Syntex Water Tanks

The Indian city skyline is dotted with small and large syntex tanks. It is an uglification of the cities, but with an important purpose. The municipality supplies water only at certain hours of the day and this supply is also shut down for repairs at times. More often, the water mafia slows or shuts down the supplies, accepting bribes to improve the supply. Ground level civic employees or chabiwalas hold the key to the water and they are exploiting it to the hilt, causing a water shortage in residential areas. That is why most households are forced to store water. In any case municipal water does not have enough force for it to climb up, making overhead tanks a necessity.

A view of the syntex tanks dotting the landscape. In the background, to the right, you can see large overhead tanks. A pity that water management is riddled with inefficiency and corruption.

Related Images: Water Tankers or Water Pipeline in India or Water Pump for irrigation in India

Camel cart and Bullock cart

Animals are used in India to transport goods. One expects this in rural India, but this happens in cities as well although it is not very common. Common methods of city transport (for goods) are trucks, tempos and auto rickshaws. Here are two examples of animals ferrying goods in cities.

This picture is taken in the state of Rajasthan, India. A camel cart is pulling steel pipes on a city road. The driver of the cart is sitting and holding a stick to drive the camel which has a harness.

Here is a man driving a large cart pulled by a bull on a crowded city street in Pune, Maharashtra. In the photo he is at rest. At the back of his cart some material is covered by tarpaulin. The bull in the photo below looks quite majestic despite it being underfed, and is looking at the camera directly. His horns are painted red.

Bullock carts maybe used to transport goods in the cities at times, but in rural areas they are often used as a means of personal transport as you can see by clicking here: Bullock Carts in the country and in the city or try this post: Man with camel - photograph and silhouette

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Ellora Temple Interiors

Ellora  Temples, built on a rock face outside the city of Aurangabad were carved out between the 5th and the 10 century AD, and are a World Heritage site. They consist of 12 Buddhist, 17 Hindu and 5 Jain caves/temples. These are photographs of the vast interiors of some of the temples. One can only imagine how magnificent they must have been all those centuries ago, when time had not eroded the stone and chipped away at the paint and artwork.

Here is a photograph of the inside of one of the biggest temples. It is a Hindu temple from the shrine at the end of the hall and the figurine of a goddess inside of it. 

This is another view of the same temple, with a closer look at the carved pillars. Most of the work has been eroded.

Here is a long corridor outside one of the temples. The columns or pillars can be seen to the left of the picture. A small staircase at the end of the corridor takes you to the upper floors of the temple.

Another interior of a temple at Ellora. Here the carvings and engravings on the pillars are still visible.

This is a place where the Buddhist monks used to live. It is a type of ancient dormitory. The rooms are small cubicles and some have a stone platform for sleeping. Some of the cubicles have no concrete bed. There are no windows.

This is an example of the stone/concrete bed, although this photograph was not taken in one of the above rooms, but at Ajanta.

More images from Ellora: Kailashnath Temple at Ellora - Photos or Ellora Temples sculpted exteriors or try the label "Ajanta"  or Ellora for  for images of Ajanta and Ellora Art and Ajanta and Ellora Temples.

Holy man, Godman or religious baba

Some men are worshipped by ordinary people and are considered "holy" or "Godmen". They usually have their own following. The first picture is taken in North India. Here the religious baba is dressed in white robes and is wearing some sort of turban. He has garlands around his neck given to him by devotees. He is riding on a chariot. A man on the road is paying his respects to him by folding his hands to him.

This is a portrait of a Hindu priest with a long white beard and various beads and necklaces around his neck. Yogis and Monks wear these Rudraksha beads and these beads are supposed to give them energy and tranquility. They have a holy quality. This priest is also wearing a watch and holding a leather pouch under his elbows. A cup or tea in a plastic glass is in his right hands. He is wearing spectacles too, all in all a modern priest.

