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Elephant Festival en Inde

India

Namasté!


India was the first country i traveled to that changed my way of thinking about a lot of things in a matter of days,( if not hours.)

My Dad took me with him when i was sweet sixteen, and it deeply shook the still quite naive perception of the world i had. 
 

It's the place where i discovered why i love photography so much. 
(It's an art of observation. It's about telling a story that you can't express in words.
It's about finding something beautiful or interesting in any place.)

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I can still vividly recall  the heat,

the buzz the city was constanly making

and  how wonderful it felt walking barefoot

through the temples we visited. 

I remember running around the house
with one of the daughters of the family

we were staying with.
She must have been my age. 
She dressed me up in her prettiest clothes
and drew a little dot
in between my eyebrows.
I felt so welcome in this strange place.

 

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Dad and i managed to get away from the big tourist attractions and saw the more rural areas, which Dad found were more interesting, and i am so happy he did.

 

I loved it all; the busy dirt roads, the markets, the cows on the streets, the colors, the food and all the things i had never seen before in my life.

 

I was drinking  all the new experiences as if they were vital water and i had a neverending thirst.

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There are moments of this trip that were so special and unreal to me at that age that i'll remember them my whole life. Some were difficult, some incredibly beautiful.
I will share one with you.

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There was this one evening that will stay forever in my memory as one of the most beautiful evenings ever. 


We were traveling on a house boat, which i absolutly loved. I was so happy being able to sneak a peak into peoples everyday life on the riverside, while gently floating over the water.
The riverside was filled with beautiful trees, between which tiny wooden homes and small villages found their place. 

That night we just anchored to sleep in a calm spot, the riverside was covered in a beautiful forest, and there were very few little houses around. 

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Dad went to sleep, but that night i was feeling a little restless and went to sit on the front of the Boat. I let my feet dangle in the water-lilly covered water.


The sky was velvet black and filled many stars. I remember how quiet it was. The loudest sounds were cause by the tiny waves crashing into our boat. 


I could see various fires from the little wooden houses on the other side of the river. I felt so still and peaceful, overwhelmed by the beauty of it all.


As i was sitting there, observing  the riverside i noticed  a movement, something quietly but rapidly moving through the woods.  
 

After a short time of observation, I realized it was men, maybe three or four, barefoot and  only wearing shorts. It seemed as they were floating through the forest, sometimes stopping completly for a few minutes.

And as i began to wonder what the hell they were up to, one of them jumped out of the darkness into the water and threw a wooden spear into the river. He used a little flashlight to inspect what he had caught, which seemed to be nothing.


He proceeded to stay motionless, attentively staring into the water, waiting for his prey to resurface. After a short time he projected the spear back into the water. Successful this time.

 

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My eyes were glued to the riverside. It was a mesmerizing spectacle to watch him and the other men hunting fish that way. They were moving wich such elegance, seemingly one with the water and one with the forest.

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And then as i all of this wasn't beautiful enough, my eyes got distracted by a tiny light, floating just in front of my face.


I surprisedly raised my eyes and realized that above the river were hundreds of fireflies, dancing through the air. I was so focused on the hunters that i didn't notice their arrival.


I was overwhelmed by the magic of this moment. The fireflies, the flower covered river and it's majestic hunters.


I just couldn't leave my spot, the whole experience was like something from another world. The fantasy world i had dreamed of as a child had become reality.



It'll always be one the most beautiful nights of my life. I had always been fascinated with our Planet, but that night my fascination reached a whole new level.
I realized that the magic i had only read and dreamed about existed. 
I felt the peace and happiness that lies in the connexion to our environment deeper than i had  ever before.

There are fewer and fewer places, were it is possible to experience this kind of magic. We are cutting down forests, polluting our rivers and overfishing.
Even though at the time i was still a young girl, that understood very little about the complex challenges and their underlying causes that India and our whole world is facing, that night i understood how special it was to be able to experience such a moment. I became even more passionate to do everything in my power to preserve our beautiful planet.

Our richness lies in our Biodiversity, in our cultural diversity. 

 

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