elusiveworld

Ama Dablam means “Mother’s Charm Box”; the long ridges on each side like the arms of a mother (ama) protecting her child, and the hanging glacier thought of as the dablam, the traditional double-pendant containing pictures of the gods, worn by Sherpa women

In the high himalaya there are no roads. Everything is carried by man or animals. Porters are known for their incredible strength and haul huge weights up in to the mountains. This boy carries a 40kg basket on his brow and back.

One in ten people who set foot on Mt. Everest will die. The peak is the highest point on the planet and has been respected as such for centuries by Tibetan people living in the Mountain’s view. In the last few decades, people have begun climbing this sacred mountain at an alarming rate. To what end? To come down again…..   or die and pass to the beyond at the closest departure point to the heavens – Perhaps that is what they really seek.

It is very cold and the air is very thin. There is little between you and death. Here, the world you know dissolves. If you don’t keep moving you surely will move to the next level.

Holy man with begging bowl and picture of Saint…..His only wordly possesions….  There is no pocket on the final suit.

Below the  realms of spirit which we call ‘India’ are myriad layers of humanity. From the streets where life expectancy seldom exceeds 40 years, there is an ever present cry for survival. There is a beauty in India in the ideals of spirituality over materiality – a beauty to an observer’s  eye, but a necessity for an Indian on the street. It is strange for a poor Indian to see a westerner seeking spirituality when coming from a land of such abundance. “Why, when you have everything, would you ever want to roam here?” they ask… At least bring an old pair of sneakers to hand on…

Women and children sleep rough on the curb side – Calcutta. SPhillips/elusiveworld

Calcutta is an incredibly filthy place. Teaming with humanity it embodies every element of third world under development you might expect from a country containing a third of the world’s chronically poor.  Masala is rolled for curry on a stone board inches away from a sewage gutter, people shit openly at the curbside. Folk sleep in the most uncomfortable positions such as on rickshaws or curbs beside diesel belching trucks and wandering cows. To visit Calcutta is to become human in the most undignified way, because unless you are travelling in a glass bubble, there is no way you can deny the humanity and the way life will assault you on every level.

snack?

Beside a bench on the station platform lay the fly-covered corpse of a young man. A few coins thrown on the body as there was no one there to take him to the funeral pyre. As the morning wore on, we waited for the train. No one touched the body, few even looked at it although he was on a station platform. A western couple sat on the bench reading a Lonely Planet guide book, planning their own journey. Just a metre away death avoided their attention. It struck me as odd, how different the attitude to death is in India to the UK. The soul passes on, that much is a given. If it didn’t, then why live or die? 

Nutrition is an investment issue. It is something that can drive economic growth rather than ride on the coat-tails of economic growth, because children who are well-nourished have been shown to have much higher income potential as adults.