Walk on the Roadside north Indian high way picture

While on a family road trip across India, photographer Matthieu Paley became intrigued by the people he saw walking along the side of the highway, and stopped to hear their stories.

Not all encounters were that spiritual. Some walkers were on the road because they had no other choice. When it comes to mental illness, for example, India offers little support and there is great stigma associated with it. Patients of overburdened institutions are sometimes dumped in the forests of India. They eventually end up on the highways. I met such lost souls. And then there were the victims of what I assumed was rape or child abuse, their vulnerability palpable. They were like walking ghosts—no one seemed to notice them.   

Because of the conditions (the highway, my waiting family, the speeding cars) I couldn’t spend much time with each person. I would try to bring some kind of fleeting comfort but I felt tears inside. 

Photographs by Matthieu Paley

Original photographs collection

Salt lake Um Al Maa, Sahara, Libia.

 king tree Costa Rica

Enjoying  elephant Thailand 

The Camera..

The beutiful sean from Croacia

Frog.. Family

Rock in Australia

The First Hunding.

Super nature

The Monsoon Season in India rare pictures

The main monsoon season in India runs from June to September and the question on everyone’s lips is always, “What's it really like and is travel still possible?” This is very understandable as the thought of rain and floods is enough to put a dampener on any holiday. However, the good news is that you don’t have to let the monsoon ruin your travel plans, and travel can even be advantageous during this time.

What Causes the Monsoon in India

The southwest summer monsoon is attracted to India by a low pressure area that's caused by the extreme heat of the Thar Desert and adjoining areas, during summer. Moisture-laden winds from the Indian Ocean come to fill up the void, but because they can't pass through the Himalaya region, they're forced to rise. The gain in altitude of the clouds results in a drop in temperature, bringing about rain.

When the southwest monsoon reaches India, it splits into two parts around the mountainous region of the Western Ghats in south-central India. One part moves northwards over the Arabian Sea and up the coastal side of the Western Ghats. The other flows over the Bay of Bengal, up through Assam, and hits the Eastern Himalaya range.

What can be Expected During the Monsoon in India

The southwest monsoon reaches the coast of the southern state of Kerala around June 1. It usually arrives in Mumbai approximately 10 days later, reaches Delhi by the end of June, and covers the rest of India by mid-July. Every year, the date of the monsoon's arrival is the subject of much speculation. Despite numerous predictions by the meteorological department, it's rare that anyone gets it right though!

 Want to chase the monsoon in India? Kovalam, on the most southern tip of Kerala, is one place that receives the first rainfall. Stay in a hotel facing the ocean and watch the storm roll in.

 The monsoon doesn't appear all at once. Rather, it builds up over a couple of days of "pre-monsoon showers". Its actual arrival is announced by an intense period of heavy rain, booming thunder and plenty of lightening. This rain injects an amazing amount of vigor into people, and it's common to see children running about, dancing in the rain, and playing games. Even the adults join in because it's so refreshing.

After the first initial downpour, which can last for days, the monsoon falls into a steady pattern of raining for at least a couple of hours most days. It can be sunny one minute and pouring the next. The rain is very unpredictable. Some days very little rainfall will occur, and during this time the temperature will start heating up again and humidity levels will rise. The amount of rain that's received peaks in most areas during July, and starts tapering off a bit in August. While less rain is usually received overall in September, the rain that does come can often be torrential.

Unfortunately, many cities experience flooding at the start of the monsoon and during heavy downpours. This is due to drains being unable to cope with the volume of water, often because of rubbish that has built up over the summer and hasn't been properly cleared.

Monsoon Rains india

Monsoon rains lashed parts of northern India this week, releasing the capital, New Delhi, from the grips of a heat wave. The country waits for the June-through-September rains to spread across the country every year.

The rains have come late this year, triggering concerns that crop yields will be lower, pushing up inflation and hurting the economy. Farmers in India rely on the annual showers.

.The rains have come late this year, triggering concerns that crop yields will be lower, pushing up inflation and hurting the economy. Farmers in India rely on the annual showers.

Some analysts argue that all the hand-wringing over a delayed monsoon is overblown.

While droughts do not always lead to lower food production in India, how the government prepares for and reacts to a shortfall in rain can trigger big swings in food supplies. The government is already distributing fast-growing, drought-resistant varieties of rice and is expected to limit exports of rice and wheat in an effort to ensure adequate domestic supplies.

children played on a waterlogged 

A fisherman  waited to cast his net in the Dava River. 

 A milkman rode a motorcycle through the rains

Dark clouds hovered over the central part of New Delhi

 Two men struggled to make it through a traffic jam with rising waters during rain showers

2014 PHOTO CONTEST- World Press Photos of the Year 2014

John Stanmeyer has won the World Press Photo of the Year 2013 competition with this photo of African migrants on the shore of Djibouti city at night, raising their phones in an attempt to capture an inexpensive signal from neighboring Somalia — a tenuous link to relatives abroad.

1 st prize

John Stanmeyer has won the World Press Photo of the Year 2013 competition with this photo of African migrants on the shore of Djibouti city at night, raising their phones in an attempt to capture an inexpensive signal from neighbouring Somalia — a tenuous link to relatives abroad.

