Flora, Flor de Vida (which put me in contact with Fior di Loto)
I dedicate this trip - this blog - the pictures - and those to Upcoming
At my 3 darlings also
A Venman, my brother, who arrived from Mumbai in our family at the age of 3 years (he is 31 years this year).
For rosebuds of Fior di Loto
To all those who, in addition Flor, have made this trip possible: Francis, Esa Danouchka Dominik.
To avoid the conclusion, some thoughts various hot after 3 weeks of shaking and unforgettable journey, head, heart, filled with images, smells, feelings, emotions and especially so many eyes ...
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Speaking of "India", is this possible? It is a continent. 1.3 million people I think. Much attention. Lives. 5000 years of turbulent history. Being here has from the first minute, awakened in me memories of Africa and if I'm here "at home" is probably also because of my African past. My own perception of India goes without question by my feelings buried Africa (heat, sun, immense, technological shift, ...). India is not one of the other India. Some sick leave after a few days, others threw their passports ... Some prefer to avoid India and Nepal, more simple, others can not happen in India ... There are many reports in India as there are personalities.
So what are the continent? I waive any claim to objectivity.
I have not read anything about India before coming and I have taken no guide. I'm glad to see the site's Backpacker need to make photocopies of all important documents (ID, passport, airline ticket) and be wary, on arrival at Delhi airport, pseudo "agents" of taxi ... For the rest, my imagination was formed by the first super-8 films that my parents had brought from India in the late 60s, a few movies and maps Postal usual, a beautiful documentary on the spirituality / medicine Ayurveda. I tried to make contact, as raw as possible.
So what about that show, given the little that I stayed and various little places that I saw? The "bazaar" of Delhi and the holy city of Pushkar in Rajasthan. I thought I would stay a few days then Pushkar Flor and I thought some traveling in Rajasthan. And day by day ... increasingly difficult to leave this place. Other cities? Another time ... shanti shanti! For became even more clearly for me in India, the important thing is not money (whatever ... but we understand), but time. Find a place, enjoy the atmosphere, decode the signs (which, at first - object, gesture, attitude - seems noble and beautiful is not necessarily vice versa), establish local contacts, beyond India postcard where everything is beautiful and perfect, everything takes time. Testing takes time ... find, match the information takes time. The transport takes time ... Amin told me "Nothing is right in India". It is a joyful - and sometimes cruel - chaos. An onion that must peel more skins. But how many skins are there going to peel it? I do not know. And lead what?
I do not know what I showed in "India" with my photos. Is it elsewhere in India? Which? My photo work is still babbling ... Met by a professional photographer, Oliver, was given five years to produce a book of photos on this subcontinent. I understand why.
From my own adventures and misadventures (but very rewarding for me too ...), my discussions with Flor, Lawrence, Deepu, Kam, it appears at least one thing, and it told me that Kam the other night, in principle, be wary. And the only way to know if anything, that sounds great, really is, is to test. "Tora Tora" little by little ... Itself, deeply involved in the Foundation Fior di Loto, first tested.
"Mixes" is the word that comes however when ever I talk about my perception of India. Mixtures of constant extreme ambiguity. Urine and incense. Graces and horrors. Beauties of certain body mutilation of others. And everything is mixed, crosses. Sweet and hot chili. Spirituality the most demanding - the sadous of the Himalayas - and superstition most kitsch; beauty of these women yet virtually reduced in slavery. These beautiful postcards of women in saffron sari ... but what can also endure such a woman here! I saw a lot today in Delhi on construction sites. Elsewhere on the huge pile of firewood. Hidden by their father, their husband. The Kama Sutra is for Westerners. I doubt this is actually lived here in the pairs (an Indian even admitted he never saw his wife naked). I feel especially close to the project of Fior di Loto. The money and the need for money everywhere. My taxi driver earns on average 5,000 rupees per month, not even 60 euros. But money is not a taboo it is an integral part of Hinduism. Mixtures: in many languages, religions (Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, some Christians, Jains, ...); ancestral rigidities: caste, status of women. But how far will the mix of castes in this country?
"overflow", "perpetual growth", "bubbling", "wealth", "extravagance", "swarming" (life and death) in all its forms, other keywords, perhaps.
cows, everywhere, who abandon themselves in the street. Met, sanctified (the government has unsuccessfully tried to Pushkar, to enjoin the streets for health reasons, because cows eat anything but impossible. As for Raju who escape the law of his caste tried his luck in London . And yet the plant where it landed, and after a divorce with the English, he seems to want to come back among his people.
