Searching for the red India

Many decades ago, I was visiting a friend's home in Italy. Her young son asked me, "You are not red, why do they call you red Indians?" He had been told that I was from India and the only Indians he had heard about were the red Indians from America.

This post is not about those red Indians. It is about pictures from India where red colour plays a special or dominating role.

I love photography and have thousands of images in my picture archives. Writing this kind of blog-post is an opportunity for me to dig into those archives and in the process, relive my past journeys and the people I had met - a very pleasurable past time!

Among the Indic religions, red is the colour of sacred and of happy occasions like marriages. Let me start this post with a very striking image from a religious ceremony.

1. Theyyam, Kannur, Kerala: The first image of this post (above) is from Kannur in Kerala at the southern tip of India and it is from a Bhagwati theyyam ceremony. "Theyyam" is a Hindu traditional religious rite in which the God comes down to the earth and manifests in the body of a human being. Persons playing Theyyam or the living gods, often belong to the so called "low castes" and while they are the living god, everyone from the community bows to them. Theyyam takes place in the temple and the surrounding courtyards. Most theyyams are dressed in red.

Theyyam is unique for the elaborate makeup and rituals linked with this tradition.

2. Dollu Kanitha, Bangalore, Karnataka: The Dollu Kanitha folk dance from Karntaka. It has persons carrying the god statues on their heads as they come out of their temples and go out in a procession in the community. In this occasion, some of the persons dress up as different gods. The next image has a Dollu Kanitha dancer dressed as one of the gods.

Thus, the idea of God coming down to speak to humans through the medium of a person is not unique to Kannur, rather it is seen in different forms in different parts of India.

3. Person dressed as Goddess Kali, Guwahati, Assam: West Bengal and Assam in the north-east of India have a strong tradition of mother-goddess (Shakti) worship through Saraswati puja, Durga puja and Kali puja. There is also a tradition of persons dressing up as mother Kali, the angry manifestation of the goddess. The next image has a boy dressed as Goddess Kali at the Kamakhaya temple during the Ambubashi festival.

Almost always, the persons taking up the role of gods are men, while women get to play such roles only rarely.

4. Dashhera prayers in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh: Dashhera festival is linked to the story of Ramayana in the north and to the story of goddess Durga in the north-east.

The Dashhera celebrations in Kullu valley surrounded by mountains are different from the rest of India. During this festival, the patron gods and goddesses of mountain villages are brought out of the temples in processions and they travel down to the Kullu valley for their Dushhera holidays. Mountain communities come to live in Kullu with their gods and the whole period is full of religious ceremonies.

The image below shows the chief priest officiating at the Dashhera celebrations in Kullu, praying in front of the deity for the initiation of the festival. As in the above images, the red colour predominates.

5. Hanta Koi statues, Nicobar island: Tribal groups in Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal have a tradition of making wooden statues called Hanta Koi to represent the spirits of dead family members. This reminded me of a similar tradition among the Toraja people in South Sulwezi island of Indonesia, where they call them Moi Moi.

This image comes from the Manas Sanghrahalaya museum in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), one of the finest museums about the lives, myths and culture of tribal communities in India. I find the red in the caps of the Hanta Koi very striking.

6. Rajasthani puppets, Delhi: While the above five images were linked to religious and spiritual spheres, the remaining five images of this post are non-religious.

The next image is of a puppet from Rajasthan at the Dilli Haat market of Delhi. Rajasthan with its Thar desert, craggy forts and proud people, is also a land of colourful costumes, as seen in the dresses of the puppets, among which red dominates.

7. Monsoon, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh: Monsoons are usually not associated with the red colour, instead they are seen as dark clouds and verdant foliage washed clean of the dust by the rains.

The next image is about the monsoon but it has a man dressed in red, walking in a field. It has a lot of green and very little red, yet I think that the red colour plays a key role in this image.

