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What you think, you become., originally uploaded by Aditya Grandhi.

Standing at about 55 feet and weighing more than 350 tons, this statue of Buddha in the middle of lake Hussainsagar in Hyderabad provides the city with its very own landmark.

Staring at this statue does provide some peace to the Hyderabadis that's very much required in these times of meaningless agitation.

Brihadishwara, originally uploaded by Christian Lagat.

Thanjavur (Tanjore) - Tamil Nadu - South India.
Brihadishwara Temple, jewel of the sacred chola architecture (10th century), dedicated to Shiva.Registred in the UN World Heritage.
The famous sandstone used in the construction of the main and the little temples come for a mountain, and was carried by boat on the canal bordering the temple.

Happy Hours :-) / Twilight Magic / Explore, originally uploaded by Fountain_Head.

I had this craze for catching streaks of light and that made me get up very early at around 6 in the morning during my vacation at Poovar to go searching for the 'elusive' streak of light. What I ended up doing was to shoot 100's of photos of the streak of lights on the streets of Poovar. A coconut grove in the early morning sun offers such superb plays of light that all that I had to do was to keep clicking.

I had found this 'spot' to be the ideal place to shoot streak of lights and hence went back to the same spot the next day to wait for the perfect composition. These three women were actively going towards their work when I shot this picture.

Band, Shimla, originally uploaded by jason staines.

A military band play marching music in the late afternoon in Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, India.

D E V O T I O N. Sonepur, originally uploaded by Claude Renault.

Pilgrims bathing in the Gandak river on Kartik Purnima day in Sonepur, the beginning of a 3 weeks animal fair in this little village of Bihar, thousands of pilgrims and visitors are gathering there.

Elephant transportation, originally uploaded by vkiran_2000.

On the way to Hampi, I got to capture a temple elephant being transported on a truck. The mahout said it was being ferried back to Chitradurga from Bangalore, where it was part of some festivities. There were no harnesses or safety gear, and I hope the elephant didnt have travel sickness !!

Home Sweet Home - Rishikesh, originally uploaded by Sanatan.

Unfortunately nobody was home when I took this photograph, but this makeshift home belonged to a local Sadhu or Holy Man living the renounced life. He is obviously like a lot of Sadhus in Rishikesh a devotee of Lord Shiva. There is a photograph left on display in the top right depicting Lord Shiva and his eternal Consort Parvati. I particularly like his Patio (Crazy Pavin').

What you can't tell from this photograph is that this shelter is overlooking the River Ganges at the foothill of the Himalayas. I was standing on the rocky and sandy riverbank taking this photo.

The Sarangi Player, originally uploaded by Atul Tater.

Sarangi is the most important instrument in the folk music of Rajasthan. Probably the ancestor of violin, this instrument has two main strings and a variable number of supporting strings, with a belly of half a coconut shell and a body of bamboo. The Sarangi serves as an echo of the singer.

And accompanying the Sarangi is the Dholak. it is a two-sided drum like structure made of wood with membranes covering the hollow structure which adds rhythm to the soul-stirring music.

Drudgery of routine, originally uploaded by ஃ முதல் அ வரை.

Compagnie 111's Plan B, created by Aurélien Bory. Bonjour-India Festival, Chennai 2009.

Plan B starts with this bit where neatly dressed men in business suits stand up on a inclined plane and slide down relentlessly for about thirty to forty times, to emphasis how life goes by as one just watches it. Later on they proceed to perform some of their innovative gravity defying bits, which were truly entertaining.

This is part of the on going Bonjour-India Festival. More info available on their webpage .

In their own words
Four acrobats sliding on a mobile plane (inclined, horizontal, vertical), a few white balls magically suspended in mid-air, a flurry of lights and music: this is Plan B for you, a show of Compagnie 111 directed by the New-Yorker Phil Soltanoff, combining the best of circus, theatre and video art. From an imaginative renewal of the experience of space and the laws of gravity, gradually emerges a poetic discourse. In Plan B, dream and farce unfold in a new poetics of space.

Artistic movements of the 20’s such as constructivism; the Bauhaus have greatly influenced the creations of Compagnie 111. Other artistic forms present on stage, namely lights, sound, live electronic music, video, dance, design, magic and shadow play, are all laced into one unique creation. Plan B is not only full of creativity, humour and poetry, but also represents a mind-boggling example of technical perfection. Their mastery of the circus arts leads the four men to defy the universal laws of space and gravity. What remains is slow motion, energy, buoyancy.

