Blog
Sri Lanka – Slightly Chilled
Oh island in the sun… nonsense. A steady low pressure area over the Gulf of Bengal drenched us to our pants as we were trekking the tea country in the Highlands of Sri Lanka. Global climate whatsit. But the fact that Sri Lanka is slightly chilled is nothing to do with climate stuff.
Amsterdam Nightscapes
Long shutter speeds to capture those peaceful moments before sunrise when the city is still asleep…
Cape Town Streetkids
Cape Town has many children who roam the streets to beg for food. Broken-down families and repeated abuse by their parents drive them out of their homes to search for a better life in the streets. Growing up in the streets, many children become early drug addicts and develop destructive behavioral patterns such as aggression. NGOs scramble to provide a level of care to such run-aways by providing food and shelter. Other efforts are directed at counseling those families at risk to prevent children abandoning their families. Such efforts are unlikely to stem the flow of street children unless some of the root causes of family breakdown, such as widespread alcoholism in the vast poverty-stricken townships like Kayelitsha, can be resolved.
Kolkata
India’s second biggest city is a daily festival of human existence, simultaneously noble and squalid, cultured and desperate. And everything is playing out before your eyes on teeming streets where not an inch of space is wasted.
Holy Cow! Old Delhi
Where to look first and who to dodge first? Disorganized chaos and yet just normal day in the life of countless Indians who eat, sleep and work here.
Varanasi – Mother Ganga
Series of photographs of the streets and ghats in Varanasi, India. Check out the full slideshow in the porfolio section…
Istanbul – East Meets West
Istanbul’s soul doesn’t quite belong to the Middle East, but it is also not a western city. It has a distinct European feel to it, including the shameless riches of a rapidly growing economy. Well on its way to become a world metropolis, it still has to find its new feet as the former support pillars of religious conservatism are gradually being eroded.
Along the Pamir Highway – Tajikistan
The original Pamir Highway is part of the legendary Silk Road that led from China and India toward Europe and the Middle East. Much of the road runs along the River Panj, or Amurdarja, which flows into the Aral Sea.
We picked up the trail at Dushanbe in the Tajik lowlands. Civilization’s grasp fades with every mile driving into the Pamirs. Was it not for a few narrow, fertile river valleys, the Pamirs would be completely empty. A 2-day drive takes you to Khorog, an island of relative comfort and civilization in a vast mountain range.
We tried to reach the Geisev valley but due to the high Bartang river, the road was blocked and we didn’t want to take the mountain pass. Having failed to reach the valley we asked in a local village to stay in someone’s house. We were warmly welcomed and fed (potatoes) by the locals, but our thin skin was not able to withstand the relentless attacks that followed during the night. Various bed bugs/fleas/mosquitos ate us alive. We were mere junior training partners for those bugs from hell. In the morning, we limped away, utterly beaten.