INDIA: Faces of India

I have to admit, I was nervous about going to India. 

I was worried about overcrowding and poverty. 

But the friendliness and warmth of the people can not be described and my fears were quickly put to rest.

We met these schoolgirls coming out of the National Museum in Delhi on our first day. 

They wanted us to take their pictures, shake our hands, say hello, know where we came from.

Teenagers! Wanting to talk to adults! 

Welcome to India!

As we walked past the busloads of girls they all welcomed us so warmly. 

At times friendly people descended on us wanting to talk to us, take our pictures, have us take their pictures, take group photos, ask about posting their photos on Instagram or just wanted to talk to us and ask us where we are from. We felt so welcomed!

Traveling in our bus people would wave to us. 

This little guy kept coming to me and holding out his hands while his parents encouraged him to say hi to me. 

I was taking pictures and turned around and this little guy was staring at me.

 

 

I wanted him to smile, so I started making faces at him, which he imitated. 

 And then I blew him a kiss.

 

 

These girls saw I was trying to sneak pictures and they beamed brightly for me.

 

These girls kept waving to me and posing for me so that I would take their pictures. 

 

 

 

 

 

Schoolboys, mischievous as schoolboys everywhere.

 

 

That know a lot about electronics and how to include themselves on my Instagram page.

 

 

Young ladies.

 

 

 

 

This lady was in a shop tucked away in a lonely corner demonstrating a loom. I could tell she was very self conscious of her teeth.

 

I motioned to her that she was beautiful and she should smile with her teeth,

 This guy made me laugh. I was with a friend and he was trying to get our attention. I turned my back to take a photo of the market produce. And he somehow photo bombed and got into the picture. 

 

In a market one of the vendors invited me behind the stand and tried to teach me the names of the produce. (I think.) I am linguistically challenged and I am quite sure that I butchered the language.

 

I think my friend was more successful.

 Market vendors.

 

This guy made me laugh. He was a fish vendor and had some catfish to sell. He stood there holding the fish and meowed like a cat. 

 

The best experience was walking along the beach in Kozhikode at sunset. All of a sudden we were mobbed by schoolgirls eager to talk to us and have us take photos of them.  

 

 

 

I found these guys taking photos of each other. I asked if I could take some photos too.
 

 

 

 

 

 

They knew how to quickly send them from my phone to theirs. 

(I just noticed this photo has a black and white background to make the colour "pop" - I think he must have done that on my phone, because I certainly don't know how to do it! LOL)

Random photos of beautiful people.

 

 

 

 

Yes, there are a lot of people, and it can be overwhelming.

And yes, there are many people that do not have the luxuries that we westerners take for granted.

But they consider guests to be "golden" and the welcoming friendly people made our trip to India so special. 

 

 

  Last but not least, many thanks to our guide, Dheerendra (Singh) who never tired of our questions or having to endlessly repeat things to us. 

His knowledge, warmth, kindness and passion was greatly appreciated.