It shouldn’t matter that I had planned to publish these best photographs from India on Independence Day, that is, August 15. But I am traveling, and transits, adventure, and writing about the adventures must not have left me time. Or, better to say, I did not make time to finish this photo essay on India. India as seen through my eyes.
I am here now, and that is all that matters. These pictures of India were taken by my partner, Sagar, or me while we drove around the country for five years with all our things in our car and without a home to turn a key in. Our car and whatever home we found on the road were our home. We had a pressure cooker and our house slippers with us, ready to be taken under any roof.
During these five years, a lot of things happened. India surprised us every day. These photos from India are not the most beautiful photographs that we took. Nor are they the most Instagrammable or printable.
These snapshots of India have one thing in common.
All the below pictures from India show how colorful, diverse, and rich our country is. Not necessarily in terms of money, but in nature, food, and tradition. Everywhere I turned, I found celebrations, strife, and stories. We have a lot of people and not a lot of space for each of us, but we have more than enough roti, festivals, and art for everyone in the world. I think this is what I should say to people who ask me, “You are so many in India.” “India is so populated.” “You are how many billions, again?”
I have chosen the photographs from India that are my best or worst memories, or the scenes that stuck to me. And I am sharing them in the order they appeared in my Google Photos.
Hope you enjoy these images of the stunning and unbelievable India. That these photos inspire you to visit India, or, if you are already here, to step out more often. But that they also remind you to pause once in a while and look around. There is always something to see.
Onwards then!
Unusual Pictures of India I collected During Our 5-Year Road Trip
a happy spice seller in an Indian village
a juice stall in a local weekly market in a village
A light above the lights. The moon rises over the Himalayas.
a light house in Pondicherry, South India
A vegetarian meal in Kerala I enjoyed. Lentils, vegetables, papad, rice, pickle, sambhar, buttermilk, and chutneys.
a memory full of delicious cherries in delicious forests. The Himalayas.
a memory: our five-year roadtrip’s first day and first lunch stop
a metro station in Calcutta
He grabbed the ice cream from a human
A photostat print shop does beautiful marketing, Kerala
a simple thali in Karnataka Bangalore. This plate reminds me how simple food can be!
a temple and a bird. Kaveri River, Outskirts of Mysore
a vegetable store spread on the street. Calcutta, West Bengal
Love birds. Bulbuls live in pairs and can be found around India.
Taken from our car on the highway.
an art installation in West Bengal during Durga Puja, one of the biggest religious celebrations in India. This whole structure is made during the celebration. Hundreds of such innovative installations, paintings, and scenes made out of clay, cardboard, and color fill the city. Durga Puja is one of the grandest celebrations I have seen around the world.
The good, old, beautiful Delhi.
behind all the wheat, are the people who grow it. India is one of the biggest producers of wheat, but not its biggest exporter.
a traveler’s room. Our room in Thekkady Village during our stay at Periyar Tiger Reserve.
an old house in Calcutta, West Bengal, India. Imagine this beauty’s grandness in the prime days, when India was rich, when it hadn’t been looted. West Bengal suffered one of history’s worst famines. But there was a time when the city of Calcutta was the queen of queens.
climb as much as you can. You know, I can’t recall if we were in the Himalayas or in the forests of South India
Ooty, Tamil Nadu
birds find a way around a dirty pool of water. heron, egret, and red-naped Ibis co-existing in Siliguri, West Bengal
A cave wall. Finding something like this just on the highway in India is common. Through my travels via Bhubaneshwar and Madhya Pradesh, among other places, I saw many caves, just a small detour from the highway. Some of these cave mountains are popular, others are not. Guess which one is this?
My partner doesn’t want me to post this image. He says there is nothing special about it. Maybe he is right. But look! What a peaceful, gracious, hardworking animal we have here. Donkeys are greatly undermined in India. They work hard, and are used as examples: “Why do you work so hard like a donkey?” What more would this animal have to do to earn some respect?
A close up of another temple. Ooty, Tamil Nadu
A mother and baby elephant on the road. Somewhere between Mysore and Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala
A beautiful temple at dusk in Calcutta, West Bengal
A simple church in a village in Kerala. We were here to visit a national park but the small village stole my heart.
