February 01, 2009
A day of an American in India
This following is a guest post, authored by Dave Prager, a New Yorker who lives Delhi with Jenny and who blogs at Our Delhi Struggle. Thank you, Dave! (All previous co-bloggers archived here.) If other creative types are interested to share the forum here on any other topic, please contact me for details
The noise of the morning gets us up at eight: the cars honking and the Muslim call to prayer and the guys biking by, shouting in Hindi that they’ll take your garbage or sharpen your knives.
We look across the street - an orange-clad sadhu has parked his painted sacred cow in front of the house across the street, and won’t leave until he gets some money. He does this every day. I get into my taxi. Jenny gets into her autorickshaw. And off we go to work, fighting traffic and pollution (ha!) and, in my case, construction of Delhi’s above-ground metro as I pass the ruins of former shopping malls.
At work, we don’t make our own photocopies or get our own water; there are guys who are hired to do that for us. They’re called "peons". Seriously.
After lunch, me and Dipankar get tea from a sidewalk chai wallah. He crunches spices and ginger with a rock, and throws it in the boiling milk. Then it’s back to work. When I get frustrated, I rely on the magic phrase: “Do one thing.” It works - try it!
Then I fight the traffic and the tollbooth back home. If our maid has come, I eat food like you could only dream. If she hasn’t, then we’re off for south Indian food, or heading to our market , or just patronizing the sidewalk omelette maker.
As the night cools off, we switch on our electric heaters - Delhi is cold this time of year. The horns stop honking, replaced by the comforting sound of the night: the chowkidar blowing his whistle, letting you know that everything’s OK.
Wonderful! Thanks again, Dave.
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
February 1, 2009 in Co-blogged with, Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 04, 2008
The dabbawala system
A dabbawala is a person in the Indian city of Mumbai who is employed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting the freshly cooked food in lunch boxes from the residences of the office workers (mostly in the suburbs), delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning back the empty boxes by using various modes of transport. (From wikipedia)
Happy Birthday Mahatma Gandhi. (From Arbroath)
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"...An old friend of mine has an airplane in Afghanistan, and I’ve hitched a few rides with him. On one trip, I took aerial photos of compounds in Helmand Province, between Camp Bastion and Lashkar Gah. Compounds vary in different regions, but many families and extended families live within compound walls. Here are a series of photos documenting large compounds in the seeming middle of nowhere>..." By Michael Yon. (From 2 Boings)
Scenes from India on Boston’s Big Picture
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
October 4, 2008 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 09, 2008
Quarry work
India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Buildings and sky scrapers are shooting up in every corner. Flyovers are being built to accommodate the commuter traffic and in order to raise these structures, the raw materials are blasted, broken down by hand and brought from the granite quarries all over India. Men, women and children work in these quarries filling lorry loads of granite, they are paid a pittance, and half is taken at source to repay loans, many suffer dreadful injuries from the blasting and have no money or facilities for medical care. It is estimated that there are 400 thousand quarry workers in Tamil Nadu state alone.
The Stone breakers (Click on “next”) by photographer Kurt Tong
Indian Cola signs and Indian Street Graphics by Meena Kadri (flickr)
Re-post: Many of the Whitney Chromatic thingies by Jim Bumgardner
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
April 9, 2008 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack
February 28, 2008
Purple turban
The Indian condom song (YT)
A heavily damaged bus driving around
A man with a big, purple turban
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
February 28, 2008 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 15, 2008
Ladakh
A collection of Devanagari type - Hindy Rinny
Fully-loaded Indian train
A flock of ducks (MetaCafe video)
Jimmy Adja is Disco Dancer. (YT)
I'm still amazed by the range of knowledge found on wikipedia. Here’s an article about a place I never heard of: Ladakh, a region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south
7 friends are racing 2500 miles across India to Nepal in two rickshaws to raise money for Mercy Corps
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
January 15, 2008 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 09, 2007
Bombay TV
Indian Hava Nagila. (Thank you, Revilo)
Make a movie with Bombay TV
Street dentist in Banglore (by Matt Logelin)
More of the same @ flickr: Signs on dentist offices
Rotten about Indian Call Centers
New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection gets most of its sewer manhole covers from India
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
December 9, 2007 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 25, 2007
Benny Lava
How To Use An Indian Toilet (with lots of comments)
India has the highest population of blind people in the world. Approximately one out of every four individuals who are blind live in India. The figure of those afflicted approaches ten million. Blindness In India
The iron pillar of Delhi is one of the world's foremost metallurgical curiosities, standing in the famous Qutb complex. The pillar—almost seven meters high and weighing more than six tons—was erected by Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (375-413). It is the only piece of the Hindu temple remaining, which stood there before being destroyed by Qutb-ud-din Aybak to build the Qutub Minar and Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque.
