Winds of Change Blow Through Rajasthan

Hot desert winds spit across the Thar Desert blowing change through the desiccated landscape. Dunes shift and reform, parched trees flutter and time, always adrift, heralds change in the Rajasthani way of life. Hundreds of years ago, when funeral pyre’s … Continued


Holy Rats and other Desert Surprises

Scalding winds burn through the Thar desert, the empty, hostile land of Rajasthan, India’s largest state known as the Land of Kings. It’s a place where Sikh maharajas with handlebar moustaches lived in desert fortresses to defeat raiders and protect … Continued


A Tease for the New Year

I’ve been posting lots of great images from South Asia lately but the library’s huge and in the coming weeks and months I’ll be posting images from many other countries and continents – South America, Central America (North America) and … Continued


Dhaka’s Hindu Heart

It beats and throbs like an adrenaline-soaked sprinter racing through the heart of Dhaka’s old city. Hindu Street, a long, narrow road with cracked sidewalks where bicycle rickshaws and pedestrians jostle for space on its narrow throughway while women in … Continued


Scavenging Old Dhaka for the Present Past

It’s hard to imagine much ever changes in Dhaka’s crowded, frenetic old city. Rickshaws still clog its arteries. Soot spilling trucks narrowly squeeze through the scrum. Men wearing plaid headscarves plod the streets while women in saris glowing orange, lime … Continued


Buddha’s Golden Rock

In Southern Burma, a gilded rock hangs precariously on the edge of a mountaintop, suspended by a single hair of the Buddha. The sun shimmers on its glowing face while pilgrims meditate and paste gold leaf at its foot. According … Continued


Broke Down Palace, well Bangladeshi Ricksaw

There’s no time for a breakdown in Old Dhaka, whose narrow roads are framed by crumbling buildings and offer little wiggle room for a disabled rickshaw, let alone car. Despite this, Old Dhaka’s abuzz with commerce and people haggling in … Continued


Dhaka’s Dusty Streets

Sprawl, dust and chaos are words that screech to mind wandering through the streets of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital with 17-million inhabitants. Amidst the cacophony of sounds, smells and crowds of hawkers offering everything from blessed amulets to freshly butchered meat still bleeding and … Continued


The Merchant(s) of Savar

Shops and street vendors line the streets of this bustling city, an hour away from Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital. Some have established stands built into buildings, almost like a take out stand in the US. Others spread a blanket on … Continued


Being a kid in Bangladesh. Not always fun and games.

Each culture defines childhood differently. For us in the west, childhood doesn’t usually entail work – maybe a paper route or lemonade stand – and real employment doesn’t start until high school. Yet for many countries in the developing world, … Continued