A crow on our homestay balcony, beyond is the Indian Ocean. Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu
In Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, a male Sambar deer feeds on grass. He is also watching us from the corner of his eyes.Hot food in heat. The vendor is wearing a sweater, though. Ooty, Tamil NaduThis would be fascinating in any other country but, for India, this is a normal scene.Fruit and vegetable stalls in India fascinate me every day, and I appreciate the variety we get after visiting Eastern Europe on a many-month trip.
A simple vegetarian lunch meal in Tamil Nadu. Vegetables, chickpeas, sambhar, papad, lentils, rice yoghurt, chutney, poori, and so on. You definitely want to sleep after this. One of the most beautiful things about India is the food, as Indians and foreigners tell me alike.
A sculpture of a fisherwoman and a mother on a beach in Mangalore, Karnataka. I adore Indian mothers: they work hard, earn money, and raise their children as if they know how to do it all since birth.
I took this picture stealthily from my apartment window. At that time I was writing my book and only left the house for evening walks. The window above my table was my view to the world, and what a view it was! I appreciate the old man for going on despite the hardships. He seems to be stronger than most of us. Siliguri, West Bengal.
I have a thing for brick tile-roofed huts. They look from a past era, an era I would like to visit.
Another great meal in a Nepali restaurant in Gangtok, Sikkim. On the table, rice in brass plate, lentils, papad, cauliflower potato dry vegetable, onion and lemon. There is some local cheese tomato preparation too. I visited this restaurant tens of times during my three-month stay in the city. This looks great on the table but in reality this was a small restaurant, not popular at all, a favorite joint of locals, though, and cost 90 rupees, less than one USD, a plate. Most tourists won’t go here because it didn’t seem impressive from the outside. But how impressive it is to have this simple food served to you almost immediately. Every meal tasted homemade, and the bonus was the sweet waiter.
Watching a live performance of Chileans in Thrissur, Kerala
colorful homes of India, Uttarakhand. We, Indians, take the colors in India for granted.Do you see what I see? The Gol Gumbad in Bijapur, Karnataka. At sunset from a hotel room window. I didn’t visit it, I was writing that afternoon.Butter dosa in Davanagere, where it originated. Coconut chutney, dosa in butter, and a banana leaf. Simple.This is an installation during the Durga Puja in Calcutta, West Bengal’s biggest religious celebration spreading over ten days at least. Artists and local communities put up their camps every year and show the goddess Durga in various forms. Here the Durga seems to be a bit technologically-advanced!
Homes in Indian mountains, a sliver of life in vast wilderness. Featured here are the Himalayas, mountains that I respect, admire, and always in awe of. Uttarakhand, India.
It must be a harsh summer but something is so beautiful about this picture. A village of India, a country you can never see enough of.
Our hallways.
Where even soap packets are exotic, I am from that country.
An old-time van that looks a bit Soviet to me. Or perhaps I am imagining the similarity, having seen Soviet vans for the past months in Georgia, Armenia, and now in Kazakhastan too. The lover of Herapheri movie, a classic comedy and one of the finest Indian movies, will notice something else too.
We are one. A 3d wall painting at a metro station in Calcutta.
Rabindra Sarobar, my favorite place in Calcutta (West Bengal)
a stack of hay
sweets on Diwali in Joshimath, Uttarakhand.
I wonder if this fishing line is imported? because the fisherman looks Mexican!
Take a free fall boy, this is your time. Taken from our moving car in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.
Wrestlers at square. Mangalore, Karnataka.
where trees decide where they want to grow
Just a regular household.
Just a temple in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. But is it just a temple? one above the other reaching endlessly into the sky. Beautiful creation.
They remind me to stand tall, but humble. Peaks in the Himalayas. Photo taken from a hike to the Valley of Flowers in Nanda Devi National Park, India
We are so tiny!
There are more photographs. I will add them bit by bit.
Which of these photographs from India is your favorite?
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In my vivid narrative style (that readers love, ahem), I have told my most incredible adventures, including a nine-month solo trip to South America. In the candid book, the scoldings I got from home for not settling down and the fears and obstacles I faced, along with my career experiments, are laid bare. Witty and introspective, the memoir will make you laugh and inspire you to travel, rediscover home, and leap over the boundaries.
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