Colors Of India

I was surprised to learn that Islam came to India long before the Muslim invasions. It was a balmy day in Kuwait and our guests were discussing the similarities between South Indians and Kuwaiti’s. Another new fact came into light; it was the trading of spices that led Arabs to the Malabar Coast in South India. Back in the 7th century it was merely an Islamic influence that could be felt; the invasions of course reinforced the faith firmly on Indian soil. This inclusion added further to India’s colorful culture and people. It was the trader families of Kerala and other parts of the Malabar Coasts that were the closest to their Arab business associates, and this closeness led to a slow conversion into Islam. In Malabar the Mappilas may have been the first community to convert to Islam.

Today, 16.4% of India is Muslim. They have contributed considerably to the fields of performing arts, crafts, politics, education and business ventures. Some of India’s leading literary giants, artists, film stars and leaders are Muslim and this alone makes Indian society a diverse and enriched structure. India’s most famous landmark the Taj Mahal is a classic example of Islamic architecture and construction prowess.

The union of so many faiths is felt most during festival season. Diwali follows Eid and Christmas follows Diwali. For almost 3 months, India is in a blanket of faith, celebration and thanksgiving. Eid is a Muslim festival that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims observe a strict fast, they do not eat from sunrise to sunset, and some don’t even have water. They donate generously, participate in charitable activities and promote a sense of peace and unity. It is a time of spiritual renewal for those who observe it. At the end of the month, Muslims throughout the world observe an exciting three day celebration called Eid ul Fitr. A common practice is for people to stay up and watch the full moon rise on the night on Eid. The day of the festival, a typical Muslim family wakes up early and does the first prayer of the day. They then attend prayers in mosques, parks, stadiums and arenas. The crowd greets and embraces each other as a gesture of love and celebration. The festivities continue at people’s homes after the congressional prayer. Special sweets and foods are prepared for friends and family. The finest clothes and jewelry are the highlights of the day. This is an occasion with great religious significance; the celebration is jubilant and hearty. It is a day of forgiveness, peace, brotherhood and unity. Muslims also mark this day with thanks to God for his guidance and blessings bestowed upon them.

Ultimately we all seek the same things from our faith – security, a sense of belonging, peace of mind, the love of God and a prevalence of brotherhood.

We are everywhere

Mornings are the best! I wouldn’t ideally say that because I love my sleep but these last 12 months have had a surprise tucked into almost morning, I like getting up just to see that. I am talking about Photosindia.com images in advertisements. Every morning at least a couple of national dailies will carry an advertisement using our images. The newspaper industry thrives on ad revenue, Rs. 2.50 (I can’t even convert that to dollars, it’s a pittance in any country) cannot sustain over 20 pages of colour and information. Having over 18 official languages, the regional papers are an industry on their own, I just read the English ones. The advertisements are becoming more visual, larger and more creative.

Ever since city supplements started and of course colour was introduced, there seems to be a revolution in the quality of advertising. City centric restaurants find more value in creative food photography, Airlines find every profile of passenger they want to portray and since the variety on Photosindia.com is steadily growing, everyone can find something for their creative needs. So far we have been featured in advertisements for International Banks, Financial Institutions, Schools, International Universities, Departmental Stores, Electronics Stores, Mobile Phones, Hotels, Travel Sites, Children’s products, Insurance Companies, the list goes on and on. We have been on Yahoo.com, we are regularly on makemytrip.com, we seem to be everywhere.

PhotosIndia.com ties up with Corbis Images. New Delhi, October 20, 2007:

Corbis, a leader in stock imagery has appointed PhotosIndia.com, as a distributor for selling their Royalty Free Imagery. Starting October, 2007, all the best-selling Corbis collections like: Corbis RF, Inside Out Pix, Image Shop, Image 100 and Zefa will be available on PhotosIndia.com. This partnership will add over 200,000 new images to Photosindia.com’s existing repertoire.

PhotosIndia.com was the first Stock photo agency to pioneer high quality ‘Uniquely India’ content and is a premium Stock photo agency in Asia. Armed with a state of the art production studio and the best Indian and international images, Photosindia.com offers the largest variety in India today. Corbis is one of the best creative resources for advertising, marketing and media professionals worldwide. Corbis offers an impressive collection of creative, entertainment and historic images with an emphasis on quality and originality.

PhotosIndia.com CEO - Mr. Amit Narain said - “It is a privilege for us to enter into this partnership. The highly creative and exclusive imagery of Corbis will help us increase our sales and broaden our client base. We are in the process of consolidating the best Royalty Free Collections to satiate the market. This alliance has proven prolific for us because it makes Photosindia.com the number one provider of world class stock imagery in India”.

Apart from the other exceptional collections distributed by Photosindia.com, it can now boast of offering the world’s top 3 image stockists – Corbis, Getty Images and Jupiter at one destination. This addition to Photosindia.com makes it an essential tool for every creative and marketing pursuit.

