Off The Beaten Path

At Simatai

  

I went to Simatai soon after  I went to Mutianyu. This was the second section of the Wall that I had seen. I've seen four sections in all, at this point in my time.

Simatai is a bit like a ride on the wild side. It was a Saturday morning, one spring, when I drove down the 120 km eastwards of Beijing. The trip took three hours one way, into the Miyun county. I think that this was the first time that I had really been seeing the countryside in China, and I was struck by the poverty that I saw. I remember thinking that the people, once you move away from the grand cities of Shanghai and Beijing, are not much better than poor village people in India.

And then, I arrived. I looked up at the steep climb and said, Holy God! Do I have to climb that? Well, I did. I grumbled and cribbed as I climbed, but I did. I wondered how, during the North Qi Dynasty, and later when they rebuilt it during the Ming Dynasty, how they had the technology to carry the stones up the steep passes. 

The Simatai section of the wall holds the key to Gubeikou, a strategic pass in the eastern YanShan mountains, so building the wall was definitely very important. As it turns out, they used goats to carry the stones up, one by one. When I read about this subsequently, I thought, "Hmm. Smart"

I remember that I carried my then brand new Nikon F75 up. I have not done much black and white photography since, and I miss it. Anyway, when I was jumping from one section of the wall to another, I tripped and fell. The display of the camera cracked. Luckily, the performance of the camera has not been affected. But, I felt sorry for myself. However, these things have lucky aspects to it. I will never be hassled by the Customs Authorities in India when I take the camera in and out of the country! 

 

Sections of the Wall are very steep indeed. Tourists are not allowed up, and when I looked up at the sections of the wall that had crumbled - steep inclines, broken steps, and crumbling earth, I could very well imagine and understand the reason for the ban. However, humans love to break bans. Therefore, guards, like the two blokes above are stationed at various points on the Wall, to prevent curious tourists like myself from going to places where we should not. I am not sure how they pass the time, however. I am sure that contemplation of the beautiful landscape somehow brings them closer to God.

Goats, it appears, while helping to build the Simatai section of the Wall, have also contributed to its crumbling. Over zealous farmers have taken goats up to feed on the shrubbery, weakening the foundations, and have caused sections to crumble.

The Wall, sadly, has been closed since 2010. I was lucky that I went there in 2004. Else, I would not have been able to visit it. 

 

Shikumen

During one of my last days in Shanghai, I went for a photography walk through some of the last remaining Shikumen of the city. One, the famous Xintiandi, has been restored and, as we all know, is one of the more popular shopping, dining and drinking places of Shanghai.

The Shikumen were not originally meant to be watering holes. They were housing styles that emerged in the 1860s, combining elements of Chinese and Western architectural styles. The Shikumen were — are — row houses that are interconnected by narrow alleys. The entrance to each alley is a stylized stone archway. What you see above, is one such alley way. 

Of course, in the Chinese social style, the shikumen areas had their central courtyard, to allow for small, local social gatherings.stylized

The picture below, is that of a lady who lives in one of these 'apartments' in one of the shikumen. Her cooking vessels, her stove are in the landing on the staircase. In her case, all the dwellers on her floor have their cooking systems neatly laid out next to each other on the same landing. It would appear that they cook together at times, but keep their gas connections, vegetable stocks, vessels in clearly demarcated areas to avoid conflict.

In a different sense of sharing, when I was looking at the basins in the alley way, and the water pipes leading to each basin, I noticed that each water pipe had its own colour marking. The family to whom the blue colour coded pipe (for example) belonged would only use the basin connected to the blue colour coded pipe.

What impressed me a lot were the elaborate systems that were adopted by the people living in the Shikumen, to ensure that they continue to live in harmony, and do not infringe upon each other's territories. This is important, I would assume, for people who are living in crowded places. 

