White Desert Story - The Widows

"No man at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied" - Maurya, Riders To The Sea.

White Desert Story - Metamorphosis!

"I didn't know who He was or what He was until I saw him transformed into a Blue Butterfly and coming out from one of those windows.

Was there any proof to the lies ? Well the Blue's of one of those windows lying quite and strange brings a certain amount of truth to an otherwise abandoned tales of Metamorphosis..."

White Desert Story - The Nomads

“If this were so; if the desert were 'home'; if our instincts were forged in the desert; to survive the rigours of the desert - then it is easier to understand why greener pastures pall on us; why possessions exhaust us, and why Pascal's imaginary man found his comfortable lodgings a prison.” 
                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                              ― Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines.

White Desert Story - The Childhood

“and when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.” 

White Desert Story - In search of Water

“She is free in her wildness, she is a wanderess, a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. 'Time' for her isn’t something to fight against. Her life flows clean, with passion, like fresh water.” 

White Desert Story - The Widows

White Desert Story

White Desert Story - Dada Veer Jaan

White Desert Story - The Moonlit Night

White Desert Story

White Desert Story

White Desert Story - The Widows

This series celebrates the scent and aroma of womanhood in the White Desert. I was going through the images and what made me feel so unique and exciting is that these women are unconventional to the traditional sense of "Widows" in the Indian context.

If you see them carefully you would find in them a reflection of "Maurya", the celebratory  protagonist of J.S.Synge's Riders To The Sea. Like Maurya these women must have weathered all storms of life and death and yet there is a stark and yet poignant grace in their characters.

There's a colour in them which defies the barrenness of the landscape. Young and old alike they share a bond. A bond in their abject fate and yet together they stand and face life.

Actually I saw them celebrating life in their very own manner with grit and determination written all over their faces. There's an unique and unimaginable sense of melancholia in them which is so distinctive than the traditional way a widow is seen in India. And I think it has lot to do with the terrain of White Desert.

As if they are the Riders of this White Desert!

White Desert Story - The Man and his Animal

Coming back to White Desert or the great Rann of Kaachch is always an amazing experience.Within the vastness of the white waves of the salt desert makes one feel so lost within the heart of one's own loneliness.

A journey through the waves of one's very own existence and trying to become a part of the greatest stories of mankind and it's relationship with the Nature.

Equally an humbling experience to realise how the harshness and expanse of the Nature bestowing humans with a certain colour and life through its offering of its abundance. An unimaginable and unified relationship between the Nature, Man and Animals! 

But this time the great Rann had a great surprise waiting for me. Monsoon made its prehistoric form come alive. Instead of dry arid salt desert I could see the desert filled up with sea and making the salt desert come alive with its unique and exciting textures. 

And there I stand amidst the sea of salt waving to me and telling me the unheard stories from the ancient time. From the time when the great Rann was a part of the great Indian Ocean and helped the civilisation spruce up from no where! 

The Rann is out there and calling! Are you listening? 

White Desert Story - The Boatyard

Mandvi is a city and a Municipality in Kachchh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was once a major port of the region and summer retreat for Maharao (king) of the Kachchh. The old city had a surrounding fort, and remains of the fort wall can still be seen to this day. The city has a more than four hundred year old ship building industry that still manufactures small ships.

• As per chronicles of Kutch Gurjar Kshatriyas - many clans of their community, especially, Gohil, Bhatti, Jethwa, Solanki, Rathod clans & also Visavaria Brahmins shifted to Mandvi in between 15th to 16th Century AD, from Dhaneti.
• The establishment of the town dates back to the late 16th century (1581 AD) and is attributed to the first Jadeja ruler of Kachchh, Rao Khengarji I.
• In 18th century, the Mandvi merchants collectively owned a fleet of 400 vessels trading with East Africa, Malabar coast and the Persian Gulf. In the early 19th century, it was a major port of entry for the inland trade with Malwa, Marwar and Sindh.
• Mandvi was at the junction of two famous trade routes the maritime spice trade-route and the desert camel caravan route, acting as an important trade center.
• Mandvi was originally a fortified town having a fort wall of about 8 m high and 1.2 m wide stone masonry. The fort had several gateways and 25 bastions; but at present, most of the wall has disappeared. The bastion on the southwest is largest and acts as a lighthouse.
• In the heyday of maritime trade, before the arrival of steamboats, Mandvi was a rich and prosperous town, earning four times more revenue from export than import. It was a profit-making center of the Kutch state, surpassing the capital city of Bhuj in terms of wealth. Dr.Manubhai Pandhi, a local social leader, recorded shipbuilding art and collected old documents which is treasured now in Prince of Wales Museum (www.bombaymuseum.org ) in Mumbai.
• As most of the top ports of India were controlled by Europeans, especially the Portuguese, even the Mughals held the Maharaos of Kachchh in high esteem, as they needed the port of Mandvi for exports, imports and also for pilgrimages to Mecca.
• In decade of 1960, the famous Dabeli is said to be have been invented here by Keshavji Gabha Chudasama (Malam