[Vikram]

My wife and I went to high school in New Delhi as teenagers. We returned together 40 years later to see what has changed. We visited 13 cities in India with a side trip to Kathmandu. We took thousands of photos and posted the best ones on our website.. a photo journal of our trip. I decided to use just one lens for the trip.. the Nikkor 18-200 VR on my D-80 camera. I think it was a wise choice!

http://www.tedbeck.n.../indiamain.html

[john.sw]

That's a great journal, Ted.  Thanks for sharing!

[kullukid]

Well you certainly got about a bit. Great people pic's!! Thank's KK

Edited by kullukid, 30 July 2008 - 08:15 PM.

[Hyderabadi]

Great journal and pictures Vikram/Ted, thanks!

The 18-200 is, imho, the perfect range for a travel lens.

[john.sw]

Hyderabadi, on Jul 30 2008, 03:06 PM, said:

...The 18-200 is, imho, the perfect range for a travel lens.

I have to make do with 28mm-300mm  

[Hyderabadi]

john.sw, on Jul 30 2008, 01:26 PM, said:

I have to make do with 28mm-300mm  

Yes, I know the feeling.

[KABAARY]

A very interesting read and look see at the snaps...

Quote

We returned together 40 years later to see what has changed.

It would be really nice if you could give your views on what you feel has changed in these 40 odd years....and a write up on your first emotions when landing up after so many years would be an added plus.

Please, please do so if it's not too much of a bother.

[john.sw]

KABAARY, on Jul 30 2008, 09:53 PM, said:

...It would be really nice if you could give your views on what you feel has changed in these 40 odd years...

That would be a fascinating insight.

My father has just come out of hospital in Ooty after an operation, and he'll be visiting the UK in a week or so when he's well enough to travel.

At eighty-one years old he should have some wonderful memories of India in the 1940's when he first visited, and I really must get them down on paper, or video...

He has often told me about his mother's stories of her childhood in the Nilgiris, and I really should get these recorded too.

I spent an hour on the telephone to my aunt the other day.  She's ninety-one and is such an interesting person to talk to.

It makes me realise that if we don't record these memories now, they could be lost forever!

[Somerset]

john.sw, on Jul 30 2008, 09:37 PM, said:

My father has just come out of hospital in Ooty after an operation, and he'll be visiting the UK in a week or so when he's well enough to travel.

At eighty-one years old he should have some wonderful memories of India in the 1940's when he first visited, and I really must get them down on paper, or video...

He has often told me about his mother's stories of her childhood in the Nilgiris, and I really should get these recorded too.

I spent an hour on the telephone to my aunt the other day.  She's ninety-one and is such an interesting person to talk to.

It makes me realise that if we don't record these memories now, they could be lost forever!

Hope he is doing well after surgery. Our parents lived in a very different world than our children know, and it is so important that those memories and traditions not be lost.

[KABAARY]

Quote

It makes me realise that if we don't record these memories now, they could be lost forever!

You know what ? That's so very true ! You have just reinforced what I was feeling of late due to recent experiences...

I was talking to my elder kid (6 years old)...he was watching a cartoon channel on TV and asked me whether I did the same too when I was a kid. I said - when I was a kid there was only black & white TV and only one channel called Doordarshan run by the govt. - the high point would be Wednesday evening (8 p.m.) when  Doordarshan would show "Chitrahaar" (a 30 minute programme showing film songs) - otherwise it was Krishi Darshan (urgghh !) and Hindi & English news. The TV turnarounds in our lives were (i) 1981 (?) when Delhi held the Asian Games because of which colour TV was introduced and (ii) 1991-92 (approx.) when cable tv was introduced and I went mad watching the channels nights on end. In between all this, the VCR entered into the fray and voila ! we watched Bollywood movies at home !

On a sad note....while in Shimla recently, we were readying our kids in the hotel room to go to "The Mall". It's only when we reached the mall and saw the disappointment on their faces that we realised that they had thought that we would be visiting the shopping malls such as those as are in plenty in Gurgaon.

Somewhere down the line perhaps I failed as a parent in exposing them to something beyond the material/showy stuff.

[Vikram]

KABAARY, on Jul 30 2008, 06:04 PM, said:

Somewhere down the line perhaps I failed as a parent in exposing them to something beyond the material/showy stuff.

Don't blame yourself for not showing the kids the old ways, they wouldn't pay attention to you anyway.  When my wife and I were teenagers in India during the 60s there was little to do for entertainment at night other than study, read or talk to friends on the phone.  

By all means we should try to preserve the memories of the past.  Get the words of wisdom from your parents and family before the day sneaks up on you and it is too late.  It is only later in life when you start paying attention to what your parents have to say.

After 40 years, returning to India didn't take much getting used to.  Through the internet and TV programs we realized that Delhi had changed, Gurgaon had sprung up, and traffic had tripled.  The population appears very young, two thirds of the people we saw on the street hadn't been born since our last stay.   Pollution is a formidable problem in the air, on the land and in the water.  Everyone seems to have a respiratory problem of one kind or another.  The people of India didn't disappoint though, they are still hospitable, fun loving and entertaining as we had remembered.   Cell phones and the internet have changed things, I hope that however society in India develops over the next decades it avoids the homogenization that has occurred in cities of the West.

[malkers]

Yes, do record those memories whilst you can.  Last year I had booked my Dad into a respite care home so Jen and I could take a break from caring for him for a couple of weeks.  He'd agreed that during those 2 weeks he'd write a lot about his life and all the wonderful wartime stories, songs and poems he had learned and still knew very well.  Sadly he died suddenly 3 days before going there, I don't have too many regrets but knowing that info is gone forever is one of the biggest!

[priya]

It would be lovely to hear stories of days gone by.  Please do share if you're able.


No pressure