Going home

I know it’s a cliché, but it seems like only yesterday that I came to live in Delhi. I will miss my work colleagues who have been very kind to me. I will miss the historical sites of the capital, that I have come to know so well. I will miss the food. I won’t…

Trucks

Lorries, wagons, heavy goods vehicles, call them what you will. Here are some superb specimens from India. The Hindi slogans are interesting. The detail is fascinating, with tassels, stick-on Shiva lingams and a representation of an eye and nose ring on a headlight. The paint work even extends to the tailgate. “Horn Please” = let…

Blessing the Chariot

I went out to buy some milk this evening, taking the shortcut down the alley past the Hindu Temple. A pandit (priest wearing the Nehru jacket) was chanting prayers while he anointed a couple’s new scooter with sandalwood paste. Using his index finger, he painted a swastika design below the headlamp, putting a dot in each…

Vintage and Classic Car Rally

The Statesman is holding the 51st Classic Car Rally in Delhi this weekend. In the words of the advertising poster, “Let these beauties charm you one more time, For, these are classic and sublime.” I happened to be walking past Modern School, just off Connaught Place early this afternoon when a poster grabbed my attention.…

Grand Trunk Road

The Grand Trunk Road connects Chittagong in Bangladesh with Kabul in Afghanistan. I never cease to be amazed at the antics of the traffic on this route which runs past the front of our clinic. Moving long loads by bicycle can be tricky. This man is shifting metal across two lanes of dual carriageway (each…

Motorbikes in Manipur

Motorbikes are economical means of transport in Manipur. This photograph is remarkable for two reasons. A driver with just one pillion passenger, and both are wearing helmets. These children are having fun riding with their father down the main street in Moreh. I cringe when I see children with their bare feet close to the…

Serendipity

Sometimes you take a photograph and it is only when you look at the image back home on your computer screen that you realise how lucky you have been to capture it. This man is sleeping on the concrete barrier which separates two lanes of traffic in Chandni Chowk. This is one of the busiest…

Delhi Traffic

I have become blasé about the lawless nature of traffic in North Delhi. I say North Delhi because our drivers say that drivers in South Delhi tend to be more law abiding – possibly because of a greater police presence in Lutyens’ leafy avenues around the diplomatic enclave and the PM’s house. Or maybe because there…

Hard Work – a photographic essay

Poor people in India work hard. Manual labour is cheap. Here are some photographs of men carrying loads on their heads, pushing and pulling handcarts, straining to pedal their human and inanimate loads. The light was fading as I took the pictures, so they are gritty and grainy, but I think this adds to the…

Delhi Metro as a Flaneur

Daily Post I vividly remember the first time I stepped onto a Delhi Metro train at Rajiv Chowk underground station in the heart of New Delhi at Connaught Place ten years ago. It was a shock. The station wasn’t just clean, it was spick and span. There were no beggars. It was air conditioned. The train…