Vivah

One is always tempted to talk about the sad and eerie because its more dramatic and it makes us grow; it is impossible to go to India and not make a note of it. However, I also experienced a splendorous side of India - its lively music, its sparkle and festiveness. Sharan’s wedding was reminiscent of a grand feast of a Maharajah: music permeated each event; the dancing and celebration never ended and a gathering wasn’t complete without the delectable Indian food. Indians really know how to shake it up, and I felt in familial terrain when they turned up the music… that Bhangra beat is addictive and hypnotizing. To top it all up, Sharan’s family is multi-talented and when they take the microphone that’s when the party really gets started. Like Latins, and maybe even more so, Indians are extremely hospitable and warm, and I found myself feeling “at home” in their company. Indian women exude inner beauty – they may adorn themselves with henna, sparkling bangles, earrings, and dazzling saris, but they carry their real beauty inside.. you can see it in the intensity of their look, their genuine smiles and their evident self-acceptance. This was an experience of a lifetime and pictures don’t do justice to the essence of the celebration.

Splendorous India

Sense of Touch

Road Trip

From Mumbai to Dew Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, it seemed that everyone is fighting for survival. Hopelessness and despair stare you in the face everywhere you go.. Encountering this crude reality exposed our own personal contradictions and inner struggles regarding our previously held values on fairness, freedom and opportunity. It questioned our perception and belief in the concept of fate, and whether one should surrender to it.

Faces of India

Mumbai

If you could imagine New York City in ruins.. that would be Mumbai. Mumbai is a city of contradictions: its where Victorian architecture meets the slums; it’s a monochrome city with dashes of colorful sarees and marigold garlands; the streets smell of cardamom, anise and other spices, burning incense and a hint of something foul; rapid hindi is overtaken by the honking horns of the yellow-hooded taxis that rush the streets; the face of poverty, dirt and homelessness is in every corner… It seemed chaotic at first, but at some point between my taxi driver’s personal tour of Mumbai and my walk through the back streets of Culaba, the city sounds drifted into the background and I merged with that divine mystic energy that flows through the city; suddenly, everything that mattered a few days ago seemed trivial and forgotten…Mumbai is life in a very raw form and I experienced it through the eyes of its people: the windows to its soul.
Here are just a few pictures..

Scents, Sounds and Visions

Chowpatty Beach

Silent Mumbai

On my way to Mumbai!!!

Travel advice from a Mexican writer, Ricardo Garibay – “Smell the cities. Don’t take the classic photos in the places where everyone goes. Smell the markets, the streets, the squares, and the parks; smell the air that surrounds you so you never forget it. And take a book with you, so that that the writings of the great thinkers help you put your own thoughts in order. This will allow you to make scenes of your personal travel experience.”

London

L'Spia

You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Mexico, Isla Mujeres

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. E.Roosevelt.

Artistas and Pulgas

Caged Books - Life's Contradictions