Paul Struijk photography – portfolio 7 – India

One trip in 2008 with some friends visiting Mumbai – Goa – Rishikesh – Delhi – Varanasi – Vrindavan. And in each place we stayed way too short, I was unprepared but totally passionate about everything .. what a people, culture, colors, smells and stories to tell.

Lord Krishna god of compassion and tenderness
so many deserted buildings and shards and dust – hardly people around – Mathura / Vrindavan
early morning after a dark and sweaty night I had to discover the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi
I went from one Ghat to the next one along the Ganges, watching the scenery with incredible light and people doing meditation, playing games or listening to fortune tellers – Varanasi, India
To carry water to the sea ..
Water is the center of everything .. literally here: everybody and everything ends up in the Ganges. Here the beautiful and the ugly, hope and despair, the holy and the profane, problems and solutions – Varanasi, India
Chess you play together – Varanasi, India
Everybody wants to be a part of the future ..
drink it boys (and girls but not in this picture)
watch, copy, adapt, transform and grow.
This tableau vivant looks very much like West Side Story (1957)
but it is Varanasi, India
I lost everything
my beloved friend fell in love with an Indian prince
a marriage was quickly arranged, the friends betrayed
all connections were past
and precisely on this divine moment that day eternity touched me
gently and all the heaviness washed away
Ganga made all pure. – Varanasi, India
The Varanasi Ganga Aarti ritual with diyas, chants, incense, flowers and a repeating choreography – Varanasi
The Varanasi Ganga Aarti ritual with diyas, chants, incense, flowers and a repeating choreography you never want to end. – Varanasi, India
The Manikarnika Ghat early morning where the bodies are cremated since the 5th century. The fire has always burned at this holy site (ghat) for many many centuries.