"Spontaneity," "easy" Contact: Rich or poor, taxi driver, policeman, guard, shopkeeper (of course ...), saddhou, babas (sort of "religious sdf", unique to India, no doubt), Gypsies, ... But met so few Indian women .... outside Kam and gypsy ... One very westernized, others assumed marginal ... Where is the Indian woman (Hindu, Muslim), this being hidden and that we hide but we did not hesitate to work like men on construction sites, along roads or behind the hotels? Once married, she seems trapped by her social status, caste (if not, I guess it is mostly women of low caste that one sees on the street or working on construction sites). The low-caste Hindu woman: without doubt the worst condition in India ... Hindus, moreover, easily convert to Islam to escape the iron law of caste system.
Not seen, or very far, India's politics - Deepu only told me about corruption widespread, almost impossible to change. India conflict between religions, Hindu fundamentalism has nothing to envy to Muslim fundamentalism (but it seems politically incorrect to say ... for Westerners). Result of centuries of strained relations between the two religions. Gandhi there was rubbed all his life.
not seen nothing of India very modern, wealthy, educated, Westernized cities. No sooner had their houses and their cars. Delhi no shortage of places yet very "Hypes". For another time.
India lacks true creators. Missing, it seems, knowledge of its own artistic heritage (one copy to the West that better-best). It seems that new designers are emerging. As I said Flor, a true sari has nothing to envy our haute couture. But so few Indians themselves seem to know. I remember Tintin in the Congo from my childhood: the "negro" rather buy a high-shape European ...
Nothing seen, either, as India seems to perform many travelers met in Pushkar: learning about Indian music, ayurvedic massage, meditation (this is not the "yoga centers" that missing). But all these Western enculturation in their strange attire mid-rasta mi baba-cool ... That said, I felt so gradually that we could take a very natural way, little by little this or that garment local, particular attachment (I'm back with a strap around the wrist woman ... ). But I'm too European, despite my African childhood and feel at home here. "Like a fish in water" Flor told me about me, according to his perception of the way I live and be here. Europe, marked by his religion and the Subject of individual freedom. Her own art history. I do not give up anything, but I open to all. And Europe - the West - on the way, has lost so much ... A French traveler who goes to India for 30 told me then, entering a shop, he had to wake up the merchant ... ! "They were content with a little chapati and lots of love." India currency, necessarily ... Dubb, China are so close! One person in six is Indian, another in 6 is Chinese ... The XXI century will be there Sino-Indian? A commercial machine by military dollars and Western technoscience - in the hands of more than 2 million people? And what will become of Europe? Columbus was not wrong because: India is America! And I feel more than ever the burden, apathy European and French in particular, the bureaucratic and administrative quagmire of France. Now I'm no capitalist ... but we lack such spontaneity, such a franchise in the saying, do it, the company, Working in touch!
Nothing, alas, classical dance and traditional life and giving shape to the many graces in sculpture - and even, perhaps unconsciously, in the most mundane things. Indian hands, men, women, and children of any age are sublime. A nothing seems to be the equivalent of a tea ceremony in Japan.
I will not see either, Varanasi ... Other heart of the Hindu heart. But I reserve until later because there more than anywhere I want to stay long. In short, all India, all India are still to go!
And what about the Mandala ancestral ... what are the multiple meanings?
I also feel the existence of something harsh and inhumane side - paradox, ambiguity - so much warmth and smiles. As if a dried cow shit (and the cow itself where it falls Noise) was more sacred than human life, especially a woman's life. But this is still a pre-sense and I have not really seen, let alone shown. Soldiers everywhere, this feeling of hardness in a free massage the barber?
And so many other "words" that come again gradually but remained in check. Indian Ocean, and so I drank a drop and I have nothing more to show for an hour. In terms of area, my "India" comes down to the bottom to 2 "big bazaar" souk improbable Pahar Ganj in Delhi and the "main street" of Pushkar. Despite hundreds of kilometers, so few kilometers actually "manned" and yet ... and yet it is there, without moving, that everything starts, anything can go, to look next, from contact to contact ... to infiltrate, very slowly, like a stream of water, beyond and through appearances and surfaces smooth or hard. This photographer gave himself five years to make a book about India for me, before I came, I knew that India was photographing the work of a life for wealth and the wealth of this country are such that Photo opportunities are "endless." An army of photographers and artists do not come to the end ... because India has 5000 years and each new day is added. India palimpsest. A book that continues to be written and which, therefore, I will be never done to understand the meaning. But the meaning is in the journey - the end - impossible, if not almost arbitrary manner - the goal is already in the first step of the road.