The pillar is made up of 98% wrought iron of pure quality, and is a testament to the high level of skill achieved by ancient Indian iron smiths in the extraction and processing of iron. The pillar is also one example of an out-of-place artifact (OOPArt)
Re-post: Bollywood song & dance, this time with sub-titles
India: A Kite's Eye - Kite aerial photography by Nicolas Chorier (Click on editions, go to “India”)
Viswanathan Anand, India's Great Chess Hope
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
October 25, 2007 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 17, 2007
Identical twins
Recycled billboards by the sides of the Indian highway
From Satyajit Ray to Raj Kapoor - Cinema on Indian Stamps
Shivraj Giri in Varanasi
Identical Indian twins marry same woman
A Handwritten Daily Paper in India Faces the Digital Future
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
September 17, 2007 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 26, 2007
Naked Monks
The Naked Monks of Kundalpur
Between 1727 and 1734 Maharajah Jai Singh II of Jaipur constructed five astronomical observatories in west central India. The observatories, or "Jantar Mantars" as they are commonly known, incorporate multiple buildings of unique form, each with a specialized function for astronomical measurement. The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh II
Sell Samosas, Go to Jail? The semi-legal world of Street food in Delhi. (Including a slideshow below. From Activity Book)
Early morning motion in Rajasthan
Horn OK please is a phrase commonly painted on vehicles in India. This is spotted almost without exception on commercial vehicles like trucks, buses or local taxis
Treehouse at Green Magic Resort, Vythiri, Kerala. (Warning – music!)
Three airlines in India go after each other big time using innovative ad placement and ad content
/// A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
June 26, 2007 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 09, 2007
English of India
Hand-painted mud-flaps of rickshaws & cycle carts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat
By the same painter, Bollywood Soul Exhibition
Sign writer Yasin Chhipa’s English of India
Wandering Sadhus are Holy Hindu wanderers who relinquish their worldly possessions to seek spiritual paths
All sets above, and many more on Meena Kadri’s flickr page
Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Indian president’s house
Hope you had a happy easter
/// Reddit it /// Add it to your del.icio.us /// Fark it /// A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
April 9, 2007 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 13, 2007
Prabhu Deva, India's Michael Jackson
Indian Highways Road signs. (Also, fake street signs that convey inspirational messages)
Ian Anderson’s (of Jethro Tull) Guide for Indian food. (Also, Your New Kitten: Advice for New Parents. Found at The Official Jethro Tull Website)
Gandhi at the bat, film at 11
Calcutta, by Igor Askarov
“Indian wedding is known for its glitz and glamour. It symbolizes tradition, celebration and togetherness”
Puranas, part of a series of Hindu Scriptures on wikipedia
Associated with Shiva, dedicated to worship of Lord Shiva
Construction is booming everywhere in Bangalore
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February 13, 2007 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 07, 2007
Train safety
Kamal Hassan on the bus, dancing, on the road to Kashmir, from Sanam Teri Kasam
Train safety in India. (YouTube)
Tree houses, North Kerala. Eco-Tourism
Beautiful flickr slide show from Meanest Indian. (Slide the speed handle on top to 1 second, if you wish)
The largest human gathering ever, Kumbh Mela. (With photo)
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January 7, 2007 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 04, 2006
Shantaram
Gregory David Roberts is a convicted armed robber, former heroin addict, gangster and author of the bestselling book Shantaram.
Roberts was a university student when he became involved in radical politics. Following the disintegration of his marriage and the loss of custody of his daughter, he became a heroin addict and turned to armed robbery to obtain money to support his addiction. Known in Melbourne, Australia, as the Building Society Bandit and Chicken Man, he was arrested on February 22, 1978.
Sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment, he became known as "Doc Smith" due to his medical skills. His sentence was reduced on appeal but he still made use of the first opportunity to escape to New Zealand and made some money with a large marijuana crop. This financed a plane ticket to Europe, with a stopover in Bombay. He remained in Bombay for another eight years. During his stay in Bombay, Smith lived in a slum where he gave medical treatment to his neighbors. More about his transformed life there... (Thank you, Avi)
Elsewhere: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s videos
History of the flags of india
/// Add it to your del.icio.us /// A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
November 4, 2006 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 04, 2006
Passages to Bollywood
David Ahmed’s Virtual Sitar and virtual Indian Flute. (From Ursi’s Blog)
Never Been Photographed - Portraits of the poorest of the poor of India
Revealed: Pictures of Factory making Fake Pepsi, Coke and other Soft drinks
Radha Kaise Na Jaale from Lagaan
Groovy players from Bollywood
7362 more clips on YouTube tagged with Bollywood - Knock yourself out!
The Rubbers of India
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September 4, 2006 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 08, 2006
Deshnok temple
The Indian temple where ship rats are revered
The Goat on a Pole Philosophy. Goatonapole is the philosophy of being that holds that there is a Goat and a Pole and that the Goat is on the Pole. In the relation of Goat and Pole we Goatonapolists find an eternal thread of unfathomable cosmic significance, a point of reference in which all opposites dissolve into a unity of infinite breadth, a universal truth underlying the very fabric of existence
“Cool Mobile Mortuary” and other Indian signs
Such happy Tunak song’n’dance
The Indian autorickshaw Challenge, the world’s most bizarre motorsport event
Self-regulated, chaotic-instinctive driving
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
Many More Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
June 8, 2006 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack