city.

the bridge immediately started putting a context to all of it. buildings which could have been buildings anywhere in the world became buildings of Calcutta. the moment they had Howrah Bridge as the backdrop. As i walked from one end to another the bridge made me feel petty, the bridge is a product of sheer brilliance and passion.

it doesn’t just connect two ends of the river Hugli but connects East to the West. it is stamp of British dominance and glory on face of India yet a part of the daily life of people of Calcutta and something for India to be proud of.

coming soon

it may take a while longer than initially expected, or maybe a bit too much. what’s more important is to see it happening. something worth the wait should come up.

our love for the city will be blatantly be visible on dillidarshan.in

Holiday

Saw this bike standing and waiting for someone to take it along. It seemed as if like rest of calcutta even the bike got an eid holiday.
As i walked past badabazaar area saw arteries of the otherwise bustling market choked with people coming together for their eid namaaz. Was a deligt to see such a massive crowd being in such good sync.

Stop staring

Walking past a window kept in a props shop i noticed this girl staring at me. Inside the shop found many more such stupid, funny, crazy stuff. An eight feet tall chilli, a coiled anaconda and what not. Next time any of you shooting at Matching Studio, Bangkok make sure you spend some time browing the props.