Champagne Tales

We left India so quickly that I felt so cheated on my time to fully reflect those last couples days everything I saw . I saw so many difficult things that I never could have imagined. I saw many beautiful places that my mind could never have dreamt or imagined. The two weeks I spent in India were literally a 180 degree difference from my life here in the U.S. I always tell people what I mentioned before that traveling in India literally threw me out of my comfort zone. My biggest struggle now that I am back is what to do with everything that I saw. This small part of my brain looks at the photos from my trip, hears myself telling others snippet stories of what I saw, and I keep thinking, "So what?" What do I do with the hardship I saw? What do I do with the knowledge I gained from actually visiting one of the emerging economies in our world. I have so many questions and I'm not sure I'm come to any answers yet. I'm still looking. I still read about India as much a...

I had no idea how incredible visiting Gandhi's house of 20 years in Ahmedebad would be. I read a biography by Gandhi many years ago and was inspired by the words I read. I read them from the cozy comforts of my bedroom and until I actually visited India did I truly understand so much of what he struggled for, sacrificed, and accomplished. He was destined to live a successful and wealthy life and yet he chose to fight for justice in India. He gave up everything and in turn changed the world. My favorite part of visiting his house was not seeing the original artifacts that he owned or even the walking cane that he walked with. No, it was sitting on the ground and spinning cotton. Many pictures were captured of Gandhi sitting in the same exact spot that I sat, doing the same exact thing that I did. I sat there and had a patient man teach me how to slowly spin the wheel and yet concentrate on your other hand while you slowly pull the cotton onto the wheel...

Wieden & Kennedy was an incredible advertising agency we visited in Delhi. I vividly remember driving along a side street to the agency and there on the side of the road was a small fire next to a large mound of trash. Beyond the small fire was a stream that ran along the length of the road and I could see someone shaving as we passed them in our cozy bus. I couldn't believe that such an incredible agency was nestled here along this street where inside the walls of the agency such brilliant minds collaborate to create such brilliant work. This image of driving along this street and then walking into a completely different world than the one we left outside, is something that truly defines India. The rich and poor aren't segregated in where they live, they are mixed everywhere. In the book titled, "We are like that only," Bijapurkar describes this low income that I keep seeing, "At the botton of the pyramid there are 600 million people who earn less than what ...

Traveling to India reinforced this idea I see so apparent in this world: children are the same in every culture. When they are young, they have one thing in common that they love to do: laugh with a curious spirit. So many times I would walk by children on the street or see them from the window of our bus, and I would see huge grins on there face. Children remind me of the simplicity in this world. A child doesn't know until a later age that they are born in a certain class or even what there skin color is. Those first years of there life they simply are a blank canvas waiting to be painted by the world and the ones around them. I passed by this group of girls and had to capture there smiling faces. I said hello to them and they said hello back to me and were curious about me. Children everywhere are curious. I asked them there names and now can't remember. I told them that my name was Kelly and I heard them try and pronounce my unusual name for their ears and giggle in r...

Something that I tell almost every individual that I speak to about India was there service. I was blown away by how many individuals there were for a service that I was used to in the United States that only required one individuals. An example of this was any restaurant we ate in, instead of having one waiter for the table, there would be five individuals who would be attentive to my every need. At first, this concept made no sense to me. But as I started looking at how many people there were everywhere, how this country makes up 1/6 of the world's population, I started to grasp why this occurs. Individuals were cheap labor there. In a job where we might here in the West demand minimum wage, there in India, they could offer a low paying amount and find somebody who would do it. If not- well, they would move on to the next individual who would take there job. Labor is cheap in India and for the first time I saw and grasped that. A beautiful example of this was at the first hote...

A movie advertisement that was displayed all over India while I was in India was an ad for a movie titled, Delhi Belly. What Delhi Belly refers to is the common sickness that many travelers get when they travel to this part of the world. If you take a bite of something or drink even one sip of something that has a bacteria in it you are not used to, most travelers end up spending a lot of quality time with their porcelain toilet for at least 24 hours. Delhi Belly is that sickness in your belly that so many foreign travelers can't avoid when they travel to India. I captured this photograph on our first full day of touring in Delhi. I simply loved that there was a movie out called Delhi Belly and I loved the fact that the tagline for this movie was, "Shit Happens." Perfect. So honest and so true. I couldn't have said it better myself. The irony in this photograph is that I took the picture my second day in India and that the McDonalds was nestled directly below thi...

As a kid I ran through sprinklers in our front and back yard and would consider that my shower for the day during summertime since I never wanted for the day to end of for bedtime to come. I had never thought about how my silly playtime of running through water sprinklers could be the norm for someone else. On our walk through Historic Ahmedebad, I captured this woman washing her clothes in the street after she had just finished washing her hair. I later saw a man shaving through a window as I walked by. He didn't flinch or look at me. He simply continued shaving as if that happened everyday to him and I was just another person taking his photograph. In Hy Mariampolski's book titled, "Ethnography for Marketers," he discusses that, "Images normally reflect society's strictures of self-presentation and representation, shared forms of perception, and established conventions about what is worthy of being recorded." So many people in this country groom...

Unusual and vivid colors are everywhere in this country. When I walk through a market full of spices and dried fruit, or I see women hanging clothing on a clothes lines next to their house, vivid colors fill my eyes. Even the dyes used on the hand carved stamps for their fabrics are new colors to me. Maybe the colors I have seen before in the U.S. Maybe I had seen them before. But for the first time, I notice them. I see them and truly realize how authentic and beautiful it is to see the color turquoise next to a gray background. Or the color pink on a woman's sari amongst a cobble street. I love this photograph I captured of a woman and her child on a balcony. Amongst the neutral background of her house's color she pops out to me. The colors on her and surrounding her are what draw me to capture this photo and try and record this beautiful image of her holding her child. The colors are what I love in this country.

