A thousand stitches…
A thousand stitches ran across the mounts and valleys of the lazy golden plateau lying under the fingers of tailor Chandran Pillai. His dull tailoring shop brightened up in soon to be departing temple frills hanging above the table. The village men behind me cheered him, ‘ah! she found the handsomest man in the village …
Keys to Aligarh
On a misty wintry Januray evening of 2008, I ventured out of Aligarh Muslim University to see the famous lock and key makers of the country in a drowsy jeep, which took us through the alley ways of the suburbs, vehemently horning through burqa clad crowd shopping through the local festival. I walked through the slushy lanes …
One man, many walls..
If walls and shutters of Kerala could speak their mind, its undisputably this man, Mohanlal. Times are changing, flex boards are fast invading our towns to replace painted faces of our favourite movie stars. Even before you begin to enjoy their imperfections and faded tones, they’ll be gone forever. Before they do, here is an attempt to document the painted …
Brahmapuri blues and dots of red!
Alleyways of the blue city, Jodhpur! Its probably the oldest part of the city painted in blue with a magnificient view to Mehrangarh Fort . The area is called Brahmapuri since brahmins inhabited here traditionally. Most of the houses here have already survived some 22 generations and still counting! Here are some dots of red …
Sea side views!
Onlooking guard, perching boat, praying Jesus, rocky shores.. a relaxed day at the beach with friends!
The red-yellow bus!
Kerala transport bus aka KSRTC bus gave a hit on my scooter the other day just to remind me of their pictures I had taken earlier! Yes, the hit also triggered me to jot some of my love-hate relation with KSRTC not in any particular order. I’m sure the story is not just mine but …
The Lighthouse book
A beautiful book compiled by Lighthouse and the Scottish Government on contemporary architecture and here goes a photograph from my CDS collection.
The ginger warehouse
At the heart of spice trade in Cochin, there runs an exclusive Ginger export house run by the Gujarathi merchants. A historical piece of building that reminds us of a prosperous era in trade! Local women workers clean, strain and dry ginger at the warehouse for a daily wage of 60 to 75 rupees – …
Automatic Langar!
Langar is the most amazing thing I have experienced in Punjab. The free food provided by the gurudwaras fed me the entire week spent in Punjab. So Punjab must be hunger free?! The pictures are from the automatic Langar kitchen of the golden temple at Amritsar. The huge automatic Roti making machine which makes thousands …
Brave hearts of Punjab
The magnificent resurgence of Punjab from terrorism!
Ancestral home
The annual pilgrimage to our ancestral home in Malabar brings back memories of a Kerala 40 years younger! But for how long?
A career choice in carrying!
The story is the same all over India, they carry many things over their heads!
Gray future
Japanese website that puts an antique weathered effect on images in just one click. Before!
German Newspaper
The Photo that appeared on the German newspaper on the right and the gift that followed, Brassai In Paris! Absolutely cool!
Gambler’s arrow
Sengchi and I searched for almost an hour to find this place in Shillong where Teer (Archery) game takes place daily. Since we missed the first daily event at 4.15pm, we decided to catch the second event at 5.15 pm. We ran across some slum areas to reach there atleast 10 minutes in advance, finally reached the venue just in time …
What the rain did to us!
Kuttanad, rice bowl of Kerala has the distinction of being one of the few places in world where farming is carried out below sea level. Summer rain wretched the full grown paddy fields causing germinated rice seeds, even before it could be harvested. Some farmers shared their grief, while others angered!
Fuming city!
On the occassion of annual Pongala festival held in the city of Trivandrum.This gathering of women with their cooking pots make a special ‘pongala offering’ to the goddess Attukalama. This festival won the world guiness award for recording the highest attendance of women, 1.5 million (15 lakhs) in 1997. Ever since the number of attendees have been on …