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Larry is the owner of the luxurious house we’re dog sitting in out in Stanford, California. His dog Charlie Brown is a bit of a handful, and has even chewed a fixable hole in the lining of my favorite jacket to try and get some gourmet licorice I’d bought. In general though he’s a well mannered dog that just wants some attention. We’d only met Larry briefly as we’d arrived at 2:30am and he left for LA the next day at midday. Here’s his long list of achievements: a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, founding co editor of the Journal of Democracy, and co director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. He has also advised the U.S. Agency for International Development (whose 2002 report, Foreign Aid in the National Interest, he coauthored), the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations. On top of all that he’s presently a Professor of Sociology and Political Science at Stanford University and has written two books – “The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout The World” and “Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq”

Larry’s not someone I plan on talking about politics with (I’d probably stay away from religion too).

1. Life means suffering.

2. The origin of suffering is attachment.

3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.

4. The path to the cessation of suffering.

Here are four reasons that I travel to India. Being among the complete range of life that coexist on their streets reminds me of these four facts. People need to remember that this is not a dismal view on life, but a refreshing and liberating way of seeing. It’s a good thing to not live in the state of denial I find America is all the time. Plastic surgery, owning Gucci handbags or drinking organic wheatgrass shots aren’t going to negate any of the four noble truths. I lose sight of this in my own life when I get into stupid TV shows, spend more time surfing the interwebs rather than talking to Amanda or drinking fine whiskey instead of finding out what my friends really think. Somehow when I am in India all that washes away and I gain a sense of awareness I never have in NY. It is this sense of awareness that I am trying to talk about in my Thesis statement and ultimately try to have throughout my life. Not easy!

Photo by Albert Kahn

I had no idea color travel photography went back this far. I can only imagine that people were enthused by the whole thing. I can’t even begin to fathom how incredible this must have looked to westerners. We’ve become such a generation of people who just expect everything to be possible. It’s hard to understand how insane this must have been.

I went to Tampa for a day to assist Scott Gries on a portrait session with some cops. Someone had shot a show called “Rookies” where they followed some fresh faced police officers in training, and now they needed some portraits. We did an afternoon of posed shots and now Scott is following them around on duty for the next 2 days. It was some celebration for the Devil Rays and they were giving away free food in the park opposite the station, which meant we had a crowd of homeless people on the benches watching us (and our equipment) for the whole afternoon. This one guy wanted every officer to “pull out your gun and stand like Dirty Harry.”

On the flight home I was served a Woodford Reserve that contained Coca-cola instead of bourbon. The flight attendant looked very embarassed and rushed to get me another. The strange part was that the seal of the bottle had not been cracked. Somehow someone had worked out how to replace the bourbon with coke that was still fizzy. No police in the world could solve that mystery!

It was amusing for my parents to recieve the first package from India from me in 2002. I had mailed them some Christmas presents and it arrived wrapped in cloth and sealed with red wax. They attributed the strange packaging to my recent BFA degree, and dismissed it as their strange ‘art school’ son. Actually, that is how every package leaves India. Enterprising young business men set up a tailor shop next to the post office, and charge 10 to 20 rupees for a parcel. The speed and accuracy that they make these parcels is to be admired and I have yet to have one go missing.

It took almost exactly 3 months for my shipment to arrive, which for 3 dollars is a great deal. If only the USPS had an international version of media mail.

This small cut in the side of the package is required to prove that it really is full of books (not elephant statues or charis???)

It was great to be away from cable TV and to read some books instead. “Shantaram” was a long and very entertaining read, although its autobiographical integrity is a little questionable and Johnny Depp has taken the lead roll in the 2009 movie. “Wolf at the Door,” was not my favorite Augusten Burroughs book, eventhough it completes a few gaps from his previous memoirs. Pico Iyer takes on the most honest and critial view of the Tibetans in exile I have ever read, he should be applauded for seeing the situation as it is. I am yet to write my indepth review of the “Denial of Death,” but I still think about those first few chapters every day and recommend it to as many people as possible. The rest were not amazing books, but kept me sane and out of trouble (I might even argue that the “Alchemy of Desire,” was infact a terrible book).

Ithaca is photos I’ve already taken

Ithaca is shopping carts

Ithaca is Red Red Wine

Ithaca is humping dogs

Ithaca is transgendered

Ithaca is Blueberry Pie

Ithaca is Funny

Eat fresh Lobster with good friends at their family house in Eastham, Massachusetts.

Drink large amounts of various beverages (very quickly!)

