creepy fences

borrowed words from a diarist

“It is in the moments of emotional crisis that human beings reveal themselves most accurately. ... The heightened moments... are the moments of revelation. It is the moment when the real self rises to the surface, shatters its false roles, erupts and assumes reality and identity. The fiery moments of passionate experience are the moments of wholeness and totality of the personality” - Anais Nin.

sunset in kovalam

back to the backwaters

  

monkey business

fashion fried

 "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." - Oscar Wilde.

back in bombay...the good old south

sao joao festival goa

... bent to broken

Nature has a funny way of breaking what does not bend.

But when you break and fall, it's hard to know if you're the seed that has been thrown off to bring new life or the twig that has been outgrown; battered; withered away and fallen to rest.

Change is only such an interesting phenomenon...so long as you're prepared for it.

project hassie...the first print

I shouldn't be disappointed considering the first round was only a trial for exposure. But when the exposures turned out as expected, I could have put in more thought instead of taking those random shots

Project Hassie ....Day 1

after ...literally cleaning out my closet i pulled out the bubble wrap and loaded my 500C with 160NC film and took it out for a walk today. I have to admit I was nothing less than intimidated and it took much more than carrying it around like a baby to get a hold of it. The mere thought of getting it wrong made me watch a video on how to load the film atleast 3 times until I was sure of what I was doing. And; before I knew it I had taken 10 shots of....random nothings. The light meter worked like a charm...but i'll know only once the film is developed. The excitement of working with film.
For once I'm enjoying the whole process and not worrying about how the pics are actually going to turn out.

Bara Pani... Umiam

the transit

For the many stages of life that life prepares you for...the one thing no one ever prepared you for was the bench. There's many times you've dreamt about the bench. Right from school is when i presume it starts with a simple sport. As you grow out of your school uniform and those college jeans, there's a whole new set of pants that also belong to the bench. I'm on the bench right now....and no ones put me here. I have. I've been trying to do too many things at the same time...wanting too many things at the same time. So i'm taking the time to do nothing. The road stays where it does and i stay where I am for now. I start from scratch.

no measure

no measure

how little it takes. we take measures of each other. 

you give. they take. they give. you take. stolen. forgotten. 

in good times a borrowed peace of mind. the yearning desire to be infatuated with the now. 

and after; a long lying credit of emotions. 

we tread lightly on the waters. 

but the hole in the boat seems to be going below the water line 

and you find yourself in a sinking ship sitting alone....with no float. 

that's when the magnanimity of love leaves you.

Umngot River... on the way to dawki

  

faces of meghalaya. east khasi hills

goa to meghalaya

the journey started with an unexpected flight. Second train journey cancelled. no 3 day train travel to kolkatta and then guwahati. I cut it short and for good reason. Nana turned 90 on the 23rd of dec and I changed my mind and I wanted to be there. So leaving all other plans aside, the stay in Goa was unexpectedly extended. So I land in Shillong on Christmas eve with nothing more than a plan to have some delicious food. The plan was to be out of the city but every place was booked out...had nowhere to go and the only beds available were in the youth hostel! Spent Christmas week in the city...more like town; binge eating chinese food, pork momos for breakfast, pork chow for lunch and slow roast pork with fried rice for dinner. Met some really nice people in the city, spent new years getting hammered you may not believe it but all it took were 2 over filled glasses of Irish Cream(after more than a couple of glasses of rum) Live music at every BBQ more spirits more happy people.

From exploring the city, moving into the interiors was really an experience to take home. I seem to have left a big part of me behind when i came home this week. I want to be back there...not there or any place in particular but somewhere like this where people you meet everyday fascinate you and the overwhelming beauty in the nature inspires you.... that's the high I want to live on. Those are the memories you wake up to in the morning that make you want to pack your bags again.

It's funny that sleeping in a bed to me is new. I had 2 restless nights in the warmth, no sleeping bag, room to roll around and the ceiling no longer within arms reach. So we pitched a tent most places we went, and i loved every day of it. Early mornings with jadoh(rice and meat) or maggi and lal cha (black/red tea) with pop (biscuits) treks out to nearby waterfalls or ravines, jadoh for lunch at local tea stalls, back by sun down to the warmth of the bon fire and steamy hot food for the wretched souls. I was famished almost every evening I got back and even a plate of plain boiled rice was the best sight.

