People taking a bath during a local religious fair in Kurukshetra, a small city in northern India. On every solar eclipse, thousands of people come from all parts of India to take a dip in this holy tank. They believe it will help them in attaining moksha.
Mana village, Uttaranchal, on the India and Tibet border
Inspired by love and shaped to perfection, the Taj Mahal immortalizes one man's love for his wife and the splendor of an era.
On the fourth day of Shukla Paksha of Kartik, lakhs of devotees along the Indo-Gangetic plains, chiefly Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, begin the four-day Chhath festival, in continuance of a tradition that goes back to posterity, carrying forward India's living tradition of worshipping the divine creator and nourisher of the Sun God. Today, lakhs of Biharis settled in other parts of India and even abroad perform Chhath.
a wedding procession in Varanasi, India. The band and the lights are part of the groom's procession, which walks its way towards the bride's house.
4 a.m., external artificial light, using the long exposure.
Kusti is a form of traditional Indian wrestling. This image was shot at Mamasaheb Mohol stadium in Sangvi, Pune.
This street flower vendor in a wholesale flower market in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, kept on loading marigold garlands over his shoulders until he became almost three times his original size, and still kept asking for more.
Tea plucking at the lush green gardens at the foothills of the Himalaya around Darjeeling is still an activity dominated by women. They do it perfectly with a smile. Captured at Sungma Tea Estate, Darjeeling, India.
A shot of the Malabar giant squirrel taken in Mudumalai forest in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Known to be very elusive, the Malabar giant squirrel is endemic to peninsular India and is on the IUCN list of threatened species.
Taken at sunrise, 6:30 a.m., at the Taj Mahal, Agra, India, in September 2010
In a remote village in the Sunderbans delta in West Bengal, India, fresh water is much scarcer during the summertime. Women have to go a half kilometer away to fetch drinking water from a tube well.
Sugarcane juice is boiled to get a thick concentrated syrup.jaggery in Hosalli, Kumta, Karnataka, India.
Snake charmer with the Amber Fort as a backdrop, Jaipur, India
Schoolchildren take a mathematics test outside the classroom at a school dedicated to Guru Ravidas, a north Indian human rights advocate who in the 15th century campaigned against caste discrimination in India.
This image was taken at Pushkar Lake, Rajasthan, India.
Final journey in meter-gauge railway. The view in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, border in South India.
The woman from Purulia is weaving baskets in order to earn bread for her family. She has to weave as well as to sell the basket in market. Her courageous endeavor is praiseworthy.
This shot was taken at sunset on Benaulim Beach, Goa. The occasion was a pre-wedding beach party complete with musical accompaniment from the local Toal and Trumpet playing band.
Pottery making is a means of livelihood in some of the rural areas of India. It is not only interesting to watch but also rewarding to get your hands dirty. This picture is that of a girl with mehndi on her hands who didn't mind getting her hands muddy in the excitement of creating the pottery.
Serenity and peace at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel in Mumbai. It's just in front of the gateway of India and since it opened in 1903, it has created its own unique history.
Tents at the foothills of golden lit barren mountains at Sarchu. Sarchu is the midpoint on the Manali-to-Leh road and falls on the border of Himachal and Jammu Kashmir states in India.
Indian bikes, Royal Enfield Bullets, at the entrance on the mountain road that runs from Varanasi to Khajuraho
This road looks like a snake on a snow-carpeted mountain at the height of about 16,000 feet in Ladakh, India. At this time the temperature is about -26 degrees Celsius.
This is a view in Seetharkundu, Nelliampathy, Palakad district, Kerala, India.
Taken at Jayamangali Blackbuck Reserve
The long walk up this road in Jaipur was definitely worth it for the view.
Omkareshwar, on the bank of the river Narmada in Madhya Pradesh, India, is a holy city. Omkareshwar Mandhata is one of the 12 Jyotirlinga shrines. Every year from mid-June to mid-July on every Monday, a julush, or procession, is held in the midst of a shower of thousands of rose petals, chanting of hymns, and scented colored powder. This year the mahavishek before the procession was slightly dampened by heavy showers.
so many billboards in one location. This photo was taken in Hyderabad, India.
Shot in the morning after rains flooded the Aghanashini River (Kumta, India). The laterite soil added the color red to the river.
