Some Singles...

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A man takes a slow drag on his cigarette in the Old Bazaar in Delhi.
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A baby sleeps on an abandoned sheet in Delhi.
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This is from the story that I am working on about my cousins. Vindetta, the caretaker of the home in Banjara Hills used these lemons in the girls' final meal in India.

I am working on going through the last 4 days worth of photos. I have been picking out some single shots that I like. More updates soon!

Delhi

Delhi is a beautiful city, filled with historical monuments, government buildings and a population of people that thrives of the culture of the capital. Over my 72 hours in Delhi I saw New Delhi, Old Delhi and everything in between. After I arrived, Allen Alfred a longtime friend of my uncle Scott picked me up at the airport along with his son Ralph. We had lunch and then they took me to Allen’s advertising firm. After interning at Fallon, it was interesting to see how an international ad firm works. There were a lot of differences, but the main functions were still the same. After visiting the firm, Michael, Allen’s youngest son showed me the surrounding area of the office. While we were walking a tree had fallen on the road earlier that day, and there was a local news crew covering the story. There were also a ton of news trucks outside the Metro office as there have been some deaths during the construction of the Metro to prepare for the Common Wealth Games. While traveling to and from the firm we passed the government buildings of India. The president’s residence, parliament, and even the department buildings conveyed a sense of strength and beauty through their architecture and red stone motif.

The 2nd day in Delhi, was a very very full day. We went to the Qutab Minar which was filled with incredible stone details. It reminded me of my dad’s photos from Petra.From there, it was off to Old Delhi and the Red Fort. We didn’t go into the Red Fort due to the ridiculous line to get in. Instead we explored the Old Bazaar in the surrounding area for 2 hours, which was a really great experience.

Later, Allen’s sons took me too a local craft fair near their house. It was similar to Shilparamum, a craft fair in Hyderabad, but there were cultural activities also going on. I had a lot of fun seeing the different dances and looking at the different crafts. My favorite part of the evening was when I was able to get up front for a Rajasthan dance performance. Beautiful girls spinning in intricate patterned dresses while the males perform fire-breathing routines. The evening made for some pretty diverse photos.

On my last day, I went to visit the sundials, Jantar Mantar and the Baha’i temple. The sundials were really interesting because of the different shapes they used in order to tell time. The Baha’i temple is shaped like a lotus flower floating in water. The main temple is the lotus and there are pools of water surrounding the temple. When we went inside the temple, the only noise heard was the rustling of bells on jewelry and saris. It was so peaceful to be able to escape the auto horns and yells of “Madam!” for a few moments and sit in silence. I had to leave for the airport shortly after lunch. Even though my trip only lasted for a few days, I got to see so much of the capital of India.

Bus Station

The buses are filled to the brim with passengers in every city I have ever been in India. I asked Edwin to stop at one of the busier bus stations in Hyderabad because of the importance of the bus system in Hyderabad and I have always noticed interesting faces at the stations. In Hyderabad, the bus stations are a sandwich of different types of people. The people who sit towards the middle of the bus station are passengers waiting for the buses. Some of the people on the outside areas of the stations use the stations for shelter when the rains come. I walked up and down the station a few times to make sure I documented all the different types of people.

I am debating between these last two photos. I would love some comments to help me choose!

Some of my favorite photos from my trip have been too dark for my liking. Today, I went back and edited some of them.

The calm of Hyderabad after Mumbai

So a little note and then some photos, mixing up the format a bit. Being back in Hyderabad after Mumbai was a calming experience. This is my 3rd time in India and I can finally say that I feel somewhat comfortable knowing where things are in the city and managing somewhat on my own. I walk around in Banjara Hills and the familiarity is making me feel less like a visitor and more like I am back in my neighborhood of Hopkins. I have been hanging out with my cousins and their friends which has been awesome. Now, they consider me a friend and I will be hanging out with them after my cousins leave. I go to Delhi tomorrow, which I am very excited about. I have had such a wonderful time seeing the different parts of India, but I always love coming back to Hyderabad.

This is a newly erected tent city near the park by my family's house in Banjara Hills. Machelle pointed out a balcony that I could get some interesting photos from. After a little maneuvering, I was able to get up to a high balcony and take this.

This is a woman digging through the bags of trash left by the bus stop near the new tent city. I sat by her for a few minutes, inching closer and closer to her.

This is a photo of a mother and son together. I was kneeling next to them and noticed how their feet were intertwined.

