Weed, Weed, Weed...Oh So Much Weed!

The picture speaks for itself. There is weed growing all over the place around here. Don't worry Mom, i did not partake and don't plan to (another potential "Locked Up Abroad" situation that is best avoided). Manali is not known for its weed, that is Malana - have not been there yet, but it is apparently an interesting place. "Malana cream" is the famous weed from that place and that is pretty much all they do besides "being spiritual." The people of Malana allow tourists but they are restricted to walking on certain paths outlined throughout the town. Anyone who is not from Malana (even other Indians) are not allowed to touch the people of the town and even if you purchase something at a store you must put the money on the ground and get your change back from the ground. This stems from the town's spirituality where they believe that their God is the greatest and they believe all people from outside Malana as a "lower caste." Pretty intense. We would describe this as "racism" in the US, here in India it is "spirituality." This is all hearsay from the group, but speaks to how interesting Manali is (i know, the names of the towns are hard to keep track of). Manali (where i am staying currently) is a very touristy town and our focus at the workshop is to pick a story and act like a photojournalist. Had no idea what that meant before coming...but what it means for this week is that everyone is very intense and talks only about their "story." Some of the stories people are doing are great and informative, most of them are useless and boring and can never be sold (i am not even going to try). The point is that we "practice" being photojournalists. The one part of practicing photojournalism we are not doing enough of is drinking! People are working too hard, but that is what happens when you actually have to work on having a career, thankfully I am not going to bother with that right now. Photojournalism is very intense and requires days, weeks, months of shooting the same picture, same scenario, etc over and over again. You really need to have a passion for it. Think i realized Day 1 - no thanks. Great skills to have, great way to become a better photographer, but definitely a tough, uber-competitive career path where people struggle to make a living unless they marry someone with money or are the lucky few to become very commercial.

Ok, enough about that. I will update you on India, not on my boring personal adventures to find an alternative career.

More about India:

India is dirty and poor. It has an amazing cultural mix, especially here in the northern parts. There are people from Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, other parts of India as well as plenty of ex-pats from US, Europe, Israel, etc. The scenery is quite beautiful but the landscape suffers the same plight as other areas of beautiful wilderness throughout the rest of the world (especially in the developing world). People need to live and need to use the natural resources to sustain themselves. This puts pressure on the wilderness and wildlife and there is constant conflict. India's approach is similar to that in Africa, command and control from the state combined with local corruption and bribery that eats away at the protection. However, since this is the Himalayas (many parts inhospitable except for the few very strong-willed people) there is a variety of protected land.

One of the main problems with India, even here in the northern parts is garbage. People also use the rivers for disposal. This is probably mostly due to a lack of education about the consequences but also is due to tradition. People in India have viewed rivers as having the potential to carry away sin, evil, problems, etc. Rivers are also very spiritual (which is great, but has bad unintended consequences with respect to garbage). As a result people think they can throw their garbage in the river and it will just go away. Well, technically it does (but that missing the point), but it just exports the problem downstream. Despite the rampant garbage, it is apparently much improved over the last few years than in the past! Wow, that's what i thought as well. In talking to some local guys that run an NGO, they explained that there is a concerted effort by the Manali municipality to educate the local people and stress the importance of allowing the town to pick up the garbage. They also have a recycling center, of which i do not know how impressive or productive it is, but surely it is better than nothing. In all these "problems" there is one underlying theme - lack of education. Better education will improve healthcare, environment, economy and living standards all over the world. That is easy to point out and difficult to actually implement.

Interesting Observation:

India seems much more receptive to foreigners than the places where I traveled in Africa. In some remote regions of Africa they are fascinated with foreigners, but westerners are mainly viewed with hesitancy. People in India seem to be interested in interacting and speaking with westerners. Obviously in both instances westerners are viewed as ATMs that will spend money on all the trinkets sold in the streets, but here in India they are obsessed with taking pictures with a foreigner. This mostly happens to women, especially those with blond hair and fairly pale skin, but it also happened to me one night. Apparently it is a nice novelty to have a white person as the backdrop on your Indian cellphone.

Struggling to come up with more of an update. Honestly, Manali is good for outdoor adventures (something i am really craving after days of "shooting" meaningless stories). But to stay here from more than 2-3 days (without an outdoor adventure) is total overkill. Excited to move on or at least get some hiking/fishing in after the workshop...then off to China.

later

dave