Here’s another dollop of photos, all featuring people from my trip to India. For a while I’ll post the holiday snaps every other day, featuring stuff like noms, architecture, cats, and Indian life—what little I know of it.
Woman selling saris, Delhi:
Girl selling sweets at a cooperative:
Rupali, our cook in Santineketan, preparing vegetables. I’ve never been able to master the Indian habit of squatting on the haunches, which they can do for hours but which debilitates me in minutes. The red-colored part in the hair denotes that the woman is married.
Culture clash: senior citizen with traditional garb and a Nike cap:
Women in lovely saris, Poush Mela fair, Santineketan:
Mother winnowing rice while her child and dog look on:
Young village girl weaving palm mat:
A scholarly looking vendor (I don’t know what he’s selling), Santineketan:
Washing up, taken through banana leaves:
Poor workers recruited to spiff up the city for Republic Day (tomorrow), which celebrates the adoption of India’s constitution in 1950. Tons of unemployed people (I think these are Rajasthanis) are hired to fix the roads and tend the gardens in Central Delhi in preparation for the big parade, which includes decorated, marching elephants. The preparations were especially meticulous as Obama is visiting this year, so near the grand parade route on the Rajpath there were many cops with automatic weapons, sniffer dogs, and mirrors on sticks to look under stuff for bombs.
These people are making the edges of the roads straight. (The haze you see is smog, a ubiquitous feature of polluted Delhi. Were it clear, you could see all the way down the road to the imposing Parliament building and the President’s house (formerly the huge mansion of the Viceroy).
Man selling cakes of jaggery (sugar made by boiling down palm sap), Santineketan:
Self portrait at an outdoor sculpture, Santineketan:
And I show this again because it’s my favorite among all the photos I took: a pensive woman at the temples in Kajuraho:
Next: noms!
That red coloured thing which indicates her status as a married woman is known as “sindoor”. And lovely pictures 🙂
You read my mind! I was just wondering if one could tell if a woman were married based on her attire or adornments. Thanks!
Probably not, but for some maybe so. 🙂
Anytime 🙁
And you are a poet! I hope everyone here checks out your site.
I meant 🙂
I must dig out the photos my father took – he was in the RAF & was sent out to India after D Day. He was about 19 at the time & was away about 2 years I think, much in New Delhi. He recalled seeing Nehru over a garden wall…
Looking forward to those photos – maybe Prof.CC can post them here if he thinks appropriate.
Very nice photos.
A surprising economic fact I just hear yesterday. The average yearly wage in India is about $1000 dollars. In Russia the average yearly wage is just a little over $800.
The World Bank would disagree – they say that for 2013 the per capita GDP of India was around $1500, but the per capita GDP of Russia was $14600, nearly ten times higher. The US per capita GDP in 2013 was $53000.
Could this be a median vs. mean ‘disagreement’?
Any word on what the distribution is like?
Anecdotally, from NPR reports, highly inequal (tons of money with a few at the very top, the vast majority with very little.) Hmmm, kind of like the United States.
GINI coefficients (UNDP) in 2012 were 33.9 for India and 40 for Russia), meaning that India had a somewhat more even income distribution. An article in Forbes in 2012 (using Russian statistics) suggests that the median income in Russia in 2011 was about $6000 (versus mean of $14600); what I can quickly find for India (2004) gave median rural income of $500, median urban income of $1100, total median around $600 because of the vastly greater rural population (versus mean $650).
But given the magnitude of the differences of mean GDP per capita (the numbers I quoted above), I don’t think you can make a “median versus mean” argument anyway.
That is actually the median wage. I heard those same statistics on a CBC/PBS show about Vladimir Putin.
BTW the show was good but they oversimplified some stuff.
Have you ever had a local become upset at you for taking their picture? Do you ask permission when you are obviously taking a close up picture of a person? I imagine the reaction to a tourist taking a picture of a local person might differ based upon the country, etc.
I ask because I took a picture of some workers in Marrakesh–similar to the one you took of the workers by the road in Delhi. The Marrakesh workers seemed none too pleased with me.
If I am taking a close-up or the person I want to photograph sees me, I always ask permission by showing the camera and looking quizzical. If there are any signs that the person doesn’t want to be photographed, like shaking their head, frowning, or lookng away, I don’t take the picture. For long-distance zoom photos or portraits when I am not seen (the Henri Cartier-Bresson method), I just take the picture.
On this trip I found people remarkably willing to have their pictures taken.
Did they ask for money? I’ve found that some people are quite willing to ne in picture taken in exchange for a tip. And by the way you are a very good photographer.
While visiting Hong Kong, I took a photo of an old man in a small boat maneuvering through a tight canal. He started screaming at me and was extremely and obviously upset. I asked a friend who was showing me the sights to translate. He said “the worst”. I said what do you mean…he didn’t know the exact word, but after more elaboration, I found out he meant the man put a curse on me. I must say it sort of freaked me out.
I’ve had this happen only in east Africa and once or twice in Nepal (very rare there).
