some thoughts on Durga Puja

These photos were taken in September 2008. What you’re seeing are actually mud statues that take nearly a year to make, in preparation for the Durga Puja festival, when the statues are then immersed in and returned to the river.

The first image shows the demon whom the goddess Durga fights and defeats.

The second image is of a lion, the mount of the goddess Durga.

And finally, the goddess herself.

These amazing statues are all created on pandals (a temporary structure on which these statues and other words of art are set upon in some type of motif). The arrangement of goddess, tiger, demon, and other elements on the pandals all signify the victory of the goddess over the demon, or good over evil.

Creation of these mud and clay statues is a very holy process. The artisans all live in one part of town, and they take great pride in their work. Since my visit was a month before the Durga Puja festival, these photos here are merely a work in progress. It is not hard to believe that people have prepared year-round for the festival!

in the shadow of the temple

old woman on the beach

working in the salt flats

the proshest little bird evah

Got a photo with this little guy while camping out on the beach in Tayrona National Park, Colombia. His wings were clipped (either on purpose or because of an accident, my Spanish wasn’t really good enough to understand what happened) so he was hopping around looking to bite some unaware campers!

watch your step

aunt and nephew

looking at my meal, looking back at me

Alternative post title: Just because you can eat a guinea pig, definitely means you should (at least once)

For all you curious and intrepid eaters out there who are wondering what it tastes like, how could the answer be anything other than… “chicken, of course”?

what does it say about me that the best photo of me was taken from the back?

please don’t die on me, isohunt

One of my beloved bittorrent sites, isohunt, has been down for roughly a week. At first, I thought it was just a glitch, or maybe they were updating their servers, or just undergoing some routine maintenance. I started to worry after a few days, and took to typing it into my news search daily.

Then yesterday, I found this.

Good luck, isohunt. Continue to fight the good fight. Please don’t go the way of mininova. <sniff>