8. Village woman, Kesla, Madhya Pradesh: The next image is also from the monsoon period in central India and has a village woman surrounded by lush green fields.

The colourful saris of the women in rural areas are the most common source of bright colours in the Indian landscapes.

9. Police women, Guwahati, Assam: Even the khaki uniforms of the Assamese police women can have a nice touch of bright red colour.

10. Lenin statue, Kannur, Kerala: I am concluding this post with another picture from Kerala where red colour is strongly associated with communism and where the communist icons like Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Chairman Mao, forgotten in most of the world, still continue to have some relevance.

Orderly processions of people walking with red flags and shouting slogans to protest against something are ubiquitous in Kerala. This image has the red communist flag along with a paper-mache sculpture of Lenin.

Conclusions

Think of the above ten images about the red colour as part of an Indian thali. They represent the amazing variety, colours and traditions of India.

All over the world, globalisation is helping in spreading a culture where people wear similar clothes, watch similar films and eat similar food. Even in India, the globalisation mono-culture is making in-roads. However, fortunately our diverse and distinctive cultures and traditions continue to be alive, especially in smaller towns and villages. Our challenge over the next decades will be to safeguard these while we embrace other aspects of modernity.

I hope that you will like my selection of images from India where red colour plays a special role. Do tell me which of these red images you liked most!

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Monsoon in Bilaspur - Wall-Papers

It was September 2014. I was staying at the JSS hospital in Ganiyari village, about 25 km from Bilaspur in Chattisgarh. This year the monsoon was late. One cloudy morning I went out for a walk along the ponds and rice fields behind the hospital. These free high resolution wall-papers are from that walk.

The images of those verdant rice fields and tiny temples near the ponds remain etched in mind. I hope that these images will be also give you the calm joy that I had experienced that morning in Ganiyari. (Click on any image to open the file with the high resolution wall-paper)

I think that some of these images will make for beautiful wall-papers! So here are 16 of my favourite images in high-resolution (1920x1280) for your laptops, computers and other appliances.

I want to dedicate these images to Dr Yogesh Jain, Dr Raman Kataria and all the other doctors and staff of JSS for their service to one of the most marginalized groups of persons in central India.

All the images are by Sunil Deepak. If you use these wall-paper images any where, please do remember to give due credit and where possible, link to this page.

My personal favourite among these wall-papers is the last one in this post. So I recommend that you scroll down to the bottom of this post and click on that image to admire its beauty in high resolution. Then tell me if you agree with me that it is the best image of this collection or not!

TO DOWNLOAD THESE WALL-PAPERS

Click on the any image to open a new window with the high resolution wall-paper (1920x1280). Then right-click on the high resolution image and save it in the folder of your wallpapers on your computer/tablet or other device.

Remember that some of the images may even be more than 1 MB in size so if you have old computers with little RAM, you may need to scale down the images before using them.

Finally, if you like these wall-papers, please share links to this page on blogs, Facebook, Twitter ...

MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE WALL-PAPER

The next image is my personal favourite among all these wall-papers. So I recommend that you click on this image to admire its beauty in high resolution. Then tell me if you agree with me that it is the best image of the collection or not!

Wish you all the best with these free high resolution wall-papers.

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20 New Stunning Flower Wallpapers

I am always on the lookout for new and beautiful wallpapers because I love changing the look of my computer screen. Spring is the time when the park is full of colours and flowers and I felt that it would be good to photograph some flowers for my wallpapers folder.

Yesterday morning I spent some time going around the park near our home in Bologna (Italy) to click pictures. So I thought that I should share the best of those images with you all.

Here are 20 of my favourite wallpaper images, completely free for you in high resolution with advance greetings of Holi, the Indian festival of colours.

Click on the picture you like and it will open a new page with that image in high resolution. You can then save it on your computer and use it as you wish!

If you do not know what are wallpapers and how to use them, click the "Wallpapers" tab above (towards the top of the blog) for instructions.

