Raging Bum

Exactly...

2009-11-09T05:21:00.000-08:00

2009-10-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

The audacity

2009-09-26T11:24:00.001-07:00

Early afternoon, hungover like a dead bat, a recurring occurrence, say hello.

In all honesty. God only knows, how the TOI landed there. Had to shoot it, no matter how staged it looks.

During the interval...

2009-07-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

Man Singh and Rajput, confidantes of Akbar, decided to play a few boards of carrom. The name of the play is Pyaar Kiya to Darna Kya. The plot is super funny. Birbal is quite pissed off with Akbar, for having acted in so many films without him. Think Mughal-E-Azam and more recently Jodha Akbar, Birbal wasn't there. So he decides to pop into Akbar's life, as a sculptor and once as Barrack Obama. Akbar is known as Akbar Patil, a king who deals in scrap, has made Sheesh Mahal out of a million broken bottles of beer. Being a Marathi play with several direct and indirect influences from the Kolis and their lifestyle, the cast is dressed in some outrageous 'lungis'. The scene that rocked most was when Salim calls up Akbar on his mobile, and is unable to get through. He wishes to inform Akbar that he is in love with Anarkali and wants to marry her. Akbar walks on the stage, with a spotlight for company, yelling out a message that goes, "the person you are trying to reach is currently busy, eating prawns, please call later". Akbar's entry in the play too, is unforgettable. Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre, one of my teachers at XIC, has written a much much better review for Timeout Mumbai's current edition. Tried looking for it online, can't find it. Go for it, that is if you understand Marathi!

11-07-2006

2009-07-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

Claudius and Alisha, brother and daughter of Sanford DeSales, photographed a year later in 2007. Sudheendra Tripathi of the Indian Express wrote a poignant piece about Sanford, which was included in a book that they published on the bombings, called 187 Lives.

Piyush Mishra

2009-06-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

By far the weirdest shoot I ever did. Postponed by more than a month, since he was filming something in the U S of A. The shoot was finally scheduled for 4 pm at his house, which is 5 minutes from where I live. I reach, his wife tells me he's asleep. I told her that he had given me time, so here I am. He came from his room wearing a black vest, limping towards me while I was talking to his wife. His eyes were red, and he didn't look too well. I told him it's okay, I'll go back, we could do the shoot some other day. He doesn't talk, he mumbles, and he mumbled something about a stroke. And that I should take his picture now. He washed his face and sat by the window, and mumbled some more about what kind of a photo I want and yawned. He has a study room with pictures of Brando and Pacino, where we sat and had some tea. It was tempting to shoot in there, but then he'd be a bit overshadowed by the men on the wall. To know more about him click here.

See - Link

2009-06-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

Lack of sense or lack of space, I can never know the real reason. This picture was one of the images that was to go with Rahul Bhatia's story on the Bandra Worli Sealink. The story can be read in the current issue of the magazine. Also, please go over to Blindboys, a new online photography magazine,(yes, I know it's a bizarre name, but what the heck, it's a start!) to take a look at some more images from the Kasab movie, incase you had to strain your eyes, in that disaster of an attempt at making a slideshow.
P.S. : Came across this recently on allie's blog.

A better edit

2009-06-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

This is just a test, will be uploading more slideshows soon, and of course, a brief intro and captions for the above. These are some of the images from the making of this low budget movie based on 26/11 called Total Ten. They let me hang around their sets for almost the entire film, but they didn't allow me to be there when they shot a controversial scene where they hang Kasab. They have a party happening on the 15th, a completion party, though I highly doubt they will be allowed to release the film since thé matter is in court. A case in point would be what happened to AnuragKashyaps Black friday. Incase you wish to read the story that appeared in the current issue of the magazine I work for, click here.

Birthday bum

2009-05-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

So the bastards won, all of em, and strangely Shashi Tharoor won too, excluding the lefties. Now they owe us some good governance, good roads, and the same old, water and electricity, without having to bother about a non co-operative ally. Unlike the state assembly elections, the colour, the madness, the frenzy was a bit sloppy. The visual potential this time was rather low, just like the turnout. After Priya Roncon's exit from the counting centre, we celebrated Dinesh Parab's(Outlook) birthday. We just needed to vent, so we kicked him quite a bit, also, as Anand Shinde(maroon, Asian Age) observed, Dinesh was wearing saffron. Pal Pillai(red, AFP) tried to stop Sachin Kadvekar(Fotocorp) and Anand, but he and I decided to join in too.

P.S. Priya Dutt is married to an event organizer called Owen Roncon, the guys who do the One Tree Festival. Most people doubt she would have ever won had she come in to the field as Priya Roncon!

