Travels of a Niaja photographer: In India. Part I

Growing up in Nigeria, I watched my fill of 'India movies classics like 'Amar Akbar Anthony', 'Mother India' and 'Sholay', that were routinely debated at school and parties. Forget the fact that most of these films never had sub titles. There was always someone who would translate the film into his or her own version. Funnily enough, we normally got the general gist of the plot after watching it 3 or 4 times. (what else could you watch on Nigeria TV on a friday night or on Betamax video??) I never thought that I would ever go to India.

As God's grace would have it, a couple of months ago I was in India, and the plan was to cover most of the South of India, and then go up North. Now, since blogging while journeying was going to be an issue, I've decided to play catch up now.
So, I'm going to try and chronicle the journey and some of the areas visited, and not in any particular order.

First area of exploration was Tamil Nadu, and we (as in Myself, 'G' and our driver, Mr.Murulee) had been on the road from Maduira, and got into Kanyakumari around 2.30 in the morning. G was already in the land of Nod, so I pulled sentry, keeping an eye on the driver, just in case he decided to have '40 winks'. The guy barely spoke any english, and my Tamil isn't all that, so conversation wasn't anyting to go by. That wasn't going to stop me from trying to keep this guy or myself awake, though. From sharing chewing gum to asking him to increase the volume on the radio, I used every guerilla tactic to keep him and us awake. If you have ever driven on Indian, roads or Nigerian Roads, you'll understand why I was paranoid. I mean, if God says it's your time to die, that's all well and good, but sometimes you don't need to speeden up the process.
So, with the information we were given about Kanyakumari being the further most tip to where the sun rises, we decided to get up early and see this spectacular sight of nature in action. So, come 5.30am, we get up, thinking that we might see maybe a couple of people wanting to do the same thing. How could I have got that so wrong?!?!? The place was packed out with worshippers, pilgrims, traders, tourists and scammers. I had my gear with me to take pictures, and thankfully none of the local photographers asked for me to have my picture taken. Probably because I had a ticked off look due to some dust on the camera sensors.

I have to say, it was a sight to behold. Makes you feel alive and appreciative of the work of God. The one shot I'm proud off is of the 3 worshippers aligned with the monument on the other side of the sea, with the sun coming up. ISO200, F16 @ 1/125th of a second. (I'm sure thats the setting.) If unsure, try out the setttings whenever you see a sunrise. And if you live in London, you might be lucky!