I moved from village to village seemingly in search of beauty in the nature we wanted to surround ourselves by, but what I found was beauty in the simplicity of the people we met. I lived with a few families on my journey and found generosity in the poorest of homes. We were invited to share roofs and meals with them and they showed us with extravagance what nature really had to offer. Vegetables and spices grown in the back yard, fish from the river, poultry from the pen, fruit from the trees in the yard. It was a dream. This was the first layer.

Town to village were long walks down the valley, climbing down a set of probably a thousand steps. See, every village has been set up in valleys where the soil is fertile, so the walk to and around is quite a treat. So, if you visit in the winter like i did, you walk down a narrow stone laden path through the woods with trees bearing oranges, lemons and star fruit adorned like christmas buntings and light bulbs in shades of orange and yellow.

The Musical Village: What's in a name? A long drive into the interiors, i'm sure there's just about a handful of us who've been here outside of those who actually live there. 5am rooster call. 5:30am sounds of birds chirping rather loud..in repetitive succession..i wake up..peel myself out of my sleeping bag and walk into the kitchen as the singing gets louder, to find deng(sister- one of the girls in the house) singing a tune out of the window so i sit myself down in silence so not to disturb her. i'm a little lost for words and then she turns around and giggles when she sees me. But the calls get louder and everyone in the village seems to be awake by now, calling out to each other as deng explains to me how this works. It was just like Ba Alan said, they don't call each other by name, they have a tune for everyone there. So, when they call out to each other, they sing out the tune"

And just like every other one, this village has tiny people. My being all of 5'4" seems to be towering a head over every woman in the village. I keep my shoes out in the sun to warm up while i go to kitchen to return with a cup of cha(tea). I peep outside the door and there's a huddle around my shoe. I watch as one after the other put their feet along side my shoe to check for size. Giggles follow as they call one of the men from the village. So i stepped out to join in the fun; but before you know it, the crowd's dispersed with the laughter and they could not understand that even the guy with the biggest feet in the village had feet smaller than mine!

The first trek down to the valley was in Sohra. The breathtaking walk down the countless steps along some of the edges was exciting. The walk to Nongriat was enchanting. The first living root bridge before Nongriat going over a little flurry of a stream that trickled under those life like gigantic boulders transported you to another world. The more you walk along the steps the more you end up focusing on your foot steps. Its only the chirping of birds around you that make you stop and look up and away from your feet. The first thing you experience is being light headed. Theres a rush of oxygen that goes straight to your head. It can be real fun running down the steps provided you don't have a camera or a heavy bag to keep slow you down. Before we know it we're down in the valley and again we fail to look around. There's a long wire bridge right in front of us. We look to the other end wondering how the bridge is going to hold, so we're deciding to go one by one. But voices come from down below and what do you know it's a few locals enjoying a really nice picnic. At one of the most beautiful picnic spots...those beautiful wallpapers you see...with the beautiful waterfall right in front of you. It is so beautiful, you melt at the sight of that blue. If I have ever experienced the effect of colour. It was on this  day. I found myself a nice rock to sit on, with a spot just right for me to dip my feet into the chilly water. And of course the picnickers were nice enough to share some fresh soh le (fruit salad- oranges and lemons with salt and finely chopped hen chilli) with us.

The transition was pretty smooth- the food, the people, the stay. I would have had a very different experience had I not injured my fingers. But then again, I think it kept me in check. It kept me humble. It made me feel fragile and it made me careful....very unlike my reckless self.


......to be updated.

Local Ja doh stall. You find these almost everywhere..along every highway and town. 

No matter what time of day, there's always tea brewing in the pot and a hot meal of steamed rice and meats.

Wild cat..the little ones they hunt for meat (they say they kill them before they attack the children in the village and then you see a glint in their eyes that tells you just how much they enjoyed the meal)

Wire bridge at Nongriat...the first one. 

The view from under the bridge. The picnic spot at sun down!

Local village cemetery. The tiniest graves i've seen.

Traditional Khasi house- made off the forest...except for this one that chose a steel roof. There's few of these left

This is what the newer houses look like. They're prettier of course. But there's 2 reasons this is happening. One- it's more profitable for them to send bamboo and bamboo products and wood to the city for export and use that money to build cement houses which increases employment. But the down side is, there's soon not going to be much left in the forest. Greed seems to be eating into the reserves including the abused year round water supply. The money they can now afford to buy detergent with is going into the water...the rivers, the streams, obviously where they have a bath and wash their clothes. 