Noble Heartbreaker

2009-04-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

That's what his T-shirt reads. Shot this during a break at a rink hockey match, somewhere, way back in 2008, a day before I left for the Roots Festival. An interesting match it was. Most people had come to watch Dhanraj Pillay in action, but, old angry man that he is, picked a fight, howled at the opposition, screamed at the referee, and was chucked out of the rest of the game. After the match was over, he was still howling, in his undies, in the dressing room, and for a brief moment he came outside near the rink, in a fresh T-shirt and the same old undies. Most of us got bored of his nautanki, so we consciously didn't take any pictures. It's funny, when you stop filming all these publicity crazy morons,they sober down in a second!

The ones that didn't make it...

2009-04-18T10:11:00.001-07:00

in a story on what kids think of the world around them. It was the cover story for our magazine's third issue.

Here they are...

Nikita D'Mello(12), loves to climb scaffoldings, total tomboy, has bashed up a couple of boys in her neighbourhood. She said, "We do keep an eye on what our teachers wear.I like my teachers to wear a mix of things, not just Saris."

Soham patankar(11) believes in monsters, "they do exist", he insists. His mom said he makes some super chocolate pasta, which is oddly very spicy. "It is okay to mix sweet and spice in food. It is okay to have combinations"

Rubina Qureshi(9), as cliched as it sounds, needs no introduction. She did recall our meeting from once before. Has a severe 'Ringa Ringa' hangover, keeps playing it on her new cellphone. "I believe in God, but I don't get time to pray"

Ayush Khedekar(9), happens to be the only kid in his school to have a laptop and a cell-phone. "If I become more and more and more famous, and become very proud, all the fame will go down"

Too see the ones that did, click here

Accidental tribute to James Nachtwey

2009-02-11T05:46:00.000-08:00

This one's from the fire that broke out in the slums near Bandra station. I was on my way to drop my dad home, when I saw huge flames and smoke near Bandra station, but I couldn't respond immediately. I had to go to Mahim, drop my dad home, and then I dumped the car and hopped on to a train...a train after some 2 years. I had almost forgotten what local train travel felt like. Anyways, there's the story of this one guy who saved some 12 lives before he succumbed to the flames, which most papers didn't carry. This photo is quite similar to a James Nachtwey image of a man trying to extinguish a burning car in a similar fashion(Deeds of War). The similarity is purely accidental, and of course his photograph kicks my photo's ass all the way to Timbuktu!

Vengurla

2009-02-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

Yet another travel gig, during the last monsoons. A trip to Sawantwadi, all the way to Devgadh. Beautiful, surreal, isolated, almost private beaches and of-course, amazing food.

From the first ever...

2009-02-09T06:22:00.000-08:00

travel story I shot. The story was on the Bohra houses and architecture in Kapadwanj, which is approximately 100 kms from Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Delayed

2009-01-13T04:58:00.000-08:00

On a smoggy morning I made my way to Delhi to be part of a workshop being conducted by our consulting Photo Editor, none other than Prashant Panjiar. Every time I fly, I ask for a window seat hoping to get a shot of the sea-link from high up. Does it work, does it look cool enough, I don't know, but I like it! The trip was quite productive, long long super long conversations about simple aspects of photography, and the exposure to different genres of photojournalism. The rise of the photographic author, artist and what not. Sometimes it all seems a lot of bunkum. My mind is even more confused and am not really convinced enough to start taking blurry hazy black and white arty images, just because everyone else is doing it. It's graphically appealing though :(

01/01/2009

2009-01-03T10:37:00.001-08:00

On new year's day, early morning, about 8 am or so, on the way to Majhaulia from somewhere in Champaran, Bihar. He was playing by the side of the street with this gun, thankfully not loaded, saw me, saw the camera, and asked me to take a photo. Do I dare say no!

