“All hand luggage should go into the cargo hold” – The message from British Airways and the UK travel security agency was clear… I was supposed to travel out of India in less than 24 hours, when the Scotland Yard stopped a terrorist attempt… It seamed like this was about to become a trip to remember and I sill had lots of stuff to finish at the office…

My first reaction was to concentrate on the tasks I had to finish… I needed to keep by mind focused on something in order to detract what would be happening in the following hours…

I asked fro some help from the main office but I knew in advance that in times like these we end up having to count only on what the present holds… For some time I stopped writing, because to a certain extent I just could not organize my thoughts in order to do so…

In previous posts I mentioned two very important issues: one was that when traveling there are three very important things that we should always take care of (passport, plane ticket and credit cards) the other was that life keeps pushing our limits and even when we think that we can’t stand things anymore we discover that our capacity to adapt is always there to surprise us…

Well to put a long story short, these where the two realities that I’ve been facing ever since I left India…

As instructed I place all my possessions in my big suitcase (yes, including camera, lenses, laptop, cell phone, glasses, you name it!)… I traveled through London Heathrow under red alert and had to get rid of the two issues of the outdoor photographer magazine I was carrying along with my note book and pen… I finally understood what was to be left with noting else than those I consider the essential items for a trip...

My connecting flight was canceled and I spent several hours without knowing when and if there would be a flight to carry me home… After some hours it seamed I was lucky and there was an almost empty plane taking me home… After landing I waited several hours for my suitcase to arrive, but it didn’t…

Has you might imagine my humor was not in the best shape during the following days… I still do not know what’s worse: the idea to loose my photo equipment or the idea that my next trip is near and I need to make decisions fast in order to keep going…

The suitcase was finally found and delivered to my home after five long days…

During this long process and the long waiting hours at the airport I had time to rethink some of my traveling concepts like: after the tree essentials, a pen is the most important item (you need it to fill the lost baggage claim forms when you get to your destination), and after this, cell phones or any means that enable you to communicate with your family, friends or event your company also come quite handy. In this case, the British government did not give me much chance regarding having any of these items with me, the Airport in Lisbon didn’t help either as they did not have pens to lend and most payphones did not work…

Life goes on and in tree weeks I’ll be flying to Canada on holydays… Guess who am I flying with?... Hint: there are no direct flights from Lisbon to Vancouver and I’ll have to transfer somewhere in Europe…

"Did you have dinner sir?" - It’s midnight and I’m arriving to the hotel - "Room service is still on, you can order from your room" - I hate room service as much as I hate eating in hotel rooms (restaurants where made for that purpose), but it seams that today I have no choice...


Today I told someone about the dark side of my trips: sometimes there’s time to enjoy and discover the place, sometimes there’s just work to be done and it seams that every minute until the check-in closing time will be spent pushing every limit beyond what you’d ever think possible...

Extreme situations bring the awareness that limits are always much more far away that what we’d think at the beginning... There’s always room for one more problem, one more exceptional situation and even for surprisingly creative solutions...

People in India are no exception to this rule, from the distance this reality seams to be beyond reason, but here, we get surprised all the time by the strangest events and the creative solutions found to match...

"The bar is already closed sir, we can’t serve beer anymore" - It’s almost midnight and I just got back from work, I’m having dinner with the PC in front of me thinking about what to write in this post...


It’s only when we leave home that we find out that most things we take for granted are not so in other parts of the world... Every place got its own way while civilizations evolved randomly over time showing that destiny is an unknown place...

Take body language: where I come from a person shakes the head for saying yes or no... In India someone shaking the head one way or the other means nothing at all... It took some time for me to understand this and for my instincts to adapt in order not to react to those situations... Still it feels strange seeing confidence on the eyes of someone that negatively shakes the head...

I’d like to tell you more about Chennai, but time runs out and I fear I won’t have the chance to go out with the camera... And heart... In every trip to or from the office I’m faced with multiple situations I still did not picture: crowded buses, the live cow parade, the infinite range of eye expressions that seam to did deep into one’s memories... Young, not so young... New, old... Here, there...

"Your hotel taxi will be ready to take you to the office by 10 am tomorrow" - An envelope was slipped bellow my room’s door with this message on it... At the beginning I was quite apprehensive with this "all is being taken care for you and you do not need to know details attitude" as I'm used to control every detail like hotel addresses, office addresses, maps, etc...

Now, after getting to three hotels from whom I did not know the address, and after getting to the client's office without even knowing where I am, without needing a single phone call, it's not that I'm used to live with it, but I'm getting the idea that things don't always go wrong...


I also feel that most of my traveler instincts have to be reformulated for India... It may me a mistake, but I'm starting to trust more than what I'd expect to...

Anyway, I still consider I have a highly filtered view of the place... I know the weather in Chennai is unbearably hot and wet, but I have not been exposed to it for more than half an hour... I know the pollution in Bangalore was unbearable, but still I caught a cold from its air conditionings... Basically all the control and organization I'm appreciating come from services that cost more per day than the average citizen will make in a month...

I now think that most of my questions and doubts about this place are not about the place itself, but on how I see and judge the world: the point is not on what I want to know; on the contrary, it's on what I usually don't want to...

Have some water sir - I’m, entering the car the hotel sent to pick me up at the Chennai airport... The weather feels like Rio and the water is welcome... One more stage is gone, one more hotel, a good one this time...


The day was intense in Bangalore, my friends started by taking me to wild life sanctuary where we did a photo safari, at the sight of my camera I was invited to sit near the driver... It seamed almost on purpose that most animals showed up on the driver’s side and I could not take their pictures from where I was...

The driver offered to take pictures for me and I handed him the camera... I was using one of my old manual lenses so the driver did not have much success on focusing, but each time he handed the camera back he was smiling as if he had taken the best picture of his life...