Related Images: Pilgrims singing and playing the Manjira musical instrument or Priest performing a Pooja or ritual
Or Hanuman Temple

For religious symbols from Hinduism: Swastika graphics from India or Paduka or Guru's feet or  Shiva Pindi or Lingam 

Fashion Street in South Mumbai

It's not frequented by the hip crowd but you can pick up some inexpensive and smart ready-mades at Fashion Street in South Mumbai. You might find some foreign tourists here looking for cheap cotton ready-mades but mostly you find the middle classes here. Some of these clothes are export rejects.

A row of ramshackle shops packed with different types of clothes for men, women, and children line this arterial road in Mumbai. Trees provide the shade as you go from shop to shop. Bargaining is common.  Good place to pick up nightwear.

A closer look at these shops selling ready-made clothes. Jackets, tops and T-shirts.

Shoppers walking along the broad pavement along the shops are Fashion Street. They seem to be pretty satisfied with their haul!

Crowded market places in India or Vegetable Markets in India

Bank ATMs in India

Here are some photos of Automated teller machine or ATM's in Mumbai, India. They were invented in the sixties in the United States for ease of getting cash out of banks. About a decade ago ATM's were not common in India and about 20 years ago they were rare. In the eighties they weren't any as far as I know.  Today even the labour class uses debit and credit cards to withdraw money from ATM's. Can't imagine how one got money out of banks without them! Oh yes, take leave from work to go to the bank! Wait in lines for a long time to withdraw cash. And you better not think of a cash advance after the bank's working hours!

An Axis Bank ATM with a relaxed security guard.

A row of ATM's outside a suburban railway station at a parking lot. ATM's of Canara Bank, ICICI Bank and Punjab National Bank. Don't see any security here at all. In one of the ATM's you can see a man withdrawing money through the glass door and the other two are empty.

Bank Safety Deposit boxes or Lockers or Photographs of Swiss Banks

Ingredients of instant noodles and instant soups (Junk food)

If we eat junk, lets admit to ourselves its junk. These are some of the actual ingredients of processed food. These are close-up photographs of the labels on instant noodles and instant ready-made soups of different brands like Nestle and Knorr.

The dal atta noodles call themselves healthy but just look at the ingredients. The word "atta" is almost immediately followed by "wheat flour" which means maida or white refined flour. Followed by edible vegetable oil, salt and guar gum. The garnishing of dal is more for show. The mixed spices, sugar, salt are too much for the serving size. The rest of the ingredients are: wheat (read refined flour or maida) noodle poweder, tamarind powder, acidifying agent, curry leaves, asafoetida or hing, dehydrated vegetables (which hardly have any food value) and then there are flavour enhancers. Sounds quite unhealthy to me.

Here are the ingredients of these noodles: wheat flour or  maida, refined vegetable oil, salts and antioxidants.

This is the pack of instant pasta which seems a little better as it claims to be made of semolina (rawa) and wheat fibre.

This is an instant soup powder made of maltodextin, salt, monosodium gulatamate (which is not present in all instant noodles), sugar, chicken fat, vegetable fat, hydrolysed vegetable protein, flavourants, thickener, yeast extract, herbs, acidifiers, spices, flavour enhances and antioxidant. Seems like poison to me!  If you have to use this stuff add your own vegetable puree to it.

These are vegetable atta noodles purportedly made with whole wheat. As in the earlier case the word "atta" is immediately followed by the word "wheat flour" which means white refined flour or maida. This one has artificial colour as well.

This packet of hot and sour vegetable soup says it has no synthetic colours, but it will have colors, though of the natural variety. However even these are chemicals as it is all processed. Ingredients: Corn flour, salt, dehydrated vegetables, dried glucose syrup, sugar, flavour enhancer, soyabean sauce condiments, acidity regulator, yeast extract and dehydrated garlic and vitamins. The only think I like about it is vitamins because at least they are vitamins. Whether the actual food has any vitamins we don't know. Most likely not. Best to add your own finely chopped vegetables.

Related Pictures: Processed Juices in India or Instant Noodles Stock Photo or Processed foods in India or How to recognize a fake Tata Tetley tea bag or Muesli Nutrition Comparison and misleading labelling
Or for more try the label "Processed Food" or "Snacks" for cooked snacks.

