THE SHUTTER SPEED JOURNAL

Sometimes in Between!

2009-11-05T20:24:00.002+05:30

A scene at the underground Airport shuttle metro station, Shivaji Stadium. Currently, under construction, It shall be commissioned by the time the Commonwealth games happen in the city.

Pretty Politics in Bangle-desh: Samajwadi Dimple Yadav

2009-10-26T20:29:00.002+05:30

Dimple Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law, is the latest in the family to join the poll fray. She is contesting the Firozabad bypoll on the seat her husband Akhilesh Yadav vacated. The Sunday Express accompanies her on her campaign trail

AT 10.52 a.m., a bus painted in the Samajwadi Party colours of bright red and green reaches the dusty crossing in Shikohabad where a waiting convoy of Boleros and Scorpios filled with SP workers noisily lines up behind it. It is the start of Day 1 of the campaign of Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav, in the parliamentary constituency of Firozabad.

Firozabad is part of the Etawah-Mainpuri-Etah belt, home territory for Uttar Pradesh's former chief minister or, as he is best known here, 'Netaji'. His ancestral village of Itauli lies in this district, his home in Saifai is just about 45 km down the NH2 from Shikohabad to Agra. Yadavs form the single largest and most decisive chunk of Firozabad's over 14 lakh-strong electorate.

The red and green bus, or 'Parivartan Rath', is an imitation of the 'Kranti Rath' said to have been gifted by Chaudhry Devi Lal to Mulayam Singh in 1987; two years later, it became part of the fiery Janata Dal campaign that signalled the end of Congress dominance in Delhi as well as in Lucknow. Mulayam Singh became chief minister of UP for the first time that year.

Emblazoned on the back of the rath is a large portrait of Netaji addressing a teeming crowd. Inside, the newest member of his family to enter politics sits dressed in demure pink, head covered, waiting for her cue to emerge from the bus, make her speech, smile and wave.

Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh's son and Dimple's husband, third-time MP and recently anointed president of the SP in UP, has vacated the Firozabad seat for his wife after he won from both Kannauj and Firozabad in the Lok Sabha polls in May. He accompanies her through Day 1 of the campaign. He choreographs the Dimple roadshow.

And stars in it too. At each one of the 17 stops that day, on the thin road winding through fields lush with bajra, and those still being readied for the next potato crop, a settled routine plays out. A hydraulic lift takes Akhilesh and Dimple to the top of the bus, Akhilesh speaks first and then it is Dimple's turn.

In his speeches, Akhilesh, an affable campaigner much in the mould of his father who instantly connects with his audience, repeatedly strikes a defensive note. This is a different election, he says. It will be "decisive" and will send out a "message to the nation". "The entire country is watching Firozabad...a fight for the SP's prestige and self-respect". Mulayam's son repeatedly talks of "SP ki gherabandi", painting a picture of a cornered party, up against the might and machinery of two governments, the Congress-led government in Delhi and the BSP government in Lucknow.

He explains why he vacated Firozabad and kept Kannauj: "They say I ran away. But I have come back because I knew I could count on you to vote for the SP, regardless of the hurdles others may create. Now you will get two MPs to work for you, while Kannauj will have only one."

Dimple's speech is brief. She doesn't read it out but the script remains unwaveringly the same: "I thank you for coming here to give me your blessings. I am your beti (daughter) and your bahu (daughter-in-law). You know well why this election is being fought. I will only request you to turn out in large numbers on November 7 to vote for the Samajwadi Party. I promise you I will do whatever I can to develop this region and will not discriminate against anyone." And, "I specially request my sisters to come out and vote for me."

Speeches made, the couple briefly steps out of the bus, SP workers round up the women in the crowd and bring them to Dimple, who bends to touch the older women's feet. At some places, she dutifully sips the hot milk offered by partymen and supporters. Back in the bus, Akhilesh amiably calls it the "milk party", while Dimple reluctantly confesses, "I am not fond of milk; I drink it because I have to." There are other parts of the campaign the 32-year-old political debutante may need time to adjust to. "The waving part comes easy," she says, "but the speaking part is difficult."

"She shouldn't speak much," says Akhilesh. "She will only get into trouble. For now, hers is a good speech for a beginner." For now, 'AD', as Dimple calls him, ('Akhilesh dada', he reveals with an easy laugh; 'Akhilesh daddy', she insists self-consciously) prompts her at every step, often reminding her to fold her hands and acknowledge the people outside the window as the bus hurtles towards its next stop.

