Dress up

It doesn't matter how many times I see this, I always find it amusing.
Indian tourists come to Kashmir and dress up in "traditional Kashmiri clothing" to have their pictures taken. Photographers on shikaras or at one of the gardens give them scarves to put on their heads, plastic flowers and clay pots to hold, and then they take pictures like this.
Or like this one taken by Tim Fitzsimons.
The real tradition, I think, is the one of Indian tourists wanting this to be something they do during their trip to Kashmir, and a picture to take home to show the relatives.

The cruise with views

One of the best things about the houseboat, is that all I had to do was sit there and the sights and pictures came to me--how nice is that?

In the backwaters, you get to see a lot of things.
I made a list:

Cows
Buffalo
Birds
Backyards
Laundry
Construction
Trucks
Store fronts
Pretty painted houses
Rice fields
Floating plants
Palm trees
Bananas
Fishermen
Reflections
Sunsets

Photo exchange

Sometimes people position themselves in front of me with their camera phones.
Once in a while a person asks permission to take my picture. Usually I say no, but twice this weekend I permitted my picture to be taken.

Sounds arrogant, doesn't it. :)

I'm not usually comfortable with where that picture is going to end up...
photo manipulated online somewhere...
or with someone like Napoleon Dynamite who pulls it out of his wallet...
But these two girls asked nicely and after they took my picture, I asked to take one of them. And yes, I have put their picture online. It's a nice one of them together and I don't have any other way of sending it to them.
Maybe they'll find it.

Good craftsmenship

Thailand does wooden ceilings really well.

Tughlaq and his city

There used to be gold palaces and great armies here.
Not much is left.

When wars and intrigue left an opening for a slave to take over the throne of Delhi, he built his own city and named it after himself: Tughlaqabad.
But then, assassinated by his own son, Tughlaq and his city faded into ruins.

If you look beyond the mud and cricket players to imagine the glorious heyday of the city, maybe you can see a shimmer of gold from long ago.

Only in India...

Today's random traffic shot.

Scary mannequin exposé

This is an exposé on the scary mannequin's inhabiting the bazaars of Delhi. I've known small children to cry when they see some of them.

There are the sad children of war...

There's Miss Molded-head, who changes her clothes with the times but not her hair. Not to mention that she feels terribly marginalized because she looks nothing like the Indian women for whom she is modeling those clothes...

Miss Fallen, who has landed on her face so many times that her nose is scarred and she hides under her hat...

The dancing instructor--"Where should my feet go?"

And not to be left out: The freakishly excited, armless bride and her melancholy, bald bridesmaid.

Photo photu

What's the tourist attraction?
Me.

Yes, this bold little girl's phone camera shot is not the only picture I was featured in today.
So I returned the favor.

There were also the children asking for their "photu" to be taken. They were cute and less demanding than many.

Humayan's tomb

It is (apparently) a common mistake of children, but Humayan's tomb is not to be confused with the Taj Mahal.

And I would add another warning: That Humayan's tomb is not to be confused with Akbar's tomb.

So, keep that in mind...

Men's flying--I mean, long jump

The men's long jumpers are pretty amazing. Those guy's fly!
They must be about six feet in the air before they come down at a distance around 9 feet.
Whoa!

The guy from Australia who could fly the furthest won, and he and the silver medalist took a victory lap around the track.
The press loved it.
Australia and England smiled.
They posed.
And then they walked off like super heroes--well, yeah, they can fly, right?

Street bathing

Here's a fun picture I found online today.
Swimming in the street.
At least the water looks clean, as in: not brown.

Ugliness

There are a lot of things I notice.
And most of those I choose to post here are the observations that have some sort of human interest. They are fun or intriguing, wild or unimaginable.
But the things I've noticed this week are ugly.
Sin is never pretty.
In contrast to the waves of disappointment, anger and sadness of the past few days, are the readings I have been going through about trust and forgiveness.
Two things stand out to me, as I hope to grow into the person I desire to be:
One, if I have a problem forgiving, it's because I don't know how much I've been forgiven.
And two, I cannot keep myself safe, but I can trust God to hold me when others fail me.
Because at the center of everything is Him and his love.

Slice of Malaysia

Here's a little piece of Malaysia. Isn't it pretty?

Where to go for a strawberry smoothie

I still love the night market for taking photographs. It doesn't matter how many times I go, there's always something new to notice.
Besides, so many of my pictures were stolen that I need to go back to where I've been and replace them, right?


After all that picture taking, I was thirsty. So I had the fruit drink stand whip me up a yummy strawberry smoothie.
Mmm...

Connecting differences

I like to find connection in differences. Things that are the same the world over, but have their own unique "flavor" in other locations.
Here are a few things I took note of this week...

A city's night life, full of lights and activity.

The cycle rickshaw.

A rooster statue.
Do they have those elsewhere in the world? They must.

Faces

Here are some of the faces I've seen in the last few weeks.
Some I said goodbye to after knowing for a long time. Some I'll never know other than in passing. But they've all left their impression on my life.

Camera!

I have a camera again. Once again I can take pictures whenever I like.

I am very happy about this.