A Photographer's Mind - Stillness of a Time

"You’ve mentioned a couple of times that Italo Calvino is one of your most beloved writers. In The Adventure of a Photographer, the main character says that ‘in order to really live, you must photograph as much as you can… you must either live in the most photographable way possible, or else consider photographable every moment of your life. The first course leads to stupidity, the second to madness’. Do you think photography is inherently futile?"

Dayanita Singh - That’s a beautiful quote, but I think it only makes sense if you think of photography as an end in itself. But if you’re not interested in photography as pure documentation, it frees you to do so much more. My work, Time Measures, is titled after the name of one of Sebald’s poems.

I photographed these bundles of documents wrapped in fabric that I found in an archive in India. The viewer never finds out what the documents are or what they look like, and I never did unwrap them either.Does this then mean that the photographs are pointless?

Whenever people ask me how to become a good photographer, I tell them to read, jump into the world of literature. I hand them a copy of Austerlitz by Sebald, and tell them to come back to me when they’re done with it. Nobody ever comes back to me because that’s not the kind of photography they want to do.

They’re interested in instant gratification, going around with their big cameras, snapping photographs quickly without thinking. Can we raise the bar higher?

- An excerpt from an interview of famed Photographer Dayanita Singh with Apollo Magazine.

Character of a House - Himalaya Calling

"She stretched out against the wall and kissed it. "Glad to see you, too," she whispered, and pressed her cheek against the old rough surface. It almost felt like it hugged her back.

"Dude, it's a house," I said from behind her. "Hug somebody who cares..."

(Ukhimath, Uttarakhand)

हसरते... Desires...

"बड़ी हसरत है पूरा एक दिन इक बार मैं अपने लिए रख लूँ
तुम्हारे साथ पूरा एक दिन बस खर्च करने की तमन्ना है !"


I have that strange desire, to keep an entire day hidden from everyone, and keep it to myself ,
and spend it miserly, the way near empty tap does, in painting the moles, on your blue white chest ...



(Sarkhez Roza, Ahmadabad, Gujarat. India).

Short story of a City - Ahmadabad

याद पिया की आये ।


"याद पिया की आये
यह दुःख सहा ना जाये- हाये राम

बाली उमरिया सूनी रे सजरिया
जोबन बीतो जाये- हाये राम

बैरी कोयलिया कूक सुनावे 
मुझ बिरहन का जियरा जलावे 
हाँ पी बिन रैन जगाये – हाये राम"



Oh memories of my beloved haunt me!
Alas, I cannot bear this grief!

I am yet young but my bed is forlorn ;
my youth is passing by – Alas!

The cuckoo, my enemy, coos his song.
Bereft of my beloved, my heart burns.
Yes – I am kept awake all night without my beloved!
Alas!




Background! 

This is a Thumri but in essence, it is a lament.The song is set to the Hindustani raag Bhinna Shadaj.

Written by the great Maestro Bade Ghulam Ali Khan on the death of his wife who passed in 1932, it has certainly stood the test of time! This is in the Punjabi Thumri style, which is faster paced and sounds generally ‘lighter’ than traditional Thumris.

Translated with a bit of artistic license, he says ‘Oh memories of my beloved haunt me! Alas, I cannot bear this grief!’. He was only 30 when his wife died. ‘I am yet young but my bed is forlorn! Alas, my youth is passing by!’.

Was he crying for himself or his wife? A bit of both, I think. ‘Bereft of my wife, my heart burns’ he says.

I have given a faint try for Transliterating this song and used it over here because the image was composed thinking about this great moment and song. 



(Street Walk in Old City of Ahmadabad with Cine Prime Lens DS 50mm, 1.5T. )

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..."

Short Story of a City - Bhadra Fort, Ahmadabad.

Ahmedabad gets its name from king Ahmed Shah Abdali who ruled and built this formidable city in the 14 the century. Ahmedabad gets its name from king Ahmed Shah Badshah who ruled and built this formidable city in the 14 the century. Ahmedabad is also known by a variety of other names like: Rajnagar, Shrinagar, Amdavad , Ahimdavad, Ahamdavad, Ahamadpur, Akmipur and Ahmednagar. Legendary historian Todalmal and celebrated musician Tansen who were two intellectuals from Badshah Akbar’s court, were actually from Ahmedabad. 

Short Story of a City - Bicycle Thieves

When i saw the Bicycle, waiting in a corner of a busy street of the old city of Ahmadabad, i couldn't help but remember Antonio Ricci. 

Do you remember Antonio and his beloved Bicycle? How happy he was riding throughout the city of Rome and putting up colourful posters around the city? 

And why me? Like Antonio, i was,too, already thrown out of a job from the company i help founded.

And like Antonio i was happy too founding the pillars of my dreams and build a company painstakingly until one fine day i was asked to quit. And with that my love for bicycling into work remained a distant dream. 

And to top it my bicycle was stolen too, the very next day from the company premises. My beloved bicycle. 

And after days when i saw this bicycle, i was wondering what would have been the fate of the owner of this seemingly old worn out bicycle? 

And seeing the bicycle alone for so many hours made me feel so sad for Antonio and his child. Maybe i was sad for me and my boy Ishaan too. He wanted to drive with me in my lost bicycle. 

Maybe someday i will buy it again and make my boy ride with me. And in the mean time if you happen to pass by those streets of Ahmadabad do try to look for that bicycle. It must be there waiting, lonely and sad. Maybe waiting for its owner to take it back to where it belong. Maybe...

P.S Even if you are not visiting Ahmadabad, but do try to see Antonio Ricci in "The Bicycle Thieves", a seminal work of neo-realism film would have fatally undermined Vittorio De Sica's intention of presenting an authentic snapshot of everyday life in postwar Italy.