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Nicholas Ahn

India 2024


In August 2024, my wife and I took a week long trip to India. Due to the pandemic we weren't able to have her relatives attend our wedding, so I hadn't met any of them yet. It was time to book a ticket and meet them while exploring some of what this beautiful country has to offer. I visited 3 cities: New Delhi, Chennai, and Trichy.


I think of myself as a pretty well traveled person. I've been to counties of all different kinds spanning the political and economic spectrum. India is unlike any place I've been. It is the most different country from the USA that I've ever experienced. It is also not a very touristy place (at least the cities I visited). Traveling with my wife, who spent many months of her childhood there and visits regularly, was absolutely key to the experience. Having someone who speaks the language is definitely nice but not completely necessary, as a lot of Indians speak English well enough to get by. The biggest difference with traveling with someone who knows the culture is being able to fully experience the Indian way of life.


New Delhi

Our first stop. Since this was my first city in India, I wasn't sure what to expect. Delhi actually reminded me the most of the USA out of all the cities we visited. Looking back, that makes a certain amount of sense since it is the largest city with a lot of international relations. The roads were larger and and less busy (for India standards) and the buildings were also modern and big. To be honest, I didn't find a whole lot I wanted to photograph until we got into more of the neighborhoods as opposed to the touristy spots we spent most of our time in. There were large business parks, supermarkets, hotels, etc. A lot of what I know from the states, New Delhi had as well, albeit maybe a bit older and less maintained.


Below is an Indian auto. These are the taxis in the city. They more or less all look the same across all the cities I visited. They look like motorbikes that have been altered to have a cover and two wheels in the back. They are driven with motorbike handle bars as opposed to a steering wheel that you'd find in a traditional car. They seat 3-4 people maximum and are much zippier than cars on the roads. This is entirely due to their smaller size. No one on the road follows traditional road rules like staying in your lane or alternating right of ways at an intersection. Everyone moves by what makes sense. If there's an opening and I'm small enough to fit in, I'll go and push forward until I find another opening I can take. In the city there's so much traffic that no one goes super fast so it doesn't feel that unsafe. I could never drive these roads but it's pretty easy to just put your trust in your driver and not feel uneasy (most of the time).

We started our long day of touristy excursions by visiting a tower called Qutub Minar. It is the tallest tower in all of India.

It had very pretty writing on the pillars.

I got this one pretty neat shot of a little boy sitting in a window of another structure next to the tower.

After visiting Qutub Minar, we drove to the Lotus Temple. This is a functioning temple with some of the prettiest architecture I've ever seen. It's one of those places you have to see with your own eyes. Images don't do it justice. I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside but I can assure you it is just as beautiful as the outside.

On our way to our next location, our driver stopped by a little tiny stand on the side of the road for some Indian style tea. Indian chai is made by boiling milk with several different spices. It is extremely tasty but definitely heavier than the water based tea in the states. For reference, the chai price is 20 rupees which is about 25 cents USD.

I didn't opt to have have any of this chai since I wasn't sure my gut could handle the cooking conditions of a street vendor. Shruthi had some and was fine.


Next, we stopped by what seemed to be a random neighborhood. It was Shruthi's parents' home when they had moved to New Delhi from Trichy after giving birth to Shruthi. One of their neighbors from all those years ago still lives there and recognized them!

They were telling me how everything down to the hinges on the gate was the exact same from all those years ago. Shruthi's parents would also stop by at this little dhaba (roadside restaurant) downstairs all the time and the owner gave them food and supplies when they had Shruthi. That goes to show the strong sense of community in India. Your neighbors are more than people who just live next to you. You get the feeling that everyone really looks out for everyone else.

My time in New Delhi was super packed and very tiring but it was a good, soft intro into what India had to offer. After sleeping a few hours, we hopped on a flight to Chennai.


Chennai

We arrived at the Chennai airport and were almost immediately greeted by a dog with a hurt foot that followed us around asking for food. We fed it some biscuits and sadly couldn't take her with us as we made our way to Shruthi's aunt's place. After eating some delicious homemade food, we went to the roof of her apartment building known as the "motta maadi". The official translation is "terrace".


This is something very unique to India. Almost all apartments and condos have this walkable accessible roof for hanging clothing out to dry. I had seen stuff like this in movies but had never experienced walking across one in person. Shruthi was telling me about her memories here hanging out late at night with her cousins just laying down looking at the stars and chatting about life. It really seems like a magical place.

While we were exploring the motta maadi, we looked over the edge of the building to find 3 or 4 stray dogs and tons of cows roaming around. We ventured downstairs to go feed and play with them.