Hay stacks in Rural India

Different types of grass is dried, and stored and is used as animal fodder for livestock like cattle, horses, goats, and sheep eat hay. Rabbits and guinea pigs or pigs also munch hay.

These are photographs of haystacks in rural India. Both men and women work on cutting the grassy vegetation, drying it in the sun and then storing in heaps. Later it is packed is made into compact hay bales with the use of machines. 

A large heap or hillock of hay and to the right you can see bales of hay made by a machine in the background. The machine that makes bales out of hay can be seen to the right of the picture, in the background.

A neat row of bales of hay next to a large heap of hay.

Hay stacks in the background and cattle in the foreground. The cattle pulls the bullock carts which transport the hay.

Hills of hay and small rectangular hay bales lying next to them. A few workers, men and women are also in the picture.

A long line of people positioned on a hay stack, passing hay to each other for storage.

A large load of hay being transported by a bullock cart or bailgadi.

Related Photos: Sugarcane fields or Rice fields near Chennai  or Man and Bullock cultivating field or Palm Plantations of Malaysia or Rubber Plantations in Kerala

For a panoramic view of cultivated fields: Large images of open fields for headers
More pictures of  Rural India.

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Woman Gardener in India

These are photographs of a woman gardener working on a flower bed near Nasik in Maharashtra, India. In her hand she has a curved iron scythe to dig up the flower bed.

Here is the same woman, busy loosening up the mud in the flower bed so that the plants gets enough oxygen to its roots.

Eiffel Tower sketches and silhouettes

Here some sketches and silhouettes of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which is a landmark of the city of Paris. These images are based on photographs taken by me.
This sketch shows the Eiffel, an iconic monument of Paris, from the front, with tourists all around.

This is a sketch of a worm's eye view of the Eiffel Tower. A view from the bottom. The intricate lines of this metallic structure are visible in the drawing.

A black silhouette of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

A reddish brown silhouette of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Related Images: Try the label Silhouettes or the label Sketches for more silhouettes and sketches of people and buildings and monuments from different parts of the world.
Related Photos: Eiffel Tower - free photographs or  Birds Eye View of Paris from the Eiffel Tower 
More images of Paris: The Louvre Museum Paris - exterior and interior with pieces of art
Eiffel Tower - free photographs or Lido at Champs Elysees, Paris

Plaited Bonsai Plant

Saw this in a mall in either Hong Kong or mainland China. It was unique and someone must have taken great efforts to weave a plaited design on to a plant. Bonsai is an art form and this is one of the most interesting pieces I have seen.  Many bonsai enthusiasts attempt to make braids or plaints from their plants but it requires a lot of patience.

A closer view of the plant confirms that this is real, and not artificial!

Related Images: If you are looking for more picture of bonsai plants check this post: Bonsai of the Banyan tree or Bougainvillea Bonsai or Chapha the tropical flower, Plumeria in English or or Bonsai of Gular, Chilly and a Christmas Tree

Newspaper and Magazine Vendors in India

These are pictures of street vendors selling newspapers and magazine in India. You can find them in almost every corner in the heart of any city. 

Here is a woman newspaper and magazine vendor sitting at a corner on a pavement in Pune, Maharashtra. She has stuck magazines on the wall of a building which also has torn posters and faded wall paintings.

This lady newsprint vendor is sitting outside a suburban railway station. A sun umbrella has been provided for her by the newspaper DNA.  Different type of newspapers are for sale as well as tabloids like Global Jobs and Money. Kalnirnay, a marathi calender with all the festivals marked in details is also on sale here.

A small-time newspaper boy vendor sitting at the side of a small road under a sun umbrella in Mumbai. The magazine The Week has provided him the umbrella.

A newspaper vendor's stall selling Marathi newspapers in Pune. A small tobacco shop is in the background. People often come to relax here, have a cigarette and read a newspaper.