Photosindia.com's image at the entrace of PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo 2007

This is ‘feel good’ time for Photosindia.com. Our image was used at the entrance of the world’s biggest event in the photography community - PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo 2007. It was an image shot by Jack Hollingsworth, our Chief Creative Officer. He selected an image from a theme that is especially close to him – Indian culture. For Photosindia.com this occasion brought something extra special with it. Our image was showcased at the entrance banner where thousand’s of patrons, sponsors, attendees walked past it, some stopped to admire it although I am sure everyone will remember it. This image was shot in Agra, at the river by the Taj Mahal. The model is an authentic ‘mahout’ (elephant keeper/trainer). His confidence and connection with the elephant was inspiring and Jack was there to experience it.



PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo 2007 is a premier event for innovative imaging solutions, photographic education and unparalleled networking. It was held in New York from 18-20 October 2007. It is an event that brings together the entire photography business under one roof. It provides a forum for products, users, and buyers to converge in one place where they can showcase their products and services. This year the sponsors were all the big names in the Imaging and Photography industry, like Hewlett Packard, Canon, Kodak, Epson, Olympus, Nikon, to name just a few.

Diwali – A time to give!

View Diwali 2007 Stock Photos by PhotosIndia.com



Diwali, the festival of lights. Such a cliché simply because it means so much more than that. Everyone has a different take on Diwali and everyone has different expectations. It’s like the Hindu equivalent to Christmas. Gifts and giving, sweets and generosity. We don’t light up a tree, we light up the whole house, every nook, cranny and corner. The frenzy starts about a month ahead, malls are packed with anxious shoppers and everyone has long lists. Since Indian’s are bestowed with large families, there is a whole lot of shopping to do. For me the similarities are amazing, not at a religious level but at a ‘faith’ and ‘celebration’ level. Everyone eats and shares. The age old myth of ‘give and you will get’ is in full motion at this time of the year.

Businessmen get busy making their partners happy, companies get busy calculating bonuses, shop owners can see the money flowing in and the everyday shopper scans the dailies for ‘sales’ news. You can see bold advertisements claiming “0% discount” followed by a coy “on quality” … 20% discount on all goods. The shopper sits back feeling like the king of the world.

This is the time for some serious consumer wooing. Everybody spends on Diwali, it is practically a ‘have to’. 15 years ago the gifts revolved around exquisite dry fruits and heavenly Indian sweets we call ‘mithai’. The winter months kept everything fresh for weeks and Diwali seemed to extend all the way to the new year. Usually falling in the months of October or November, this season seems to go on and on. Over the years, the dry fruits got mediocre, not just in gifting but in quality as well. The ‘mithai’ eaters became nouveau ‘conscious’, about their weight, cholesterol, sugar levels and all the new age misery. I think ‘Archies’ was the first company to realize this paradigm shift, they started churning out cards by the hundreds, they sourced designer ‘diya’s’ (little oil or wax lamps that are ceremoniously lit for Diwali), they put a greeting card on every box of sweets. The change was slow to happen but once it did, the frenzy was unbelievable. Corelle launched new designs for Diwali, their crockery was always found in sets of 4 (the typical western family). Here in india they were marketing sets of 6 with little bowls we call ‘katori’s, we use them for all the gravies and curries our cuisine is famous for. China exported crates of bowls, trays, curios and the like in a variety of materials, colours and shapes, to satisfy the Indian Diwali shopping madness. Suddenly, people were gifting corporate style, beautiful things for the home, the office, the kitchen. It became okay to gift a DVD set of ‘Friends’ for Diwali if that’s what your friends were into, it had to be personal at the end of the day. Hundreds of websites sprung up, selling all things related to Diwali, you could ship from the US to India (like we need more ‘diyas’) or you could ship from India to the world (that makes more sense).

This year the craze seems to be more opulent. Singapore holidays, shopping bonanza’s and Frazer & Haws silver diya’s are all passé. People are gifting not for material pleasure but for the soul. Books on spirituality like the ‘Speaking Tree’ are supposedly a favourite. Another great campaign is by the MMTC, promoting gold in a more organic way, the World Gold Council seems to make the whole thing Uber chic and beyond the middle class. Diamonds are being marketed as a special high end gift as well, in fact there is a marked conversion in women buying diamonds instead of the customary gold during ‘dhanteras’. ‘Dhanteras’ is celebrated on the 13th day of the dark fortnight of Diwali and it falls a day or two before Diwali. It is marked as the day of eternal good fortune and people celebrate it by buying something new for their home or indulge in a new investment. I wonder if anyone is marketing investment schemes this year, sounds like a good idea to me! Anyone listening?

Khajuraho - lessons in stone

View Khajuraho Stock Photos by PhotosIndia.com

Mystic. Mysterious. Saints. Dust. Heat. God Men. Snake charmers. Elephants & Tigers. BPO. IT hub. Some of the words I heard when I asked a random handful of people about India and they were all of different nationalities. Interesting! Everyone in this mini survey was above 25 and no one said ‘erotic'(The Kama Sutra, to mention just one), ‘art’ (M F Hussain, to mention just one) or ‘art erotica’.