Well done, this is exactly how I’ve done it over the years.
The only places I found people unwilling to have their photos taken was east Africa.
Making an image of a human being in Sunni Islam is haram. The Shia don’t mind too much.
For Sunni in France, it would seem to be beaucoup haram….
b&
Thanks for sharing your wonderful photos, Dr. C!
I wish the States were as colorful as your photos, Jerry.
b&
Great pics! A nice window into life there.
I like your photos! I also was struck by the bright, beautiful colors of the fabrics. I can see why the last one is your favorite.
Curious about the ability to squat on the haunches, as you say. I’ve always been able to do this and it is comfortable for me (never tried it for hours, though). I was surprised when I realized my daughter couldn’t do it when she was little (and still can’t). It seemed to be a balance issue? My husband can’t really do it either.
Woman have a different center of gravity than men (it’s lower), so men tend to have a harder time squatting on the haunches. Like Jerry, I can barely do it for a minute, but my wife has no problem.
I think you have to learn to do this young so you stretch out the pelvic muscles as you are growing. We spend a lot of time sitting in chairs which also tightens up our hip flexor muscles.
Because I did ballet as I was growing, my hips are hyper flexible so I actually find sitting on haunches ok and I sit on chairs with legs in a lotus type pose to support my back better.
You actually just caught me sitting like that on the exercise ball….
b&
That’s very balance-y of you.
Well, I’m at the desk, so just lightly resting some body part against it is all it takes to not fall over. And it’s not that hard to balance without support.
b&
Yes, I would agree about getting it young.
I’ve never been very flexible, including in my youth. I’ve never, my entire life, been able to make the lotus posture. (And I tried as a youngster and later with a lot of serious stretching.) Now the knees are shot, so forget it. (Bend the knee and put outside-in pressure on the foot, and voila, the knee comes out of joint. Pain, pain, pain. Skiing is right out.)
It seemed to me that everyone in south Asia spent their entire life making that squatting position and that it becomes as simple and easy for them as any American sitting on a chair.
Thank you for sharing your pictures.
Looking forward to the next batch.
Great shots and thanks for sharing
Nice pictures! However, there are two glring errors of fact:
1) You say “Republic day (tomorrow)”, which presumably means that you think that the Republic Day is on January 15. If that is the case then you are mixing up the date of the Independence day (August 15) with the month of the Republic Day (January 26).
In the same vein, I don’t think the “meticulousness” and the extensive security cover at this point has anything to do with Obama’s visit. The Republic Day ceremony in India is really big (much bigger than the Independence day), and this kind of advance preparation (they actually start in November) is par for the course, no matter who the guest of honour is. For a sample of what happens at the parade, see here.
2) In your earlier post, you said India has two official languages. The accurate number (including English) is twenty-three. In particular, state governments are not obliged to provide their services in Hindi and English, and are free to choose among any of the 21. (Those in the Southern and North Eastern states often do).
Point no. 1 is right, but point no. 2 isn’t. India does in fact have only two official national languages (English and Hindi). These are the only languages that can be used for official purposes by the Union government (as prescribed in the constitution).
In addition to this, there are 21 other languages that have official status, but at the regional level. So while it is true that there are 23 official languages, it is also true that Hindi and English have privileged status among these. They are the only two official national-level languages.
You are right that Hindi and English have privileged status, but only as far as the Union government is concerned. The division of powers in India is such that for most public services (such as law and order, education etc.), you have to deal not with the Union government, but with the various State governments. As I said, those have no obligations to treat Hindi or English in a privileged manner (and they often don’t).
I was told by someone who lives in Delhi, and has seen preparations for the parade, that they are far more extensive this year than previously. And I’ve been in India before at just this time, and seen the difference. The viewing bleachers this year, for instance, are set much farther back from the street than they have been previously. And I’ve never seen so many cops and dogs and guns when I’ve walked down the Rajpath in previous years and watched the preparations.
On the other hand, “security” in India has gotten much “stricter” — in general — in recent years. For example, even to enter a station of the Delhi Metro, one needs to go through a TSA style pat down (for contrast, the Delhi Metro has annual ridership several times larger than metro systems in Los Angeles or San Francisco, and is almost the same order of magnitude as the London Underground). It is also not uncommon to see sniffer dogs or CISF personnel with advanced weapons at public places such as airports.
On the other hand, if the bleachers are really much farther than they have been in recent years (which have seen guests such as Putin and Sarkozy, as well as heads of state of Indonesia, Thailand and Brazil) then it does seem a fair conclusion that they are treating Obama’s visit a bit more seriously than the rest :-).
Terrific photos Jerry. The pensive woman at the temple is indeed aesthetically pleasing.
The smog reminds me of Beijing…it was so thick you could barely see across the street, just like your photo depicts. I had a hard time breathing, and unfortunately had to stay mostly indoors as I have asthma…I can’t handle smog like that. Is it like that all the time? cough.
Great photos! Can’t wait to see the noms and more!
Very nice, sir. And you are right (IMO) the last photo takes the prize.