it only took me 22 months to put these photos on my website.
Category: travel within india
going through old photos
new delhi
lake pangong
i forgot about these … lake pangong is on the border with china, about 14,000 feet above sea level. the water and sky really are this blue.
self-portrait with shadow
making a buck at the kumbh mela
a man sells jugs to store water from the ganges; wandering musicians annoy an audience of one; one boy sells sweets; another boy sells vermillion and other powders for pooja, and doesn’t look too happy about it. next: close quarters
tent life
apart from processions and interesting acrobatics, the sadhus just hung out in their camps and went about their business. at times, pilgrims would come to the sadhus’ tents for blessings. the sadhu on the left is placing ash on the forehead of a follower. the photo on the right shows one sadhu who was born with a spinal deformation; this may have made him more holy in some manner. otherwise, life out of the spotlight was pretty mundane. the sadhus ate, smoked, drank tea and talked. there was a second class of sadhu, however, that didn’t stay in large established…
just some sadhu portraits
so, to take a breather from the last post, let’s just look at some sadhu portraits. the first guy was typical of the many mendicant sadhus at the kumbh mela in that he was willing to pose, but only for money; the next one was simply grooming after his bath, and ignored me. clearly, he’d been busy, but he wasn’t there to beg, either. the next two are baba nagas (including one who is out of “costume”). next: tent life
the penis trick
the sadhus set up large camps while at the kumbh mela, and there were all sorts of activities going on when they weren’t in the bathing processions. that’ll be the subject of the next post, but in the meantime, here’s a little something the baba nagas did to entertain the crowds. it’s something they said is related to yoga, but we just called it “the penis trick.” don’t try this at home. first, take your penis, and wrap it around a stick. make sure it’s good and tight. next, pull the stick back between your legs, one end at a…
more marching with the sadhus
after the adventures described in the previous post, the rest of the event went fairly smoothly. i didn’t get down to the river bank in time to see the sadhus bathing (and in fact was kept from pursuing them by the police who were stationed at the entries to the bathing area), but once they came back out of the water, i moved in. a few times i was pushed on by police or by sadhu-minders, but for the most part no one was bothered by my camera – in fact, quite the opposite. the fancy sadhus (the “god-men”) were…
marching with the sadhus
after the sadhus finished celebrating, they lined up and began their march back to the camp, and we photographers ran alongside them. more photos from that: notice, in the second photo, the man in the crimson t-shirt pointing at me: this guy (who was also holding a thick, pointy bamboo staff) was one of the parade marshals/sadhu minders/akshara hangers-on with thick pointy bamboo staffs who accompanied the naga babas on the procession route. his reaction to my taking the photo signifies the ambiguous position that we non-credentialed photographers held: the sadhus, for the most part, were happy to have their…
