Wanderings in wintery India

Chiara did an internship at INKTalks 2018 and we all went to the event in India. Chiara did the stage design.

One of the best talks for me at INK was given by Ankit Agarwal of Help Us Green. He’s taking all the flower waste from several temples in India, including in Varanasi, cleaning it and turning it into products, like incense and other things.

In his words: “It was easy at first to place blame on the tanneries, factories and sewers that were indiscriminately dumping their refuse into the river. While we gazed at the dirty water in culpable silence, we saw the colourful flowers being dumped from the temples nearby turn into mulch as they accumulated and their colours faded away into the murky waters. Something had to be done about this. Looking for the right opportunity, research revealed to us that most of these flowers that end up at the temples are loaded full of pesticides and insecticides. Once they reach the waters of the river, the chemicals wash off, mixing with the water, making toxic compounds, suppressing the oxygen level and thereby gravely threatening the marine life.”

This little store in the corner of a place is the most amazing store I’ve ever found in India and I’ve been studying pashmina for a long time. Incredible quality and fixed price.

Scroll on for more of the beautiful sights and little details of India, including Golden Palace in Amritsar and Varanasi.

Beautiful bricks.

Lined up in front of cow pats being prepped for fuel.

Playing in the fields.

A visit back to the amazing recycled paper plate factory.

We found a street photographer using a camera from the 1800s.

The sari seller.

Legal disclaimer.

Walls full of art and messages.

Varanasi has cleaned up a lot.

Shaving Brahmin heads in a row.

Matriarchy Now in India.