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And then there is this Pepsi commercial

It was exactly one month ago today that I returned from India. It has been a crazy month of working and partying that has gone through many hairstyle and job applications. I remembered that it was a month today while showering, so I busted out the Fa Vanilla Honey Creme Bodywash that I bought my first day in Delhi. I had forgotten to pack my Whole Foods shower gel so I had to improvise with something bought there. It is a soap free moisturizing body wash which smelled as manly as possible as the pharmacy in Pahar Ganj didn’t seem to carry anything but womens soaps and variations of “fair and lovely” (a terrible product that is meant to make you pailer skinned and therefore more beautiful - the opposite of our goal in the west).

Buying a new scented product whilst on vacation is a good thing to do for your return home. It is a trick that I have known from previous trips, having bought a new aftershave in Duty Free on my 2006 trip with Amanda, and also having forgotten to pack shampoo on my first trip to Asia in 1998. They say that the sense of smell has the strongest memories attached to it, and today in the shower was no different. Amanda always says “ooh India” when I wear the Issey Miyake Bleue, although it probably often sounds more like “eeerrrgh, India.”

Here is an unbelievable advertisement that is telling the average Indian that the lighter the skin, the greater their success in life. I love how the commercial has the mix of Hindi and English. The use of English is still widely associated with wealth and class in India. However this product still needs to sell to the normal Indian who at most only speaks a little English.

And not just limited to women. Here is the mens version with added motorbikes and a red carpet.

This story caught my eye on BBC news. In India the caste system allows for some very strange circumstances to come about. I have often thought that without this system, the country would grind to a halt. Although I strongly disagree with being born into castes, and think that the whole idea is outrageous, there are many jobs that would not get done without it. It seems that it takes a certain acceptance of fate to be the person who manually shovels turds out of toilets. There are apparently 340,000 women who perform this task daily, they are known as ’scavengers’ and are part of the untouchable caste (Dalit). The women move from one house to another, performing the demeaning task of cleaning human excrement using their bare hands to smpty the toilets. This has to be carried for long distances to be disposed off, and they often carry it on their heads.

Mission Sanitation is an NGO that is working to help these women. they just put on a fashion show in New York that had some of them modeling and included many dresses that had been worked on by them. A group of Indian women, rescued by the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation from the degrading task of manually cleaning toilets, joined leading fashion models on the catwalk before representatives from more than 150 countries at UN Headquarters in New York, USA. The ceremony was especially poignant for Usha Chomar, because she was unofficially crowned as princess of sanitation workers.

Here is some amazing photography from a German photographer Peter Bialobrzeski that appears to all be shot around Varanasi. These are all images I would never take, but absolutely love.

My bus from McLeod Ganj stopped at about 2am I presumed for another cup of chai, sweeter than Coke and as milky as hot chocolate. I jumped down from my ‘luxurious’ double sleeper and found the driver drenched in petroleum, squeezing a sodden rag into the fuel tank. It appears our bus had run out of petrol and some local trucks had been flagged down. We soon pulled away to find a gas station about 200 yards down the road. They filled the tank with 210 Litres of Petroleum (or maybe deisel) which cost $215. There has been much news about the price of gas in India, as the government has been subsidising it for years, to keep its poorer economy ticking along. Hopefully Air France will manage to keep their tank full for the flight to Paris this evening.

I have also, presonally, run out of fuel. I am going to have to drag myself out of my air-conditioned hotel to take some last photos. By the time I return home, I will have slept 3 of the last seven days in an actual bed. My ability to avoid missing Amanda, Stella, Louise and Brooklyn has finally collapsed now that I am in ‘middle earth’ Delhi. After 4 weeks of sobriety and more walking and carrying than I do in a year, I am ready for some good old fashioned lounging in my local bar. It has been a testament of character for all those people who have endured me the past 4 weeks. I especially need to thank Scott, who on my last day kept a positive attitude as I interrogated his NGO, and after dinner I insulted his Tibetan friend. Hopefully he will come out to NY and we can repay some of his hospitality. He has made it possible for me to meet new people in McLeod and not wander the streets chatting with old friends and living in old dreams. As a sign of how few Tibetans I now know in McLeod (the almighty US Visa being Wonka’s Golden Ticket), Scott was the only person who came to see me off and tied a white Khata round my neck.

