A Year In India / A DAY TRIP TO MALAVLI (Article & Photographs by C. Lazarus)

Me, my wife and Bella took a day trip to Malavli from my home in Pune. Loving and living with a rescued dog from the streets of India was particularly complicated. The average person looked at us with a perplexed gaze, as if we were walking around with rat on a leash. I actually love rats, they make superb pets and are super clever, but I use it as an example because in India the rat is a major health issue.

This image isn't connected to our trip to the mountains but rather comes from my wanderings around Kalyani Nagar, after my wife left the country to return home. I became quite close with the local pack of stray dogs. These two patrolled this single road, they never left their ranks, day in day out they moved about ensuring the street remained exclusively theirs.

At the entrance to the Buddhist caves at Malavli, we came across this snake. Can you see the head? Well, let me correct you because what looks like the head is actually the reptiles tail. It is a unique defense mechanism that allows the snake to watch unsuspecting prey or predators as they become confused. I was lucky not to get bitten myself as I leaned in cautiously over what I thought was a coiled up tail. Luckily the snake had just eaten a bit meal and wasn't in the mood to move around.

We visited an orphanage in the mountains during some pre-mature Divali celebrations. I took this image of a young Hindu man receiving a blessing from one of his carers. He was significantly older that the other children. Religion has always evaded me, I find it quite creepy if I was too be perfectly honest. Regardless religion makes a good subject for photography.

In these small towns, often the animals are shockingly thin and malnourished. So you can understand my delight when I saw this beautiful puppy helping itself to an abundant pile of scraps, he nicked a Chapatti. An Indian dogs favourite, including my two.

I hope you enjoyed these images. I am again limited by a broken PC, so these have been unearthed from my wifes laptop which we both used in India. Keep in touch.

C. Lazarus
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