This was the India I was picturing in my head: little neighborhoods with dogs and cows roaming around, people on bikes and autos zipping from place to place, old buildings with a lot of historic character in their design, and a complex, albeit slightly concerning, electrical infrastructure.

While exploring, we stumbled across this neon painted wall with about 6 cows just resting in front of it. It was such a perfect and unique photo-op:

The cows and dogs are so friendly. They come right up to you and ask for pets and food. It was a bit surreal to experience that.


After playing with the animals, we visited a couple more relatives' houses over the next day or two and headed to the train station to go to our last stop, Trichy. The train station, Egmore, was a pretty interesting place too. It connects pretty much all of India.


Something that stood out to me was the typography on the trains. It reminded me of Wes Anderson's style. The colors and font choice have more character than trains I've seen before. There seems to be a trend in overall architecture and typography towards minimalist, brutal practicality. Icons have a minimum amount of detail to illustrate an idea. In India, it seems that text and architecture have more character and design than that in the states. I suspect this is due to how old the country is.


Trichy

After the 4 hour train ride, we arrived at our final stop, Trichy.

Our driver picked us up and drove us to Shruthi's grandparents' place. The car ride over was perhaps the most "India coded" experience I've had yet. Immediately after leaving the airport and heading into the city, you get a very different vibe from any other place in India.

The roads are super packed with a mix of motorbikes, autos, cars, and most of all, people. Navigating them seems like an absolute nightmare. The same Indian road rules apply but just turned up to 11. It was a photographer's dream looking around the city. Every way you turn, there's something interesting to look at and photograph.

One word that really sums up driving through Trichy is "color." The color of the food vendors, to women's clothing, to the paint and decoration choices of buildings. So much color and vibrancy.


We arrived at the grandparents' place and I grabbed this photo of their door lock. I thought it was interesting how every home I went to had the same style of lock.

We went up to the motta maadi to hang some clothes to dry and I loved this one even more than the last.

Not only were we high up and could see all the colorful houses and city below, but there was also such a nice view of Malaikottai (AKA Rock Fort Temple). It sits atop a big rock in the center of the city visible no matter where you are in Trichy.

On our first day of exploring the city, we went to visit Malaikottai. I wasn't able to bring my camera inside, but the beauty of the temple was really seen from the outside. The view from the top was really breathtaking too. I took the following photo on my phone, but wanted to include it here to show how the city looked from high above: a labyrinth of color and texture. Right in the center of the photo is the grandparents' place (above the roof full of clothes. which is an all female hostel).

We had a rose water (panneer - not to be confused with paneer, which is a form of cottage cheese) soda at the top of the temple, which became a staple of the trip. You can only find it in South India and it costs about 20 cents per soda. It blew my mind how cheap everything was here. You could get a feast, to the point where you are struggling to move afterwards, because you are so full for just a few dollars.


The next day, we spent the morning walking around the city and exploring. In just a couple hours of walking around, we saw so much. There was a wedding car train that drove by as we were drinking another panneer soda. I thought a bunch of engines were backfiring but it was a couple people throwing fireworks up in the air in the middle of the street.

A common occurrence in India is the abundance of street dogs. Most are friendly, some are indifferent, and a small number of them are better left alone. We stumbled across this super pretty dog that had no interest in our food and just wanted to rest.

We even stopped by a small market to buy some guavas (which ended up being totally unripe and inedible. You live and you learn).

After exploring, we took a short drive over to another famous temple, Srirangam. We didn't explore the insides as much as we did for Malaikottai since we were pressed for time but again, the real beauty is the architecture from the outside.

Our final stop was the Kaveri River. Apparently it is pretty dry around this time of year but we were lucky to see it decently full. I snapped this one shot of a man bathing in it. I'm not entirely sure what those bright blue artifacts are in the image. I suspect it has something to do with a diffusion filter I used throughout the entire trip. Diffusion filters typically are used to bloom highlights. This means bright spots (such as sources of light or shine) become hazier and more glowy, giving the image a more dream-like feel. I think this effect is sometimes reached but not all the time. If anyone has used one before and knows what those artifacts are, I'd love to know! I'm just speculating.

We got back the grandparents' place to pack up and rest before our flight out to Dubai. It was Friday, a religiously significant day, so Shruthi's grandmother had a little ceremonious set up and was doing a prayer and offering involving incense, coconuts, flowers, and various foods.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in India. It was nice to be welcomed with open arms by all of Shruthi's family and to explore the cities "as a local". I want to visit again soon since my mind is exploding with all sorts of film photography projects I'd love to pursue one day. It was unlike any country I've ever visited. The amount of culture and history you find at every corner is really fascinating. I feel like I could spend a few months here and not even scratch the surface of what this country has to offer. Until next time...



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