Touching the Untouchables

I have spent my time in India observing and trying to organize what I see in a way that makes sense to my North American sensibilities.  Although often uncomfortable and constantly perplexed I love this exercise, I can feel my brain expanding to accommodate new views every day.

This photo was taken on my recent sojourn to South India with an local friend.    The chance for me to see through her eyes was an opportunity that I jumped at and, on our 7 hr. bus ride from Bangalore to Pondicherry, asked her to explain the Hindu caste system to me.

People are born into their caste according to previous Karma (activities).  Although the system is loosening evidenced by "untouchables" reaching high ranking government positions there is still a strong family rule to marry within your own caste.  

The skeleton of this hierarchy is:

Brahman = intellectual and spiritual people, peaceful austerity

Ksatriya = warriors and leaders, heroes

Vaisya = business people, traders and farmers, cow protectors

Sudra = sweepers, unskilled labour

Outside of the castes are the untouchables.  

I was deeply moved by the work of  Narayanan Krishnan - here is a CNN clip of this Brahman helping untouchables.

2003 National Geographic on Untouchables

Tent Village

Tent Villages grow on plots of land in most communities.  This is a relatively small grouping.

I was chatting with a local friend and she told me that normally what happens is if there is any work in an area - construction, road making, labour - these villages will be built near the work site and then as soon as the work is complete they move on.  They are usually paid on a daily basis and don't have any permanent residence.  Their average salaries are 50 to 200 rupees/day (one to four Canadian dollars) and they don't have work all year round.

The tent village in Gurgaon, close to our high-end abode, was recently removed.  Hundreds of these tent homes on a vacant plot of land - one day it was there and the next day it was gone...  They may have been moved because of a land purchase or new development.

The municipality has managed to clear the cows out of our neighbourhood too.  Both of these losses in Gurgaon were sad events for me.  The first because of the lives impacted, the second because I find the chaos of the cattle in the traffic so humorous and picturesque.

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Our crew are usually prepared with food for the people that approach our car at busy intersections.  They do take our offerings but are relentless in their request for rupees until the traffic shifts and our driver rolls us away.

Early Early Morning

A 13 hour train ride through the night from Delhi to Katni in Madhya Pradesh, was uneventful.  We slept most of the time... and disembarked in the wee hours of the morning emerging from the dark and dingy station into a sleeping town.

Even the rickshaw drivers were not yet awake to procure valuable fares from the arriving train...

Egret - widespread resident of India

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve & Bird Sanctuary

This two and a half year old male is being protected from alpha males (who would kill him) until he is ready to fend for himself.

His mother was killed when he was a cub, poisoned by a local farmer protecting cattle.  Now, of an age when he must be separated from his sisters who are also being protected and supported, he has a 6 square kilometer fenced area to roam while he's learning to provide for himself.  Soon he will be released into unfenced wild to an area outside that dominated by other males - a territory he will be able to claim as his own.

As well as Tigers this jungle at Bandhavgarh National Park is home to a large variety of mammals and birds willing to show for the camera.

Here are my birds...

Collared Scops Owl

Blackiston's Fish Owl

Blackiston's Fish Owl

Changable Hawk-Eagle

Red-Wattled Lapwing 

Adventuring into Wildlife Photography

This past weekend I tried my lens on wildlife.

Meror and I went on a 3 day Tiger Safari for photographers in Bandhavgarh National Park located in the heart of India.  If you are ever in the area I highly recommend this trip organized by a group called Nomad Excursions.  You can check out their website here.

We travelled in 3 Gypsy Jeeps with a naturalist/photographer from Nomad, and were allowed only on designated routes in the park.  Our driver and a local guide were expert at tracking tigers by listening to the warning calls given by Langur Monkeys and Spotted Deer as well as tracking signs left by the big cats.

 

There is a strong campaign in the area to have the tigers living undisturbed in their natural habitat and efforts are being made to have visitors venture into this terrain in a non-invasive way.

A female and her two cubs were sited in a hilly bamboo hollow, settled down with a kill she had made early that morning.  This was lucky for us because she would stay in one place for a day or two and we were granted permission to ride an elephant into the jungle to see this trio.  We were not to speak and the driver could not be bribed to move closer or stay longer than prescribed by the powers that protect.

This is the 5 year old Elly and her driver, that took us uphill on our 45 minute trek.

Photographing a camouflaged tiger is not an easy thing to do with your support dangling and rocking 15 feet in the air.  Oh, to be given hours to hunker down in a blind with a tripod.

This wee cub, looking at the elephant I was perched upon, is what I was able to capture and then I just relaxed to be in the moment and soaked up the enormity of what I was seeing with my own eyes.

My respect for wildlife photographers - always high - has just jumped several notches.  

The Bride ...

So you might have been wondering where the bride has been all this time.  My job was to photograph the groom and his family but, I did get to run up and see the bride before her official arrival on the scene.  She was lovely and had a beautiful smile ready for us.  

She will be carried in a crescent moon shaped litter by four bearers and then will walk under a beautiful canopy of flowers in procession with her family around her.  

The colour ...well, just see for yourself.

This bridal costume, with the pearls, gemstones, sequins and embroidery  weighs 15 kgs + jewelry