Why "India Outside India"?

Since I came to NYC I have been trying to capture for the benefit of my international friends what is ‘India’ or ‘Indianness’. We have discussed various facets of Indian people, culture, ways of meaning making and what it means to live as an Indian. It was also interesting when my international friends shared what they thought being Indian was/must be like for me. I have been capturing visuals that I thought express non-Indians’ perceptions about India and also the expressions/visuals shared by the Indian community in US that must be shaping this perception. After a year of gathering images and talking in my head about it I thought why not put it all down in a blog.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Collecting Deities

Yesterday we stumbled on a flee market outside YMCA on Hope street. There was such a wide collection of household items, vases, planters, clothes, decorative items and what not. Some of it Indian - beautiful dupattas (scarves), cloth pieces used as table mats, beads. The most exciting however was this idol of Shiva. I have seen Ganesha, Buddha, and sometimes Krishna but this Shiva was the first one I saw in US outside of an Indian home or Indian reference. 

The idol in abhay mudra is well made with eyes painted beautifully expressing benevolence. Nandi on one side, Shivalinga on the other, damaru on the trident. 


The lady manning the booth had various Ganesha idols, a bull that looked more like Nandi than the bull outside New York stock exchange. It seems her friend collected deities and these were some of her finds on a trip to India. 

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