AD has thought it out. He looks at his wife as she sits, quiet and poised, across the aisle, staring out of the window. "Dimple will raise women's issues in Parliament," he says.

***

Mulayam Singh Yadav had reservations about Dimple being given the Firozabad ticket on two counts, says Akhilesh. "He thought the children are too young. He was also apprehensive about the message it would send to the party if the ticket went to another member of the family. But Amar Singh uncle and the party convinced him that it was for the sake of the party. Both the Congress and the BSP can conspire to destroy the SP," he says.

The Congress, of course, is the party the SP supports at the Centre. But the relationship between the two parties is an open question, maintains Akhilesh. "My father gave six months to the new government at the Centre, of which three months are over." He believes the SP's poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls was because it took its eye off the Congress. "We wanted to defeat the BSP and BJP, our candidate selection and campaign didn't target the Congress."

In Firozabad, the Congress has fielded Raj Babbar against Dimple; Babbar was earlier in the SP. Incidentally, even the BSP's candidate, SP Singh Baghel, has recently crossed over from the SP. By all accounts, the BJP candidate isn't widely seen to be in the fight.

But finally, what also counted in the decision to field Dimple in Firozabad was the fact that there were as many as 16 claimants for the ticket, says Akhilesh. He lists out the prominent names—LJP's Ram Vilas Paswan, who had struck a loose alliance with the SP in the last Lok Sabha polls and who failed to make it to the Lok Sabha from Bihar; Kalyan Singh's son Rajbir since the constituency has a strong Lodh presence; and Ramji Lal Suman, SP's senior Dalit leader and former MP from the erstwhile reserved constituency before delimitation. The tug-of-war, he suggests, could have torn the party.

"It was the decision of senior party leaders that I should contest," says Dimple. "But I agreed with his (Mulayam Singh Yadav's) reservations on both counts," she says.

The initiation may have come too soon, but she doesn't deny that politics was on the cards. "I had thought maybe after 10 years or so, when the children are grown up," she now says. Dimple and Akhilesh have three children, three-year-old twins Arjun and Tina, and seven-year-old Aditi. "My older daughter came with me when I filed my nomination papers. After she saw my picture in the papers the next day, she insists I should pick her up from school so her friends can see me."

She had no interest in politics while she was growing up, says Dimple; she was "neither pro, nor against". Her father was in the army and she moved homes from Pune, where she was born, to places like Andaman and Nicobar, Bathinda, Bareilly and Lucknow, picking up a passion for horse-riding in the cantonment school, finishing her B.Com, and hoping to "join a company".

Life changed after her "love-cum-arranged" marriage in November 1999. "I haven't done horse-riding after marriage," she says. But even though she was now part of a political family, till now, politics remained at a remove.

Dimple has never been to Parliament and she has never accompanied her husband on his election campaigns. "I didn't ask her to. I thought she should have her own life. At that time, her responsibility was different—my packed lunch, for instance," says Akhilesh, only half jokingly.

Tom Cruise is still her favourite movie star but recently, perhaps in preparation for her new role, Dimple has started reading a biography of (Ram Manohar) "Lohiaji", whom she counts, along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, among the two politicians she admires most outside her family.

She first confronted caste, Dimple recalls, when she entered an inter-caste marriage—she is a Thakur. "No, I don't know the caste equations in my constituency, I'll have to learn," she says. "But I know everything, and so does he," says Akhilesh, gesturing to Hari Om Yadav, a former MLA and a relative, who also travels in the bus for part of the campaign on Day 1.

"When Dimple works in the constituency, she will come to know these things," says Akhilesh. "Politics cannot be separated from the social set-up. I too had to learn. If there is a fight, now I know who could have done the injustice."

***

It is Day 2 of Dimple Yadav's roadshow. She is now on her own, as Akhilesh campaigns separately in Firozabad city. She will cover the rural interiors of Jasrana Vidhan Sabha constituency. A small group in the bus attempts to take over from where Akhilesh left in his wife's campaign the previous day, but they cannot match his exuberance, his banter or his natural air of command.

At least four of the five members of this group that rallies protectively around Dimple have something in common—each one is part of Mulayam Singh Yadav's extended family and also holds, or has held, a key political-party position. "Samajwadis are all one big family," laughs Ramvir Singh Yadav, ex-MLA, Dimple's uncle by marriage, and the only male in the group.

