Take a photo, it lasts longer

Remember when you were a kid and someone was staring at you. The response used to be why don't you take a photo, it lasts longer.

In India, staring is a national past time. I'm sure there is an entry in the Guinness Book Of World Records for staring and it is held by an Indian man. It is mainly the men that stare. It certainly takes some time to get used to it and after a while you don't notice it so much. Sometimes it is creepy and you have to say something. That is really not fun. Staring back doesn't work, apparently it is very suggestive.

But why stop at staring. Foreigners are such a highlight in India that one is often asked to have their photo taken with a random family. Or people just hold up their mobile phone and take a photo of you or shoot video as you are going about your business. This tends to be happen more around tourist areas, not so much in Bhubaneswar. Although the guy at the off-shop took a photo of me yesterday while I was getting some supplies - probably not a good look.

A group of five of us visited the Sun Temple in Konark last weekend. There it was relentless. We arrived quite late and wanted to see everything before the sun set. This didn't leave much time for family snaps with strangers so we had to keep declining the offers. This didn't stop dozens of people from photographing or filming us anyway. Our guide was getting quite cranky and telling people to delete the photos they took of us. In the end he got into a loud verbal stoush with a couple of guys who were adamant we should pose in a photo with them. It was unbelievable. The temple was amazing but the experience was somewhat sullied by this ridiculous attention. 

Why anyone would want to be famous is beyond me.