Pile up and Perish - this is no 'Life of Pi"

My new book is ready.

A response to Tamil Nadu, and the life that I saw there on the streets during one week in March.

Life on the streets of Chennai with its vast Marina beach, Pondicherry and Mahabalipuram.

Pondicherry is where the zoo was, in the film "The Life of Pi".

I went to find it, and found a very sad, unloved park, with no hint of the lush pathways seen on the screen. Digital manipulation had created something that doesn't exist.

The images in my book are about what was really there, in Tamil Nadu, in March 2015.

Pile up and Perish by Caroline Fraser

£5 from all sales will be donated to Scottish Love in Action as a means to give something back. It supports the education of Indian children.

Magnificent obsessions and the art of kolam in southern India

Laying a kolam © Caroline Fraser

I was a bit shaken up by the sights of southern India, and it took me a while to regain my equilibrium.

I vowed never to return. 

Always a mistake...

For I am already wishing I had taken more photos at Marina Beach in Chennai. A week would do it.

And having just tidied the 'holiday' drawer it seems only right to find a use for the 6 bottles of suncream and 12 bottles of insect repellant.

Say no more.  Magnificent obsessions was the subject of a previous post.

I live with a man who doesn't like being bitten. And I don't want to get skin cancer......

      

                                                                

Amongst the dirt and noise of Chennai and Pondicherry were small oases of calm and cleanliness on the pavements outside Hindu homes.

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

Kolam is a Hindu practice; a geometrical drawing composed of curved loops drawn around a pattern of dots. 

Every morning in Tamil Nadu, Southern India, women draw kolams on the ground with white rice flour. 

Through the day, the drawings get walked on, washed out in the rain, and covered with debris blown onto them. 

New ones are made every morning. As I walked out before breakfast fresh ones were being laid.

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

Each morning before sunrise, the floor of the owners' house, or where ever the Kolam may be, is cleaned with water and the muddy floor swept well to create an even surface, to which the flour of chalk will better adhere.

Traditionally they were drawn with coarse rice flour to invite birds and ants, as a sign to welcome all into the home, not least the goddess Lakshmi, bringer of prosperity and wealth.

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

Kolam with dogs, Mahabilipuram © Caroline Fraser

Kolam, Mahabilipuram © Caroline Fraser

Kolam © Caroline Fraser

The contrast of the spotlessly clean pavements outside certain homes in Tamil Nadu with the general filth of most pavements and gutters was very striking, and it was this contrast that lead me to photograph kolam on the streets as a way to seek out something beautiful amongst the dirt.

And now, after being home for a few weeks, they are what I remember best about the streets that we walked. The images of litter and dirt fading into my memory.

street scene, Pondicherry © Caroline Fraser

Never work with children or crows - on the wildlife of southern India

Indian house crow

I am recently returned from southern India, where my senses were battered and bruised.

Noise, poverty, heat and dirt.

Difficult to reconcile with my life back at home. So many mixed emotions about what I have, that others have not.

A challenge to photograph for one who normally escapes to quiet, remote places where the only sounds are lapping water, wind in the trees and birds in the sky.

I have many images to sort, and plan a book. But for now I'll start with some birds and animals, for they were one of the most striking things about the streets of Chennai, Pondicherry and Mahabalipuram.

Here in suburbia I don't bump into cows and goats in the street.

cows graze on the streets in town

Cows wander at random. They cause many accidents on the roads as people strive to avoid hitting them.

Goats also roam freely

Cows also enjoy the beach

Dogs are everywhere.

Dogs are everywhere

and they mostly all look very similar

best not to mention the rats in the canal at Pondicherry

Better to focus on the crows, for they were everywhere. The Indian equivalent of the seagull.

crows in Pondicherry

Down at the beach they were having a ball.

They particularly enjoyed the infinity pool.

crows enjoy the pool

my attempts to make them look graceful in flight spectacularly unsuccessful

almost graceful. 

I am never going to make a wild life photographer.

never work with children or crows

I find zebras much more co-operative

Zebra, Pondicherry

Owls too.

owl, Pondicherry

I need more patience.

nature, time and patience are three great physicians

I need more time.

And I definitely need a regular dose of nature.

Birds and trees will do it.

Crows or otherwise.

I wouldn't be without them.

Birds and trees are all I need.

Except maybe this crow, who doesn't know when enough is enough. I think I was invading his territory.