Category Archives: India

14th November picture of the day…

14 Sunday Nov 2021

Posted by in Down memory lane, India, Musings, Travel

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Today finds me in a reflective mood due to a number of recent events. Partly it’s the come-down from the buzz and excitement of the past couple of weeks being up in Glasgow for COP26. That was such an amazing time with so much going on that it’s unsurprising the rush wearing off is having an effect. Even so, I was actually looking forward to coming home, but things haven’t quite gone the way I was hoping.

Part of that is due to hearing about the sudden deaths of two people. One of whom was an old friend. The other was someone I’d never met in the flesh but whom I’d spent years sharing social media with. I found out yesterday that a chap called Russell Saxton had died unexpectedly. Russell and I had been sparring partners (99% of the time on the same side) on social media for 15 or more years. We had a lot in common (politics, music, railways etc) but had never actually got around to meeting. Oh, we’d planned it. But other things always got in the way. But then you often think ‘there’s always next time’. Until there isn’t…

The other death was that of someone I’ve known for far longer. I first met Axel Honslaar in India back in the mid 1990s. Lynn had met him and his partner Lucie Walta in Goa, India when she was out there without me (on a work trip). Afterwards Lynn decided to have a couple of week’s holiday and pitched up in Arambol, Goa – a place I’d first introduced her to in 1993. Axel and Lucie had cycled all the way from the Netherlands to India and fell in love with Arambol. So much so they decided to stay and set up their own little business selling Dutch apple pies to the travellers and restaurants that lined the beach. They called their business ‘Double Dutch’. I met the pair of them when Lynn and I returned a year or two later. The four of us instantly hit it off. Axel and Lucie’s business really took off too. So much so that they ended up opening their own cafe, employing several local women which was a first as working in Chai shops and restaurants was a male preserve. The pair of them were philanthropists, not just employers, they did a tremendous amount of charity work (in fact Lucie still does). Off season they’d go to Nepal, where they started a small charity in the village of Barpak in Gorkha district. In 1998 Lynn and I joined them on one of the Nepal treks they used to organise to raise money for the charity. It was a fabulous 10 days trekking away from the usual tourist trails.

When Lynn and I visited them in Arambol we’d end up sitting with the pair of them, chatting and drinking – including Axel’s favourite local tipple – Old Monk rum. They were lovely times, but times change. Lynn and I last visited Goa in 2003, then we split up in 2010. Axel and Lucie also split up. Lucie stayed in Goa, maintaining the business and charity work, whilst Axel eventually returned to the Netherlands, but we all stayed in touch via Facebook, although that platform being what it is – you didn’t always get to see what each other were doing. Axel and I would swap messages and I’d always thought that – one day – when I was over in Holland I’d look him up and we’d swap tales over a few beers. So, you can imagine my shock when I saw Lucie post earlier this week that Axel had died. It was a beautiful message as – despite the fact they’d split many years ago, there was obviously still love and affection there.

The four of us had such happy times together back in the 90s and ‘noughties’. But now 50% of us are gone. Time waits for no man (or woman) but that universal truth doesn’t make those losses any easier. I can’t help but reflect on those amazing times and realise just how much I miss the experiences we all shared. Those were special times. Now I’m left with memories and the increasing feeling of ‘Carpe Diem’ as I’m not getting any younger…

So, today’s picture of the day is a reminder of dear Axel – and Lucie. I took this picture in December 1997 at the house they were renting in Arambol. It was a typical night at their place with lots of people, music and alcohol! Happy days…

Sleep easy Axel. See you on the other side…

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

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12th October picture of the day…

12 Tuesday Oct 2021

Posted by in Architecture, India, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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We’ve had a quiet but busy day here at Bigland Towers. I’ve been whittling down a list of ‘things to do’ both business-wise and socially, whilst at the same time lining up some jobs for the future with varying degrees of success. During the process I received a phone-call from a work-colleague of 12 years standing who’s become more than that as we see each other as good friends. She wanted to let me know that she’ll be leaving her job by the end of the year but wanted to tell me herself rather than me find out on the grapevine. I was delighted for her as she would be crazy to turn down the opportunity she’s been offered, but also sad that we probably wouldn’t work together again as she’s leaving the industry completely. Such is life, when you’ve been around for so many years as I seem to have been now you often see people come and go. Some of them you miss, others not…

Apart from that note of sadness it’s been a positive day. The weather’s been kind I’ve managed to bump up my exercise regime as a consequence and still get a lot done. Oh, there’s several blogs in preparation too – all I have to do now is find the time to root out the pictures for them.

