happy halloween from dalhousie!

ready made shepherd costume! 

there are no bad words for the coast today

chamera lakes...

Outpost

Chamera girl

Chamera Ladies

Bent Tree

Welcome

alpenliebe

I have been hard at work. Yesterday was Dainkund and today was Khajjiar (the Switzerland of Himachel Pradesh). Here are some images from the last two days of work. Meeting honeymooners, hiking to temples way up in the mountains, seeing hidden temporary villages, more temples, holding goats, balloons, cotton candy, horses, swings. 

Rushed Landscape

Khajjiar flowers

Switzerland sign (Khajjiar)

Video still (in progress)

Dainkund Family

first glimpse

yesterday when we finally got to dalhousie before i started to feel really sick with sinus infection round 3, we walked around and it was the first day of getting to work on my project in the mountains. it feels great to be out working here photographing. here is a sneak peak from day one. 

night moves

it's been a few days since i've posted. a busy couple of days and a lot i want to say but mostly things have been moving around in my head. bangalore was great. i got to meet another fulbrighter and fellow photographer annu matthew. it was wonderful to be able to talk photography with her and hear about her work that she’s doing here. i hope we get to cross paths again while she’s in india. we spent a few days gathering items, laura wanted to buy presents for friends back home since she won’t be returning to bangalore and i just enjoy the timeless pastime of shopping so i was completely happy to go along for the ride. shopping is an interesting way to get to know a place anyways. the streets in bangalore seem to be divided off by what is sold on them. there is a street for electronics, a street for bells, a street for clothes, etc. etc. and suresh knows all the hot spots for such things. we got lost in an amazing antique store looking at old prints, record players, bollywood press photographs, and on and on. on friday we had to leave bangalore but again i’m so excited that my residency will be there. it feels familiar and exciting all at once. i can’t wait to get to know the city really well. suresh introduced me to a friend of his who is a painter who has worked extensively in switzerland so we have a lot to talk about i think in terms of where our work overlaps. i bought a bunch of “alpenliebe” bollywood films to watch while i’m working up in the mountains. 

going to miss the coffee situation here

from the tools, electronics street. i don't normally buy things for myself or even know if its for sale but i will return to see if its still there...

morning coffee

on friday we flew back to delhi, and were supposed to catch a bus to patonkot and then a taxi to dalhousie. at the airport in delhi we were waiting at the bus stop and i guess my tripod attached to my back pack made me stick out even more than i maybe already do and a nice guy named saleem who is a filmmaker working in kashmir (synchronicity!) and is also obsessed with switzerland (he calls it is his village) and offered to help get us to the bus station we needed. we ended up sharing a cab, running through the station with our suitcases only to realize we had missed the bus by 2 minutes at the most. saleem helped book us another later bus, a sleeper bus that would get us to patonkot a little later. we were so lucky to have met him, he went so out of his way to help us and he luckily did not miss his train because of us. here’s to nice strangers! amazing. 

the bus drive was an experience all its own. i think the pictures and caption will do the talking. it would’ve been totally fine just as an adventure but now i have a little sinus infection from the adventure on the freezing bus to the mountains so today is an office day, editing photos, etc. trying to feel better soon so i can get back out to work tomorrow. 

hari travels, sleeper bus

our bedroom for the night

girls will be girls: when stuck on freezing sleeper bus with nothing to do its time for a photoshoot

getting colder, regretting leaving my coat in my suitcase

the outskirts of delhi are filled with resorts, carnivals, fairs, and tons of fireworks. sprawling and like reno only more insane

laura looking out the plexiglass window

where we got dropped off at 6 am

cheeld beer

mountain gas station

we made it! 

city market and botanical gardens

suresh has an amazing wealth of knowledge of bangalore and took us all around this morning. we left at seven am, went to the botanical gardens first and then to the city market. 

laura and i with a big tree

botanical garden in bangalore

botanical gardens

the city market was amazing. so beautiful, chaotic and peaceful all at once. there were so many layers, levels, corners and each turn made me think of some kind of fantastic italo calvino story. stuff this insane and pretty makes me weirdly speechless so i'll just post some pictures right now.

welcome

palm zone

and last but not least i am officially registered! i feel like a champ! like i ran out of there like i had just finished my final exams in high school! bam bam bam bam bam!

more from the registration office

mysore extravaganza

with no business that i could attend to on saturday in terms of registering, getting a mobile phone and other fun such activities, and the fact that we've been going to bed at 9 pm and waking up at 3 am, laura and i decided to go on a road trip with a nice lady who is overseeing the state department's smart power program. we left at 6 am, and got home at 9 pm. delirious and dusty. here are some photos from adventures to and from mysore. 

bangalore sunrise 

Hi

temple graffiti

painted elephants

murals galore

self portrait in the garden

bangalore rush hour 

obligatory bathroom self portrait

You never knew why you felt so good in the strangest of places like in waiting rooms and long lines that made you late

we are in bangalore now! it is so beautiful, so many flowers everywhere, palm trees, nice weather, just awesome. i'm really glad my residency will be here for the last three months of my fulbright. bangalore! it feels oddly familiar and comforting. we met suresh who is the director of the artist residency i'll be staying at and he was super nice and helpful. and then it was off to the foreign regional registration office! we took auto rickshaws there which had been built up as scary but if you've ever been in the back of a pick up truck its like that only it feels safer. i would've taken pictures but i was too busy just looking so no pictures just yet.
we then spent 6 hours waiting at the foreign regional registration office in bangalore. i didn't know it would take 6 hours but it did. it was strangely comforting and in sick way, sort of fun. i really like observing bureaucracy: its so detail oriented, dedicated, intricate, etc. i kept checking out other people's passports while i was there and saw people from tanzania, mongolia, iran, argentina, etc. etc.  i met a couple of really nice guys from iraq who are here studying  to be pharmacists and we talked about how we'd seen each other cities over google earth. he told me he thought tennessee would be full of outlaws(?) which is a stereotype i haven't yet heard but i like it. refreshing and so mysterious! outlaws! and after another few hours of friendly conversation with everyone else in the waiting room about x-men (the movie) and how it feels to be in india, they reported back that they need one. last. bit. of. information. from. me. and to come back on monday! hooray!

1 of 2 waiting rooms. x-treme waiting!

mysore today.

1st full day, Delhi!

first full day in delhi! i'm a little too tired to write but it was great to meet everyone in the fulbright offices and finally meet all the wonderful people i've been emailing with for so long. we also did a little sight seeing. amazing!!! 

Fulbright House

red fort

sleepy on red on red

Lodi Gardens