Very difficult to take a woman in pictures. They each time refused. While men and children require. I have lots of business cards of people who send a picture! And all without an email address, I need to print and mail it .... The adventure is not over! For them, being watched, being seen, seen in photo is a rare thing - without doubt this is one reason that makes me prefer the kind "portrait" at any another picture. Being photographed is to be seen 2 times: by the photographer, the recipient of the photo, and be yourself. Women excepted, take a picture of people is usually very easy, and often they require. Everything happens all the time, with a smile. A wink if I take the photo on the fly, without having had time to talk a little, otherwise I ask, I press the button, I show the picture, if it is an innocent, I pay, because for me it is a "job exchange", he gave me something, I give him something in return even if it is incommensurable with what he gave me - His eyes, his emotions, his skin ... And since I can not at least give everyone a picture I took of him, is to open the wallet. Faute de mieux. And I'm paid - when I am ... ! - To know that being a model is badly paid job - is the satisfaction elsewhere. I tried to explain that to an Indian who did not understand why I gave rupees a gypsy child I took a picture (in Delhi by cons, this practice is natural). For a few women I could get a photo of hands. Only two of them have agreed to lift the veil of their sari ... These are my most beautiful photos of women Hindu (no, they are not on this blog :-)). We must be certain conditions for a woman agrees to be photographed, but the code still escapes me. With those who have agreed, that laughter! And they love more than anyone to see a picture then ...
The lingam is perhaps an emblem of these contrasts, blends, ambiguities. In a male lawyer, but surrounded by a receptacle. Both gender and press, sex and instrument of ancient sacrifices. The lingam is everywhere.
So many scents: flowers, incense, feces (dogs, pigeons, humans; cow dung is used as the sacred fire, the walls of village houses as the mud hunting mosquitoes). Men piss everywhere in Delhi and elsewhere, any tree, any wall will do, day and night. But every trader I have seen (as in Delhi to Pushkar) has a prayer corner and burned the incense (and in the lobby of the international airport of Indian music is everywhere diffused).
Continent emotions.
I saw my friends gypsies on the street. I try to talk with them about their lives and what they think, but these beings fierce know what they want and what they do not want. I do not judge the "gypsies" of any kind. I'm sad for them as for any human being, god so money can bring them to behaviors that I disapprove, but no more. But these behaviors are so universal. Plutôto and to give them money, I'd devote a photo essay. Including these in "Gypsy" with one hand daubed me. Very good dancers but also apparently prostitutes, considered women, therefore, very unsavory here (officially, as everywhere ... because no one admits his associates stolen). Kam me that gypsies and gypsy are very popular with tourists for the richness of their traditions. Fior di Loto tried to create a school in their camps, but it could work. Gypsies are too rebellious.
On the busines in India, one thing is clear: money is not a taboo, far away. I even feel a great closeness between the American busines and business in India: direct, cash and without shame. And once again mixing and / or ambiguity between money and perfect religion. But is it different for us? In Jewish tradition the oldest, wealth is a sign of divine blessing. For an Indian merchant, the first day tickets are the most important because bearer of luck. I see much of a prayer corner shops (elephant, Sai Baba, flowers, incense stick) I have ever seen a restaurant patron to his prayer, quite naturally, to its customers (who waited patiently to be able to pay) .
And according to Lawrence, not to negotiate with a dealer is ... an insult to the merchant because for him, selling is a form of play, challenge. If it sells, without negotiation, they will feel of having "sold to a con" and it does not honor him. The first treaty management seems to have been Indian and called: "how to make money." It goes back at least to the Middle Ages.
I am wondering about the fabric of pure silk scarves unearthed here. I wondered why these particular women worked on a holiday (Independence Day); Deepu tells me that this holiday is not about the private sector. Here, we work ... Above all, and I dare to trust him, he told me that this store / manager is a good guy with his employees. This is not always the case, obviously. And companies, which here are called "cooperative" (to placate the West susceptible to trade fair) sometimes work quite differently. Again and again: caution and experimentation before we go too fast, too far.
On "Gypsy" Indians, see, eg
On bhop, different assessments:
As for the beauty and poetry, it is omni present, there is that to bend down to pick it up. Also present that poverty, fraud, urine, trash, tourists (India is the 5th country visited in the world). No need here to be a great photographer ... (It's also quite the challenge, India has been photographed and billions of times every angle, with the largest and the others). But for a photographer is a delight from first to the last minute of the day. Just sit (or stand) in the same place for, say, 30 minutes for each minute it happens something that is worth a shot. Inexhaustible. Endless. Spooky.
