Why Exactly I Love India
Why Exactly I Love India
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| Why Exactly I Love India |
Why Exactly I Love India My passion for
photography and traveling took me to this land already 5 times in
the last 10 years Is difficult to express in words why exactly I love
India
Why I'm so attached to a land that gave me the most unforgettable moments of
my life and that feels like a second home for me, I’ve always been attracted to this culture the traditions and values, the spirituality the diversity of the places that go from the beaches of the South to the incredible Himalayas in the North To arrive from one region to another is like to land to a new planet every time And I
Why I'm so attached to a land that gave me the most unforgettable moments of
my life and that feels like a second home for me, I’ve always been attracted to this culture the traditions and values, the spirituality the diversity of the places that go from the beaches of the South to the incredible Himalayas in the North To arrive from one region to another is like to land to a new planet every time And I
so much love the food that is the soul of this
country Sometimes is not that easy to travel in India sometimes it
can be challenging there’s a constant craziness all around you all
the time There is always something happening something going on And
in the end, there’s nothing to really see but...
Why Exactly I Love India is India itself that
is looking inside you But the thing I’m attached the most are the
people who are the most memorable I’ve ever met Most of them are
simple, generous honest, gentle and full of dignity And the way they
welcome you their tolerance towards all religions and cultures is
unique During
my long journeys in India one of the entities that most caught
my attention is the Sadhus, the holy men Sadhus, meaning ‘good men’ clothes representing the color of the fire in which they have burned all their possessions to be symbolically reborn into a new life An order that dates back more than 5 thousand years
Why Exactly I Love India My main goal, however, was to understand to see what knowledge
and experience helped sadhus live such an isolated life And to do
this I had to live as closely as I could to their lifestyle That was
the only way to get theAnd to be
able to tell that story I needed to live close to them There are 4 to
5 million sadhus in India today most make their pilgrimage across the
subcontinent and many of them feel the need to stay close to the
waters of
the Ganges river The living and divine river in the Hindu Indian society
A lifeline to millions of Indians who live along with its course and depend on it for their daily needs That’s why I decided to cover all the 2,500 km of
Why Exactly I Love India The Ganges which rises among the ice in the North-western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand and flows all the way down emptying into the Bay of Bengal where the river meets the sea It took me 3 trips to India to complete this project Each journey lasts from a couple of weeks to a month I visited 19 cities traveling through many of the northern regions by train, by bus and riding an old motorbike A long journey ended in the massive festival of Kumbh Mela, in Allahabad
My Ganges journey started in the Himalayas Precisely in Gaumukh
the Gangotri Glacier that is the source of one of the primary headstreams of the
Ganges River Wow, I got a bit tanned I'm coming back from Gaumukh from the glacier It was a really long way, I didn't expect and I'm also running out of energy and is getting dark now,
so it's better if I run I'm in Dev Prayag that is one of the most famous places of pilgrimage for the Hindu devotees in the whole India, This little town is famous in particular for the confluence of this 2 rivers 2 important rivers that comes from different parts in the Himalayas and that meet here forming the Ganges
the "Holy Ganga" You don't find many sadhus up there only very few spend their life meditating in the loneliness of the high mountains But the ones you're able to spot and get close to because of their appearance and the surrounding they belong to are the most precious I'm a bit sad yesterday
I returned the bike But, from now on I will continue with the train that is another thing here in India that
I love so much The freedom that the
motorbike gives you is unique, of course, but I'm sure 100% the best
way to discover India is on a train Is an authentic and also a very
cheap way to get to know the people and the culture from very close
Looks a bit stressing and complicated but when you find your sit, is
fantastic Good morning, I'm in Varanasi I'm meeting a lot of
friends...