India is the proud home of the Khajuraho temples, the ultimate guide to intimacy, carved in stone for centuries. Built between 950-1050, the construction spanned a 100 years which is obvious in the detailing and architectural styles of the various temples in the city of Khajuraho. Though it is true that erotic sculptures can be found at Khajuraho and are very much a part of the temples architectural harmony, they however are not installed inside the temple premises or near the deities. The reason for their existence lies in medieval history of that region. Khajuraho was ruled by the Chandela dynasty at the time and the rulers were followers of the ‘Tantric’ discipline. The attainment of ‘Nirvana’ (a state of perfect peace) in ‘Tantrism’ is far easier, it can be achieved by fulfilling every earthly desire. The juxtaposition lies in the fact that other Indian religions like Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism preach moderation and a control over earthly desires.

There are many resources that have information on the architectural styles and other Khajuraho specifications but few tell the reader about the deeper meaning behind such mammoth efforts. Was it simply faith driven? Where the Maharaja orders a few thousand men to build temples to appease the Gods? Some die, some toil on, in the end it is for the modern world to stand back and say “hey none of us thought of this!”

Khajuraho continues to remain a mystery because its purpose has not been interpreted as yet. Several historians have presented theories, combination of myth, legend and heresy but no one can be certain about the nature of the carvings. Some parts depict regular village life, showing potters, musicians and townspeople. Just everyday living, maybe this art being on the walls is a communication medium, like ancient advertising or the equivalent of a mass moral science lesson. The theory I liked best, mainly because its plausible was that back in those days, most young boys lived as ‘brahmachari’s’, a state every man must be in for the first 25 years of his life. They live devout, pious lives, usually in a hostel like ‘ashram’ and concentrate on learning the concepts of hard work, ‘karma’ etc. This art was their only way to learn the nuances of being a ‘householder’. Sounds to me like ancient sex education. I will leave this train of thought as it is. I just wish we could incorporate safety and self respect into these lessons and bring them into our schools today. If they could talk about it back then we can definitely talk about it right now!

Ancient India Rocks!

View Ajanta & Ellora Stock Photos by PhotosIndia.com



Excuse that pun, I was referring to some images we produced a couple of months back of Ajanta & Ellora. I had vague memories of visiting these cave shrines as a kid and it saddened me that I didn’t remember their magnificence. I was viewing the images in high resolution and the detail left me flabbergasted.

Ajanta & Ellora are the definition of the term ‘cave shrines’. Located near the city of Aurangabad in Maharashtra, India, these caves have been hand carved and built as far back as 200 B.C. These caves comprise of two sets, Ajanta caves and Ellora caves. Both are equally significant due to their history, architecture and message. The caves were discovered as early as the 19th century during a hunting expedition. All these centuries they lay hidden under the rocky landscape of the Sahyadri hills. They are called ‘cave shrines’ because they are essentially temples. Hand carved temples in man made caves, the sheer task seems enormous and near impossible for the era of their supposed construction. The granite these hills constitute of are still considered a construction nightmare but the faith involved in the Ajanta & Ellora caves seems to be the driving force behind this Herculean task. The rock is considered ‘living rock’ because the formations are a still in a process of development. The structures are prayers halls and monasteries where monks could meditate and pray in complete seclusion. These structures are also a symbol of religious tolerance and harmony. Here Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism co-exist and share their teachings. All three religions were founded in India and this is the only place in the world where their history conjoins. The Jain and Buddhist caves are places of peace and quiet while the Hindu caves exude more energy and divinity. The three construction styles found here are Stupas, Chaityas and Viharas. ‘Stupas’ are generally built of stones or bricks to commemorate important events or mark important places associated with Buddhism or to house important relics of Buddha. ‘Chaitya’s’ are meditation or prayer halls built out of rock and brick and ‘Vihara’s’ are monasteries usually made in excavated rocks to provide a haven away from the rest of the world.



The Ajanta caves are a set of 29 caves, hand carved tediously by Buddhist monks. Presumably the only tools available to these hermetic people had to have been hammers and chisels. The figurines depict the tales of ‘Jataka’, ancient text of Buddhists which tell stories about the various incarnations of the Buddha. The craft is definitely impressive but the physical effort involved enhances the beauty of the carvings. It is no wonder that the Ajanta is chosen as a ‘World Heritage Site'.

The Ellora caves are 34 in number. They are more ornately carved and the structures are more adorned. There are magnificent facades and examples of Indian temple architecture. These caves are carved in the basaltic sides of the hills. The most amazing feat in these caves is the ancient ‘Kailasa temple’, devoted to Mount Kailash which is the seat of Lord Shiva. This temple is carved out of solid rock and is a free standing structure comprising of pillars, podiums and spires, all intricately carved by hand. A website about World Mysteries has listed this temple under ‘mystic places’ because “it is the largest monolithic structure in the world, carved top-down from a single rock. It contains the largest cantilevered rock ceiling in the world.”



The best time to visit Ajanta & Ellora caves is from October to March, although the monsoon months of July-August are also highly recommended for the heightened scenic beauty of the area. Indian tourism offer a lot of excursion trips and tourists can engage tour guides locally at Ajanta and Ellora as well as from Mumbai, the closest metro to the caves.