Calcutta – Travel Book #1

Calcutta, the city of Joy is not the same. The joy and fun is lost. All that remains now is fear, agony, sadness, crime, political rowdies,women and child harassment and the list goes on. The changing face of this city is dark and spotted. The city people celebrates Durga Puja, where a women deity is worshiped and rapes a 6 years old schoolgirl at the same time to complete the celebration. Like a Christmas cake , the perverts of this city slices girls and women into small pieces. The Government is too busy to be stirred up and take action on these events. Communal aggression is becoming a part of happy living. The people of the city wakes up , closes their eyes, start the day.

Out there in this black, there are many who live a normal life, working all day. There are still some people who think that there will be peace and purity in the heart of those daemons. One day all this will be a past and there will be peace and love everywhere.

My series is about the everyday life and moments of my city people. These images are just pages from the Travel Book of Calcutta while my journey continues…

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Abstract Motions

Chhath Puja is well known to all Indians and those who do not know the details, here is the information sourced from ‘Wikipedia’.

 

Chhath is an ancient Hindu Vedic festival historically native to the Madhesh province and Mithila region of Nepal and Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh states of India. The Chhath Puja is dedicated to the Sun and his wife Usha in order to thank them for bestowing the bounties of life on earth and to request the granting of certain wishes. Chhath does not involve any idol worship. This festival is observed by Nepalese and Indian people, along with their diaspora. While it is a Hindu festival, some Muslims also celebrate Chhath.

The rituals of the festival are rigorous and are observed over a period of four days. They include holy bathing, fasting and abstaining from drinking water (Vratta), standing in water for long periods of time, and offering prasad (prayer offerings) and arghya to the setting and rising sun. Some devotees also perform a prostration march as they head for the river banks.

I live in Kolkata, West Bengal, where a large number of these devotees are found celebrating this festival. This series is about some motion frames captured during this event.

Waiting for the Prayer to start
Enjoyment and Dance
A Devotee
Balloon sellers
Mocking the Devil in funmood
Busy streets
Glittering Lights
Mass Motion
Helping Hand
Way to Home
Feeling happy after day end

Portraits of Vishnupur

During my visit to ‘Vishnupur (aka Bishnupur)’ , I met some lovely people and kids. They welcomed us like one of their own. Planning to revisit the place and those peoples soon. Till then some portraits from the collection:

 

Canal Fishery – A Morning

In the outskirts of our city we have some places where man made big canal and ponds are constructed and made compatible for harvesting fishes. The cost of establishing such a area is huge and the cost of maintenance is high. These are propriety based business and often handled by one man with a assistant and workers.

There are many such places and the locals call them “Bherri” or Harvest Ground for Fishes. Once these water bodies gets up and tunning its time to wait for the fishes. A proper grown fish can weigh up-to 5kgs at the time of dispatch to the local market.

Still there are many obstacles and unprecedented incidents such as storm, water pollution, excessive rainfall, labor and worker management issues and not the least financial problems for these projects to come to a halt. In such cases loss becomes unavoidable and high. Some have the strength to fight these hindrances and continue for the next season while others pack up and set for other jobs.

I have tried to document a whole morning of their activities, during winter season when working in dense fog and cold is very hard. I wish to go back again and continue this story, so till then this is what I have for the viewers.

 

My City – Architecture (ongoing)

Have you ever imagined what if the buildings , the bridges, the malls, the markets and whatever architecture a city holds is painted in black and white.

Even without the colors , each and every concrete structure has its own story, its own pride. I started documenting my city architectures in black and white, from skyscrapers to half-built and this is what it looks like.

Part – I

an evening…

A summer evening after sunset, for me it is sometimes very ugly if I stay inside my room. The air seems to strangle my breath. Sometimes I go to the rooftop and see the sky , the birds , the trees and the buildings falling inside the dark pit of shadows as the hour lights fade away. Each day I see so many different shapes and patterns as I look around from the roof. The trees waving goodbye to each other as the calm wind flows, the birds prelude some day ending song. So I started taking some photographs of these as I strolled. These moments will not return but with these frames I will keep these memories locked forever.

So I start a series with these shots. What I see and what I feel seeing these frames.

 

 

 

Street, People and Environment

There are many stories about being in a crowded city. The problems, the fun, the chaos, the crowd, the days , the nights and everything else. I view my city as a story told in a new way each day by street, nature, people and environment. My each photo has a story which I felt. Maybe you will also like it, maybe not today , maybe someday else.