A must for a motorbike show are the stunts and SMAEB 2012 had some of those too, both with climbind and jumping and the obligatory fire. The crowd appears to enjoy them, the photographers too.
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Romania is one of the poorest country in the European Union, while is also one of the most religious one, this is not a coincidence: people wait for “someone” to come and solve their problems instead of putting their asses to work and get done what is needed. I was reminded of this Saturday night at the Easter mass, when, despite the rain, churches in Bucharest were flooded with people wanting to “get the light”, it was one of those moments there is no hope and the indoctrinated masses have no future.
Ironically, a couple of days later, I meet a few kids on a park, having a whiteboard and asking people to write down a reason they think “Romanians are beautiful”. I turned-down the offer, Romanians are sheep.
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Not sure what happened here, but the orchards were covered with fire and some firemen fighting with it. I wish I wasn’t in a bus going to full speed, but in the middle of it, better capturing the moment (I know, the photo is bad: made trough the window of a running bus).
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Upside view of the Cetățeni village, as seen from the Cetățuia Monastery. Is the village zone near the monastery, it is poorer and inhabited mostly by gipsies.
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On the old stone wall of the Catățuia/Negru Vodă Monastery there is this ancient mural painting representing a Thracian horseman. I wonder how it escaped unerased by the later Christian monks, but I am glad it happened.
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Praying at Peștera Moșului (Old Man’s Cave) at Cetățuia (Negru Vodă) Monastery. This cave is a medieval Romanian (Vallachian) church built on the place of an older, ancient Dacian holly place and for a long while there were hermits living in isolated caves around.
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The very last tradition in the Indian wedding I witnessed, just before the husband and wife are allowed together for the first time it was the ceremony where she had to was his feet. In their culture feet are considered unclean, and doing this is the sign of great humility. A good part of the groom’s family assisted.
And with this the wedding ceremonies ended, it was the time for the photographer to go away 🙂
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Finally, two days after ceremony (one of which they were not allowed to even see each other) and after the last reception, the bride and the groom had their first night together. In a special room, with a richly decorated bed. But before that, she was received by her father-in-law.
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If in the western world the “official” photo session with the bride and the groom is a must and the bride may kill the photographer if she doesn’t get her pictures with the bridal dress, I discovered that some Indian brides are not the same, in this case she didn’t want photos… and made it in the most Indian way, not saying “no” but “yes” and then avoiding it in various ways.
In fact this is the thing that annoyed me the most in my Indian experience, people there won’t say you a firm “no”, they consider it disrespectful, they will say “yes”, “maybe”, “later” or “we’ll see” and then try to do everything to avoid it. They don’t know this is even more disrespectful for us, Westerners, who prefer a straight “yes” or “no” and then keeping your word. This may be the cause for some of our cultural conflicts.
So, back to the topic: we had the “official” photo session planned for a full morning in a park, then it was moved for something short in the evening at the temple, then for something even shorter at house on the roof, then it didn’t happen, all we did was a few shoots at the reception place.
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The groom’s reception was like the bride’s reception: people come, eat and go, leaving the place open for the next round of guests to come, eat and go… This allowed for a high turnover of guests… if I recall correctly they were expecting around 800 people.
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Is a long process for the bride to make herself beautiful but the result is showing, after all the preparations (make-up, hair style, clothes, jewelry) she was really shining.
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The ceremony happened to the bride’s home so it and the reception after was organised by her family. Two days later it was followed by another reception, this time at the groom’s place, organized by his family. Here’s the bride making herself beautiful for the reception:
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The groom returned home with the bride, here he encountered another expected “surprise”: the door bas blocked by the women inside, who demanded a price to allow him inside with the wife. And we had a funny part: they asked for “10” so he paid 10 rupies, which is practically nothing, compared with 10 thousands, as they intended. Careful with the words, girls!
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After the wedding, arriving at the groom’s house, another thing happened: a white cloth was put on the stairs at the entrance with a plate holding red paint. The bride stepped on the paint and then walked inside, leaving some red tracks of her feet. The groom followed on her tracks.
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I was warned this is going to happen and be ready with my camera to capture it, but I swear it was genuine: leaving the parent’s house the bride started to cry, it was an authentic cry and it made me feel a bit bad, like a vulture for capturing it… but I remembered I am a photographer and kept shooting.
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