Related Images: Road side vendors in India blocking the pavements
Or English Newspapers in India - Images or  Regional Newspapers in India - Images

Hagia Sophia Pictures

Imagine a church and Mosque combined into one! Well, that is what Hagia Sophia (a churchmosque) is all about. Well, to be precise it was a church, then a mosque, and has now been made into a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. It is magnanimous of the Turkish people and government to have stopped it from being a mosque, considering that it was originally a church. By making it a museum they are showing their sense of fairness as the mosque had been forcibly made in the premises of the church.

It was a church from 360 B.C. to 1453, and became a mosque from 1453 until 1931. In 1453 Sultan Mehmed laid siege to Constantinople, "driven in part by a desire to convert the city to Islam."

Hagia Sophia has a huge dome, typycally Byzantine Christian architecture and was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years. As a mosque it was the principal mosque of Istanbul for almost 500 years.
Today it is a tourist spot. This is a photo of the exterior of the Hagia Sophia.

A shot of the interior, the main hall. There was some restoration work going on but here you can see the symbols of both Christianity and Islam. A painting of Christ at the top of the image and an Islamic symbol to the right of the picture.

Here is a photograph of the elaborately carved and painted interiors. Paintings of Christ are visible.

Another image of the inside of the domes and a small image of Jesus Christ.

Related Images: The Blue Mosque at Istanbul
There are also a lot of pictures of the Sistine Chapel  in Vatican City in Rome on this website.

Or more related images: Church Silhouettes or Christmas Tree Silhouette

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Black Hippos in the wild

The photographs in this post were taken of hippopotamus in the wild in Ruaha National Park in Tanzania. Hippos are huge animals, and purely herbivorous. Their skin is thick and the Black Hippo as seen in the picture is more common in Africa. They are one of the largest mammals found on land.  The hippopotamus is a semi-aquatic animal. 

The hippos are very dangerous and one can watch them only from afar. Being a national park there is no fence to separate them from visitors and one has to be very careful. This is a picture of a black Hippo with an open mouth.

Their black colour enables them to merge into the scene. Here they look like black rocks.

Related Images: Wild Zebras in Ruaha National Park Tanzania or Wild Buffalo in Africa  or a Man with camel - photograph and silhouette or check out the label "Animals."

You might also like Yaks in Ladakh or Cat Portraits

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Rocky Dadar Beach

It is difficult for me to imaagine now that this was the very beach I played on as a child. It had a vast expanse of smooth brown sand and we used to sit here for hours making sand castles and playing on the beach. My aunt has a house on the beach front, still has. But this is what Dadar beach looks like now. Reclamation in South Mumbai is said to have caused this sad situation. Sad for the residents of this stretch as their view and space is gone. Long walks, and gazing in silence at the sunset are relic past-times. Citizens pay the price for the greed of commercial interests.

More pictures of beaches: Daman Beach Scenes - Black Sands or Nature headers of beach scenes or Beach Scenes of different beaches or Beach Scenes for backgrounds  or try the label Beaches for all photographs with a beach.

Mahatma Gandhi spinning wheel drawing and sketch

These are pencil drawings and sketches of Mahatma Gandhi at the spinning wheel and also separate sketches of his spinning wheel and his room at Gandhidham. The first two images, the drawing and sketch of the Mahatma at the spinning wheel, is based on a photograph by me of a painting of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhidham. Others, that of Mahatma Gandhi's room and spinning wheel are photographs shot at Gandhidham at Ahmedabad.

Mahatma Gandhi spinning wheel sketch:

Sketch of Mahatma Gandhi's room at Gandhidham showing his desk, his mattress and spinning wheel.

This is a sketch of Mahatma's Gandhi's personal spinning wheel kept at Gandhidham.

(Most of the sketches here have been made on photoshop and the first line drawing of Mahatma Gandhi has been drawn by me by hand)

Related Images: Sketches and drawings of Mahatma Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi and Gandhidham in Ahmedabad - Portraits and Paintings or Free Images of the Indian Flag
Or Mahatma Gandhi quotes (framed photos of his famous sayings) or  Postcards written to Mahatma Gandhi without an address or Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi together at Madame Tussauds London