The routine remains almost exactly the same as that of Day 1, except that on Day 2, it is Meera Yadav, Ramvir's wife and pramukh of Eka block, who goes up in the lift with Dimple and makes a brief introductory speech atop the bus before Dimple takes the microphone.

As the convoy leaves the small Yadav-dominated village of Banvir Kurkuri, a group of villagers discusses the candidature of Dimple Yadav.

"If Netaji had not fielded Dimple, Yadav would have stood against Yadav," explains Ramvir Yadav, a farmer. "We will vote for the daughter-in-law because the party must go on," says Sunil Yadav. "In any case, Yadavs cannot go to any other party or their vote will lose its value," points out Arun Yadav.

But the women in the group disagree. "This is where the men all go wrong, they vote on caste lines. Dimple must ask for our vote only if she can give us clean drinking water," says Kusuma Yadav, the most vocal of them all, as the other women nod in agreement.

In Banvir Kurkuri, the water tastes so vile that villagers must bring drinking water for themselves as well for their animals from a neighbouring village. The problem has remained acute even as power changed hands in Lucknow; the SP government did nothing to solve Banvir Kurkuri's water problem during its tenure.

Kusuma's vehemence appears to persuade at least one of the men in the group. "This is definitely the last time," says Ranbir Singh Yadav. "You can write this down. After this election, we will only give our vote to those who work for us."

Black or White!

2009-10-17T17:14:00.001+05:30

"Inshallah"

2009-10-12T19:29:00.002+05:30

One good molecule in my Portfolio is that I went to University at " Aligarh". And even today, years hence from that time, I still feel and strongly feel that my affinity towards times, such times is intense. Time itself is a paper-boat, that takes you down calm rivulets into rugged waters and then settles all scores. many times when I set back into a life span most splendor, I just consider that I was a paper-boat written lucky on the butt. Everything Islam, call it muslim- to me meant and means is a fraction of my life that does the revisit function was a boat that I stepped in while at the University. and with the passage of time, It stayed on, It strayed on, like as though I was glued with its fate. Somehow or the other, it has become a part of my life, a revisit always. And in the now as I am, Any day I see its signature, I can always just feel so wonderful. Somewhere in a consciously inebriated existence, I feel wholesome when I quietly say " Inshallah".

Immersion, Where all Sins sink!!!

2009-09-28T19:54:00.001+05:30

Durga Visarjan by the Yamuna in Delhi, India's Capital.

Kargil " A Decade" - The Thin Red Line

2009-07-20T19:17:00.005+05:30

A decade after they boomed non-stop to evict Pakistani intruders from the heights of Drass and Kargil, the Army’s Bofors artillery guns lie silent in Apatti, a small village that overlooks the strategic town of Kargil.
Located on a gentle slope that can easily find a place in any tourism magazine, the guns have not fired since 2003, when a ceasefire agreement was reached between India and Pakistan. However, the deceptive calmness is broken as men and officers constantly calibrate and feed the destructive machines with the latest positions that the “enemy” has taken up across the border. The closest being a mere seven kilometres away.

All along the Line of Control in the Batalik-Kargil-Drass sector, both Indian and Pakistani troops are manning impossible border posts, several of them located at heights of over 18,000 feet that remain snowbound throughout the year. In 1999, India lost 533 soldiers and officers from the Indian Army to regain a series of strategic peaks in the area that had been occupied by Pakistani troops and were threatening to cut off the strategic NH 1 D highway between Drass and Kargil.

A decade later, the Army is stretched across the entire border with men and supplies on virtually every peak. Not unlike the Siachen Glacier, the highest battleground in the world, soldiers virtually remain cut off from the rest of the world more than six months at a stretch on tiny posts along the border.

The region, earlier looked after by a Brigade-sized force (4,000 troops), has now five times the number. The area now has four Brigades—close to 20,000 troops— that now cover every inch of the border. This includes an artillery brigade that has heavy guns pointed at vital Pakistani installations across the border. For an Army that is struggling with an acute officer’s shortage of close to 12,000, the sector is a huge drain to resources.

Things have improved since the last decade when troops went up the heights, braving enemy fire, in little more than regular combat fatigues. The Army has connected most base points with roads, special rations and clothing have been given to soldiers and a strict induction training protocol is followed.

“Post-Kargil a number of improvements have taken place, not only in terms of army deployment but also in roads and trails that have come up. Mobility has improved, including over snow. Our survival capacity has gone up many fold,” says Maj Gen Suresh Khajuria, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Kumbathang based 8 Mountain Division that is in charge of the region.

