(click any image to enlarge)

Brother and sister Kutchis.

Beedi man.

Father and daughter.

Two sisters and little brother.

View of Jaisalmer and the fort from one of the havelis.

Haveli located in the desert town of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan in the western part of India. The town of Jaisalmer has these numerous havelis which were the homes of wealthy families.  (I forgot the exact name of this one. If anyone knows, please email me.)

Another villager from the Bhuj region of Gujarat.  In an area called  "Little Rann of Kutch" are many of the villages of the Kutchi  people.  The homes are made of dried mud and the women dress in a traditional manner unique to the region.  The interior walls of the homes are intricately carved and are covered with patterns of embedded mirrors.   The entire villages are spotlessly clean, especially in comparison to life in the cities.

Village girl in the state of Gujarat near the town of Bhuj.  The last name of the extended families of this village is "Harijan". Mahatma Gandhi endorsed calling the outcastes or pariahs by the name of Harijan, which euphemistically  means "Children of God".  Presumably this may have been a village of outcastes which is what has traditionally been the designation of many tribal people in India.

The Sikh Golden Temple in the northern state of Punjab in the city of Amritsar.  Indira Gandhi sent her soldiers to attack the temple in 1984 to root out the Sikh separatists in what was dubbed "Operation Bluestar".  Indira was killed less than a year later by two of her own Sikh bodyguards.  The riots that followed left many thousands of Sikhs dead all across northern India.  The temple today sits in peaceful  stark contrast to its recent bloody past.