The Desert Zone

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

India | Sunday, August 29, 2010 | 5 photos

It was april of 2009 when my bad pronunciation mislead me to a lost town in the middle of nowhere in Kerala, India. I had been working in Delhi for about a year and I was tired of sexual harassment, dirty looks and stalkers; being alone in a place were you don't see tourist cops wasn't the greatest excitment I was feeling that day.

I was walking aware of this when the first impression came to me: a beautiful blue church with its cementery reminded me that south India it's mainly christian, and for the first time, after living with so many hindus, I felt a warm welcome home.

After exploring the place I called a house in the neighborhood to ask (with hand signals-hindi-english language), for directions to how to get a bus from there, but the lady of the house put her hands in her mouth instead. ("food") She said, "Teek hai" I said... and after that I spent the best afternoon ever in all my Indian experience.

...not to mention this family wanted me for two more days to feed me because I was too thin.

This story changed my way of thinking of people in India: the real, simple and good people, the honest one. Not the ones who try to look more western, or the ones who want euros.

This pictures show a typical mayalayam family in an everyday living. Their home and customs, what they do, talk and believe. How their religion changes their food habits: they are delighted about cow meat and alcohol, while it's very different in the north.

They were the ones who show me tolerance, respect and admiration for others, and after this. north India and my environment good or bad turned to be kind, beautiful and inspiring to me.

If I want to learn something with this scholarship, is to catch the beauty of living and its scenary.