Tag Archives: people

Rajasthan

by jose

Although it is seldom mentioned in Western education, India has a millenary-old history going back to the earliest stages of Antiquity, full of the drama of warring kingdoms and crumbling empires, mighty Maharajas and decadent peoples. In particular, almost the whole subcontinent of India was united under the banner of the great Mughal empire from the 16th to the 18th century, after years of conquest and military supremacy of the Muslim armies. The Mughal emperors would leave a lasting trace of their glory in History, with Shah Jahan having erected the Taj Mahal, and the mighty Akbar being still today revered as both a skillful general and a wise ruler.

It is thus unsurprising that so much of their passage could remain visible today, all across the state of Rajasthan. Immense (as well as impregnable!) forts dot the countryside, while majestic and luxurious palaces sometimes emerge at the most unexpected locations.

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The Taj Mahal

by jose

This picture has no originality whatsoever, since it is arguably the most famous sight of the whole India: the Taj Mahal, the mausoleum Shah Jahan built to mourn the death of his beloved (third) wife Mumtaz Mahal, is a wonder. There is no other word.

But I felt no shame in taking it, a few million times after the first photographer entered the Taj grounds, and I feel no shame in publishing it here either. Firstly, because its staggering beauty, even clouded in the mist of a wintry morning, is well worth taking my hat off to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and the architects who designed such a marvel, by rendering it as they envisionned. And, secondly, well, because no photograph can give the Taj Mahal justice anyway.

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Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

by ladina

Our arrival in India was not an easy one. Even for us veteran travellers, the first few days within the borders of the subcontinent constituted a challenge; and we dived directly into all of it, as we chose the overwhelming city of Varanasi, one of Hinduism’s holy cities, as our first destination. More than in any other country we have visited so far — and I daresay it will not get any bigger than India — the roads were crowded with people and animals, the scents ranged from the heavenly spices of a hot chai to the disgusting excrements of animals, the streets were flooded with waste and vendors permanently insisted in selling us their goods. The intensity of all those impressions and, especially, the poverty of the many, many people in the streets made me feel quite uncomfortable at the beginning. How would I cope with all this for almost two months?

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MBC / ABC

by jose

I trudged, step after step after step, as I had for the last four days. Even though we had left the backpack at the Machhapuchhre Basecamp, leaving me with my sole camera bag, and even though the seemingly neverending stairs had been replaced by a simple upward trail, every slowly negotiated step felt as if I were running for dear life. We were at four thousand meters.

There is something deeply serene in the exhaustion brought by physical exercise, something that every sportsperson has probably experienced. The need to draw air, to breathe as much as possible, surpasses every other at some point — even if you might have to manage it while deflecting a blow, or simply not show it. And you are left concentrating on making your body work, with no other thought in mind. Step after step after step.

The time takes another meaning. Instead of being carried by the rhythm of your problems, worries, desires, tasks, you turn to the delicious breeze cooling off your sweat, the chirping of the birds, the comforting regularity of your shoes hitting the stone. It could be seconds or hours before you look around you again, and it does not matter one bit. There is nothing else than you being a part of the world, no more and no less than anything, rightfully existing and breathing, and there is nothing else than the simple beauty of it all.

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