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The Elephanta Caves

The Elephanta Caves , located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, about 11 Km off the coast of the Gateway of India, Mumbai, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A visit to these caves, excavated probably in the 6 th century CE, is awe-inspiring, and also thought-provoking. Over the years, I have visited the caves a number of times, and also attended a number of talks by experts in the fields of art, history and archaeology on the caves. Together, they help me understand these caves, their art, and the people they were created for, just a little bit better. Every new visit, every new talk, every new article I read about the caves, fleshes out the image of what the island and the caves would have been like, at their peak. I last wrote about the caves on this blog, in 2011, almost exactly 11 years ago. Since then, my understanding of the caves has, I would like to think, marginally improved. Hence this attempt to write a new and updated post, trying to bring to life, the caves of Elephan
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Faces in the Crowd - Children at Work

We saw these boys on the way to Wayanad, but this scene could have been anywhere in India.



Two boys, hard at work, cleaning a pump, outside a garage. Its always sad to see young children in rags, working, at an age when they should be at school, or playing. Its worse when they are right outside a college, to which, in all possibility, people pay lakhs to get their kids into, and then the said kids waste away their time learning little if nothing, throwing away their parents' hard earned money in frivolous pursuits. Could there be a higher contrast?

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Comments

  1. IndraniSeptember 15, 2013 at 1:09 PM

    Hmmm... tough life!
    Nicely framed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MridulaSeptember 15, 2013 at 2:14 PM

    Life anywhere you go it roughly remains the same :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. kebhariSeptember 16, 2013 at 2:18 PM

    Children worked life is very dangerous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ChitraxeeSeptember 16, 2013 at 2:57 PM

    We invite you to Aviva's #BloggerContest. To read our T&C and participate, click on http://bit.ly/134qouZ !

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  5. Nomad Travel InsuranceSeptember 17, 2013 at 9:59 AM

    Thanks for sharing your one of a kind adventure. :)

    ReplyDelete

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