Annabel wrote:Probably doesn't mean much on its own but it is one of the strongest images in terms of personal meaning for me.
It was Mumbai. It was very very hot. I was trawling the bazaars looking for bric-abrac to buy and take back to give as gifts to friends in the UK.
The girl on the right is a beggar. She followed me for a good half hour through, persistently dogging me for money or food. I refused, with hard-earned tourist thick-skin. But she persisted.
Finally, I drew tired of her cries, of her appeals. I gave her the remains of a tub of ice cream I had scoffed, almost as a 'go away , nice try, here's some food, piss off'.
She looked at the ice cream, then disappeared into the street with it in her hand. I followed her surreptitiously, curious. She called out 'Bhaiya, Bhaiya'- - meaning Brother, to -a boy some way back in the street, her brother. When he came, they became oblivious to everything around them. In the middle of traffic, they stood eagerly sharing the scraps of ice cream. The glee on their faces made me feel elated and guilty to the same intense degree.
The contrast beween what I expected and what was reality, between my adult's search for spurious trinkets and her child's search for food, made me jolt my views upright.
I had to take the picture as a reminder to myself : stay soft-hearted, it's better than the contrasted view of toughness that is actually quite hard to project.
She never came back to find me. I often wonder what she is doing, at this very moment.
crikey wrote:Ice cream one.
Rod Rammage wrote:Removed ~ G
blindswelledrat wrote:crikey wrote:Icecream.
I missed that one.
Its a brilliant example.
blindswelledrat wrote:A bit controversial, but regardless of your thoughts on her, noone can deny that her life was dedicated to the country.
I found this picture of the Iron Lady crying as she left downing street quite an evocative one:
Fidgits wrote:
I remember seeing it on the news, and being just old enough to understand it, and to understand what it must have taken for him to do that, knowing what the outcome would be (one way or another)
Rod Rammage wrote:Fidgits wrote:
I remember seeing it on the news, and being just old enough to understand it, and to understand what it must have taken for him to do that, knowing what the outcome would be (one way or another)
Everyone thinks that geezer got run over, but I heard that he didn't get run over.
I heard that no one got shot, either.
People say there was a massacre, but I heard that there wasn't a massacre.
That bloke is famous, isn't he, all around the world.
A German private's view wrote:At first I was rather depressed, of course. I, an old soldier, a prisoner of war after a few hours of the invasion. But when I saw the material behind the enemy front, I could only say, "Old man, how lucky you have been!"
And when the sun rose the next morning, I saw the invasion fleet lying off the shore. Ship beside ship. And without a break, troops, weapons, tanks, munitions and vehicles were being unloaded in a steady stream.
Gnostic Ascent wrote:Some more images that get me thinking about the fragile nature of life and how someone can remove you from it in an instant.
carrera2 wrote:Two that always stick in my mind
Last jew in Vinnitsa
Disastrous wrote:I think it's pretty horrible how uncomfortable the young chap with the gun looks. I think we imagine the Nazis as being monstrous but sometimes forget that a lot of them were simply too scared to resist their superiors.
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