As well as everything else I’ve also managed to get around to scanning a few more old slides. Not a huge amount, but the logjam is starting to be cleared once more. When the photographic work quietens down again (as it normally does in December-January) I’ll be rattling through slides at a much faster rate. Normally, January would be our big holiday. Dawn and I would get away for at least a month in SE Asia and I’d often stay away much longer, but Covid’s put paid to those plans, at least for now. Instead, I’ll be clearing the decks of various projects here in the UK. But, in homage to warmer climes and those long trips to exotic locations that have been the mainstay of my life for so long – here’s the picture of the day from today’s scans. I took this picture (on slide film) on the 14th December 1993. This was my hotel in India – honest!

The building you see is the Umaid Bhawan palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. The palace was begun in 1929 as a job creation scheme as the area was suffering from a severe drought that deprived many farmers of their living. It was commissioned by Maharaja Umaid Singh and designed by the British architect Henry Vaughan Lanchester (a contemporary of Edwin Lutyens). The Maharajah’s ancestors still occupy the majority of the 347 room building, but when I was there part of it had been converted into a hotel. Lynn and I hadn’t planned to stay there, but it was Lynn’s first time in India and we’d had to sleep in the luggage racks of a packed overnight train from Delhi, so I thought a bit of luxury was in order as a commiseration. Of course, in 1992, the cost of luxury was very different to what it is today and the room we had was actually quite reasonable! That evening we sat out on the balcony you can see here, sipping cold beers, watching peacocks wander the lawns and through the bougainvillea bushes. Then at sunset, a sitar and tabla player appeared to give us our own personal performance. Magic! If you want to see more pictures that I took at the palace, you can find them here.

Oh, to be able to have the freedom to do these things again…

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Well, that was a bummer…

30 Monday Aug 2021

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Today I’d expected to be making my merry way across the country by rail, leaving leafy Surrey to cross the capital and watch the world go by on the East Coast Main Line before arriving back at the Yorkshire tea plantations on the slopes of the Calder valley. Only things didn’t quite go to plan….

Last night I was editing some pictures, including a few I’d taken yesterday afternoon at Box Hill when I noticed something odd on the Surrey pics. On each shot the right hand side of the image was out of focus for about 25% of the frame. Odd, very odd. I’d only taken the camera body with just the 80-400mm lens attached to it so I immediately checked out my kit. That’s when I discovered that – somehow – the long lens body had become skewed on the ring that attached it to the camera body. To say my language became colourful (even profane) would be an understatement! If God existed there’d have been a lightning strike in Tilford last night!

At the beginning of September I’ve two jobs lasting several days running back to back, so I really need that lens – or a replacement for it. This left me with one choice. Stay another night in Surrey and head into London tomorrow to the camera servicing centre I’ve been using for the past 20 years. My big concern was what to do with our old moggie, Jet, who’s at home and been looked after by neighbours, plus Dawn’s mum and dad. Fortunately, they’ve rallied round and John and Norah have taken Jet on another holiday to their house in Huddersfield. He’s such an old boy we don’t want to leave him on his own too long, so this was the best solution. Now I’m free to extend my Surrey sojourn and come back with Dawn on Wednesday rather then her having to drive all the way solo. I also get to have the lens looked at and do some photographic projects around London and Surrey – albeit without a long lens, but that’ll force me to look at things in a different way – which isn’t always a bad thing…

This means my final blog of August will be filled with fun and games in London as I’ll have more time to visit locations I’d got in mind.

Although this blog hasn’t been billed as a picture of the day I’ll still include one – just to add a splash of colour to my scribbling. Here’s another of my recent slide scans from my Indian archives. I took this picture in Arambol, Goa, India in December 1993.

Every evening before sunset, after most of the Westerners had adjourned to the beachside bars and restaurant in this little fishing village to enjoy a sunset beer they’d be replaced by local children who’d arrive to play games, splash in the waves or just lark about. Often young lads like this would find whatever they could to use as a bat and stumps to enjoy a game of cricket. Sometimes you’d get bemused European boys like this one wondering just what was this strange game they were playing. It was always fun to watch. It’s odd to think that these young boys will now be men and it could well be their sons playing these same games on the beach in Arambol.

