a forest lost

INDIA | Monday, 8 July 2013 | Views [738] | View Smaller Image

Contrast. While these boys take delight in the spectacle all around, young men in the background focus inwards, smoking a chillum of Shiva's holy herb before entering a haze-like trance The whole Sangam flood plain which this festival resides on, is accessible only for a few months of the year. The normal river flow is 15 meters higher, and thus all infrastructure, like the sand, power poles and even the straw pyramid in the background, are all fleeting appearances on this cyclic landscape

Devotion.
For more than half an hour I stood waist deep with my tripod and watched rapt in awe at the depth of her faith. Others come and went, merely splashing water, clapping hands and mumbling words several times as if following some cosmic recipe. meanwhile, as the Ganges freezing waters swirled past her gentle body; this young woman stood, still as a tree.
Emotions poured through and radiated from her compassionate form, and she truly purified herself

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Karmic cycle.
when devotees perform their rituals, they often present an offering of coins to the river. Young street urchins like this one then fish for these coins using a magnet array. This lad was likely new to it, he only had a single small magnet his string, and was timid, almost ashamed. Others were confident and with defiance in their eyes, used huge magnet arrays, up to a meter long to harvest coins from the shallows.
it was an incredible insight to observe the reactions they received; while some accepted them as part of the cycle, perhaps feeling in-turn, through their devotion the gods are providing money for these children. Some showed distain, and it seemed they felt they were undermining their ritual by stealing the coins they'd offered

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a forest lost

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