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A child is born
A child is born every quarter of a second. Happy Christmas. Photo of the week: Christmas, Mumbai, India 2014
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Feminine beauty
Feminine beauty Five pillars, five depictions of Hathor, the goddess of beauty, joy and love. We are here in the temple complex on the islet of Philae in the Nile, south of Aswan. The temple dates from the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Three thousand years of Pharaonic rule are drawing to a close, and…
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The Bent Pyramid of Dashur
The Bent Pyramid of Dashur “We humbly greet you, oh majestic pyramid of Snofru.” That’s what the tracks in the sand seem to express in honour of the monumental tomb. The pyramids of Giza and Dashur are awe-inspiring indeed. Not only man, but the entire environment comes under the spell of their mighty presence. A drifting cloud…
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The Pyramids
The Pyramids Going down the pyramids, one doesn’t do it every day. Nor coming face to face with them. When the moment is there, one can’t avoid the impression of absolute grandeur, and of well-nigh disbelief that thousands of years ago people have managed to plan, organize and build monuments like that. With its height…
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At home in Kumaon
At home in Kumaon A row of old village cottages; the ground floor is for the animals, whilst the people live upstairs. All built, finished and painted in the traditional style. But times have changed. In the background, we catch a glimpse of a new building, constructed from brick and cement. And so the charm…
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The cow lifting game
The cow lifting game What do you do when a cow is lying right in the middle of the path, blocking the way, and has absolutely no intention of getting up and moving out of the way? You don’t often come across such a stubborn cow, but that’s exactly what happened here. It was only…
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Bhang
Bhang Yes, it grows in the wild in the Kumaon hills. I’m talking about the Cannabis sativa, the Indian hemp plant. The seeds get blown in the wind or are taken and dropped by birds and so, all of a sudden, you can have some hemp plants growing in your garden. Local farmers may –…
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Tap tap!
Tap tap! That is what you hear in the pine forest when the man who collects the resin from the trees fixes the cone back on the stem. Then he moves to the next tree, empties the cone, puts it back, tap tap, and he goes on to the next. The resin is used for…
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Like mother, like daughter
Like mother, like daughter Human life may have changed in many ways since prehistoric times, but on a certain level – namely that of the basic needs the body requires to survive – we are still the same, and in that respect not much different from other animals. We need food to eat and water…
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Lakhudiyar
Lakhudiyar Already in prehistory humans must have been enchanted by the natural beauty of the Kumaon hills. They have left their traces, as we can see for example in the rock shelter the board on the photo speaks so nicely about. Lakhudiyar can be found between present day Almora and Jageshwar. It looks as if…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