The Chinese, by their nature, believe in harmony. I have often heard expressions of 'the harmonious society', when I was in China. To that extent, we Indians are a lot more individualistic, and we do tend to resemble pirates, to some extent. Every man for himself is a much stronger creed in India than it is in China. This may not have been the case in ancient India, but I could hazard a guess that, with years of external threat in our history, I can only assume that we developed a highly evolved survival instinct in our genes. 

However, while I have never been into a Bombay chawl, which is similar in concept, but not in style, I have been told that the residents have evolved systems and practises that allow them to live in harmony with each other. 

If I were a sociologist, I would postulate that, as we start to live together, especially in crowded places, we evolve social practises that allows the group to work and live well with each other. When crowding passes a threshold limit, then crime rates increase, homosexuality increases, and we see the emergence of various social evils that are characteristic of crowding. 

Is this a case for population control? Or, population management? 

Boats

 

I love boats, or so I have been told. I've also been told I love water and the skies, and that this reflects in my photos.

The above photo is a boat shot, taken in the evening, around sunrise, at the West Lake in HangZhou, or XiHu as it is also called.

It was a peaceful autumn evening several years ago. The weather was great, and my mood was good. All was well with the world.

And yesterday, I was on a boat in the Ganges Delta in Bangladesh. The Ganges is called the Padma in Bangladesh. The boats are of an altogether different nature. Muchmore primitive, in a sense. They are all, or mostly, fishing boats. My camera went kaput, and so I took one or two shots with my IPhone, which is not fun at all.

The road to the harbour was a pain. If you want to see bad traffic, take a helicopter ride over Dhaka. If you want to experience bad traffic, drive in it. On the way, I entertained myself by playing games on the phone. There was not too much to see. I could not see through the dust on the streets!

My phone died while I was on the boat. On the way back, my companions sang themselves hoarse during the three hour, dusty ride back. I slept, or tried to.

The boat ride itself was not bad. A hot, humid afternoon, followed by a wonderfully cool evening. The sunset hour on the boat was truly magical, especially as we had the Baul singers, and musicians accompanying us.

Voice016

And, there you have it. Some of the music on the boat.

This is truly soul music. Music that is simple, yet timeless. It speaks to the wind, to the rivers, to trees, to nature.

Yet, the ride back destroyed much of the magic. And, it was gone. Except for a short memory.

XiHu is different!

At Montreux

"We all came out to Montreux, to make records on a mobile...." For those of us, who belong to the white haired generation, Montreux was an amazingly romantic place. 

I was 16 years old when I discovered "Smoke On The Water". Those were the days when I grew my hair long, wore beads and Lennon/Gandhi glasses, and smoked stuff I would never permit my kids to smoke. The song, and the album are amongst the most brilliant rock albums of all time, in my opinion. 

Little did I realise at that point, that close to 30 years later I would be driving down to Montreux with my Chinese friends. Montreux lies on the North East shore of Lake Geneva, and you can easily cover the distance from Geneva in less than 90 minutes by car. Montreux is a small town, famous for it's wine, and it's jazz festivals, and it's association with rock music. It's a small place, with a population of less than 25,000. 

In India, this would be considered to being close to a village. 

It's a quiet place, and I remember being quite surprised by this. We went around the little castle during the day, and late in the afternoon went up to the village, where viniculture is practised. What did we find? A wine grower married to a Chinese. However, I have to say, she seemed more Swiss than Chinese to me, in her behaviour. I think that she had completed integrated herself into the Swiss culture. 

Montreux is impossibly beautiful and serene. It is quite unlike the hard rocking my fevered teenage imagination had conjured up all those years ago. 

The village is a little away from the town. I took the above picture late in the afternoon, from the village on the hillside. Overlooking the lake and the mountains, this is a place where you could easily find your soul and the spirit of nature. I think that I was blessed with fantastic weather and lighting. Looking back, my only regret is that I had not switched to shooting in RAW at the time. 