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29th August picture(s) of the day…

29 Sunday Aug 2021

Posted by in Food, India, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Surrey, Travel

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My Surrey sojourn’s been an enjoyable couple of days. On Saturday the pair of us enjoyed a trip into Guildford for a spot of shopping, both window and real. The sheer number of independent retailers is far greater in the South than some northern cities, especially when it comes to clothing. That said, the bargains I picked up (some shirts) were from a national outlet. In the evening we adjorned to a pub in Frensham, near to where we’re based in Tilford. The Holly Bush is a roomy place with a large covered seating area outside, plus a big beer garden. The food menu isn’t extensive, but what they do supply is very good. On a recommendation we shared the fish platter. Huge King prawns, excellent squid rings and a delicious Mackerel pate came with bowls of Olives and sun-dried tomatoes plus crisp pitta bread and a sweet chilli dip. Feeling ambitious we also ordered one of our favourites (soft shell crab) which was on the small plate menu and served with mango. So, here’s today’s bonus picture – the Fish platter (which was more than enough for two people)…

Today we went to somewhere Dawn’s never been to before and that I’ve not visited for years, Box Hill in the Surrey Hills AONB. Needless to say (being a bank holiday) it was very busy with families making a day of it and enjoying the views and walks, or just getting together in groups to have picnics or barbecues. The atmosphere was lovely. As we’d taken Tilly, my brother-in-Law’s Cairn Terrier with us, we made lots of friends! Now, back at home we’re having a relaxed evening as tomorrow it will be time for me to return North again – which should be fun as it’s Bank Holiday Monday. No doubt a rolling blog will appear…

In the meantime, here the real picture of the day which is taken from the last batch of old slides I’ve been scanning. I took this shot at the flea market in Anjuna, Goa, India in December 1993. It’s a shot of one of the Tribal Women from Karnataka state who sell the most amazing embroidered, bejewelled and mirrored clothing. Their personal jewellery can be quite something too. In this case it was the woman’s colourful sari which really added to the scene.

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26th August picture of the day…

26 Thursday Aug 2021

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It’s another short blog from me tonight as I’ve been busy sorting out work and the fact that tomorrow I head back down South for the Bank Holiday. This means that you’ll be treated to a rolling blog as I make my way from Halifax to Farnham via who knows where as I have some work shots in mind…

Today’s not been a bad one, although I could’ve done without the news that Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has passed away – even if 80’s a bloody good age for someone in his profession! I saw the Stones live at Wembley Stadium in 1990 and they were superb. It’s a sobering thought that all my teenage idols are now pensioners, but then – so am I. Where the hell did the years go? It’s a question I’ll explore in another blog when I have the time and inclination…

Meanwhile, here’s the picture of the day. I’ve scanned a few more old travel slides today and this was one of them. I took this picture of the main beach in Arambol, Goa, India on the 31st January 2000,

I first found this place in 1985 and for many years it became my ‘happy place’. But time and events move on. I’ve not been back since 2003 and although I’m tempted as I still have friends there I’m not sure I want to spoil those fabulous and special memories. Besides, there’s so many places that I haven’t been to yet that I’d love to explore…

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25th August picture of the day…

25 Wednesday Aug 2021

Posted by in India, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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There was me thinking I’d been so clever this morning! I’d a whole blog prepared which was a rewrite of an article I’d written for RAIL magazine back in 2017. I was all ready to publish it then realised I couldn’t find the damned pictures to go with it! All my pictures (so I thought) are backed-up. Either on my Zenfolio website or on several hard-drives. Only one particular hard-drive failed earlier this year. And guess where the pictures are? Hopefully I’ll be able to get all of them recovered as it sounds like a mechanical failure rather then anything more serious. Even so, it’s made me think about how I look at backing up pictures in the future.

This means today’s blog is going to be very short and the picture of the day not what I was going to display at all. But, it does fit my mood as this is somewhere I’d much rather be right now. I took this picture of a sunset in Mandrem, North Goa, India on the 31st January 2002.

I can still hear the sound of the sea and feel the heat on my skin as I look at the picture. I am soooo looking forward to getting back to international travelling just as soon as this shitty time is over. OK, it’s not *all* bad, I’ll be on the rails in the UK again very soon, so expect a few rolling blogs and pictures from around the UK. In the meantime – enjoy this picture and relax….