Even more important, troops says, is the presence of DTH television sets that have been set up at all forward posts. The Army has bought thousands of the television systems.

In terms of firepower and reconnaissance capabilities too, the Army has a lot of additional resources. The area now has anti-material rifles of South African orgin that can take out enemy bunkers. Artillery guns, which were the surprise heroes of the Kargil war, have been brought in large numbers. However, most of them are of the ’60s or ’70s vintage. While the Army says it has an adequate number of guns, the delay in its artillery modernisation plans has prevented the purchase of modern guns.

In terms of reconnaissance and intelligence gathering—the failure of which in 1999 led to Pakistani intruders setting base several kilometres inside India—the Army has seen a huge boost. Besides all-weather, day-night satellite coverage by the latest Synthetic Aperture Radar, the Army has access to a small fleet of Heron and Searcher UAVs from Israel that keeps a constant eye on the border.

The Army has also improved its defensive positions along the border. A model post that is coming up on the border, as a pilot project, has well dug-in defences, all round protection from enemy shelling and gunfire and can be used in all weather conditions. A handful of troops at such a post, officers say, can hold off an enemy several times their size due to the unique design.
BUT despite the massive inflow of weapons and defence systems in the area, the tension has quadrupled. Any small activity on the border triggers a massive response from the Indian side. A small surveillance report of a possible intrusion in Drass last week, for example, set off the Army on a full-scale alert. The name ‘Kargil’, officers say, ensures that there is no possibility of complacenceAll changes withstanding, a few basic things on ground are still to change. The strategic Kargil-Drass road, which Pakistani intruders were trying to cut off in 1999 in order to choke supplies to Siachen, is still under threat of artillery fire.
Large sections of the highway are under direct observation of Pakistani soldiers. Here is where the ghosts of Kargil come out to haunt the Army. The dominating Point 5353 in Drass, which overlooks the Tiger Hill, is an Indian position that is still occupied by Pakistan. While the Pakistanis lay claim to the position, the point lies fully within Indian on Army maps but is occupied by crack Pakistan Army troops. So important is the point, which overlooks a large section of the road near Drass town, that Pakistan has built a permanent road right up to it for supplying troops.

The Pakistani positions along the highway are not so many as to bother the Indian Army—officers say they can be neutralised easily if war breaks out—but they are a grim reminder of war. The only way out to ensure continuous supplies to Siachen is to build an all-weather road through Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh. However, work on the Rohtang tunnel is behind schedule and not expected to completed before at least seven years.

Increased capabilities and comforts apart, the message at Kargil 10 years after the war is clear—Pakistan has managed to force India into committing a large force in an area that was earlier practically uninhabited. And, with Indian soldiers outnumbering their Pakistani counterparts 1:3 along the entire border, the strain of manning an impossible frontier is much greater for India.

Text by Manu Pubby/ Indian Express Photographs: Tashi Tobgyal/Indian Express

Into Oblivion

2009-06-25T19:41:00.002+05:30

The fleet of stairs that leads down to a cave where Kabir Das is said to have meditated, Uttar Pradesh, India

Radar Control

2009-06-22T19:22:00.002+05:30

Indian Air Force personnels witness the IL-76 aircraft mounted with an AWAC (Airborne Warning and Control System) after its induction into the Air Force in May 2009.

Portraits from India's Midland

2009-04-15T21:17:00.004+05:30

In the midst of the national Ballot, an insight into India's midland, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. where Life is a quaint potrait. Simplicity underlined by a misunderstood mystery.

The Dark Night

2009-04-03T17:57:00.004+05:30

In New Delhi, Sundown brings the dark to its most cruel aura in many corners. These are Images where abduction and Murder take place. One night, I wanted to feel the dark itself. Driving thru wasn't scary but disturbing. These are reaches where Soumya Vishwanathan, a television producer, Jigisha , a Call centre manager were murdered, which created a sensation of sorts. But in a way, these stretches still remain in the dark, waiting another episode.