This is a small an example of the photo story I am doing about my cousins Hannah and Laurel. They have lived in India for pretty much their entire lives and Hannah was born here. To me they are Indian, regardless of their skin color. They are leaving India to go college at St. Cloud State in Minnesota. I had a realization a few days ago that I had an interesting photo story coming together in front of me and I didn't even realize it. I am focusing on their last 48 hours in Hyderabad.

Light at Night

Before going to bed that night, I walked around Umali’s house and took photos. I have never seen a city like Mumbai at night. It is so bright and all of the carts come to life with produce, fish and candy being sold. Mumbai has a split personality of day and night.

Transformation Center

After sitting in traffic for 4 hours on the way back to Pastor Umali’s house, I was exhausted from my busy travel day. The next day we woke up early and drove almost 3 hours to the Transformation center. This is a program that helps rescue children and their mothers from the redlight district prostitution ring. I walked into one of the buildings and saw the wall plastered with photos of my dad and machelle. Even when I am traveling alone, their presence is always there. My dad told a story about the word Shalom, so I built off of it and told them about Shalom Chaverim. They started saying it to each other, which was so cool to see. Priya then took me around to all of the different living quarters and told me stories about some of the women and children. As she told me each story, the next one was harder to hear. There was a baby who was saved because they were able to take the mother in and convince her not to sell her child. Women become so desperate for money to feed themselves that sometimes, it comes down to selling their own children. I walked around and played with the kids and sat with the mothers while Priya translated for me. So, after one of the most emotionally exhausting days of my life, I get a much needed phone call from Machelle in Papau New Guinea. She asks how the day was. I simply reply, “overwhelming.”

“Overwhelming? That’s all you have to say about the day? That it was overwhelming?”

Then, the fortress of emotions I had held up all day in front of the children came down, and I began to sob to Machelle on the phone about one of the hardest days of my life. I had no idea that the next day would hold a bigger challenge.

Taj Mumbai

My Mumbai trip can be summed up by the message from a story I heard before I ate Shabbat dinner at the Chabad house in Mumbai. You may plan on going somewhere, but you really don’t know where you are going. I planned on going to Mumbai to go to do some sightseeing, go to the transformation center and the redlight district feeding program. But, I never could I have imagined what I actually got to do these past 4 days.

After I landed, I went back to Pastor Umali’s home and met his family. They are so lovely and were such wonderful hosts. They made a huge effort to make sure I saw a lot of Mumbai, and I really appreciate that. We went down to the city and they showed me Marine Drive and the Gateway to India. The city of Mumbai is much more crowded and condensed than Hyderabad. It’s a bit overwhelming. There are massive apartments that make a sandwich with other highrises, while slums are pushed in between.

We went and had tea in the Taj Hotel, where the terrorist attacks took place last November. As Ilooked at the structure from across the street, I couldn’t help but have flashbacks of sitting on the couch with my dad, seeing the building from the same viewpoint on the news. They have done an incredible job renovating the hotel. But the damage the bullet left in the marble pillars of the lobby are constant reminders of the events.

Bob The Builder and Physical Examinations

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Today I went to Nireekshana ACET India, a HIV/AIDS clinic with the children from the orphanage. They started off by singing songs with the kids and then had them watch Bob The Builder as they called them to get weighed and then to the examination room. Dr. Lavanya performed a physical examination on the children. After their physical examination was finished, they each got a piece of candy. Other patients were at the clinic as well. A patient received his medication from the pharmacy portion of the clinic and then sat with a woman who worked at the clinic and prayed over the medication. As the man grasped the medication in his hand, I listened to the woman chanting the prayer and thought about how much was on the line with this medication. One of the pharmacists showed me the different HIV pills. There are different pills they combine with the two different base HIV medications. After awhile, I asked her to show me how much each medication cost. Just for reference, the exchange rate today was 49.08 rupee to one us dollar. Some of the pills were 11 or 12 RP a pack, but others which only contained 4 or 5 pills were 20 or 30 RP. This adds up very quickly and becomes costly for many patients. Going to Mumbai tomorrow!

The Beauty of Charminar

Charminar is a beautiful part of Hyderabad. The architecture is really incredible and the Mosque creates a unique skyline. It is full of shops and carts with vendors selling various goods. We went down bangle alley which was filled with the cries of "Madam! Madam" from shop owners. We were shown another alley that had hundreds of cages with a variety of animals, mostly birds in them. I also went to a mutton and beef shop which was interesting to compare to the chicken shop yesterday. Going to the clinic tomorrow to meet up with some of the kids from the orphanage!