Jillian Edelstein, one of the judges, said: "It's a photo that is connected to so many other stories—it opens up discussions about technology, globalization, migration, poverty, desperation, alienation, humanity. It's a very sophisticated, powerfully nuanced image. It is so subtly done, so poetic, yet instilled with meaning, conveying issues of great gravity and concern in the world today."

David Guttenfelder, jury member, said: "The photo is like a message in a bottle, it is one that will last for all of us. People will bring their own life experiences to it as they stand in front of it."

The prize-winning pictures are presented in an exhibition visiting more than 100 cities in over 45 countries. The first 2014 World Press Photography exhibition opens in Amsterdam in De Nieuwe Kerk on 18 April.

1st Prize General News Single: Alessandro Penso. 21 November 2013, Sofia, Bulgaria. Military Ramp, an emergency refugee centre, was opened in September 2013 in an abandoned school in Sofia, Bulgaria. The centre provides housing for about 800 Syrian refugees, including 390 children

.2nd Prize General News Stories: William Daniels. 17 November 2013, Central African Republic. Demonstrators gather on a street in Bangui to call for the resignation of interim President Michel Djotodia following the murder of Judge Modeste Martineau Bria by members of Seleka. Bangui, Central African Republic.

1st Prize Spot News Single: Phillipe Lopez. 18 November 2013, Tolosa, the Philippines. Survivors of typhoon Haiyan march during a religious procession in Tolosa, on the eastern island of Leyte. One of the strongest cyclones ever recorded, Haiyan left 8,000 people dead and missing and more than four million homeless after it hit the central Philippines.

1st Prize Spot News Stories: Goran Tomasevic. 30 January 2013, Damascus, Syria. Syrian rebel fighters take cover amid flying debris and shrapnel after being hit by a tank shell fired towards them by the Syrian Army in the Ain Tarma neighbourhood of Damascus.

2nd Prize Spot News Stories: Tyler Hicks. 21 September 2013, Nairobi, Kenya. A woman and children hiding in the Westgate mall. They escaped unharmed after gunmen had opened fire at the mall on 21 September 2013. At least 39 people were killed in one of the worst terrorist attacks in Kenya's history.

3rd Prize Contemporary Issues Single: Christopher Vanegas. 8 March 2013, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. Police arrive at a crime scene where two bodies hang from a bridge; another three are on the floor. They had been killed by organised crime in Saltillo, Coahuila, in retaliation against other criminal groups.

1st Prize Contemporary Issues Stories: Sara Naomi Lewkowicz. 17 November 2012, USA. As the fight continued to rage, Shane told Maggie that she could choose between getting beaten in the kitchen, or going with him to the basement so they could talk privately.

1st Prize Daily Life Single: Julius Schrank. 15 March 2013, Burma. Kachin Independence Army fighters are drinking and celebrating at a funeral of one of their commanders who died the day before. The city is under siege by the Burmese army.

2nd Prize Sports Action Single: Andrzej Grygiel. 24 March 2013, Szczyrk, Poland. Competitor at a slalom contest in Szczyrk, Poland

3rd Prize Sports Action Stories: Quinn Rooney. 27 April 2013, Adelaide, Australia. Daniel Arnamnart of Australia competes in the men's 100-metre backstroke during day two of the Australian Swimming Championships on 27 April 2013 at SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Adelaide, Australia.

1st Prize Sports Feature Stories: Peter Holgersson. 19 December 2013, Lidingö, Sweden. Swedish athlete Nadja Casadei has participated in the World and European Championships in heptathlon. In autumn 2013, she was diagnosed with cancer and by January 2014 she completed her chemotherapy. She has continued to train throughout her illness, hoping to be healthy and ready by the summer for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

1st Prize People – Observed Portraits Single: Markus Schreiber. 13 December 2013, Pretoria, South Africa. A woman reacts in disappointment after access to see former South Africa President Nelson Mandela was closed on the third and final day of his casket lying in state, outside Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa.

1st Prize People – Observed Portraits Stories: Carla Kogelman. 19 July 2012, Merkenbrechts, Austria. Hannah and Alena, two sisters living in the rural village of Merkenbrechts, Austria.

1st Prize People – Staged Portraits Single: Brent Stirton. 25 September 2013, West Bengal India. A group of blind albino boys photographed in their boarding room at the Vivekananda mission school for the blind in West Bengal, India. This is one of the very few schools for the blind in India today.

2nd Prize People – Staged Portraits Stories: Denis Dailleux. 3 February 2011, Cairo, Egypt. Ali, a young Egyptian bodybuilder, poses with his mother.

3rd Prize Nature Stories: Christian Ziegler, Germany, for National Geographic Magazine. 25 January 2011, Congo. A five-year-old bonobo turns out to be the most curious individual of a wild group of bonobos near the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite being humans' closest living relatives, little is known about Bonobos and their behavior in the wild in remote parts of the Congo basin. Bonobos are threatened by habitat loss and bush meat trade.

1st Prize Nature Stories: Steve Winter. 2 March 2013, Los Angeles, USA. A cougar walking a trail in Los Angeles' Griffith Park is captured by a camera trap. To reach the park, which has been the cougar's home for the last two years it had to cross two of the busiest highways in the US.

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