This is Varanasi, but not the one I used to perceive. While having lassi, a sweet Indian drink made from yogurt, seating in a tiny restaurant in an alley of Varanasi near Manikarnika Ghat, I witnessed that people were carrying dead bodies for cremation and chorused “Ram Naam Satya Hain”…
Our precious Life. “We want to be normal (sane) like you.” This is what they wanted from me from their world. “I want to be normal, normal and normal.” These are the words of the pure heart. Words coming from mind which we call to be not in control. I…
A story about a girl who has been rescuing stray dogs in Yangon, Myanmar. There are about ten thousand stray dogs in Yangon. The official policy of the municipality is to poison them. Last August, I created the Golden Heart Rescue Group. It has become a full time job. We…
Phulia is a small town in the Nadia District of West Bengal, approximately a hundred kilometers from the main city of Kolkata. It bodes clusters of Tant, Jamdani and Dhakai; the latter two found majorly in parts of Bangladesh now. The art form showcases intricate and detailed hand-stitched work from…
Bishwa Ijtema is and annual global Islamic Congregation held at Tongi, Bangladesh by the river Turag. It lasts three days and is attended by over five million Muslims, making it one of the largest congregations after the Hajj to Mecca and the gathering of Muslims in Karbala, Iraq. Devotees from…
Empty Roads to Silent Doors, Hidden Wars to Graffiti Walls. In the name of Allah, Stop it. People ask us what is our dream? We say a “HOME” said one of the refugee I met in Israel. Life is difficult, sometimes we only wish to be alive and nothing more…
The disappearance of the travelling cinema in the outskirts of our cities can be alluded to several factors – the least of which is not the real estate boom because vacant land is swiftly being built upon. But, seen along with the rise of the multiplex, it also suggests the…
In 2003, a group called the Durbar MahilaSamanwaya Committee started a residential home for kids from various brothel colonies at Baruipur, a small town near Kolkata. The group, long active in advocating for the rights of brothel workers in Kolkata, felt the need to do something for the children of…
In Bengal, Gajan and Charak stand unique in the scenario of Bengal festivals and in today’s modern age. Hindus celebrate the festival mainly on the last two days of the month of Chaitra, just before Bengali New Year. Basically this falls around mid-April. Although it is celebrated mostly in rural…
This series of photographs have been shot in a Cast Iron Foundry of Howrah. The workers here are mostly Illiterate and mostly backward. They work in a temperature of 47° C. A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a…
The Tiger: An Animal, A Myth Around the months of September and October each year, as the ten days of Dussera near, boys and men in the region of Karnataka known as Dakshin Kannada prepare to become tigers. Goddess Durga’s steed, the tiger is an animal that is at once…
This Photo Series is from the Famous Festival ” Charak” from the rural part of West Bengal, India. Charak Puja has its own special place in West Bengal, the state of festivals. It is a special folk festival, celebrated for bidding good-bye to the passing year. It is believed that…
In Bengal, beyond the urbanscape, there are rural pockets where the glamour and glitz of Bollywood has not yet penetrated, where Jatra Pala still rules the roost. The literal meaning of the Bangla word Jatra is ‘Journey’. The Jatra Pala is a little different from the more commercialised Jatra but…
“Jama Masjid, the grand mosque of Old Delhi is the largest mosque in India built by the Mughal Emporer Shahjahan in 1650 AD. Made out of red sandstone and decorated with black and white marble, this architectural marvel has three lofty gates mighty pillars, minarets, domes and a huge courtyard.…
Terminal 7:45 8:45 Trying to find sense in chaos.. Early morning rituals are hard to change, be it reading the newspaper with tea or that early morning walk.. be it lighting the diya in temple or just being grateful for a new day… Be it raining, cold, sunny or just…
This particular narrative (or should I not call it a narrative at all) arises from the deep down things that I have been nurturing in that shady section of the mind every person has but rarely have the urge to make them a visual medium. I take this as a…