Brimful of Acqua

West Coast Trail

brianbevi — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:19:37 +0000

75 km in six days. More shots to come…

Magical sea caves

Otherworldly terrain

As if it had been landscaped...

Infamous surge channels

Scaling the walls

Misty meadows

Walk the log

Wet coast rainforest

Buoy-strewn beaches

Suspension bridge at Logan Creek

At low tide the shelf emerges

Mysterious woods

Caves

Hole-in-the-Wall, gateway to Tsusiat Falls

Living stream banks

Darling River's pool

Hard to miss Michigan Creek beach access point

"Graveyard of the Pacific" -- boiler of the shipwrecked steamship Michigan

A little final magic on the ferry ride home

In the Broken Group

brianbevi — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:47:02 +0000

From the Broken Group of Islands, Pacific Rim National Park, in July:

Noisy sea lion

Underwater forests

Thamnophis elegans terrestris on the beach rocks

Cove lookout

Crabbuckit

Published

brianbevi — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:04:00 +0000

I wrote an article for Trinity Western Magazine about some of my experiences, and it’s just been published. It’s available online:

Bombay Traffic

Encounters with slavery, human trafficking, and injustice on the streets of Mumbai

The girls look young. They arrive in a flurry of jewellery and bright lipstick, with fresh faces framed by long dark hair. Sleek, glittering saris are draped over their pale brown skin. They congregate around a mirrored pole in the middle of the floor. It’s a dance floor, but nobody is dancing >>

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Bandra by Night

brianbevi — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:32:27 +0000

The Maximum City is full of light in the evenings. These shots were taken in the area of Bandra.

Muslim neighbourhood beside Bandra Station

On the side of the Western Expressway

Linking Road, downtown

Bandra Station walkway

Late night and busy

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Immersion

brianbevi — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:45:48 +0000

The Ganpati festival lasts 11 days. During those 11 days, certain days are designated as immersion days–days that people can take their Ganeshas to the nearest body of water and dunk them, leaving them there in the water. The Ramola family kept their Ganesha in the house for 1.5 days. Then it was time for the immersion. Harish invited us to come watch the day’s proceedings. The photos below chronicle the action.

The traditional Maharashtran band, all the way from Pune

The afternoon started at about 3:30 pm in the neighbourhood, on the dead-end street where the boys always play football, with a band dancing and drumming. A crowd began to gather.

Bang on de drum all day

After watching the band with us for a while, Harish disappeared momentarily. Then we saw him reappear at the entrance of the passage down which his family home is located, holding the family’s Ganesha.

Hari waits and the massive procession begins

Harish stopped here, waiting, while band began to reposition themselves in front of him. The people all started following the band. Then he began walking forward. The drums started up, the people crowded around, and the procession began.

The procession makes its way through the neighbourhood

They only needed to walk a short distance before they reached the big truck that Harish’s family and the other family had rented together for the occasion. The band moved to the front of the lorry, playing the whole time, while the crowd surrounded them.

Baru lifts the Ganeshas into the back of the lorry

With the Ganeshas in the lorry, the procession started back up again with the band in front. It proceeded through the neighbourhood street out to the main road.

The parade continues through the street

Ratatatat

The women and girls danced in their own group directly in front of the lorry, while the men danced in front of the band.

Dancing in front of the truck carrying the Ganeshas

Onlookers

A festival photo

When the procession hit the main road, it caused a momentary traffic stoppage. Even people who normally go berserk in traffic jams are pretty understanding during festival time. After progressing along the main road for a short distance, the procession finally stopped and the band packed up. Then people from the procession started getting into the truck.

Sujit is ready for the ride to Juhu, sitting on top of the lorry

The younger guys and those more adventurous got seats on top of the truck’s cab.

Everyone else piles into the back of the lorry

Once all the friends and family members (from the two families who had shared the cost of renting the truck) had piled into the back, the loaded-down lorry began its trip to Juhu beach.

Riding to Juhu

Arrival and unloading at Juhu Beach

Upon arrival at Juhu, everyone got out and the Ganeshas were unloaded. The scene was pretty crazy. Thousands of people were there, all for the same purpose.

All shapes and sizes

Preparing for the final pooja

Getting some mehndi at the beach

Red prayer

At the beach, a final pooja (religious ceremony) is performed before the Ganeshas are carried into the water and immersed.

Final pooja before immersion

When the Ramola family completed their pooja, Harish lifted the Ganesha atop his head and began the long walk from the beach across the tidal plane into the ocean. Everyone else in the family followed him.

Hari hoists the Ganesha

Low tide: everyone follows the Ganesha on its final trip

When Harish finally reached the water, he waded in all the way up to his neck and then deposited the Ganesha in the ocean, never to return. The immersion was finished. The fun at Juhu Beach continued long into the night as many more families came to immerse their Ganeshas.

