I have never been to India before, but I have this stereotypical image of people living in slums, cars honking all the way, and poverty stuck in my mind. When I arrived in India about 5 days ago, I realized that there are certain things to India that I never saw. Firstly, I think they speak a lot more English than some other third world countries. I met drivers who went to university, studied IT but never graduated. There is also quite a lot of infrastructure readily available to the people.
Perhaps the places I went to were ‘sanitized’ in some way. I am in India for 10 days to shoot various IJM projects, mainly in the cities of Bangalore, Nellore, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Jaipur. When I arrived in Chennai that night (10pm local time), we traveled for 2 hours to this toll way, and started shooting video + stills! I didn’t expect my shoot to start at midnight, but it was rather fun.
I even got to climb a truck in the process. (Sorry a bit blur, taken by a work colleague). I think I smelt a little cow-ey after that.
After shooting for 3 hours, we traveled another 2 hours to our location, Nellore. It’s a small town between Chennai and Bangalore.
The drivers in India are pretty bold… and mad, I would say! It’s scary to drive here. And I fear for these women who stand in the middle of the road, sweeping the highway. Seems like a little futile too.
At this moment, I’ve left Nellore, traveled 8 hours to Bangalore by car, flew to Hyderabad, and New Delhi. I did not manage to upload many photos, but I hope this gives you a glimpse of my journey so far!
Very true..India is indeed not as bad as most people would imagine, I would love to make a 2nd visit there, people are somewhat more friendly in some ways.
Enjoy your stay there... oh do try out the indian sweets..you may come to like some
Seems like India is not very bad afterall.
I like the expression of the girl in the last shot. It was like "What is she taking?!" :P
[...] a taste of India. AND, felt the burning heat of the sun, all 40 degrees of it. I was in India for a corporate shoot. 8 days, 4 internal flights, many hours on the road and 5 cities later, I felt I had seen two [...]