Rural development going wrong. 

sri lanka to goa

I'm sitting on my couch back in Bombay right now with sheets of paper with so many notes I can barely read what i've written. I've spent much of my time writing with pen and paper cos I lost access to the Internet and I guess I stopped searching for it after some time. So after leaving Negombo...I packed my bags and headed along the west coast to the beaches all the way down south around Galle. I tried the bus journey while going...long stuffy sticky noisy musical and so much fun. Reggae music to bob your head to and folding seats that someone manage to seat the entire traffic of ants that keep getting onto the bus. I hopped onto a train on the way back- very pleasant experience...the view of the coast is much better up here. The locals love to chat, give genuine advice and information on absolutely anything you ask them and if you get lucky like i did...they even buy you your train ticket while you stand and wait on the platform for the connecting train. I am amazed at how nice everyone i've interacted with has been.

I spent a few days down at Hikkaduwa tried to take some surfing lessons which I initially set out to do. 2 days of good weather and me getting used to the strong waves pushing my ass around I finally set my hands on a surf board. I managed to get on my feet a couple of times but it was seconds before I was down under. It's quite an effort dragging it all the way back and waiting to hit the next wave only to get washed ashore. I enjoyed the sun for a few days before we were hit with bad weather and very rough sea. I sat and watched while 4 people were rescued within 2 hours..there was quite a bad under current and before I knew it, the beach was full of red flags. We had heavy showers that night but we still walked around searching for some beer till we stumbled upon a bar that had to shift indoors where they struggled with plastic sheets as shutters to keep the rain away. With a few bottles of alcohol that they managed to bring in from the bar outside, strong winds that constantly battled with the plastic to bring some of the rain inside, we were left with board games and limited alcohol. About ten of the local boys running the bar/resort started to put a make shift band together with makeshift instruments and sang in acapela. People passing by joined in when they heard the music outside, took shelter with us and shared some spirits. Rain was forecasted for a few days so I figured there was no point sticking around the beach side any more and I left for Kandy only to get more rain. There's a pretty little lake in the hill town and if you stumble upon a guest house preferably one of those quaint heritage homes it's quite an experience...they make you feel right at home. Trust my luck to fall sick but it all came with a bang. I managed to get a really bad cold when i took a walk in the rain which developed into a ear infection and I had some under cooked beef at the railway station which gave me a stomach infection. Word of caution- if you happen to fall sick and you think you need antibiotics- see a bloody doctor wherever you are- Avoid self medication. It can almost... well chances are you'll make things worse than they already are.

I did some exploring on the days I managed to keep my tummy empty. One bottle of salts to keep me hydrated, my ipod to soothe my wandering mind and a beautiful scenery to keep my heart inspired. I made it to Sigiriya and saw the reclining Buddha too. Got to verigama saw the fishing village, saw some amazing catch come in at the docks..scoped out the entire west coast searching for stick fisherman but none of them showed up. Other than that my body was just too tired to hit the road. I was in bed for a couple of days cos I couldn't move at all, so I stayed indoors and spent time with the owner of the guest house chatting with her while she made sure I took my tablets and I ate only kanji (red rice with salts & the boiled water). My better judgement would have dragged my ass to a hospital but I guess after a couple of days I just wanted to be home. So I made some changes in my travel dates and headed back.

Of all the time I spent in Sri Lanka, my best memories there have been with the people I met on the way. A girl selling coconuts outside my beach house invited me home for a special home made meal made by her mother... after chatting with her for 5 minutes. It was the first day the fruit stall was opened and I was their first customer. The food...it was a spread of Sri lankan delicacies. Fish in 3 different preparations, some veggies and of course Red rice. The hospitality......amazing.

The place i stayed at...mother and daughter running the place made me sit and have breakfast with them every morning talking about life and love and everything in between. The conversations were funny I laughed through most of my breakfasts. I picked up some chocolates for them when i stopped by the supermarket and in return they cooked me a sea food platter for lunch with a fresh catch of prawns and grilled crab. For the few good meals I had it was worth the days I was sick and starving.

      

For all the anticipation of being back home, I must have spent all of 3 hours in the city which got me to my doctor-1 prescription- a whole bunch of 500mg tablets that looked like horse tranquilizers- a one way ticket to goa- a super light bag on my back- and a cab ride to the airport.

   

Bakery on the go! You know they're coming when you hear this loud nasaly tune playing on a little loud speaker..since this was a month before christmas..we heard carols on almost every one of these.

So a handful of local women wore a sari...a little like the Indian Sari but prettier. The rest wore tshirts with long skirts...much like her!