Hanging back with the boys, Juhu behind

A great time for swimming

Looking back

Shivani, Roshen and a cousin go swimming too

Forgotten

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Greener Grass and Fairer Skin

brianbevi — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:38:37 +0000

It sounded just as strange then as it sounds now: “Sir, you are looking very fair!” This was the so-called compliment some talkative neighbourhood children offered me one afternoon. They thought it was compliment because nearly everybody here wants “fair” skin. It’s an unhealthy infatuation: light skin is idolized by the vast majority of the population. You don’t see many dark-skinned models on billboards or in advertisements. And perhaps not surprisingly, the biggest Bollywood stars nearly always have lighter skin.

Just how widespread is the fairness fixation? There is a skin-lightening industry in this country generates nearly $200 million annually. Skin-whitening products and fairness creams abound in the toiletries and cosmetics aisles of the shops. They’re supposedly designed to lighten the colour of the user’s skin. It’s fair to say (pun intended) that the obsession with fairness is an epidemic.

Bollywood mega-star Shahrukh Khan recently drew controversy for appearing in a television commercial for one such skin-whitening product. In the commercial, Khan offers a tin of skin-whitener to a darker-complexioned guy who is unlucky with the ladies. The guy then suddenly attains popularity with women because, apparently, the skin-whitener has lightened his complexion. When this commercial was aired in London, England (targeted at the ethnic South Asian audiences there) not everyone was happy about it, and even Khan himself was criticized for endorsing the product. Perhaps rightly so.

There are also groups in India who have spoken out against this superficial and arbitrary skin colour preoccupation. Will they create meaningful change? Will efforts to shift people’s perceptions of beauty be successful in the long-term? This remains to be seen.

My friend Harish thinks it’s particularly funny when I tell him about the tanning industry in North America. He takes great pleasure explaining to his other local friends how North Americans and Europeans spend millions of dollars trying to make their skin darker. Harish’s friends, especially the ones who are less Westernized, have a hard time believing that people actually pay good money to have their skin darkened. It’s like a joke to them. …it puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? The grass is always greener.

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Beach Football

brianbevi — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:30:34 +0000

7:30 am Saturday and Sunday at Juhu Beach. The Santacruz boys are always up for a match. Be there.

Harish looks upfield

The Steven Gerrard twins

Rich and Vatsal

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The First Day of Ganpati

brianbevi — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:16:41 +0000

Rich and I got a firsthand look at the first day of the Ganpati festivities thanks to Harish, who invited us to observe as his family celebrated. Ganpati is the biggest and most prominent of all the festivals in the city, and is in honour of the Hindu deity Ganesha. These photos chronicle our morning.

Resham (middle) picks up the Ganesha his family pre-ordered

Resham and Shivani inspect their Ganesha

Empty cart passes on its way to pick up a Ganesha

Kids at the Ganesha shop

Riding home with Hari, Resham, and Shivani

Drummers celebrate

We arrive at the house

The pooja items are prepared

Family ceremony

Tying thread around the wrist

Ganesha's spot (for a day and half)

Hari's folks outside pose by their home

Hari, Roshen, Resham

The neighbourhood is decked out

...?

Outside the big shrine

A big double Ganesha

Inside the big double Ganesha's shrine

Giant banners everywhere; the neighbourhood is transformed

They're proud of their shrine with animatronic moving soldiers!

"Happy Ganpati"

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Dahi Handi

brianbevi — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:56:46 +0000

The festival of Dahi Handi or Janmaashtami is insane in the Maximum City. It celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna. The people string up small clay pots filled with yogurt in prominent neighbourhood locations, high in the air, far above the streets below. Teams of young guys will try to break the clay pots by forming human pyramids. It’s a big competition, with prize money offered for the teams who successfully break the clay pots. Sometimes neighbourhood groups, or politicians, or other sponsors will front the cash prizes for the winner. The teams of guys who are competing travel around in trucks throughout the city trying to break multiple clay pots.

We watched one of the celebrations/competitions in an neighbourhood square not far from where we live. It was nuts. Here are the pictures.

The crowd gathers...

The prize is strung high above the square

The band rocks the Hindi and Marathi sounds...

Political advertising

The yellow team goes for it

Energy

Little Naomi doesn't want to catch swine flu in the big crowd

The orange teams wins a prelim trophy with this

Celebration

Good times come on

Wild dancing under the water jets

Satish and Udi: "We just won this trophy"

Winners

Pure madness

Since I had to get up at 3:00 am that night to catch a flight, I didn’t stay for the final. But Harish told me afterwards that in addition to winning the preliminary trophy, the orange team were victorious in breaking the clay pot around midnight. They claimed a nice 1 lakh rupees (approx. $2,250 CDN) as their prize.

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Rain in Goa

brianbevi — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:19:55 +0000

Maybe the off-season is better than most realize.

South Goan coast

Jungle rivers, Agonda

Perfect

Cross at Cabo Da Rama

Within the fort

Guns of Portugal

In the jungle, a temple

The Man of Palolem

Hut

A character

Doing our part to keep the stats up

Rice paddy rag scarecrow

Quiet sands

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