All posts tagged: Incredible India Blog

The Mother River and a Nostalgic Journey of Nara Family to Gangotri- The Origin of Ganga or Ganges?

I am not at all sure how did the British came up with the name ‘”the Ganges” for the Ganga. But I do know where the Ganga comes from! The river Ganga is formed at a place called Devprayag at the juncture of the Bhagirathi river and the Alaknanda river. The Bhagirathi is named after king Bhagiratha who brought down the celestial Ganga from the heavens. And the word Alaknanda literally means a young girl- the curls or the locks of hair of a young girl between 8 to 10 years which may also mean a young girl herself. The curls and locks of her hair are the waves of the river or the way of the Alaknanda in the Himalayas. When they meet at Devprayag- She is called the Ganga. Also read: The Last Journey to Ganga and scenes from my Ancestral village And The Ganga means ‘She who moves Swiftly’. It is ironical because after Devprayag, the valley slowly starts opening up. The water still remains chilled but here coming to Rishikesh from …

A Memory of the Most Beautiful Woman : A Photographic Recollection of Three Days Living in a Rural Rajasthani Home

Dhapodi ji became a shepherd once she learnt that she would not be able to give Ambaram any children. Limping, I saw her whole life in that moment as she slowly walked away from us, with his cattle family. She took the responsibility of walking seventy goats and four cows to greener pastures. She used to take them all together for grazing, in rain, in dusty, deadly heat of Rajasthan daily, finding newer fields and branches to eat from all day to come back as the sun sat and help his husband’s second wife in cooking. Yes, second wife! Ambaram married again, in search for a boy to continue his lineage. Instead the new couple got five beautiful talkative girls, each a year apart. They went to every temple and sage to pray and ask for their blessing- leaving the older wife- Dhapodi and children back home. It became an irony that on the day Ambaram and Dhapodi got married- twenty years later, a boy arrived from the younger wife. As i Sit on the …