For a while now I’ve felt interested in the archaeological aspects of travel. Indians, though, have opened my eyes to see the people who live near the archeological sites. Monuments and the carvings on them that increase their significance become a backdrop to the people who live at their base. In my recently developed view in this regard, India Gate, Humayun’s Tomb, the Jama Masjid Mosque, and the Qutab Minar, loom amazingly above, and yet, it is the people who bustle and hustle next to me that seem the more impressive.
Whatever shyness I had about taking photographs of people quickly diminished this week during my visit to New Delhi. I saw smiles everywhere I turned, and smiling persons would compel me to turn to them to return the friendliness. New Delhians posed as soon as they glimpsed my camera, and stood with smiles, their hands on or around the shoulders of their friends. Pretty soon I learned to not restrain myself with my camera. A high number of the population speaks English, so it was easy, because of both knowledge of the same language and their friendliness, to start conversations on the street, or at the foot of an impressive structure.
I discovered the same friendliness in Jodhpur. Vendors at the old bazaar around the ghanta ghar, or clock tower, smiled up at me, or continued their thoughtful conversations as I aimed my lens at them. Some of them even raised their hands to wave, and kept their position long enough for me to settle on the settings of my camera and compose the photograph.
The experience of walking through the old bazaar was something I would never have imagined, even if Karl had told me about it. It is as beautiful in color as Egypt, and yet, again, the color, like the impressive monuments, becomes a backdrop behind what has become my main focus, the people.
