Saturday, February 16, 2008

Faces....






















Whilst in no way coming close to capturing the intensity of the experience of India, with its sounds and, oh, its smells... pictures of people do go some ways towards capturing a sense of the richness of the human sides of this incredible place... Now add the sound track that is on a continuous loop of overlayed sounds of constantly beeping of horns, honking cows, hawking and spitting, ringing of bells, and "madam, where are you from, madam?" and "madam, you want a boat, rickshaw, postcard, tea, sari, bracelet, wood carving, anything or everything....." and "mam give me please...." and we start to get closer to the experience... Its fabulous and fantastic and I find myself in hysterics several times a day as I am hit in the face with the rediculousness of random moments.... Tonight for example, we were walking home from dinner after a long and exhausting day of 9 hours of walking... and yet I found the energy to burst into spontaneous laughter... As I passed a wall where a man was pissing in the dark I averted my eyes modestly...only to be asailed with his cheerful tones..."Madam, you want a massage??" (not with those hands Sunny Jim!)....and its impossible to get angry with people who constantly hassle....because firstly, really, I am as insignificant as dust in this great land... and secondly, I have so much and they have so little - how can I be offended that they would really like me to even up the balance a bit :-) And for every tout who hassles me to share my wealth, there are many who move with quiet dignity, acknowledging my presence without comment, absorbed in their own lives removed from my gawking eyes....





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