I was feeling a pleasant sensation, mixed with an anxious curiosity, waiting on the first proofs of the material collected in Paris, on May 2003. The reason why was that I had used a totally new equipment, a 35mm panoramic rangefinder, developed by Hasselblad, the "X-pan". The camera, a novelty that the friend Zé Abujamra had lent me, was barely tested before being taken on this trip to the old continent.

Later, when I saw the prints, the satisfaction was immediate. I was in front of Parisian everyday scenes in widescreen format, rich on details and without any distortion. The new camera was worthy of the traditional optical quality of the Swedish brand. But there was still something more, the images brought me a sense of familiarity. For some strange reason, they reminded me of some of the images I took in Rahjastan, back in the Seventies! So I decided to compose panels combining scenes of the two countries. I was facing another social comparison project. But, this time, unlike the previous two (Afghanistan-Stockholm and Town and Country), where the panels were formed with pairs of photos with background and organization of the elements carefully studied to match, I wanted something free and untied. Starting by the images of Paris, which had a different proportion, India’s would not repeat a pre-established standard. The images were mainly grouped by affinities of ideas and objects, and would not necessarily meet the geometric similarity.

The project was challenging. Time distance between the catches and the number of alternatives originated from the choice for a somehow loose layout makes that each piece demanded a single effort. The research work on India files, although facilitated by the scanning project that I’ve developed with my nephew and partner Eduardo, also demanded time and attention. But despite, or also by all this, the result was rewarding. The exhibition was presented in MARGS in early 2005 and in Uruguay, the following year. For me, above all, it is a further evidence on how small is the planet we live in, as social and cultural differences often are nothing more than a thin layer of varnish over beings who carries identical feelings and that notions about what is beautiful, correct or good usually are nothing more than mere point of views.