Rock Paintings near Bundi

View from on top of the cliff, the green is the jungle below.

On top of a large rock below it is a rock painting. Photo taken by Kukki who would make a great film director.

On my way to finding 20 thousand year old rock paintings with Kukki who found them in 2003. This is a tree with Monkeys in. There is no one living in this area so monkeys live in there natural habitat.

A beautiful waterfall, if I had another day there I would have climbed down there and had a swim it looked very tempting on such a hot day. This is winter so imagine the area would be greener and there would be more water after some rain.

Kukki showing telling us the history of the area and how he spent his entire life looking for these rock paintings. While looking for them by on foot he made friends with people in a 60 mile radius of Bundi and discovered lots of other beautiful areas of beauty.

Me and Kukki with his rock paintings in a cave down the side of a cliff. The paintings have been preserved by a natural layer on them. He says there would be more all over the area but they would got washed away with time and the rock also disintegrates.

A very good painting considering it was done so long ago.

A view of the whole rock painting. If you live in India or you are visiting India please do go and visit Bundi and ask Kukki to take you on a tour of all the amazing places. 

Kukki's home

After a day out with Kukki showing us all Bundi and the palace and tombs, shrines and all sorts. He invited us round to his home where is family had made us chai and potato dish and sweet carrot. I signed his visitors book and drew a quick sketch of him and his rock paintings. A few days later he took me and Mira to see the real rock paintings. At this stage I couldn't believe I was going as I had never seen rock paintings before.

Spear head kukki had found, he has also found early stone spear heads.

Funny to see he had found so many ancient beads. I had spent so much time with Anand in Mumbai looking for bead so this size for the eyes of my claymation models, we didn't find any and I had to make some smaller ones bigger.

Kukki showing us sparks made with a rock and shell like stone.

Showing other ancient carvings.

Beads these would have really weighed the Lady's down.

maybe things for stamping.

This is a camel head which would have maybe had a soft body and be a child's toy.

His large collection of fossils and rocks.

Bracelets.

Rock painting demonstration with the pigment rock they use. A simple line rock painting is an earlier painting 10,000 years before they filled in the painting.

The variety of colours from different rocks.

He gave me a few bits of pigment, so I can now try and mix them and make a fresco Italian style painting.

Train from Mumbai to Bundi

Life away from life photography trip to Bundi. Sitting here is some of the photographers that came on the trip. It is the morning and we have all woken up from sleeping in the sleeper carriage on these bunk beds. There is 8 beds to a section. The two men near the window are not in the photography group they work for the ministry of health. The guy in the red shirt is playing with a Psi game and is a symbol to human health today and looks no different to an NHS worker. Charades is a favourite game in India. With my lack of knowledge of Bollywood films I decided to play with my camera instead.

My carriage of beds and fans. If was nice that there was water from the sink at the end. So I could have a wash in the morning.

This is the train stopping at a signal light, a kind gentleman helped me off and on the train so I could take photographs. Which was very exciting. The Man running has just delivered a bit of bush to a lover in a window further down the train. I got told off for jumping off the train by my group, as the trains do not always go by the signal lights and it could have taken off before it turned green and left me stranded in the middle of India with no belongings.

I should have read this sign before I jumped off the train. Safety is up to the individual. Traveling at high speed with the door open is up to you whether you want to stay on the train while it is moving. It felt like being on a sailing boat and made it more fun. I did enjoy being away from Britain's boring Nanny state where you cant do anything because of health and safety laws. My host thought I was going to be abducted, mugged, raped, run over or lost pretty much most of the time, so kept a watchful eye on me. I tried to think back to when I have actually been lost in my life and it was when I was three years old and my mother lost me in Dublin city centre. I was picked up by a lady who looked after me till I was found. I also got lost in the mangroves in the Australian rainforest's at sunset. Which is a very bad time to be lost as the crocodiles come out and the tide comes in from the sea. I soon heard the sound of electric generator that started up and found my way out. Since then I have had training in the Tasmanian forest when I was staying in my friends tree house, to find my way through the Forrest in the dark. Bark on the trees is like Braille and you can feel the bark and memorize with your fingers. Feet have eyes too and you can use your bare feet to judge the ground.

A train sink.

If only people put there rubbish in the bin, where they are provided. I do like old trains they have more character and they have a rhythm which is could for composing music and poetry.

Kala Ghoda Festival Mumbai 2010

Women keep the tradition of long hair and wearing traditional clothes, but have lost the tradition of having a wealth of animals. These animals are all sculpture's made by an artist Pramod Kamble he says that Indian has replaced its tall tree jungle with tall concrete building jungle. People in India like living in tall buildings and shopping. I find the idea of living in a tall building is disconnecting with the earth and very depressing.

Britain use to be covered in Forest's from one end to the other, now there is little patches of trees. I have a row of big beautiful trees beside my house that have a preservation order on them and they must not be chopped down. A land lady of a pub spontaneously had half of them chopped down, in court the judge asked her why she chopped them down. She said because they were big and they were ugly. The courtroom full of peoples hearts sank. Her husband suddenly died a few months later at 42 years old. In Ireland I talked to a fairy man when I was child that my Uncle was interviewing for a TV show called Bygones. The man said when the last tree dies on his land, the last family member will die. He was the last family member and he had one tree propped up.

If your looking for an elephant in India, you will only find a sculpture of one. Elephants need large amounts of Jungle to feed on. Humans have chopped down this jungle for paper and concrete buildings.

Foetus tree

Paper Lantern

Indian feminine man with his tiger.

Indian Lady with her Rhino. Everyone has a favourite animal, I photographed this one for my Cousin Rhalou who loves Rhino's.

Kala Ghoda Festival Mumbai 2010

Trees have eyes!

A day out at Kala Ghoda festival. I was only there during the day, so missed the films and plays.

I got the train home int he women's carriage which was an interesting experience, a women told me to get off at the wrong stop because she wanted my standing space on the train. All the other women screamed at me to get back on again. Thankfully they all new where I was getting off. The trains travel with the doors open which makes a breeze through the train. Lots of people and children selling things from baskets on there heads in the Lady's carriage. Mumbai has a enormous amount of children begging on the streets. Maybe they should change the adoption and foster laws. It isn't easy to cross the road in Mumbai. Cars seem to think they own the road and there isn't enough pavements to walk on. look forward to seeing the underground railway service opening soon, to free up the traffic.

Twig horse

Wire nest

Save water!

Plastic bottles leek chemicals into your drink and have fire retardant's in them, plastic has never been tested for human consumption and if you feed your baby from a plastic bottle you will give it brain damage. Free yourself from plastic waste and stop using it.