RVP has crossed into the Eastern hemisphere!
Having walked all over London during a very long layover (but it was worth it, since I spent the day with the director of Fresh Memories, whose photography of Tibetans is as beautiful as it is inspiring to a green-horn photographer like myself), now I’ve arrived in India. My first stop is a personal one – a long-overdue visit with my Indian family the Guptes, who sheltered me and treated me as their own flesh and blood when I studied abroad in 2008.
As I was planning my departure for Dharamsala back in October, I received an excited email from Kalpana, my Indian mom. Her daughter was getting married, and only two weeks before I planned to arrive in India! So I planned in a detour before heading up north. I am enjoying the warm sun, the bursting, sumptuous flowers, and the fresh tropical fruit around Pune as long as I can.
Once the wedding is over, I’ll travel north to Himachal by train and taxi. Then I will make Dharamsala my home, and find another, yet unknown family. The future is bright.
View from my window in Pune – photo property of Olivia Engel
