Paraty in Focus 2011

Arthur Miller and Isabella Lyrio , members of the collective photographic Punctum , Brasilia, are traveling in India and narrate their experiences in Srinagar, in Kashemira:

"It was hot and the mountains lacked water. In the trunk of the jeep, the shuttle road nauseous.

They stopped the car. They asked for a passport, and we noted a few things.

Two-mile tunnel - dark, stuffy, long, narrow, endless - the headlights of cars - and military - minutes, hours later, at the end there was already light and cold.

The green mountains appeared almost disappearing in the mist, and were spreading across the valley. People have changed their skin color, language, and his clothes were not the same as before. We strawberries, cherries, bananas and nuts.

The Valley Kashemira is in the extreme north of India. But who lives there says she lives in Paradise. It is a Muslim majority region and is the focus of great tension with Pakistan since 1947, when occurred the separation of the two countries and India got most of the northern lands. On occasion, Hindus and Muslims were separated, violating a history of thousands of years and forcing people to flee their homes and seek housing where their religion prevailed.

Since then, on one hand the Muslims do not feel part of the country and want the separation, some acting erratically and angry. The other, the Indian army intimidated by military power, and they say, work to maintain peace and unity.

The situation seems incredible in the face of apparent tranquility. In villages, the country life is full of work in the spring, women collect rice from one soldier to another. In the capital Srinagar, the local tourism back to breathing the security situation in recent times. Wealthy Indian families traveling around the country seeking day comfort and leisure boats in the Dal Lake.

The huge water body is the great attraction of the city, and reflects the mountains and boats full of flowers and tourists. But when we walked around the old town, the time that we become. The carved wooden windows and walls painted with geometric motifs line the alleys of tailors, burqas, Arab merchants, mosques absolute Mecca. For the red beard that we move, eat bread, drink tea - how many smells and tastes delicious; curiosity is mutual, but at the same time, life goes on his way as if we had never been there.

And so, the green mountains begin to disappear in the mist, we removed the passport again, and we note something to the tunnel dark, stuffy and long, to again find the dry mountains. "

* Text and Photos: Arthur Miller and Isabella Lyrio

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