Tibet on a Roller Coaster

2009-03-27T14:02:00.006+05:30

A young girl at the backstage prepares for her show during the first day of the "Tibet Week" in New Delhi on Thursday. Photograph by Tashi Tobgyal

50 years of exile is a longtime. An expanse within which even memories would fade to nothingness. Its a stretch which can heal the world and let history be colorful. For the Tibetans, its been two generations of labor, of restrain and optimism. In exile and everywhere,with much impression they have been successful in preserving the varied shades and shadows of the tibetan culture. To celebrate this, a five day "Tibet Week" festival is on in New Delhi. Its an exhibition unlike of military might but surely of what Human endurance and karma can undergo. At the same time, on the other face of it all, things have illustratively come to a standstill for Tibet. Over the past year or so, routines have set to be ubiquitous. Compassionate protests, Up roaring International supporters and then the very incomplete silence from across the Yangtze. Things seemed to have come to a lull except for the fact that casualty figures within Tibet show ascent and turmoil innumerable. All this packaged into recession has just made things all around a slowdown theater. So till then why not relish the week of a dreaming Lhasa.

HARAPPA RETURNS

2009-03-10T19:57:00.005+05:30

Text by Shweta Dutta: Indian Express Photographs: Tashi Tobgyal

Archaeologists from three universities have been at work since the beginning of this year in Haryana’s Sonepat district, digging for what may turn out to be one of the most significant breakthroughs in the study of South Asian protohistory.

Evidence of 65 burials has been unearthed over the past month at the site in Farmana, 60-odd km from Delhi, making it the largest Harappan burial site found in India so far.

The digging is in its third season now. Evidence of seven burials was discovered last year, and should the work continue into another season, experts say Farmana may throw up evidence of a larger number of burials than even Harappa, the Pakistani Punjab town from which the civilisation of the Indus valley (c. 3300 BC-1300 BC) takes its name.

The discovery holds enormous potential, said Prof Vasant Shinde of the Department of Archaeology, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, the director of the excavation project.

“With a larger sample size it will be easier for scholars to determine the composition of the population, the prevalent customs, whether they were indigenous or migrated from outside,” Prof Shinde said.

A century-and-a-half after the great civilization was discovered, historians still have no definite answers to a number of questions, including where the Harappans came from, and why their highly sophisticated culture suddenly died out.

“For the first time, we will conduct scientific tests on skeletal remains, pottery and botanical evidence found at the site, to try to understand multiple aspects of Harappan life,” Prof Shinde said.

“DNA tests on bones might conclusively end the debate on whether the Harappans were an indigenous population or migrants. Trace element analyses will help us chart their diet ¿ a higher percentage of zinc will prove they were non-vegetarians; larger traces of magnesium will suggest a vegetarian diet.”

Most chemical, botanical and physical anthropology tests will be done at Deccan College. But the more sophisticated and expensive DNA and dating tests will be conducted in Japan. The Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto and Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, are collaborating with Deccan College under the aegis of the Archaeological Survey of India for the project.

The team also plans to carry out coring tests in lakes around the Farmana site to ascertain climatic conditions prevalent at the time of the Harappan civilization, and investigate whether the decline of the culture followed catastrophic climate change.

The burials found so far are expected to be from around 4509 BP (before present), or 2600-2200 BC. “There are three different levels of burials and at some places skeletal remains have been found one above the other. All the graves are rectangular ¿ different from other Harappan burials sites, which usually have oblong graves,” Prof Shinde said.

The site shows evidence of primary (full skeleton), secondary (only some bones) and symbolic burials, with most graves oriented northwest-southeast, though there are some with north-south and northeast-southwest orientations as well. The variations in burial orientation suggests different groups in the same community, Prof Shinde said. The differences in the numbers of pots as offerings suggest social and economic differences within the community. Also in evidence are significant signs of regional variations that contest the idea of a homogenous Harappan culture.

Prof Upinder Singh of the Department of History, Delhi University, expressed enthusiasm about the project. “If such a large Harappan cemetery has been discovered, I am sure it is going to be of significant help in historical research,” she said. “The entire fraternity of research scholars and academics would be looking forward to knowing about the findings at the site".

Moves!

2008-12-25T13:46:00.002+05:30

A Northeastern Dancer rehearses her moves before a performance, New Delhi.

Postcard from Karachi

2008-12-05T23:30:00.002+05:30

A Lone Ice Cream Vendor awaits customers at the Karachi Beach at Twilight.

