Northern India Polo Championships

I had just enjoyed an Indian classical music concert at the Habitat Centre on Lodi Road. The whole afternoon was free before the jazz concert started at the ungodly hour of 5pm. Delhi has TimeOut online and I flicked through its pages on my smart phone like a discerning roué discarding desperate cougars on Tinder.…

Lovebirds

Spring is here. I can tell because the pigeons are getting frisky outside my bedroom window during the night. They like to perch on the air conditioner and coo. Then they scrat. It makes a terrible racket and wakes me up. So I have started using the air con to dissuade them from hanky panky.…

Simien Mountain Profile

A gelada from the mountains of northern Ethiopia. This is a cheeky photograph of a gelada baby baboon feeding from mother – from her expression, he isn’t sucking gently. He is in profile, however.

Becoming Indianised

On Monday evening, the driver dropped me off at the street market after work so I could do the fruit and veg shopping for our apartment. Wary of being overcharged as a foreigner, I usually sidle up behind a well-dressed Indian lady who is haggling over the price of onions at a stall. I greet…

(Rough) Diamond Dogs in Delhi

Wandering down the lanes (galis) of Old Delhi on Sunday morning, I took some photos of dogs. Here’s an old man, sitting in the feeble winter sunshine with his dog. This family were catching up on some sleep, huddled together on a ledge. This man was lovingly stroking his dog’s head with his left foot.…

One Word Photo Challenge: Dog

Snoozing in the sun, on a gunny sack, on a wall, in the Deer Park, Hauz Khas, Delhi. Photographed last Saturday, Panasonic Lumix LX100. Dog

Walk in the Bazar

I should have known better. It was crowded, impatient people pushing and jostling. I took my phone out of my trouser pocket and put it in my knapsack, wearing it on my chest, not my back. I was able to zip away my wallet and keys safely. I checked again in five minutes and the…

Traffic Jams

Traffic in Delhi has been grim over the past few days. This has been blamed on a sprinkling of rain, a national holiday, some roadworks and a few foreign VIPs getting priority on the highway. Across the road from the clinic is the largest wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Asia. There are so many trucks…

Apocalypse Cow

A month ago, there was a leader in the Times of India about cows. Or more specifically, about a man with the impressive moniker of Mahamandleshwar Swami Akhileshwaranand Giri. He is chair of the executive council tasked with protecting cows in Madhya Pradesh state. He stated that “the next world war will start over a…

Edge Photo Challenge

It is coming close to the time of Durga Puja. Durga is the Goddess of the creation and destruction of the world. This Bengali man is slicing off the heads of chickens with a sharp edge, fixed to a wooden plank. I took the photograph this morning in Chittaranjan using a Panasonic Lumix LX100 1/50th…