Still, a return trip is always possible. In 2010, perhaps, I will revisit some of the places I visited in 2005, and shoot them in RAW. It is something to look forward to.

Lausanne In The Evening

This picture could have been taken anywhere, I know. Yet, this was taken in Lausanne. We did the Switzerland part of the trip before the part that was in Greece. Switzerland has some of the most fantastic landscapes you could hope for anywhere. With so many towns situated on the shores of lakes, with mountains glittering in the background, it makes for some of the most awesome experiences you could hope for. Add to that the Swiss desire for cleanliness, and order, and you have a most fantastic tourist experience.

Yet, getting a Swiss visa is a bloody pain the neck. For a country that derives so much of it's revenue from tourism, they seem to have a sadistic pleasure in asking you, or your company, for details that go back 25 generations. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I guess that anyone gets the point.

The above picture was taken in the evening. For some reason, I was not in a great mood that day, and spent half the day photographing a superb looking woman. Looked part gypsy, and wholly romantic and mysterious.

Coming back to the picture. This was originally a colour jpg picture that I converted to black & white. The storm clouds had started growing in the evening. I love the combination of cloud, water and sky. Brilliant.

Lausanne is a French speaking town. Part of the reason for my less than good mood. It lies in Romandy, the French speaking part of Switzerland. It seems, many years ago, it was a Roman military camp calles Lousanna. After the fall of the Roman Empire, it retreated to its current location on the shores of the lake. Easier to defend, or so it would seem. I the 1680's it became a refuge for the French Huguenots.

Today, it is the Headquarter of the International Olympic Committee. Cool. 

Lausanne is easy enough to reach. Just 51 km from Geneva, that would take you under an hour to reach from the town. So, if you are planning a trip to Geneva, put Lausanne on the agenda!

Selling Fashion

We all love fashion, and wearing fashionable clothes. Of course, buying fashionable clothes makes us feel as good as wearing fashionable clothes.

Buying from the right shop is important. We're confident of the quality, even if the store may over charge us sometimes.

It also adds to our "face value". Buying from a high end store adds so much to our prestige. Sometimes more than the brand itself.

And, who does not love a great mannequin? They are all great! I remember watching a movie many years ago, about a manneqyin that came to life.

And, sometimes, like these young ladies on the left, they stare at us from a height!

The question that I have in my mind, however, is how many people would like to buy clothes from this shop? Okay, it looks pretty run down, and has probably even closed business for quite some time. But, I am not sure if I would like to have been seen dead in the shop at any point of it's career!

The shopkeeper defintely needed his lessons on how to sell fashion. He was probably better at selling his business!

Directions

I definitely remember where this photograph was taken. This was taken in Hospet, specifically near the Tunghabhadra Dam. Hospet is somewhere between Bangalore and the famous temple towns of Belur and Halebidu. In the South Indian state of Karnataka. So, the signs are in both, the squibbly script of Kannada as well as in English. And, I have no clue about how to read Kannada.

This shot was taken in the evening, I think. We used to go off for the weekends, to explore different parts of the state. By the time we went on this trip, the size of the contingent had increased, and it increased to the point where it included some of the women in our class. Now, I don't have a problem with the women, but I do have a problem when the guys instead of behaving like normal guys, would start behaving like something we definitely not at that point in our lives. Like stuffy, frocked gentlemen!

We also, by this time, lost that initial sense of adventure that took us off on our first trip to Nandi Hills, where I ended up shitting over a cactus bush, with a bottle of water ( in our emptied booze bottle ) to wash my bum. And, that applied to all the other guys in our group. We did repeat that experience in a place called Shivaganga, but more of that another time.

The "direction", if you want to call it that, of our trips had changed, and had become more formalized. Someone told me ( his intention was not good, but his words made sense ), that I would never make a good boss of a large corporation, but that I was more suited for small. medium sized businesses. I thought about this, and it makes sense. And, this feedback has got me thinking along a new direction, which may very well alter the course of my life in the next few years.

