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.