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TRAVEL • AUG 2011 • HYDERABAD, INDIA

India! Finally a strange, new piece of unchartered land begging to be explored. The first thing that any photographer will notice as soon as they pull out their gear is just how camera-friendly the locals are. In fact, they don't just stop everything they do to pose and smile obediently at the sight of your lens, but will even go to the extend of chasing you down and beg you to have their pictures taken. Definitely a refreshing change from the stark contrast of unfriendly stares and curses that you get in some other parts of Asia.

In their own heart-warming, though a little crude, way, I have been touched. My arms, by eager kids who grabbed on to check out their photos on my camera, my back, by edges of carts pushed along an impossibly crowded open-air market at the old city, my face, by the pinch of a local who must have only seen a chinese face on TV before this, my ears, by the constant honking of impatient motorists, my hair, by the gentle swirl of a wandering hijab.

And finally my heart, by the impossibly friendly locals who flashed their smile and greetings my way, who pointed their cameras and camera-phones at me and my colleagues, who rushed over to take photos with us, and made me feel like both a celebrity and a National Geographic photographer. :P To Hyderabad, and beyond.