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I have embarrassingly low standards. At least I thought so until I went back to India, and then it seemed wise to "splurge" and pay $6 for a real room as opposed to $1-3 for a hovel, drawing the unspoken contempt from my fellow travelers. Have I gone soft? I had grand plans for India, but realized that I didn't have the money and desire to go through with it so I ended up just going to Calcutta--Kolkata, excuse me--and Varanasi.
The background on this page is from the faux wood grain of a cabinet in my hotel room in Varanasi. Maybe I'll change it since it is harder to read my spellbinding text and it makes me dizzy.
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In India I see things I've never seen before
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A herd of sheep in downtown Calcutta!
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Equal rights for women is a long road
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This taxi is sponsored by Nike
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I love decrepitude in all forms
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Calcutta rickshaws are pulled by humans and often without shoes.
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This I never understand. From a market in Calcutta, this is betel-nut spit on a stairwell.
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In the third picture what they do is take a fresh large leaf, press it between two bowls and when it dries out, it becomes a bowl, or at least long enough to eat spicy potatoes for breakfast and then you throw the rest to a waiting cow. Genius.
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In the middle photo and below is the process of recycling cow dung.
This girl collects it...
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...then it's formed and dried and shaped...
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and slapped on walls for reasons unknown.
It can be burned as fuel, too...
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...and your laundry can be dried on it, if need be.
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A cheap guest house's dorm room looks like a 19th century British hospital--which this could have been at one time, perhaps. Someone is inevitably sick, it is cold, drafty, etc. Awful. Beds are about $1.50-$2.
On the right is a Korean woman dressed beautifully in local clothes. I like the contrast between her and her surroundings. I have never been to a place where the vast majority of travelers were from one country, but India was absolutely infested with Koreans. Many interesting people, too.
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dobi wallahs pounding the laundry
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The Ganges River in Varanasi is heavily polluted
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Casket above the burning ghats. I wasn't allowed to take photos of burning bodies, though family members sometimes did.
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deep meditation
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a nightly ceremony in Varanasi
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Yeah, right.
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About to take a sip!
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Varanasi is still a place of instruction
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Back in Calcutta after an overnight train ride
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The inside of this intense train station. The only photo I took and then I was read the riot act by someone very angry. No photos!
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This is on the tarmac of Calcutta airport. For a city of over 10 million people, it's very quiet.
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Asia
