City in Blue

To the newcomer, India is a vast and overwhelming mix of colours, scents and noises. There are colours everywhere. Women wearing saris, golden jewelery in the shops and piles of spices and powders in many different neon-shades at the markets. Imigination does not halt there, even houses are painted in seemingly random colours. But than there is Jodhpur, a small city in the North of India. As if it had rained paint one day, the whole city is covered in one colour, blue. Often Jodhpur is simply refferred to as "the blue city" and the sight alone makes worth the vist.

In the Crowds

No single step is lost in thoughts. Rickshaws go past and I can feel them slightly touching my cloth. A man carrying heavy iron tubes shouts from the left, a boy on a motorbike rushes at me from the right. Loud horns everywhere, people shouting and greeting. The air the smells of smog, then of cooked food; I step in mud and then swiftly circle around a lazy cow. In the narrow streets of the cities often not a centimeter is wasted. Pedestrians mingle with bikes, rickshaws, cars and animals, all fighting their way from nowhere to somewhere. It is plain chaos and yet these roads are far safer than they seem. It is because nothing goes unnoticed, there is no single move without thought, micro-seconds of eye-contact mean whole conversations and mutual respect is the unwritten law. India without its roads would not be India. (Pictures: Delhi & Bangalore)

Desert Scenes

Deserts are magic places. One drives through bushland until all of the sudden the landscape changes and sand dunes emerge. Leaving the car behind, one makes the way up onto the first dune, excited to see what lies behind. But one arrives on the ridge just to find oneself infront of an even bigger dune. Stumbling, the feet sinking into deep sand,  one runs down and fights the way up onto the bigger dune. Every step on the steep, sliding side of the dune is exhausting, much more than one would imagine. One reaches the top almost crawling, craving for a good view. And there they are, countless more dunes stretching all the way to the horizon. One turns around to see that there is nothing but sand. For a moment it is freedom in endlessnes. Sand, sun, the self, and nothing else. But quickly it can get scary. The masses of sand seem as endless as powerful. Easily they could swallow someone as tiny and helpless as a human being, if they only wanted to. So one is left to wonder and admire the magic spell that dominates this place. (Pictures: Thar Desert, Rajasthan)