It's amazing how our lives change direction, sometimes of our own volition and conscious thought. Sometimes, the change comes from external factors, and we are pushed along by the tide. And, sometimes, an external stimulus triggers a nice thought process in our tiny little brains!

Most of the time we stand in front of the direction signs, without the foggiest idea of where we want to go, but with just the vague notion that we want to "get there", wherever "there" may be.

But, as long as we get 'there' happily and in one piece, I guess it's okay in the end.

Another Tree At Kas Lake

This is another picture I took at Kas Lake. This one, however, is of a dead tree. I quite like the shape of the tree, and the white, misty background. I was tempted to clone the trees out of the background, but I did not want to do it.

For one, I am not in favour of cloning in general. While there may be times when it is nice to use the cloning tool, I somehow believe that cloning robs a picture of it's essential honesty. Which is  why I hardly ever use it. 

Second, in the case of this picture, I believe that the trees in the background add perspective and life to what would have otherwise been a dead and bleak picture.

But then, that is photography for you. One man's meat is another man's poison!!

A Tree At Kas Lake

To get some sense of where this picture was taken, you need to have some familiarity with India's geography.

If you drive about 200 km south-east-east into the subcontinent, from Bombay, you will climb up the Western Ghats onto the Deccan Plateau, and reach Poona (or, Pune as it is now called). Carry on for another 110 km, and you will reach a small town called Satara, which is where my parents lived and worked, for a few years, after my dad retired from the army.

About 20 km from Satara, up the hill, you will reach Kas Lake. The waters of Kas used to supply Satara with drinking water. I don't know if this is still the case, what with the way we have become increasingly careless with our environment.

However, 20 years ago, the waters of Kas were clean, and the place was unspoiled. It was a stunningly beautiful place, very small and totally uninhabited. I went up there with my sisters  one afternoon. It was, I believe, around the monsoon time. It was, as you can see from the picture, quite misty.

Somehow, it reminded me of school in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Kumaon range to be exact. I absolutely love the misty feel of the mountains. There is something that is so fresh, so serene, and so alive in these places.

And, it is quiet. So quiet that you can almost hear your soul speak to Nature. These are places where we can return to our true nature, back to our roots.....

The Beautiful Indian Skies

I miss the beautiful skies of India. The colour of the skies in India used to be a deep blue, with lots of beautiful white clouds. The clouds had wonderful, cumulous shapes. Clouds make a landscape come alive. Blue skies, with the sun shining through cumulous clouds bring life to a landscape. Indian landscapes have a spirituality all their own.

And, I miss them in more ways than one.

I took this picture during a family picnic to Panchgani. Panchgani is a small hill station near a small town called Satara, which is in the western state of Maharashtra in India. There are two main ways to approach Panchgani. One is from Poona, or Pune as it is now called. The other is from Satara. I've lived in both places, and both have their own charm.

Well, to be more accurate, they both had their own charm. I have'nt been back to Satara in an age, so I cannot comment on whether or not  it still retains it's old charm. Poona has lost much of it's old charm. It's now a traffic infested place and is, in my opinion, quite polluted.

When I go back to India, at least when I go back to the larger towns, I don't see as much of the beautiful clouds that I used to see. The clouds have lost much of their shape, and tend to have more of a formless, diffused shape. The colour of the sky, as a result, is more gray than blue.

I used to criticize the gray blue skies of Shanghai. I used to tell my friends of the beautiful blue skies we have in India. Until I returned to India after a three year gap, that is.

So I miss the beautiful skies of India, because increasingly they are hidden by a layer of pollution that tends to reduce the brilliance of the blue colour that I took for granted as a child. We need to pause once in a while, to look up at the sky, and to see how we are really  screwing up our  environment. 

And, I miss the beautiful skies of India, simply because I don't always have the time to go across to the smaller towns of India, to the villages, and to the mountains, where we can still see the beautiful Indian sky.