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24th August picture of the day…

24 Tuesday Aug 2021

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You’ll be relieved to know there’s no long, rambling blog from me today before I cut to the chase and post a picture.. Well, there might be a little one. There’s so much to write about but so few hours to fit it in to. This morning was spent in a ‘Zoom’ call judging three categories in this year’s Community Rail Awards. Myself and my other august judges, plus Sarah from Community Rail Network (who very capably did the behind the scenes stuff with spreadsheets, despite being drafted in at the last moment) agreed the winners for three of the categories in this year’s awards. Obviously, I’m not going to spill any beans but what I will say is that the winners were never really in dispute between the four of us – and we individually marked them without reference to each other. That said, the standard of entries was amazing and and choosing the shortlisted entries was really tough. Despite the pandemic, the world of community rail has been doing some brilliant stuff. The results will be announced in December when the awards themselves will be held in Southampton – having been postponed from the same location in 2020. There’s some fantastic projects that’ll be recognised, but for now my lips are sealed…

Judging done I’ve cracked on with other projects and picture editing in the hope I can escape for the day with the camera tomorrow – weather permitting, although this will entail an early start – hence the shortness of this blog. Which brings me on to the picture of the day…

I took this shot one morning in January, 1998. It’s the view from outside the hostel we were staying in at the hill station of Kodikanal in Tamil Nadu in Southern India.

Kodaikanal is 2133 metres above sea level. It’s quite a journey to get there by bus from the plains of Tamil Nadu below. There’s a heck of a temperature change in either direction. But, imagine waking up in the morning and stepping outside your room to a view like this, because this is exactly what we saw when we did…

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Thank you!

21st August picture of the day…

21 Saturday Aug 2021

Posted by in India, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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It’s an early picture of the day today as we’re off to a wedding this afternoon which makes blogging this evening look very unlikely – for obvious reasons! It’s been an interesting and varied week that’s highlighted the fact the world is slowly returning to normal after the chaos caused by Covid. Sadly for our friends who’re getting married today, the one thing they’ve absolutely no control over (the weather) hasn’t played ball. Here in the Calder Valley the hilltops are submerged underneath thunderous looking low cloud and misted by rain. The wedding’s in Denby Dale/Huddersfield but I doubt the conditions will be any different. Even so, we hope Hazel and Paul have a fabulous day and their spirits aren’t dampened. We’ll certainly be doing our best to make it enjoyable for them.

The wedding will be the climax of a very sociable week – another indicator we’re recovering from the pandemic. We’ve felt a bit like hermits over the past 18 months. Now the vaccination programme’s reached such a level and Covid cases appear to be manageable the idea of socialising with friends (and strangers) seems a lot less intimidating. That doesn’t mean Dawn and I have thrown caution to the wind – far from it. We both still wear masks when out shopping, on public transport or when we feel the situation merits them but we’re allowing ourselves some optimism and certainly more freedom. Judging by the number of people I’ve experienced returning to the railways we’re not alone in those feelings. What we both want now is to be able to have a holiday, preferably somewhere sunny, but right now, we’re still being cautious on international travel.

Sadly, that means I’m not likely to be seeing sights like today’s picture until 2022. This is one of the latest batch of old slides that I’ve been scanning and it comes from the 18 month long round the world trip Lynn and I took in 1997-99. I took this picture in Hampi, Karnataka, India in December 1997…

Ever seen an elephant stables before? No, neither had I until we visited the ruins of Hampi, which is a UNESCO world heritage site and former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. It’s a remarkable and rather surreal place which has laid abandoned since it was destroyed by sultanate armies in 1565. Don’t expect to explore it all in a day, the ruins cover over 16 sq miles!

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Thank you!

20th August picture of the day…

20 Friday Aug 2021

Posted by in India, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Today’s been a day for slaving away at home editing the pictures that I took yesterday, catching up on some paperwork and researching stuff for future blogs. Not exactly what you’d call exciting but just the job after yesterday’s little stroll. At least my shoulders get a break from the weight of the camera bag!

As it’s Friday Dawn and I did something unusual (well, for us anyway) by going out for a drink with friends in Halifax. We rarely visit the town centre as we tend to gravitate to Sowerby Bridge or more local hostelries. Today we’re trying somewhere different. Over the past few years there’s been an explosion of micropubs and new bars which have taken over some of the empty shops in town. Today we visited one of the older ones – The Victorian craft beer cafe in Powell St, behind the Victoria Theatre. It’s a cracking, multi-roomed place that has all the right elements you’d hope for. Spread over several levels and with a real variety of nooks and crannies and a bar that has an excellent variety of beers (no, it’s not all ‘craft’, nor expensive due to the name) the place is well worth a visit. The five of us had a great night and I’m sure we’ll be back. Much as we’d liked to have stayed Dawn and I had to leave early as Dee has a wedding cake to finish making. Yep, we’re off to a wedding tomorrow, so a blog may (or may) not appear.