If we can sit where no junk disturbs the view, then beauty is almost absolute, divine offered.
here I discovered a musical instrument is absolutely amazing and I did not know even existed. The sound produced is indescribable because there is nothing like the West. This is called a "hang" and hope to one day feel ... I met someone who plays so divine (the sound produced by this instrument in the service with a meditative air, transports you beyond the clouds). Instrument produced in Switzerland, apparently. I could learn more.
the Brahmins to the soul Pure and others for whom it is clearly a "customer". Universal ...
An anecdote forgotten
One evening, having completed my Internet session later, I find myself alone on the street and plunged into the night ... Street invaded by dogs barking. I was somewhat reassured ... Kam tells me the next day that in the Indian beliefs, the dogs behave well when they see certain types of spirits. Come, finally, to my guesthouse, door closed (that is to say, here, locked). Massari, a magnificent saddou I really like, was busy murmur his prayers in his "cell" (that is almost a given) and I did not want to disturb him. And it took me 20 minutes to reach the wake of the guesthouse owner.
I stayed, day after day, delighted by Pushkar. Certainly, there is not the usual flow of tourists and pilgrims. But the modesty of the city size (a single main axis of 1 km), the poetry of the lake (even almost totally drained), the sunsets, the smiles of children and the amazing feeling of freedom that one feels here ... I understand better why, for 25 years, I dreamed of going to India. In Despite all that remains here, scandalous (the fate - horrific - women and lower castes, for example. But on the Politico-religious, many Indians have started the fight. untouchables finally occupy important positions in politics or administration, even if they are still a minority. And the foundations as Fior di Loto, even facing a huge task - the traditional mindset - give a little hope. It is a continent five thousand years few decades will not come to the end of such a memory.
And yet ... the joy of being here prevails the smiles of children - mostly poor - generosity - the poorest - spontaneous or gradual warmth, ease of contact wherever one is and with anyone, even the ubiquitous beauty mixed with the realities and the ugliest most tragic, the vastness of space ... the feeling that everything is still to be invented and even if the process has begun ... I do not know what makes me return to India ... that and everything else that I can not express in words or in pictures or. A feeling, no doubt, be "as myself at home". The ability to laugh or smile, any occasion. The pain of not being able to help each poorest of the poor - but it takes painful impotence well assume, in the cruel riddle of human existence. I suddenly returns to the memory of the Sikh Main Bazaar in Delhi who told me amazing things about me like that, spontaneously. Full Main Bazaar. I wish I could give him more time - I promised him for next time.
In these times of departure emotion grips me and I cry with joy and sadness, his eyes filled their eyes, laughing spontaneously or tragically imploring, in all their nose smells, the heart affected by so generously, pardons. And hurry back, to go further, to taste more and better now that hazing is done ... For me at seen anything, try anything? What I'm going to show these 3 short weeks? Perception raw casting, hot, photos on the fly. Only now I see - or rather that I see - there may be to go see and which do not show. This first photo series 'Indian Beauty' will not show so that a surface masking other depths - the more mystical as the most tragic and the mundane (in Delhi yesterday, my Shine Shoes 15 days ago I rebuilt my pump - another prize anyway because the word "tourist pigeon just happened" was a bit removed from my forehead - I'm not spiteful and I have an affection for him and he must earn his living as we all do), my Shine, therefore, was ready to take me to the dormitory that serves as home - child alone, "he said, his family is scattered all over India. But could not do this little story. This means even if the reality is otherwise. - But where? As "appearances" conflicting and overlapping - a skein of appearances. Only India and search everyone wants to see.
Mine, in these three weeks, was - deliberately - not the temples and art or sunsets. Yet it exists and remains to be seen - but to do otherwise. A show otherwise as well.
On my first photography course at Saint-Luc, a few years ago, my professor began his course by saying: "everything has been photographed" ("ooooooo" of spite), "but there is nothing to was photographed by you "(Aaaaahhhh hope). Remains to find the point of view, angle, subject - but because it is so photogenic and inexhaustible reality seems so complex. I am a portrait and "India" is about a billion years of 5000 subjects ... What a fabulous challenge! I probably made 5000 pictures but this is only a first job, the first trial and error. Hazing, I said!
already I feel such an attachment to this continent, its history, especially those people - they need constant contact, almost physical need! And kids are so ... (No words). The colors ... the immense ... multiple aspects secrets nocturnal, cryptic ... (But they are not on the tourist routes).
Incredible India!
So long, India
see you soon ...
I'll be back ...
Miss You Already ...
egon jazz
