GapFiller 2023

This trip has been designed to visit sites which we hadn't been able to see on previous trips, either because we didn't have the time or because they were too difficult to reach.

We covered a lot of ground, starting in Delhi and making a big loop to finish in Mumbai.

Full map of all GapFiller 2023 pages

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Thinking of our next destination: Italy and Portugal come to mind, or maybe the time has finally come for a US road trip…

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Murals and Rangolis

(vero;2024-Feb-29)

India is a riot of colours. Most obvious are the women in their bright saris or salwar kameez but this is not counting the several Rangolis and Murals which can be found while wandering around.

Rangolis

Rangolis are drawings painted by women on their door front to celebrate holidays, festivals or special occasions. Also called Kolam they are drawn by using rice flour often along with natural or synthetic colour powders and include geometrical line drawings composed of straight lines, curves and loops, drawn around a grid pattern of dots. For sure, it's always a joy to find them.

This is where you buy the colours (Tirupati, Andra Pradesh).

01.01.2024: Rangoli made on the occasion of the New Year in Tirupati (Andra Pradesh).

13.01.2024: Rangoli in Kolhapur (Maharashtra) made on the occasion of the National Youth Day, Swami Vivekananda Jayanti.

21.12.2023: Rangoli in Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) made to celebrate the shortest day of the year.

15.01.2024: Rangoli in Kolhapur (Maharashtra) made on the occasion of the day for kite flying.

This is not a Rangoli but related to the previous picture: a shop selling colourful kites in Hyderabad (Telangana).

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Murals

Murals are everywhere in Indian towns. Some have a religious theme while others feature scenes with a patriotic, environmental or social message: celebrate India, sort your waste, keep India tidy, save water, don't urinate in public spaces, etc. Here is a small sample of what we saw:

Mural in progress in Agra (Uttar Pradesh).

Keep India tidy in Udaipur (Tripura), although the message does not seem to reach its target as shows the heap of waste in front of it :-)

Seen in the old town of Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).

Mahakali, the ten-armed form of the Goddess Kali in the Sri Jagadamba Mahakali temple (11th century) on top of Golconda Fort near Hyderabad (Telangana).

The Goddess Sri Renuka Yellamma in the Sri Jagadamba Mahakali temple (11th century) on top of Golconda Fort near Hyderabad (Telangana).

Shiva on a poster in the streets of Sri Rangapatnam, near Mysuru (Karnataka).

Seen in Kozhikode (formerly known as Calicut, Kerala).

Shiva again on the outside walls of a temple in Udupi (Karnataka).

Mural inside a temple in Panhala Fort near Kolhapur (Maharashtra). The blue colour is striking and unusual.

Pune (Maharashtra): Hanuman and his army of monkeys building the bridge to Lanka to deliver Sita (with Rama approaching on his left). In the Ramayana, when Rama's army reaches the ocean across which lies the island of Sri Lanka, the monkeys construct a floating bridge across the sea by writing the name of Rama on the stones and tossing them into the water. According to the legend, the stones did not sink because they had Rama's name written on them so that they could cross the sea and fight the evil Ravana.

Poster in a street of Pune (Maharashtra).

Mural seen in Guwahati (Assam). This photo is a panorama, click the cross on the right below the photo (or press F if viewing on a desktop) to expand it to its real size and use the bottom scroll bar to navigate through it.

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Go back to Indian People 2023 or go on to Seen in India 2023 or go up to Photos