And if you like these wallpapers, do share the link of this page through Facebook, Google plus and Twitter.

I hope that you have liked these wallpapers.

Please do remember to share the link of this page through Facebook, Google plus and Twitter. And if you use any of these images on your blogs or websites, do remember to give a link to this page! Thanks in advance.

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Trampolieri - The Fabulous Sky-walkers of Bologna (1)

"Trampolieri" are the people who walk on stilts. Bologna (Italy) where I live, has a group of dedicated stilt-walkers who use wonderful creativity and imagination to choose new styles, costumes and colours for each of their public appearances.

This photo-essay is a homage to this group of people. It presents some of their pictures that I have clicked over the past 8 years. This first part of the post focusses on the period 2005-2011.

Let me start with some general information about stilt-walking. The art of stilt-walking goes back a long time. There is a mention of stilt-walking in ancient Greek texts, more than two thousand years old. When I was a child, once I had seen a tribal group do a dance on stilts in India. People living in marshy areas build their houses on stilts and sometimes use stilts to cross marshy-watery places. So stilt walking is common to many countries and cultures.

There are different kinds of stilts. You can read more about them on Wikipedia.

In the image below you can see the stilts used by the Bologna group of stilt-walkers - these are made of sturdy wood. A wooden flat piece is fixed to the sole of the shoes, which is then fixed to a wooden piece on the top of the stilt. It requires a good sense of balance and lot of practice to do stilt-walking safely.

2005

I saw the the Trampolieri of Bologna for the first time at the preparation of the summer festival parade (Par Tot parade) in Villa Angeletti park in 2005. I was not too impressed by them. They had a pale hooded dress with black designs on their faces and bodies.

Clicking their pictures while they were moving on stilts was difficult as they were moving quickly and probaly I was standing too close to them. Here are two pictures from that first encounter in 2005.

2006

In 2006 I saw them at the summer rave party. Rave parties are about losing inhibitions, dancing, drinking, and making a lot of noise. It also means getting stoned by smoking weed or taking stronger drugs. In that occasion, the costume of the Trampolieri was simple and in line with the spirit of the rave party. Once again, I was not too impressed with them, though they seemed to be having a good time and enjoying themselves.

2007

The summer festival preparations of the Par Tot parade at Villa Angeletti park in 2007 was the first time that I looked at the Trampolieri with more attention. They had a colourful look. Some people had painted their bodies in gold, some with white and red and some others with red and blue or red and yellow. The costumes had red, purple and black with blue-yellow hats. Thus, in 2007 I clicked a lot of their pictures and started recognising them as a group.

2008

In 2008, I had a glimpse of the Trampolieri at the Bologna GLBTIQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transexual, Intersexual, Queer) pride parade. It was very crowded and noisy, and I could only see them a from a distance. So not many pictures came from this encounter. My favourites in this occasion was a young couple in blue.

2011

I didn't find any good images of Trampolieri in my image archives from 2009 and 2010, and I only found them again in 2011. At the Par Tot parade in the summer festival at the Piazza Maggiore of Bologna, the Trampolieri were present in two main groups. The first group was part of people dressed as giant insects, like the two guys dressed as black spiders shown in the images below.

The second and more numerous group was that of devils and angry spirits, like the followers of Shiva, in different colours and shapes. They were all closed in a prison of a white chain linked to a wooden pole held by the lead couple. Though they were trying to be scary, I think that they looked nice - in my opinion, it was their best look so far. The quality of their body make-up and costumes had improved.

Conclusion

I hope that you have liked this brief introduction to the Trampolieri stilt walkers of Bologna.

To close this post, the last image is from the 2007 Par Tot summer festival parade, of a girl dressed as the sun.

You can check the Facebook page of the Trampolieri of Bologna for more pictures and to know about their other initiatives. You can also read the second part of this post that presents their costumes from 2012 and 2013.
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