“Being Kind”

“Be kind to all creatures; this is the true religion.”
(Siddhārtha Gautama, known as the Buddha – c. 563 BCE/480 BCE – c. 483 BCE/400 BCE)

This is a close-up of one of the statues of the Buddha inside the Tibetan temple in Sarnath which is located at 13 km away from Varanasi (Benaras).

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Cover of “SHUBH YATRA” – October 2014 issue

 

“To the Divine” is a picture shot during the Ganga Aarti celebrated for Dev Diwali at Prayag ghat along the holy waters of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).

It was selected for the image cover of the October 2014 issue of “SHUBH YATRA”, the inflight magazine of Air India.

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Cover of “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth

“Out of Sundays Dancing” is a picture with four parrots dancing in the air at Munshi ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
It was selected to make the cover of “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth which is released for the 20Th Anniversary Edition.

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“A Suitable Boy”: 20Th Anniversary Edition
by Vikram Seth

ISBN-13: 9789383064120
Genre: Fiction & Literature/ Fiction/ General
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Aleph Book Company (2/1/2014)
Language English

http://read.ebay.in/ci/A-Suitable-Boy:-20Th-Anniversary-Edition—PRE-ORDER-/12133144
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• “A Suitable Boy” is a novel by Vikram Seth, published in 1993.
With 1349 pages (1488 pages softcover) and 591,552 words, the book is the longest novel in English ever written in a single volume.

Vikram Seth’s novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find — through love or through exacting maternal appraisal — a suitable boy for Lata to marry.
Set in the early 1950s, in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves.
A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, “A Suitable Boy” remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence.

• Vikram Seth is an Indian novelist, poet and Human Rights activist.
He has written several novel and poetry books.
He has received several awards including Padma Shri, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award.

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Having one of my pictures shot in Varanasi (Benaras) used for the cover of “A Suitable Boy” means a lot to me as this is the novel that Warris Vianni, my friend from London, told me to read when I first came to India a decade ago.
It took me all that time to really understand the meaning of these pages and in a way to “become Indian”…
This is why this book is very special to me.
Somehow this picture on the cover of Vikram Seth’s novel is ending a chapter of my life and opening a new one…
Maybe this is the time for maturity after learning and making so many things mine from what I felt, saw and heard along my endless journey in the galis of the Eternal city…

Special thanks to photographer Dinesh Khanna for introducing my work to the publisher of this book at Aleph Book Company.

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Coming Further In

“I have come home at last!
This is my real country!
I belong here. 
This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…
Come further up, come further in!”
(From “The Last Battle” by C.S. Lewis)

In Varanasi (Benaras) there is a temple between Scindia ghat and Manikarnika ghat which is dedicated to Lord Shiva.
This temple doesn’t look like any other in the city because of its amazing sculptures with angels which are all around the shrine.
Those angels are musicians and they all play a different instrument.
Each time I come, there is no one, then I am alone in this dreamy atmosphere.
I know it is a kind of gate to after death as just nearby funeral pyres burn day and night at the cremation ghat which is underneath.
However this is not the reason why there are angels here.
I became close to the priest and his family who are keeping this sanctuary, sometimes he is making a puja for me and each time we meet he applies a refreshing ointment on my forehead made of eucalyptus and turmeric…

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The World In The Puddle

“This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it?
In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!’
This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise.
I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.”
(From “The Salmon of Doubt” by Douglas Adams)

This is the reflection of the palace standing at Scindia ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
The puddle was drying, getting smaller and smaller, ready to swallow the building, the ghats and the whole city…

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Happy 2014

*** Have a beautiful 2014 ***
May this year be filled with Love, Peace & Happiness.
Keep on believing in your dreams…

Thank you for the sustained support you give to my work…You are amazing…

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Dreams Without Measure

“When you were a wandering desire in the mist, I too was there, a wandering desire.
Then we sought one another, and out of our eagerness dreams were born.
And dreams were time limitless, and dreams were space without measure.”
(Kahlil Gibran – Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer, 1883-1931)

The City Palace is a palace complex in Udaipur, the City of Lakes, in the Indian state Rajasthan.
It was built by the Maharana Udai Singh in 1559 in a flamboyant fusion of Rajasthani and Mughal architectural styles and stands on a hill top that gives a panoramic view of the city and the Lake Pichola.
This picture was shot in the Audience Room of the maharaja’s apartments and symbolizes what I always dreamt of India when I was younger.
Each time I have an opportunity to escape for a few days to Udaipur, I come back there and the dream is untouched, flawless and without measure…

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Closed In A room

“Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe, and the rest of the world is missing out.”
(Criss Jami – American poet, existentialist philosopher and lead singer of the rock band Venus in Arms, b. 1987)

The City Palace is a palace complex in Udaipur, the City of Lakes, in the Indian state Rajasthan.
It was built by the Maharana Udai Singh in 1559 in a flamboyant fusion of Rajasthani and Mughal architectural styles and stands on a hill top that gives a panoramic view of the city and the Lake Pichola.
This picture was shot in the maharaja’s apartments.
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Style Is Eternal

“Fashions fade, style is eternal.”
(Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer, 1936-2008)

The iconic Nicaise is wrapped in a woolen scarf with an Aari embroidery.
(Scarf style “Jaisalmer” – Col. Black/Scarlet – 200×70 – 100% Wool – Collection RED HALO)

French actress and model Nicaise Jean-Louis has kindly accepted to pose for Red Halo in order to support our social work.
During the 70’s Nicaise became one of the first top models with dark skin complexion to work for High Fashion companies, ever since she never stopped working for the most prestigious fashion names, she also performed on stage and played is several well known movies such as “Moonraker” (a Bond girl) or the French movie “Le gendarme et les gendarmettes” (Yo Macumba).
For the anecdote Nicaise was born in the French Caribbean island Guadeloupe and she has Indian ancestors as her grandmother was from Pondicherry.
You may join Nicaise’s page atwww.facebook.com/nicaise.lemoine

RED HALO is a collection of household linen based in Benaras (Varanasi – India) providing work to people living with difficulties and education to children.
“Like” the RED HALO page on Facebook and join this amazing human adventure in Varanasi,www.facebook.com/redhalo.in

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Wearing A Throw

“Wearing A Throw”

“It wasn’t easy looking dignified wearing a bed sheet and a purple cape.”
(From “The Son of Neptune” by Rick Riordan)

Anand is wrapped in a throw made of pure linen with a aari embroidery.
(style “Akbar” – 150×200 – 100% linen – Col. Grey – Collection RED HALO))

RED HALO is a collection of household linen based in Benaras (Varanasi – India) providing work to people living with difficulties and education to children.

“Like” the RED HALO page on Facebook and join this amazing human adventure in Varanasi,www.facebook.com/redhalo.in

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https://www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.