When I look at the photos of my Indian adventure - I feel dishonest. No one who looks at these images will truly know what it was like to walk in the streets of Mumbai or climb up to the Ajanta Caves - they will only see bright colours and interesting faces. They'll say "Oh! How amazing! Did you have one of those spiritual journeys?" And I'll say "No." Because I didn't.
Nothing that happened to me was ordinary; no one else has ever had a journey quite like mine. It was difficult. There were times when I was in danger, times where I needed to depend on the kindness of strangers in order to make it out OK.
You can't see this in my photos. What you should see is the undeniable beauty of India - its people, its history and perhaps, it's future. I struggled to find myself through the terrain of this nation, but India's struggle is much greater. During my trip, the news was overrun with information about the Glasglow Airport and an election scandal - yet the people were serene. There is something to be said about the optimism that permeates through the subcontinent, but I took photographs of it instead.
The following photographs are titled "Shanti Shanti," after a conversation I had in Mysore. No matter what the situation, the people of India aspire to peace.
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