Last week, i can’t remember who asked this question on twitter, whether the rich are better looking than the poor. I may have got the exact wording wrong, but that was the gist.

I have been travelling the length and breadth of India for the better part of the last 15 years, and pictures might speak better than words.

These were mostly shot in villages, streets, and poorer areas of the country and adjoining areas

She was a seller at Kala Ghoda arts festival, (2007)

I think, she sold shells near one of the beaches in TN (2006)

She is a Lahman woman, i was shooting with their tribe in 2005

These are women in a remote village in Himachal Pradesh, whose village got connected by a road for the first time in 2009

And she sold tea, in a little tapri in Nepal. I was shooting there in 2008.

Are the rich more beautiful, i don’t know. Are the poor less beautiful, i don’t know.

But, are these women full of life, vitality and beauty – yes.