Almost Pickpocketed...

Prodded by a friend and inspired by the talk of Raghu Rai I decided that today I shall be trying to capture moments from the energetic, enthralling, drunk, procession of Ganesha enthusiasts, celebrating this 100 odd year old festival.

So me and Dhiraj set out, after a lot of "should we go or no need to go" talk. Obstacles galore, we were swathed by lashing rains, and my desire to shoot died down so I stood at a random shop window next to a mannequin, two men came by and stood there as if like mannequins. I wondered is this the way we Indians are, always waiting for the rains to pass by. Taking the thought further, are we waiting on the world to change. I would never wait if it is raining, I have headed out to the cost of twice my camera getting repaired due to moisture. People can call me careless, but I can't help it, that is just plain me. So I headed out immediately, I could not imagine how I would have looked, a pot bellied mannequin. lol.

So I walked ahead came across a very energetic young crowd dancing for their Ganesha and I was enjoying shooting the energy they had, till I reached the spot where the epicenter of all the energy was, the LalBaugh cha Raja. ( to know more about this idol pls google) I was below in the throngs, and I looked around for my co-patriot photographers and I saw Ritesh Uttamchandani on the bridge. So excited I put my hand in my pocket to fish out my phone to give him a call and guess what! I find another hand there receding, I gripped the hand like a leech and swung around and luckily my elbow caught his chin and out fell my phone from his hand. If Gandhiji was alive today he would have found his reflection in me in terms of physically hurting someone, I can never get myself around to hit someone so I was glad it happened automatically. But I was so angry that I shouted my guts out and local people around me hit him a bit. In all the pandemonium I never shot one image of the guy, that would have been a cool shot to have. Anyway there were cops and they took him away. So I decided I would just leave from there, as there were a million people around and someone else can pick my pocket too and guess what I feel another hand in my pocket on my way out, this time I literally pulled him by his collar and marched him down to the cop without one word, and the cop put him in a standing van. As I was leaving from there I noticed a good 8 to 9 stalwarts sitting inside..well a sense of false security came over me, I am not the only one being robbed I guess. I felt safe again....lol.

Please enjoy the pictures below..I tried to catch the action in my images, I am so sad I could not record the sounds for you...well next time for sure.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Andhakaar... Blackness

Enter Bihar and you are thrown viciously back in time, I would not say time stands still, I would rather say time is moving backwards. The state that hosted the enlightened Buddha, groomed princesses like mother Sita and was the center of culture and learning with institutions like Nalanda today boasts of corruption, poverty and ignorance. Electricity which is seen sparingly is a luxury of the rich and the shopkeepers. This flood as the media is projecting is much bigger than what it seems, it is annihilation, a young restless river changing course and all man made efforts failing to stop it. It has swiped away thousands, stranded lakhs, displaced millions and there is no going back on this one, the waters will not recede, the river flows where their children planned and hoped for a future. All the 30 lakh people are refugees in their own land. The story is not about death the story here is not about property loss, the story here is about ignorant, simple, poor people who hardly had anything at all before have nothing today, absolutely nothing, blackness, nothingness. My effort here is to recreate this blackness, this nothingness, and I hope I can achieve that.

With this frame of mind I headed out for the past few days and I thought I was doing a great job till mother nature thought let me rattle this guy up, make him reconsider his allegations, or rethink where he actually stands and she played her trick, she bought in the darkness.

Day 3 and I headed out in the afternoon with my friend Dhiraj for shooting relief camps, medical facilities etc around the rescue area, we reached the spot and there was bad light to shoot, so loitering around we reached where the rescue efforts were going on. The army was here, navy expert divers were here and everything was in full swing. it was around 4:30 pm and generally no one goes out so late as the villages are around two hours ride, but one army boat was heading out and he knew the way. The journey was tumultuos right from the begining, we crashed in to a few trees, a few submerged houses, got stuck in the mud, I got down in the river and pushed once. All this delayed us further and we reached the village in fading light. We were hurrying, and the army were new to the area and they had no clue of the route and the twilight set in. The boat had the capacity of twenty five and there were hundreds lined up walking towards us. We promised them we would be there first thing tomorrow and headed out quickly.

And then the lesson began, it began to get dark, it was a new moon, the light very faint, the boat was misbehaving as always, with so many women and children onboard I was a bit skeptical about our making it safely in some light. One local man was guiding us, he had lost his father and his mother was recovering from injuries, his wife and children were onboard this boat. We were taking right and left till we landed on a road, we heard swift current somewhere nearby, we had no torch to navigate. The cold air, the rumbling of the angry current and the starry darkness leaves you numb, you rethink your whole life, the basest fears resurface and all your priorities take a backseat. You are set in darkness, like everything around, you have nothing. Then the army guys get into rescue mode, the send sos signals, we blare the horn, lights are flashed from the home base, we follow the light home, there are boats sent towards us. After travelling a while we reach the source of the light only to find another boat stranded there equally cluless of where to go. I was so angry with I dont know what!! and then the process repeated, the sos sent again, now we had torches from the other boat, torches were flashed skyward. i learnt a lot of army tricks on this ride and then we decided to take the road through villages as no one was ready to face the current.

As we made our way through a village, let me picture the scene... a boat with rescued families and journalists, pulled by army personell wading in the water, visibility is next to zero. Night sounds of water gushing and forest like noises, swishing of the soldiers feet and ocassional moan of the women chanting...ganga mayya, kosi mayya... and your own thoughts haunting you with the worst probable scearios. I was devastated. The progress was snail pace but we were approaching the light slowly. Then we stuck gold!!!

In between nowhere, miles away in a flooded village there were villagers having dinner. Everyone was shocked, and one of them actually a boatman knew the way back around the bushes. Then we were waiting in the darkness for the next 45 minutes and I was getting impatient, time was around eight in the night around 4 hours in the water already. So I called out and one local guy walked over, so i asked him what was the delay about, he casually replies, oh the guy who knows the route has just sat for dinner, he was eating for 45 minutes. fifty people's life was in that guys hands if he can take us in a safe route where the current is low, and he is having dinner!! I cannot understand some people.

So finally we headed out and now the sirens got louder, the light got bigger, radio contact was established and we finally reached the source of the light, a rescue boat of jawans with a searchlight on board and they navigated us back safely. The point when i saw the light and the boat will be unforgettable, a moment of reckoning, an end and begining of all the wishes and death scenarios my mind had created for me, an assurance of life and dreams of the future, and love for the mere fact that I exist.

Nature in its own way proved there is an end to the darkness and we just need to find the way, help will come from unexpected quarters. (who expected to find a villger there)

I have tried to recreate this experience in photographs....hope I did some justice to the experience.