The Maulana Express

2008-11-06T21:09:00.006+05:30

Three thousand Muslim Clerics from Northern India started a journey by train today.
The Train is christened 'Sheikh Ul Hind Express'. This is a journey of more than a thousand miles which started from a little known town, Deoband in Uttar Pradesh. The culmination of this journey shall be in Hyderabad, where another three thousand from other parts of the country shall join core.The purpose of this odyssey is to relay through the journey the word of Allah and towards spreading the message of national integration. With sectarian chaos damaging much of the community's image, the clerics feel this journey shall give others an insight into Indian muslims and try and erase misconceptions that the community is aggressive and violent.
Photographs are some insight into the journey from Deoband to Delhi.

Bhind Balluchi

2008-11-01T01:26:00.002+05:30

In Bhind district which shares a direct border with the Chambal, Gun and ammo acquisition has now become a fashion. Claims are that, people sell of land to buy guns. Three guns can be attached to a license and country made and unregistered ammos are even more in number. A very poor and underdeveloped region of Madhya Pradesh, Bhind has probably one of the poorest infrastructure in the country.
The total number of registered guns in the region is at a whooping 23000 while much more is unaccounted for. In Bhind township itself there are more than seventy gun stores. The Images:
View Bhind and people flock to the Police station to submit their registered firearms before elections take place in the state.

Station Balsawa

2008-10-26T02:58:00.004+05:30

In the northern border of Delhi with Haryana is Balsawa. Ugly, dilapidated, ignored and desolate, this little but chaotic part of the city by the northern Yamuna is a congregation of mainly migrants both hindus and muslims, living in harmony and goodwill. One of Layman brothers last donations has been going into constructing some houses for the people here. Interestingly, in the photograph, the left part of the dwelling is a mosque, while the rest is a hindu home. Something thats uncommon in a way.

Of Flights and Fantasies

2008-10-22T21:33:00.003+05:30

The Shadow Circus

2008-10-20T03:03:00.002+05:30

A serpentine column of India’s poorest of the poor is moving across cities, determined to reclaim their land taken over in the name of the country’s heady economic boom.
About 25,000 landless farmers, many of them using plastic bags for shoes, marched into New Delhi, last October, thinking sure that their month long hike from poverty stricken pockets of central India, would move the Key bearers to think and rethink of their plight. A year later, the story is still incomplete.

The Day of Kali

2008-10-11T23:25:00.003+05:30

A Durga idol being immersed into the Yamuna in Delhi this Dusshera.

The Kabul Express

2008-10-04T19:36:00.002+05:30

Turmoil in Afghanistan over more than two decades have displaced many. An estimated 2,00,000 now are resident in India. Some arrived two decades ago and delved into the Indian mainstream, while others reached a few months earlier.But the traffic has no end.Near to all have been having hardships in their livelihood. While most cases are of economic disparity, others relate to personal, medical and psychological agony.
I have been hearing their stories for a few days. I hope I shall be lending my ears to them for longer. Images now are a few but I hope soon, I shall be able to present a total Image. These images are of families who have been in India for sometime now. While some have converted to Christianity, Hindu Sikhs from Kabul still maintain their identity and live in a Sikh territoy in West Delhi.

Untitled!

2008-09-25T22:21:00.002+05:30

Shafqat Amanat Ali, just rang a normal Sufi and Pakistani singing bell in my mind. On assignment some days ago, I just went wrong of assuming to witnessing some dead concert. But Alas, I was proven critically wrong.
In the photo Shafqat and his boys perform at the Siri fort Auditorium in New Delhi, India.

Sans Measurement!

2008-07-15T19:40:00.003+05:30

A day, when I was once again educated of how small I am. Of How measurement is nothing but imagination.And of how Human kind can strive with imagination and measure beyond the nothing.
The photograph was taken in New Delhi, on a cloudy Monday afternoon. The flight in the picture was an absolute chance that rose up from the dark.

God of Small Beings !!

2008-07-10T19:48:00.002+05:30

While on assignment at the Tibetans Childrens Village in Dharamsala, I came accross this group of children on the Barbers day. After quite a few shots I thought, this one was decent enough to be shared. Tibetan children, majority of them undergo primary to high school education at this schooling unit before University. With Shoe string budget for everything, the two thousand members of the school still have performed impressively through years. Today, a selected football team from the school leaves for Gotenberg in Sweden to play the Gothic cup.
Indeed, Its God of Small beings.

Time to Go 377...

2008-06-30T00:11:00.002+05:30

Today, India witnessed the first Gay and lesbian parade organized in the capital. Under cloudy skies, the event was a successful one. Surprisingly, the rascals of moral policing were absent today. In the picture, two gay men hidden behind masks during the event.