I think if Chris had been there we would have been quite the band of merry men!

Yesterday we discussed whether just thinking about the issue of Tibet was enough. The people at the Centre for Non-Violence (Scott - do you know the website address?) were convinced that thought is a positive step towards the freedom of Tibet. I argued that much thinking had already been done, and that after nearly 60 years since the Chinese invasion, and nearly 50 years since H.H the Dalai Lama fled, thought is just not enough anymore. I would have to argue though, that the international coverage, and the international attention and ‘thought’ about the issue has been a big step since March 10 this year. Now we all have to turn thought into action. Here is the recent BBC News article on Tibet.

In 2002 when I moved here for 10 months to work at the Tibetan Government in Exiles photographic archive, I made many long time friends. Unfortunately by the end of 2004 two of them had passed away. The first being Robert King (aka Bingo). He was an amazing guy who had lived in India for 10 years and was running a large British house in the hills above McLeod Ganj, called Eagles Nest (an amazing place). He was a stand up guy who unfortunately would partake in a few too many Gin’s every evening. I believe he died of a brain hemorrhage, and was cremated out here against his mothers wish.

The second was Patrick Sullivan. He was from New York and was an actor for a while (claiming to star in Close Encounters of the Third kind). He also lived out here, and began to help the street children. He adopted this small boy called Sunny, who claimed to live in the woods with the Langur monkeys. He was trying to set up a children’s school to help all of the street kids and was sending Sunny to a private school in Dalhousie. Sunny found it hard to lose the street kid attitude and certainly was not stopped by his father, who also enjoyed a few extra pegs of Bagpiper Whiskey. About six months after I had left, he slipped and fell in his shower. None of his family back in USA wanted to help, and Sunny watched his father pass away in 3 days.

It was nice seeing him again, and seeing how he had matured. Last time I was here, he was in jail for an accusation of theft. He was released after 6 months and was never found guilty. That incident and all of his prior troubles have left him unemployable in McLeod Ganj, and he was desperate for some money to get to Manali. As little as I believe him, and as much as I think he will misuse any money I hand over, I did feel the need to slip him 500 rupees before I left. You can see the sparkle of mischief in his eyes!!

This is a video of some school children singing below the Dhauladar ranges. It was the first perfectly clear sky, and chance to get the full sunset on the mountains. They are unfortunately part of a group called Sahaja Yoga that appear to have a bunch of claims against them. Who knows what’s true, all I know is that it was pretty nice coming across some entertainment to go with the spectacular view.

I was walking through the quiet back streets of Varanasi this morning, looking for some last shots before I board the train, and a small, famished street dogs was scratching at the dirt for food. It was covered in flies and had several infested wounds on its rear. Its tail was between its legs, shaking uncontrollably, with each rib exposed through its limp fur. I bought some street bread and fed the poor animal. Right there in the middle of the street with all the cars and people going to work I couldn’t stop myself from crying (I know, I’m one step away from wearing hippy clothes and hugging trees). I don’t know if it was a result of missing my own dogs, of finally being aware of such poverty and disease, or was just simply angry at myself for being so callous towards it all for the past 3 weeks. If this blog can do any good at all, then it could help with the vaccination and sterilizations of dogs out here. Here and here are websites that accept a paypal donation (second one seems best for all animals). $5 will help one dog. Here is another group for the welfare of stray dogs. I know and believe that every person who reads this could donate at least $10. I will spare you the gruesome photos, as this isn’t PETA, but believe me it is truly a terrible sight most of the time.