In the meantime I’ll leave you with the picture of the day which is from the latest batch of old slides I’ve been scanning. Right now I’m on an album that contains a real mish-mash of slides that either were never properly filed and just ended up crammed in albums – or ones that got mis-filed. This one’s a case in point. I took this picture in Arambol, Goa, India in December 1997. Friends of Lynn and I had a bakery/cafe there called ‘Double Dutch (Axel and Lucie are both Dutch – and there’s a looongg story about them cycling from the Netherlands to India for another time). This is a chap who was known as ‘Forest’ performing a fire dance routine in their garden whilst I played around with the camera…

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Thank you!

28th March picture of the day…

28 Sunday Mar 2021

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Sunday’s allegedly the ‘day of rest’, isn’t it? Fat chance….

I had been hoping for a lie-in today after being up at silly o’ clock yesterday but two clocks conspired against me. One was my own internal body-clock whilst the other was the advent of British Summer Time, which meant the clocks went forward an hour. I was wide awake by 7 AM so thought ‘bugger it’ and got up to start pottering around. As I did so the Pennine weather was throwing a strop with heavy winds and rain which made me realise how lucky we’d been with yesterday’s job in Bradford. The temperatures may have been positively Baltic due to freezing winds that completely took the edge of the sun – but the weather stayed dry.

In contrast, today was warm and wet with no incentive to venture out so I spent the vast part of the day pottering around indoors on various chores whilst trying to catch up on some work. Well, it’s not as if there’s much else to do! Some of the lockdown regulations on meeting up will be relaxed next week, but right now it’s not as if we’re all part of a hectic social whirl with diaries full of restaurant, theatre or holiday bookings! One of the great things about my commission yesterday was that it added variety and a change of scenery – plus the chance to catch up with an old friend – and interact with strangers (even if it was at a social distance). How we used to take these things for granted…

Everything that’s happened has left me in an introspective mood, one which has been compounded by two other events. The latest batch of old slides I’m scanning were taken in Nepal in 1992 and to pin down the dates for some of them I’m having to read through old diaries written at the time. God, talking about taking you back…

Re-reading the diaries and looking at the pictures has made me realise how much the world’s changed in the past 30 years. But then it’s not just the world, it’s my life too. So much has happened in the intervening time. When I finally finish scanning the pictures and have more opportunity I’m determined to write about those times at length. Right now I just can’t do them justice. As if the diaries and scanning weren’t enough, Facebook has thrown me a curved-ball too…

I have a love-hate relationship with social-media, including Facebook, but I do find it incredibly useful for keeping in contact with friends (old and new) who’re scattered around the globe. What threw me today was Facebook reminding me what I was doing today, 10 years ago. So, instead of the usual picture of the day plucked from one of my old slide scans – here’s ‘on this day in history’…

On the 28th March 2011 I was travelling solo around India. I’d been in Asia since the previous December for business/pleasure (long story – for another time) but returned to India to explore places new and old. I was particularly interested in the dwindling metre and narrow gauge railway systems, so I ended up touring the state of Gujarat in the North of India. This day 10 years ago I’d taken a day trip from Vadodara (formerly Baroda) to a place called Miyagam Karjan Junction which was served by one of the extensive network of narrow-gauge railways. It was a brilliant day out that kept my camera busy. On the way home I’d decided not to book a reserved seat on a train but pitch up in 3rd Class and see what happened. After all, it was only three hours (ish) back to Vadodara, which is nothing to what I was used to on Indian railways! So, here’s how it went…

I took this picture from the luggage rack above the seats that was the most spacious place to wedge myself as the train was packed with a mixture of long distance passengers from Mumbai as well as local commuters. This is exactly the same problem Intercity services suffer from in the UK – and one of the reasons we need HS2! But I digress..

Despite the crowding, it was a memorable journey as people really weren’t used to a lone Westerner pitching up on this trip – especially one who seemed at home and wielded a camera. It wasn’t long before we all became friends and had some great chats – as is often the case in India – how I miss these interactions…

If you want to see the full selection of pictures from that 2010-11 trip, you can find them in this gallery on my Zenfolio website.

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Thank you!