Performers:
Olivier Alenda, Aurélien Bory, Pierre Cartonnet, Loic Praud
with Sylvian Lafourcade, Stéphane Ley, Arnaud Veyrat

Jaggery factory2, originally uploaded by equilibriumart.

This is a traditional Indian jaggery factory, They are all outdoors and very, very rustic. They boil freshly extracted sugar cane juice in a huge vat, with a massive fire under the ground, in a kind of furnace. Then they hang it in large pouches to clean, and let the pure sugar drip through. Finally they cool it in a very wide flat pool where they stir it so it thickens, then lift out slabs to cool on a tarpaulin on the ground. If you eat it at this stage it is the best, then it hardens as it cools more. This photo captures the late afternoon sun through the steam coming off the vat - it was very atmospheric. Near Baraut, UP, India.

Meal time, originally uploaded by bhatto.

An informal thirsty elelphant getting water near a forest on the Dibrugarh (Assam) - Deomali (Arunachal) border in NE India.

Tempa, originally uploaded by goddessofxanadu.

Tempa has never seen her homeland, Tibet. She was born in India and can only dream of her Tibetan homeland....and she makes paintings, sitting by the Bagsu road all day, traditional Tibetan religious thankas of incredible depth and detail, as if by doing so she can invoke some missing part of herself that she cannot retrieve in any other way.

Fishing, Hampi, originally uploaded by s i a m.

Children fishing in Tungabhadra river, Hampi, Karnataka, India.

The Tungabhadra River is a sacred river in southern India that flows through the state of Karnataka to Andhra Pradesh, where it serves as the chief tributary of the Krishna River. In the epic Ramayana, the Tungabhadra river was known by the name of Pampa (another sacred river in Kerala also bears the name Pampa.)

vent debout, originally uploaded by >> Anne (out).

In Ladakh every field is surrounded by a wall mounted in a hurry to prevent the animals enter. In general there is no door ... should therefore scale the wall to enter or exit. This woman of a certain age, and despite the pain in his back, climbed the walls like a "cabris"! impressive!

Carry home the Devi, originally uploaded by Biju - Back on Track!!! Not that easy afterall.

This is a usual scenario in Kumartoli just before the West Bengal biggest festival, the Durga Puja. Kumartoli is the place where all these idols are manufactured and sold. People from all over the state come and buys the idols.

Bhagat Saangil-Narrative theatre, originally uploaded by ramesh_lalwani.

Braj (Hindi/Braj Bhasha: ब्रज) (also known as Brij or Brajbhoomi) is a region in Uttar Pradesh of India, around Mathura-Vrindavan. Braj, though never a clearly defined political region in India but is very well demarcated culturally, is considered to be the land of Krishna and is derived from the Sanskrit word vraja. The main city in the region is Mathura.

Om Mani Padme Houng, originally uploaded by >> Anne (out).

Each year in July in the village of Karsha of 28 ° to 29 ° day of the sixth Tibetan month the Gustor festival takes place.
Gustor means "sacrifice of 29 ° days".
Karsha, Zanskar.

My Rental Agreement Says the Lesser should not allocate another family... but, originally uploaded by kichus.in.

they took over my work area, emptied a broom nicely to built their home... wakes me up at 4:00 AM everyday @#$@#$@.. and now the family is grown to 2+... from next month 'm gonna ask my rental share.. Grrr....

:) I was not sure whether to take a photo as I don't want to panic the busy husband and wife... they are working overtime it seems to feed their newborns... :) Wish all the very best to them.. Happy to be the host...

School Bus, Delhi Style!, originally uploaded by easton2223.

This was one of my favorite days of the trip. Chandni Chowk was a really busy, hustling market place that was maybe a bit sketchy at best. One of the only market places that our driver Ram demanded to walk with us. This 'school bus' was so hand made and interesting and i loved the colors. I only got one snap at this, and all these girls were so excited to get their picture taken. Wish i had a wide angle on at the time, but having the 50 changed the subject from bus to school girls. There were 3 more buses like this full of these kids in their school uniforms, and everyone was very very happy. That really made my day!