Synagogue in Kochi (Cochin)

The synagogue in Jewtown in Cochin, Kerala. I believe its the oldest one in India.
They are very strict about the attire of the people who enter, I was dressed okay (in a skirt), but my husband's shorts were deemed too short (!) and we couldn't go in. It's a beautiful exterior though.

Commercial Street, Bangalore

Commercial Street in Bangalore, on a wet rainy day in November.
It always amazes me that people drive there.

A Boatman on the Backwaters

This was taken on the backwaters in Alappuzha, or Alleppey as it is more commonly known. The backwaters are sublime, beautiful, quiet and almost otherworldly.




However, a lot of people have heard of them, and they are now choked with houseboats-aesthetic and appropriately ethnic, but still, painfully ubiquitous. Who am I to judge though, tourism is likely the dominant industry in the area, and keeps the local people employed and solvent. If that means more of the floating palaces, so be it I suppose. Many of the locals still use the backwaters to commute, and all the houses and fields lining the backwaters have boats tethered outside instead of motorbikes or scooters.

My first picture-post

I feel like this calls for a momentous post, but I can't think of one. So here is one of my favourite pictures, of the Brihadeshwara temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. Built in the 11th century AD, august, peaceful and graceful, it inspired my agnostic self to the point that I dragged my (equally agnostic) parents back at night and took pictures with my camera balanced on a handy pile of sand.

Taken with a Canon EOS500 on Kodak TMAX 400 film, developed and printed by me.