Color, color, and more color! When you like bright colors as much as I do, India is paradise. I talked about my favorite place in my previous post about India. This time I’m just going to share some colorful eye candy.
The colorful Vehicles
One of the statements I write in my bio is that the world would be a better place if people wore boas and drove cars with fins. I might have to change that to wore saris and drove decorated vehicles. First, let’s look at some of the vehicles I saw. Even though their paint may be fading, they are often embellished with bright flowers and banners.
My favorite vehicles are the custom-built farm trucks. They are made with parts of many different vehicles and, like most trucks, are embellished with all kinds of color. And who can have road rage when you’re stuck behind this guy?
And it would be a little scary to see this overloaded hay truck coming toward you, but look at the beautiful and colorful bumper stickers. Even the dirt on the ground is a beautiful sand color.
The colorful Clothing
I was lucky to be visiting the Bibi Ka Maqbara (Little Taj Mahal) in India on Makar Sankranti. This day celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of the harvest season in India, and people don their finest clothes and bring each other sweets. I should have started photographing the outfits earlier—I missed photographing some awesome saris. When I asked if I could photograph her, the woman on the right in the photo below had her whole family pose. I especially love the expressions of the various people. Can you see the guy in the back about to photo-bomb us?
Then I caught up with this duo. Did he know that at just the right angle his glasses matched his sister’s dress?
Earlier in the trip, our hotel was the venue for a huge wedding. The bride was having a little alone time in one of the cafes and was happy to let us photograph her. Look at the beautiful designs on her hands.
We were also fortunate to be invited to dine with a family in Jaipur. Renuka, the wife, brought out her collection of bindi. She could color coordinate with any of her outfits. Click here to read more about the significance of bindi.
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The colorful Streets
Part of my trip was an organized tour of fifteen people. We drove from place to place in a full-sized bus. While it may have been a bit extravagant, there’s nothing like riding up high for getting some great views. Isn’t the kite stall colorful?
Produce stands were everywhere. I wish I had taken a good photo of the artfully arranged chili and lemon trays (I didn’t), but look at this woman buying the rose colored carrots.
One Sunday we found ourselves crawling through the street market on the outskirts of Agra. One of my most vivid photos is of colorfully clad women shopping for brightly colored yarn.
I’ll finish this post with a photo of some of nature’s colors. As we were driving though the state of Rajasthan, there were brilliant mustard fields for as far as you could see. How colorful India is!