In the end of the trip the guide came to me and told me discretely that I should tip the driver... - Now I get it - I thought to myself... I hand him twenty rupees but he does not look happy, I leave the bus and ask my friends if I just did anything wrong, and they tell me I didn’t - it’s just that because you’re from other country everybody expects you to be generous in terms of tipping, a typical Indian would have given him half of what you gave...

Several times I’m reminded that my reality sits years and several dimensions away... In one way it seams that I’m watching a movie, but on the other, my presence seams to have too much effect on people... Yes I’m here... Yes the pollution burns my eyes and they still hurt... Yes I think if I should take pictures or not... Some people tell me they do not want their picture taken, some feel honored to do so... It looks that I’ll carry these memories through my life; they seam to strong to vanish suddenly after my flight out of here...


We skip lunch and head to Bangalore’s botanical garden, the place looks tidy and organized in a way I still had not seen here... People sit on the floor walk or run like they would on the central parks of this world...

Some time later we have a last beer and I head to the airport... The flight gets delayed... We finally depart... And arrive... Once more I did not wait long for the suitcase and the driver as easy to find...

At dinner after asking for a local beer I’m offered a 650 ml bottle - I’ll pretend its water, tells the bad boy in me before the good boy reminds me that I did not have anything for lunch - Anyway I decide to give my stomach a break and for the first time in some days I have non spicy food... I’m offered a glass of wine... I accept... Coffee carries me back to the room...

Are you going for program sir? - I’m leaving the hotel heading to the office, and yesterday’s rickshaw man is chasing me again... I tell him that I’m going to work and he promptly answers: It’s Saturday sir!!!... He continues with me until I finally enter the office building...


Stating my guide book: nobody comes to Bangalore for sightseeing, people come here for shopping heating and drinking - basically this is a traffic city, with everything that comes with it...

I’m able to show movement, but I can’t show noise in my images - I think to myself while walking with the camera in hand... I think about the last days... Time flies, but simultaneously it feels like I’ve been out of home for ages... Anyway, half of this trip is over now...

Would you like to have something to drink mister? - The flight attendant has just awakened me, I’m flying from Delhi to Bangalore and I’m tired of too much bushtit meetings... At this point my friends: the old captain and the supplies officer are flying back home through Mumbai... My solo trip is about to start...


The plane lands at Bangalore and surprisingly I wait no more than 2 minutes before I get my suitcase... The baggage hall opens directly to the outside of the airport and outside the usual multitude waits with millions of boards with unreadable names... Surprisingly I can easily spot my name in one of those boards... A small wave to the driver lets him know I’m the one he’s looking for...

The weather is quite mild - it almost feels like home - I think to myself... The driver brings the car and we have a nice conversation while heading to the hotel... Everything looks good and I start liking the place... I get to the hotel, and at the reception they tell me that they’ll upgrade me to a deluxe suite, I’m happy again... I get to the room and I think to myself: is this the f... upgrade? The room looks unclean although it’s just old and untreated... I start trying to find my way around, the TV is not working, the safe can’t be opened, I call the reception and I wait two hours before everything is fixed... Still the internet connection is not working properly, I finally go to dinner at mid night and I’m really pissed of...

Back from dinner, I stay up until two am preparing next day’s meetings... I wake next mooring feeling I was hit by a train, I meet my new interlocutors and we spend the whole day discussing technology and prices for the Indian price - India is a price driven country - they say... Yes, I know, I’ve been listening to that since I got here...


In the end of the day I’m exhausted, but I still decide to go out... It’s late and the traffic seams impossible to stand... I go back and forth before I have courage to cross the first street in the middle of intrepid moto-riquexos that do not respect red signs... I’m really feeling out of context, I’m too tired to handle this in a good mood... The horns, the noise and the movement start echoing inside my mind... I insist and walk a little more, and more... It takes some time for me to understand the city map someone handed me at the hotel (once again I’m betrayed by the big scale of Indian cities)... I get to the shopping area... More movement... I try to create some images but I’m definitely not in the mood... I end up giving up and walk back to the hotel...

I end the day having dinner at the restaurant on the last floor looking to the city down bellow... I get to try Indian wine: a white chardonnay and a red merlot - they still need to be worked out, but they’ll get there some day - I think... The food is awesome as always in this country, be it Indian food or some Indian interpretation of international food these people really know how to please my taste... I end with a mix of crème brule and coffee... I’m thinking I really need to sleep when I receive an SMS from the head quarters...

We have no laws - said the taxi driver when I asked him about the Indian way of driving... He is from the Punjab, actually the third taxi driver I found coming from this region...



Today we went trough an intrepid trip through some of Delhi’s shopping experiences. From the fancy shopping mall to the spice and fruit market in half an hour, passing through a bunker turned gift shop, with no time and no chance to talk with people...

Here one feels almost frivolous when taking pictures without asking for permission. People just go on with their lives as if I was not there, but every face shows the sharp expression of someone that has a story to tell... And just like there’s no purpose on judging without having my questions answered, there’s no sense in creating senseless images that can’t be completed with words...

"India is the second most populous country and one of the economies with the highest growth in the world... Of course the society is highly segmented, but this country is being run by the two top layers (high and medium-high) and these two are bigger than the population of the UK and Australia together..." - Someone was trying to clear some of my doubts about this country. This was in the middle of a business conversation and we did not get to great conclusions... I probably aimed too high, maybe I should have started with simpler questions...


Maybe I should stop with adult and polite questions and let my inner child go ahead with the urge to understand the basis of day by day life... Why does everyone horn?... How do they dare to drive like they do, did nobody explain them that the Portuguese are the worst drivers in the face of the earth?...