We Are Like This Only

Self-deprecating humour doesn8217;t go down too well in India, but it is hard not to have a hearty laugh at these photographs on display at The Dome at the Taj Ambassador Hotel.

An expat photo contest in Delhi throws up some unique images

Self-deprecating humour doesn8217;t go down too well in India, but it is hard not to have a hearty laugh at these photographs on display at The Dome at the Taj Ambassador Hotel. The first expatriate photo contest held in Delhi by a relocation firm, Global Adjustments, has given foreigners based in the city a free rein with the camera 8212; and they have come up with pictures that are laced with irony and wry wit. Subjects of the images vary 8212; from the amused look of the locals of Ganganagar in Look Son, That8217;s A Foreigner clicked by Frenchman Philippe Armand, to a verbal jab with an auto-rickshaw driver on the streets of Delhi typified in Lost in Translation by the American Gloria Garcia.

On Saturday evening, about 120 expatriates, with a few brave ones who had made the painstaking effort to don a sari, trooped in for the award ceremony. 8220;The contest was open to all foreigners working in Delhi in varied fields so we have some very personal and wacky photographs,8221; says Preeti Bindra, vice-president of Global Adjustments, Delhi and NCR.

The contest was floated in September and divided into four categories 8212; Culture and Festivals, Places from the Sublime to the Bizarre, Faces, and Into India. The 350 entries were judged by Lina Nandan, joint secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Digvijay Singh, GM, Taj Mahal Hotel, Graham Ranger, director of British schools, and Findlay Kember, chief of photo desk South Asia, AFP.

Dave Prager, an American amateur photographer and copywriter with an ad firm, won in the Faces category with his compelling photo Pardada Pardadai, of girls smiling in a village classroom in Uttar Pradesh. 8220;I8217;ve been here for a year, and I plan to travel to Udaipur and Jodhpur next,8221; says Prager. His other image on display is of Holi, where he and his wife are smeared in riotous colours.

Some of the foreigners describe what India really looks like to an outsider. 8220;We saw the evening prayers in Varanasi. It was mesmerising,8221; says John Toole, an American who during his travails has also admired the erotic engravings in Khajuraho and visited Amritsar and Jaipur. Christine Liechti, attacheacute; with the Swiss embassy, has been in Delhi for two years. She says, 8220;I registered for the contest when my friend showed me the advertisement.8221; The images at the show include Paan-tastic, by the Filipino Catherine Galang Torres, of a man chewing paan in Delhi. Buffalo Jacuzzi, no prizes for guessing, is a shot of buffaloes in a pond. French national Claude Bahout moved to India last year. Her entry, Care for a facial, is a peak into the preparations before a Kathakali performance in Kerala.

Perking up the evening was a lively performance by Delhi-based, all-woman band Wot She Like where the members cranked out naughty songs about desperate expatriate wives.