Here is my money changer guy, it was all very friendly and light hearted, till I tried to hand him my Dollars
with my left hand, shit got serious for a minute as it's very bad manners which I didn't know at the time,
but then we all laughed about it...

This guy was doing a roaring trade in little Brass objects to store the Holy Water of Mother Ganga (Ganges)
which where near by, as I was in the holy city of Varanasi

Probably the narrowest stationery shop in the world, not much wider than my friend Tezin's shoulders, the shopkeeper would climb up the shelving while sliding his back against the opposite wall to retrieve
the items you wanted to buy.

It is amazing what you'll find if you look inside dark little shops, this guy was selling Statues & Plaques,
while his workers out front frantically chiseled stone.
(Not sure if He's a Grateful Dead Fan but I'm sure He's a Grateful Fan of the Dead)

Tenzin wanted to have his head shaved at Deer Park, Sarnath, because it is the first place that the Buddha
taught after becoming enlightened and it was how he felt he could show the place the proper respect.

Forget buying those little plastic containers of spices, this is how you bring the heat in India

Here's a man that knows what all the lovely ladies of Delhi really want

Shopping for dinner vegetables at the night market, probably on the way home from work

With well over 1.2 Billion people in India and with a high percentage of them Vegetarians,
there are a lot of Greengrocers, this one in Bodh Gaya is typical of many, though not all have a lazy cow
chilling in the background

This Lady supported her family with this Chai Stand that she literally scraped up out of the dirt,
We arranged to buy her a new table and a couple of benches so people had a place to sit.

A Convenience Store India style, all this guy needs is a gas pump out front,
and it would all make perfect sense...

The local strip mall outside the Burmese Vihara in Bodh Gaya that I was staying at the time,
It used to be the place to stay and I understand it has improved since I was last there.

Here's one of the best reasons to eat vegetarian while in India, many butcher's shops are open air
with no refrigeration, not so bad in winter in the the Himalaya, but Summer is another story.

Even though the weather was still very cold and there were no tourists at the lower Bhagsu Waterfall,
let alone people like me venturing off the beaten track to climb as far up the falls till snow hindered progress,
this guy had set up shop halfway up the falls in his little corner of paradise.
I guess all it takes are Sticks, Tarps, a flattish space, some working capital and a ton of determination.

Are they Fresh or Frozen vegetables? Vendors selling their wares on the snow lines streets in McLeod Ganj

Young Himachali Entrepreneurs work their small stall

India's Answer to Starbucks...

& Supercuts

this is real enterprise, lots of competition and no corporate bail-outs

& If your little stall doesn't deliver the goods you won't survive,

anyway, Kim was in vegetarian nirvana

High fashion on the High Street, it just few passes of an antique Singer sewing machine away.

It seems every square inch is dedicated to retail commerce...

Not being much of a shopper, I did however decide to have some clothes made while in India,
first you've got to brave the fabric shop

Then find a Tailor, here's mine he came highly recommended and he did a decent job.

The Main commercial street in Dharamsala with the Million Dollar View

India is swamped with Lawyers and Bureaucrats and they peddle their wares just like everyone else

My friend Tim Nelson was getting married to Sonam, of course you need a Lawyer and Notary,
these guys had set up shop under a concrete staircase in a Government building

And they generate reams of paperwork as everything is in Triplicate, using carbon paper,
typewriters and usually include lots of amusing spelling mistakes

Of course you can't have Lawyers and Bureaucrats without pissing off a few people, in the World's Largest Democracy that means you will gain the attention of Protesters...

A few cutting chants from the ladies

Then the sit-in begins, anyone trying to cross their line will be seriously scolded and shooed away

I did have the opportunity to meet with the Central Tibetan Administration, they optimistically talked about the
actions that will taken when they return to Tibet even though it seems China has no intention of allowing true Tibetan self governance any time soon.

In the mountains of India you'll often see people up the trees and wonder what are they doing...?
.

If you wait long enough you'll discover they're making themselves a Shrub disguise? no actually they're
harvesting fodder for their livestock

In the Mountains there is no hay bailing machinery, it is done by hand, and transported over the hills on the
backs of these women, because there are no roads to their villages...