Play with incredibly large insects that want to buzz around your head while you sleep

Take silly pictures of the stars at 3am after plenty of Pappy Van Winkle 15 year.

Go to the beach with the dogs and watch them eat sand and sea water.

Keep the largest and friendliest dog in the whole world from trying to scratch his way to freedom and ruin the house.

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 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 actually woke up at 5:15 this morning to get a boat out onto the holy river (I have normally been waking at 6:15, so it wasn’t extravagantly early). The weather is absolutely perfect at that time to be out on the water, and the light was perfect for photographs (although a wide angle, medium format camera was not ideal, a Canon IDs with a 70-200mm 2.8IS Lens would have been better). I paid my boat-wallah 250 rupees for 2 hours to paddle from Assi Ghat to Dashashwamedha ghat (where the ceremony is every night) and back. It took under a minute to hear the price drop from 600 to 250, as other boatmen were beginning to crowd around me, just as the group of small children has right now (not many people in the US would be so interested in my fumbling fingers). To call my boat wallah a tour guide would be pushing it, as all he really did was read the signs on the side of each ghat, much as grandpa in “City Slickers” would. Varanasi is one of the most beautiful places in India, and at 6am on a rowing boat, floating down the Ganges, the experience is hard to beat.

Of course all moments of tranquility must come to an end. This happened when we neared the main ghat (as seen below) and again when I was swarmed by more ‘tour guides’ at the burning Ghat. As with most spiritual places in the world, the religious is always closely tied to the sacreligious when financial gains are at stake.

I visited the burning Ghats today and saw several funerals taking place. The added heat of several cremations burning up to 250 KG of wood per body, was not really appreciated. Of course I was grabbed by a ‘guide’ who wanted to talk to me through the entire affair, hassle me for money for his poor persons cremation ‘charity’ and then call me a “mean man,” when I only gave him 5 rupees. I don’t have any pictures as you are not allowed, and frankly who wants to see anymore images of burning human flesh?

I have discovered some interesting facts about the Great Mother Ganga. Apparently, and to no surprise of those who have been here, the river is greatly polluted to the point of serious government concern (which in India really means something). The water is septic and contains 1,500,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml. That is 3,000 times the suggested limit for bathing!!! 60,000 people bathe in it per day and there are over 30 large sewers dumping directly into it. They have begun to battle the pollution by creating some sewage treatment plants and some electric crematoriums. However these are apparently to blame for all of the blackouts that happen here. Somewhat reminiscent of the prison lights flickering during an execution.

Of course, everyone reads the news paper differently. My friend Hunty would always read the Times of India backwards, starting at sports. I tend to skip through most of the national politics to the international section. Now that I am in a hotel with air conditioning and a TV, I have been jumping between CNN and BBC. Three stories caught my attention today and are influenced by the jobs I have had and where I am from.

My Wireimage and Tibetan interest led me to Sharon Stone’s comments this week at Amfar in Cannes. It seems that she thinks that due to the Chinese human rights violation in Tibet, she thinks that the eathquake in Chengdu is due to bad karma. I especially liked how she called H.H. the Dalai Lama a “very good friend.” The full story can be read here. To simplify how people feel about the situation in Tibet she is quoted as saying “I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else.” If only a little kindness could solve all the worlds problems!

To show some interests a little closer to home and also with a more serious Getty slant, I have been following the Gujjar protests that now have seeped into New Delhi. I have missed any travel through the affected region, and hopefully will continue to do so. Interestingly, the Gujjars actually want to have their caste lowered so that they can have access to more government jobs. It seems that the Indian government offers certain amounts of these jobs to lower castes, and the Gujjars current status excludes them from those possibilities. The Times of India article adds some more details here.

Finally, as I have met a few Koreans this trip, and also know a few back in New York, I followed the US beef story in Korea. South Korea had banned US beef 5 years ago due to the export of some beef infected with ‘mad cow.’ The South Korean government has lifted the ban even though continued protests have been held. The BBC tells more here. What I enjoyed the most about this story, is that although the government has confirmed a lift of the ban sue to the safety of the meat, the Koreans continue protesting due to the safety of street food. The report on CCN said that in fact the peoples main concern was with the parts of the animal that Americans don’t eat that carry more of the disease. If Koreans would just stop eating the intestines, then a large part of the risk would disappear. As a solution to this, many road side vendors have turned to pig intestines instead. Having seen how many pigs in Asia sit at the base of toilets to eat human excrement, I can’t imagine that their intestines are much cleaner than a cows (especially as they never proven there to be any link between BSE and CJD).