I captured this photograph while we were touring a palace in the city of Jaipur. This photograph is a perfect image to describe the people in this country. If I had to pick one word to sum up the people, it would be hospitable. Friendly and kind were other words that came to mind, but the word that describes almost every Indian you encounter is hospitable. People want you to feel welcome wherever you go. You are offered beverages in people's homes and stores. The wait staff at restaurants is so attentive to your every need. The hotel staff will bend over backwards for a simple request. The people go out of there way to make you feel welcome. Even today a group of children ran over towards us and kept saying hello and were grinning at us as they waved us good bye. As we drive the narrow streets throughout the cities, all ages of strangers wave at us with a huge grins on their faces. The woman here in the photo is wearing bright colored clothing which is typical of the Rajasthan regi...

Outside my window are tall sky rises, shops, and advertisements. Ahmedabad is bustling with activity. Everywhere there is noise and crowdedness except for right outside my window. Directly below my room is a scene that seems it was shipped from the countryside. Nowhere else is there a large plot of grassy land with two shacks. A clothes line holds a few articles of clothing that a cow walked under a couple of hours ago. New to the scene is a man who seemed to have come from the beautiful house next door. He is standing on the roof and talking with another man. I noticed that there is a gate surrounding their plotted land, except the gate is open. Soon after I notice this I see the white skinny cow walk outside the gate and down the street. Is that a wild cow that just roams these streets? Or does that cow know to come back at the end of the day back to where the food supply is. I noticed another baby cow nervously standing by the wall for a long period of time. I could sit here and sta...

Today I did something I have always wanted to do. Something I had put on my life's bucket list. Today I road an elephant. An elephants has always been one of my favorite animals and I even have an elephant hair ring I purchased in Africa when I first saw the beautiful animals. I not only got to look at these beautiful animals here in India painted with bright colors all on their faces, but go to sit on top of one. An advertisement from the book, Branding India, describes these elephants perfectly: "Just how do you paint a canvas that's 10 feet high, over four tons and does not stand still." I slide on top of my elephant named Lachea, 45 years old, strapped on my seat belt, which consisted of a metal road hooked in front of me, and road for thirty minutes to the top of a mountain. Naturally, the elephant moves slowly, which was just perfect in order to soak in the views of the beautiful area we were in. We were just outside of Jaipur overlooking green lush mounting and...

My alarm went off at 4:30am and I crawled out of bed to meet our group at 5:00am for our excursion departure. There wasn't a tired eye on our bus as we drove to our destination: one of the 7 wonders of the world. The sun was still tucked away on the edge of the earth as we walked down the pathway from our bus. One of the first times thus far I have been out in this country and have not sweated my body weight. The anticipation was building as we walked along the path and our tour guide Madan pointed out to our left the top of a beautiful structure. I gazed through the archway of the entrance and there before my eyes was the perfect, the beautiful, the one and only: the Taj Mahal. As we stood there and listed to Madan telling the story of how and why the Taj was built, the sun started rising and the color of the marble starting to change even in those few minutes. 21 years over 20,000 men. My ears perked up and I smiled as I heard him tell the story that the Taj was built by the Mug...

We are driving down the crowded street on our way from Delhi to Agra. Car horns of the most unusual noises are a constant. It is the first time we have left the crowded city. My mind is on overload with images that keep flashing by my window. As I sit safely inside our air conditioned coach bus, chaos surrounds me. A man with crippled legs pedals a bike with his hands. Trash is everywhere and continues to pile in the streets and water. For the first time I am starting to comprehend that, "more than 4 billion people live at the bottom of the pyramid on less than $2.00 per day." My mind is slowly grasphing this concept as I see someone filling empty Fanta bottles with well water, men sleeping on wooden beds near the road, children playing naked except for their shoes, and 10 people piled into a small car. My stomach gets queasy at times on our journey as I continue to see scenes I never even comprehended until this trip. Scenes from the road: someone helping another person clea...

My prediction of being not "out of my comfort zone" but "thrown out of my comfort zone" here in India is the perfect way to describe the time I have thus far spent here. Immediately you are overwhelmed by the large amount of people in the city of Delhi. It is not uncommon to see men showering in the street, auto-rickshaw (taxi) drivers pulling over to the side of the road to urinate against a wall, a barber cutting someone's hair, garbage piled high with someone eating immediately next to it, boys playing cricket, tarps being used as a roof for someone's home on the side of a busy street, motorcycles swerving in between buses and cars, or even babies being held on the back of motorcycle down a busy street. In Delhi alone, there are around 2,000 traffic fatalities a year and now that I have been in this city I understand exactly why. The streets are bustling and bursting with people, unusual smells and energy everywhere. Before I left the States, I read from ...

Somehow, the time has almost come for me to get on a plane, nestle into my coach seat for 14 and a half hours from Chicago to New Dehli, and begin my adventure in India for an entire month. For one month I will not eat any meat, fruit that's not from a peel or any uncooked vegetables, wear makeup, drink tap water, or eat any Mexican food. Somehow living here in Texas I find myself eating Tex-Mex food almost daily so the adjustment might be tolling on my stomach's sanity. Instead of my daily routine it will be a month of malaria pills, protein bars, solely bottled water, sweating, more sweating, and enough medicine to help my stomach "just in case the curry gets to me." Instead, it will be just me and my eyes learning from the Indian culture surrounding me. For all of the traveling I have done, this will slide to the top of my list for one of the most unusual places I will have traveled to. I have traveled to developing countries, but being surrounded by it for an enti...