This woman has removed her shoes to gain a better purchase on the steep rock !

Break time over and they move on...

As they climb toward the snow line, I decide to go to the Waterfall Cafe.

There is a long tradition of working with stone, especially in the Himalaya, it's abundant and cheap,
This Stonemason's Labourer doesn't have access to daycare so her girl joins he on the jobsite.

And forget Safety Glasses, Boots or anything...
.

Just some worn out tools and a deft hand...

Retiring on a stone workers wages, probably never going to happen.

But there are those that get to do the more delicate work like these Headstones and Plaques....

& Lapping semi-precious stone to restore the inlay on the walls of this Mughal Palace inside the Red Fort.

It seems like every nook you look into there is somebody making something...

That often ends up being hawked out on the streets and can be had for just a few Rupees.

Here's a nice alternative to the noisy lawnmowers & leaf-blower we all curse on Sunday Mornings

But lets not forget the Transport Sector, Rickshaws line the road and compete for business
.

They work from Sun-up till Sundown on these rickety contraptions...

but for a more substantial ride, there's the Hansom Cab Indian style.

Where the roads don't go and freight would break a human back, there are Mule Trains.

Farm equipment tends to be rudimentary and well worn & I'm sure there are lots of work related injuries.
In this village it seemed everyone was working to process their Harvest well into dusk on the short days of
winter, failure to do so would be disastrous for this community of subsistence farmers.

Mahatma Gandhi encouraged Indians to produce their own cotton, to break England's Imperial grip on
the Industries that relied so heavily on India's cheap raw materials, at Gandhi's memorial park in Delhi,
this woman demonstrates the portable spinning machine that was developed at his behest.

Snake charming, a very small part of the entertainment industry.

Speaking of Spinning and Charming, this teacher does his best to educate, with no recourses and children
that traditionally would be learning the family business instead of attending school,
I'm thinking he's braver than a Lion Tamer.

Otherwise children end up in the family business, if not, being theactual bread winner well before their
childhood years are over, like this impromptu Father-Daughter Slack Rope act that set up in the street,
in front of our Guesthouse.

This little girls was a smooth operator, she would strategically skim the excess coins to make it appear
she hadn't made too much and was smart enough to target wealthy western women...

At first I found it disconcerting, kids in India didn't hide their curiosity , Rich or...

Poor alike, even when you caught them staring...

The kids would find you fascinating, you would be light relief from mundane tasks like collecting dung for fuel.

However some other kids just have to work way to hard to even notice you right in front of them.

Kids are allowed to play with Fire in India, in fact it's a matter of survival for some...

& of great spiritual significance to others.

The Bagpipe band of Khalsa Girls Senior Secondary School, pausing during a modest Maha Shivaratri Parade
in Chandni Chowk, Delhi

Just a bit better looking than a Hairy Scottish Piper

In Bohdgaya there was a Man that made peanut butter in a little street stall where he sold his wares,
He also had daughters, His oldest Pinky, he offered to me to adopt and take Overseas to a better life,
as he explained that He'd never have enough money for the Dowry required for a good husband.

This little guy was sporting the finest little Silk Chuba, as he waits in the street with parents for the glimpse
of the Dalai Lama as he leaves town.
.

I fact children are treated more like young adults than in the west, they are expected to feed themselves
and eat what the adults are eating at a very young age.

Young Tibetan boys that are orphaned will often be taken in by Monasteries, they are expected to adhere to the same structured like as the Adult Monks with few exceptions.

Even with he overwhelming poverty I could always get kids to smile if not laugh...

& I often saw innovative spirit, like this boys toy cart made from four sticks and 3 worn out bearings.

Pre-school daycare in India is a matter of the bigger kids keeping an eye on the little ones...

School is often a similar arrangement, with classes made up of all ages and too big for
just one poorly paid teacher to manage by them self.

Many kids learn lifes lessons on the street...

The lucky ones get to play on the street after their school lessons...

I thought this was two girls from a distance, because it would be unremarkable to find children unsupervised...

But once we crossed paths I found that I had been mistaken.