Another Missed Photographic Opportunity

Ching Ching's Hangzhou eclipse photo

It is always great to catch up with family and friends, but i do miss my Dharamsala bedsit.

I know that my visa expired and I had to depart India to apply for a new visa, not to mention furthering my Masters studies in UK. However, i have missed out on a couple of classic photographic opportunities.

The solar eclipse in July was always going to be amazing. I witnessed a partial eclipse back in 2003 which was incredible in itself. The scenes in Varanasi shown on BBC World looked stunning, if somewhat dangerous. My Hong Kong movie bud Ching Ching headed off to Hangzhou for this event.

With the delaying of the monsoons in India has led to some rather amazing scenes in Bihar, one of the poorest Indian states.

Farmers have asked their unmarried daughters to plough parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on last week.
Witnesses said the naked girls ploughed the fields and chanted ancient hymns after sunset to invoke the gods. They said elderly village women helped the girls drag the ploughs.

"They (villagers) believe their acts would get the weather gods badly embarrassed, who in turn would ensure bumper crops by sending rains," Upendra Kumar, a village council official, said from Bihar's remote Banke Bazaar town.

"This is the most trusted social custom in the area and the villagers have vowed to continue this practice until it rains very heavily."

India has suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states.

Another classic photographic opportunity goes begging.