A Life (Time) of Cooking

Photo by Thomas Kelly on Asian Innersearch (India), Jan - Feb, 2008 . All rights reserved.

I am back. From an amazing 5 weeks of travel in Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia and (mostly) India. Along with great memories, 1000+ photos, 2000+ stories, new friends and a handful of purchases, I brought back with me a tummy bug. It has laid me low for the past week, but I am beginning to climb out of it. I look forward to sharing my photos, stories and food experiences with you in the weeks or months to come.

It was great to be back in India again, after 4 years absence. I have a great love for that country, and a sadness about some of the ways in which it is changing. I know it is inevitable, and that many great and wonderful things are happening, but ….

It is such a rich, diverse and embracing country. I am so looking forward to sharing some of my travels there with you. I still have not moved completely back into my western skin, and think I look funny as I head off to corporate world each morning. My head is still full of coconut trees, tender coconut juice, sugar cane juice with lime and ginger, chai, red rice, beaches, homas, heart melting abhishegams, Siva and Sakti, barefoot walks around mountains, cooking classes with chefs, chai on the beach, bucket baths in pilgrim hotels, and so so so much more.

Jai India!

Joining us for part of our journey was Thomas Kelly, internationally renowned photographer and resident of Nepal. An incredible photographer who also uses his talents as a tool to effect social change, it was an experience in itself to watch him work. You can visit his web site, Thomas Kelly. I found the following information on him.

Born in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Educated at Loyola University of Chicago and Rome, Thomas L. Kelly first came to Nepal in 1978 as a USA Peace Corps Volunteer, and has since worked as a photo-activist, documenting the struggles of marginalized people and disappearing cultural traditions all over the world. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation he has been recording the lives of sex workers and the traditions of prostitution across South Asia. Thomas has worked extensively for UNICEF, Save the Children Fund (USA), Aga Khan Foundation, Institute of Child Health (ICH), U.K., Department for International Development, (DFID), U.K. on the subject of child prostitution, trafficking, Safer Motherhood/Saving Newborn Lives, Conflict and Resolution, Vaccine Cold Chain, Water and Sanitation and numerous other subjects. His editorial work has appeared in publications worldwide, including, the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Natural History, USA, Smithsonian,, USA, Archeology Magazine, USA, Aramco, Yoga Journal, Mother Jones, The Sunday Telegraph, U,K., The Observer, U.K.,Le Figaro, Paris Stern, Germany and Geo. From 1990-1991 he was the Corporate photographer for The Body Shop Int., UK specializing in producing and documenting the Press Campaigns of the Company.

Apart from photography, he has produced and directed films and videos on prostitution, violence against women, and esoteric ethnic practices, among other subjects for Discovery Communications, USA, National Geographic, and the BBC. He has researched and photographed the books: Sacred Landscape-Pilgrimage in Tibet: In Search of the Lost Kingdom of Bon, (Abbeville Press, N.Y., N.Y.,) Fallen Angels: Sex Workers of South Asia, Himalayan Mysteries, (Roli Books Int. Lustre Press, New Delhi, India,) Buddhism on the path to Nirvana, Brijbasi Press, New Delhi, India, Tibet: Reflections from the Wheel of Life; The Hidden Himalayas; Kathmandu: City on the Edge of the World, (Abbeville Press, New York, N.Y.), Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World, Viking Penguin,, N.Y., N.Y.

Thomas is currently the AV Technical Advisor for The Youth Expression Project, YEP, a program to help young people (ages 15-23) to identify and voice their concerns about parental and societal values, HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, unwanted pregnancy, and sexual abuse. This project is about aiding them to understand their problems, concerns, hopes, fears, frustrations, and learning how to use media (writing, photography, video) to express those concerns on a public platform. Their media outputs will be directed to parents, teachers and the general public. A South Asian YEP traveling exhibit was presented in October 2006.

Previous Posts: