Friday, August 13, 2010

Photo op

For those of you who may be missing our smiling faces

I think the man that took this picture secretly wanted to be a photographer, he took our picture at least 18 times in front of the Taj Mahal.  By this point in the trip I was used to having my picture taken, because throughout our time in India, especially in Delhi, strangers were taking our picture all the time.  Some would come up and ask, some wanted to be in a picture with us, and others just took them from afar.  I liked to wave at the camera when I caught them doing it.  I think we only said no to a picture once.  We had entered a mosque in hopes that it would be less crazy than the market outside where I thought I was going to have a breakdown if I stayed in the insanity for even one more second.  The mosque unfortunately wasn't any better.  The man who asked for a picture simply had terrible timing.  I was hot, thirsty and trying to escape the stares and get quickly back to my shoes as the ground was searing my feet.  I had just been called a rather mean name (though in retrospect I'm sure the young person who said it didn't really understand what it meant).  I was also feeling self conscious in the comically bright pink floral muumuu I was given to cover my already very conservatively dressed self.  Looking back it is humorous how ridiculous the whole situation was.  But at the time I didn't feel any need to mark the moment with a picture of me and a stranger.  So I declined.  Jeremiah did however take a picture of the madness before we returned to it to get cold water and a rickshaw.

Delhi

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