This image was taken at Pushkar Lake, Rajasthan, India.
Pushkar Lake is surrounded by 52 bathing ghats. Every year on the full moon day in the month of Kartik (October/November), which also happens to be the last day of the world famous Pushkar Camel Fair, Pushkar Lake attracts thousands of pilgrims from all over the country to take a holy dip in its waters. It is believed that a dip in its waters cleanses all the sins and is the surest way to achieve salvation from the cycles of life. The lake is dry these days as its conservation work is going on; don't know what the future holds for the lake in the future.
Final journey in meter-gauge railway. The view in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, border in South India.
The woman from Purulia is weaving baskets in order to earn bread for her family. She has to weave as well as to sell the basket in market. Her courageous endeavor is praiseworthy.
This shot was taken at sunset on Benaulim Beach, Goa. The occasion was a pre-wedding beach party complete with musical accompaniment from the local Toal and Trumpet playing band.
Pottery making is a means of livelihood in some of the rural areas of India. It is not only interesting to watch but also rewarding to get your hands dirty. This picture is that of a girl with mehndi on her hands who didn't mind getting her hands muddy in the excitement of creating the pottery.
Serenity and peace at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel in Mumbai. It's just in front of the gateway of India and since it opened in 1903, it has created its own unique history.
Shepherds of Himalaya in India are known as gaddis. They rear sheep and goats for their livelihood. During my trek in Dhauladhar I took this shot when a gaddi was extracting wool from the sheep.
Worli village, set on one of the small horns on the western coastline of Mumbai, is a slice of old 19th-century Bombay. With the main population a fishing community, this village has now got the swanky backdrop of the new Bandra-Worli Sea Link bridge, and thus is feared to be vanished in the race for land for newer developments.
Babas want to get closer to God, so each day at the hottest hour of the day, noontime, they sit around flames of dung and smoke to torture their bodies in sacrifice. Haridwar, India.
Girl walking on a rope during the annual desert festival at Jaisalmer, India
lights and shadows
Washerwoman along the ghats in Varanasi (also known as Benaras) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. They wash the clothes in the Ganges and let them dry in the adjoining ghats.
Photo of a gharial juvenile taken during my visit to the Kukrail Forest Reserve, Lucknow, India. One of the very few places where they have been successful in the captive breeding of this species of the crocodile family. Gharials are critically endangered and only a few can be found in the wild. Their eyes say it all. Save them.
This photo was taken while I was walking along the Ganges River in Varanasi, India. While photographing some water buffalo that were cooling off in the river, I noticed a bird hopping around cleaning the tops of their heads and took this shot.
Along the Ganges, a candle flower ceremony for luck
It has been a very old tradition in India to sing praises for holy rivers. The ceremony occurs daily at dusk at many revered sites such as Haridwar, Varanasi, Vrindavan, etc. I made this particular photo in Vrindavan on a sacred bank of the River Yamuna. A higher vantage point helped me capture the ceremony with the dusk sky, and the extreme fire flame provided enough illumination to light up the faces of the devotees.
A shot from near the entrance of the Taj Mahal in India
An old man sitting in an empty marketplace on a Sunday afternoon in New Delhi, India
The photograph was taken early morning going toward Dhankar Lake.
Camel sitting in the sand in India
The Indian bride's hands are decorated with mehndi on the day of her marriage when she leaves her parents' home and goes with her husband to start a new life. The color red is the color of marriage in India.
These two boys are dressed like the Hindu gods Ram and Sita to play a spiritual drama from the epic of Ramayana.
Residential building in Bombay (Mumbai), India
The biggest religious march in the world takes place at Pandharpur, in Maharashtra, India. A million people walk about 200 kilometers to join the fest in memory of the 17th-century saint-poet Tukaram. Part of the festivity is singing Tukaram hymns standing on top of a human pillar. The man at the apex has to sing a complete hymn beating on his drum.
The Bara Imambara in Lucknow was built in 1783, the year of a devastating famine, and one of Asaf-ud-Daula's objectives in embarking on this g*****ose project was to provide employment for people in the region. According to reports, the famine continued for over a decade and the construction of the building continued for this time. It is said that ordinary people used to work during the day building up the edifice, while noblemen and other elites were called at night to break down the structure.
Women collecting water at the well in the desert outside of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
A young girl at the Haridwar train station, India
