The photograph was taken from an auto rickshaw. Initially, I saw only the faces and thought their masks were a protection against the polluted air so common on Bangalore streets; then, as the auto pulled away, I noticed the costume and the bare feet and it became clear they were Jains.
This weekend I sifted through the photos from our trip and created the India 2004 album.
Parmanu 
Your pix are like your prose.
LOVE what they reveal of you.
Nice photos as always. You seem to have acquired the perspective of the Westerners in viewing India through the lens. Interesting.
You are right in a way Patrix – I wouldn’t have focussed on some of those elements five years ago (when I was living in India). This visit, I was tickled by the crowd outside the TV showroom watching cricket; I was amused by the cow in the middle of a street; I was excited watching boys playing cricket; I felt my mouth watering when I saw those ‘chat’ ingredients. These are little things that make India what it is, and I miss them being abroad. So the first instinct when I see something like that is to go ‘Click’ ! The Westerner notices these elements for their contrast between East and West, and captures such images to serve as a token of rememberance of their visit; to me, such images capture the memory of a past I no longer occupy.
A lovely, striking, evocative photograph. Very Henri Cartier Bresson !(not sure of the sp.), yet saying that somehow diminishes the photograph
Great photo. Simply great.
er parmanu – a minor doubt… did u take a B/W reel with u ? or is there some way in which to reduce color photos to B/W … The idea is so nicely captured in B/W without the distraction of colors.. as in your snap of the Railway station… ver nice…
.. Also liked the Sign board cum toilet complex in Aleppey… Depends on which they are in a bigger hurry for… : )
.. “steam baths” -> “Home Delivery” – yo concept… should be in the guinness ? 🙂
They’re beautiful…I love the cricket match and development…
Suketa Mehta’s Maximum City has an interesting account of a jain family in bombay taking deeksha and becoming monks.
and forgot to mention, love india looking out
Loosemuse: I abandoned the filmroll over an year ago – I either use the digital camera in the B&W mode (as in the above picture) or convert color photos into B&W when that seems appropriate (as in that railway station photo).
And the aspect of “home delivery” of “steam bath” in that photo had completely escaped my notice – innovative concept indeed!
Perhaps it is not the steam bath that is delivered home. Maybe the person who undergoes massage and steam bath has to be delivered home.