Photobook 3

Here's another one. There's just so much to capture and it really frustrates me that I'm not that great of a photographer to convey the entire story or emotion that I feel when seeing these things.

In the middle is my grandfather's brother. He was a history professor.
He retired in 1990 and since then,
 has been running a small spice shop on a small street
in the village of Ransiwal. 

Eleven years since my Grandfather's death,
and this is the first time I got the chance to make du'aa over his grave. 

look! pretty colors. Too it was a 102 degrees out and no air conditioning and me with heavy clothes.
Ok stop complaining sophia

You find this a lot in Pakistan. There are no trash cans for people to throw their trash in, and there are no laws against littering, so the trash is thrown anywhere. Every morning, you have some workers that quickly brush some the trash to the side of the roads. Eventually, it just piles up in some areas.

A Punjabi wedding is three days long. First is the Mehndi, which is all about colors and dancing and fun. In this Mehndi that I went to (which was in a far off village), the rituals go like this:
1. the bride sits in front the audience.
2. The bride takes some money in her hand, and guests come up and smear henna onto the money. Then they put a dab of oil in her hair, and put a small piece of matai (sweets) in her mouth
3. people dance

So the little round brown things behind all the trash are Goburs. That's the Urdu word for cow poop. Yep. It is cow poop that is scooped up and patted down in the round shape that you see. And who do you think does this icky job? There are stacks and stacks of goburs that women of every village make. Goburs are used for cooking--as a sort of fuel for the fire. 

this is Ransiwal. it's purty

More of Ransiwal.

Goats here just walk around, sometimes with their rooster friends or cow friends or dog friends. 

this tree has these really yummy berry type fruits. 

These are the berries. The white ones are sweeter. fyi