Banaras, known as Varanasi the oldest living city in the world This place, and what it represents is one of the most beautiful things
I've ever seen in my entire life is one of India’s oldest and holiest cities important to Hindus because it’s dedicated to the god Shiva pilgrims travel for days to immerse themselves in the sacred river Hindus believe that dying in Varanasi releases them from the eternal cycle of life and death reincarnation People’s dream is to come here to live...
and to die This is definitely the place with the
the largest concentration of sadhus they are everywhere One of the
key things when you're realizing a project like this is spending time
with the people, you want to portray Get to know each other to gain
each other's trust Every day I sat down to talk to them to understand
the reason why they had left home choosing to wander on the streets
for their spiritual path Why they decided to own nothing other than
walking sticks and donations pots spending their lives to move on the
streets feeding on the gifts of devotees A lot of times it was hard
to explain to them what I was trying to do
Why Exactly I Love India Why I wanted to portrait them tell their story and share their spiritual path Why I wanted to do it in a certain location and why in a certain time of the day Things that for a photographer are the keys for a good image And at the end, the last part of this trip the Kumbh Mela one of the largest human congregations on the Earth A festival held every 12 years that this time, over a two-month period, attended an estimated 120 million pilgrims that, one by one, took the holy dip in the river
Ganges More
then 2,000 years old the festival is a meeting point for the sadhus
that arrive from all over India and set up camps near the river where
they pray, meditate, give blessings and do yoga This was the last
chapter of the very long journey sometimes it was tough but at the same the time I had the chance to experience incredible moments I can't
believe I could accomplish something I had in mind and work on it for
many years and
I'm so excited and happy I’m finally able to share it
 |
| Why Exactly I Love India |
my long journeys in India one of the entities that most caught
my attention is the Sadhus, the holy men Sadhus, meaning ‘good men’ clothes representing the color of the fire in which they have burned all their possessions to be symbolically reborn into a new life An order that dates back more than 5 thousand years
 |
| Why Exactly I Love India |
the Ganges river The living and divine river in the Hindu Indian society
A lifeline to millions of Indians who live along with its course and depend on it for their daily needs That’s why I decided to cover all the 2,500 km of
 |
| Why Exactly I Love India |
Why Exactly I Love India The Ganges which rises among the ice in the North-western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand and flows all the way down emptying into the Bay of Bengal where the river meets the sea It took me 3 trips to India to complete this project Each journey lasts from a couple of weeks to a month I visited 19 cities traveling through many of the northern regions by train, by bus and riding an old motorbike A long journey ended in the massive festival of Kumbh Mela, in Allahabad
My Ganges journey started in the Himalayas Precisely in Gaumukh
the Gangotri Glacier that is the source of one of the primary headstreams of the
Ganges River Wow, I got a bit tanned I'm coming back from Gaumukh from the glacier It was a really long way, I didn't expect and I'm also running out of energy and is getting dark now,
so it's better if I run I'm in Dev Prayag that is one of the most famous places of pilgrimage for the Hindu devotees in the whole India, This little town is famous in particular for the confluence of this 2 rivers 2 important rivers that comes from different parts in the Himalayas and that meet here forming the Ganges
the "Holy Ganga" You don't find many sadhus up there only very few spend their life meditating in the loneliness of the high mountains But the ones you're able to spot and get close to because of their appearance and the surrounding they belong to are the most precious I'm a bit sad yesterday
I returned the bike But, from now on I will continue with the train that is another thing here in India that
 |
| Why Exactly I Love India |
Banaras, known as Varanasi the oldest living city in the world This place, and what it represents is one of the most beautiful things
I've ever seen in my entire life is one of India’s oldest and holiest cities important to Hindus because it’s dedicated to the god Shiva pilgrims travel for days to immerse themselves in the sacred river Hindus believe that dying in Varanasi releases them from the eternal cycle of life and death reincarnation People’s dream is to come here to live...
and to die This is definitely the place with the
 |
| Why Exactly I Love India |
Why Exactly I Love India Why I wanted to portrait them tell their story and share their spiritual path Why I wanted to do it in a certain location and why in a certain time of the day Things that for a photographer are the keys for a good image And at the end, the last part of this trip the Kumbh Mela one of the largest human congregations on the Earth A festival held every 12 years that this time, over a two-month period, attended an estimated 120 million pilgrims that, one by one, took the holy dip in the river
 |
| Why Exactly I Love India |
I'm so excited and happy I’m finally able to share it
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