We forgot CST

2008-12-23T10:48:00.001-08:00

Prashant Nakwe appears once again on this blog of mine. This time with Hemant Padalkar aka Paddy. Hemant and I almost got shot near Metro cinema, when Kasab and the other chap hijacked a police vehicle. I have another picture of Paddy diving to the ground taking cover near Metro. While I was shooting that, the cop on my right, two media-people away from me had been hit with 3 bullets in his belly and the cameraman on my immediate left had been struck on his hand. Many mistakes were made by me during this night. One mistake that I shall forever repent will be my stupid act of asking a rather ridiculous question to an evacuee near the Taj which angered her so much she throw her bottle of water at me and another photographer. I learnt my lesson the hard way, which is good, lessons learnt in this manner are never forgotten. Not just me but most of us, we were unaware and unprepared, unequipped and untrained for such incidents. Like the NSG and the MARCOS, we too were in a guerilla situation, which in hindsight seems quite scary, considering the fact that none of us had helmets, forget bullet proof jackets! But the testosterone was charging, pumping hard for 60 straight hours, (45 in my case, cause the Nariman house encounter marked the end of my endurance). And that mad photojournalism is evident in the work of Santosh Bane, Sebastian D'souza, Satish Malavade, Raju shinde, Hemant Shirodkar and Shriram Vernekar, all belonging to the Times of India. What followed as you might have seen has been no less than a mockery of sorts. The million candle light vigils, the call for WAR, etc etc. However the most hillarious has been the vanishing of the MP's, and the self imposed exile of a certain Raj Thackeray. Most of em still hiding under their tables...or chairs! The ones who did come out are doing a super job of making the whole country look like a dumb bunch of morons, in front of the world. Raj, by the way needs to go into complete exile, for the good of all mankind and him too. And he must take "Barkha Dutt-ji" with him when he does that! Questions have been raised, politicians have been swapped and the hotels have re-opened. South Bombay finally realized that they too are unsafe, and them townies are crying hoarse over issues that they should have spoken about when 92, 93, and more recently 2006 happened. Not because they are the influential set, but South Bombay is also part of Bombay. So what if they don't use the trains or cabs, that keep blowing up every once in two years, if one part of Bombay doesn't give a shit about another, then madmen like Raj Thackeray have indeed succeeded. And if internal terror can be this successful...

Peace Sells...

2008-11-30T09:48:00.000-08:00

No need to rejoice, nothing's over yet, this is just the beginning...

Dasvidaniya

2008-11-23T01:42:00.000-08:00

is a good movie. Saw it yesterday. No bullshit, just good performances, and a good script. Shot well. The music is okay. And there's a song that Vinay does for his Mom in the movie, which however is superb. There are some brilliant scenes in the movie, my favourite being the one where Vinay confesses his love to Neha dhupia, his childhood love interest. Am no critic and definitely no expert, but I really think you should watch it, preferably with a friend or a loved one, or just yourself. Put it on your things to do list. It's worth the effort!

The Three Amigos...

2008-11-20T00:59:00.000-08:00

...and an inverted lens hood by the window. Sameer Joshi from Fotocorp, Prashant Nakwe from The Times of India and Vipin Pawar from the DNA, at the Henry Kissinger press-con yesterday. A little too close , don't you think?

Pravin Janak, 33, unemployed.

2008-11-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

That's what eats him up everyday. More images from the story will hopefully appear in the inaugural edition of our magazine, whenever that wonderful day arrives. And no, he didn't win. It was the guy behind him, in the right of the frame, watching from the shadows.

Fotogenik

2008-10-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

In Varanasi now, off to Delhi, to dump a truckload of images onto the office computer. Varanasi turned out be a far cry from what I thought it would be. Especially after looking at Raghu Rai and Raghubir Singh's images of the same. I didn't find the place too hot, maybe because am a faithless guy, or maybe because I read too much about it and saw too many images. I couldn't really feel the vibe. But the buffaloes did manage to turn on this guy for sure!

Postcard from UP

2008-10-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

From Goa to Azamgarh, UP, hometown of Abu Salem and Abu Asim Azmi. Staying in a ditch of a hotel loaded with roaches and bedbugs. And thankfully not doing a story on the infamous terror trail. Ate some lovely food at a house in the middle of a field. Simple and tasty. Lost our way while coming here and a 2 hour journey ended up being 5 hours long. Excruciating, exasperating. A bizarre incident occurred on the flight though. Was seated on the aisle seat, talking to Madhavan, my colleague who was also on the aisle seat parallel to mine. The air-hostess was serving some food. Her cute lil butt was rubbing on my shoulder so I moved in a bit. The conversation with Maddy came to a rather long pause. And then, she farted, right next to our nostrils. Maddy didn't notice, he was buried in a book called The Mammoth book of Journalism. I did. And buried my face in the in-flight magazine. The disintegration of a thousand fantasies finally happened, leaving me rather scarred.

Push

2008-09-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

I really wish I could have spent more time here, and maybe done a small little series of images at this place. It was the last performance by the Symphony Orchestra of India (hope I got that right), and they had some guest performers too. My friend Natasha was shooting the event for someone, and I just went there to hang with her a bit. She shot this huge photo on the NCPA staircase where she had all the performers flooding her frame. In the last row, there was something going on between these two, looked more like an unpleasant argument. I was later given a ticket to watch the show, but I chose to watch Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis instead. After years I watched a movie alone (film festivals excluded.) Was seated next to two very cute old Parsi women who had come for the show with a pretty one who was probably their grand daughter. The grannies were asking the young one about her Green Crocs and if they were comfortable at all. I offered them some Popcorn and Coke, but they didn't want any.

Crude Oil

2008-09-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was in a strange dilemma, I wasn't sure if I should go rafting with my friends or go for the Mukesh Ambani presscon. The man is quite elusive as such, but I really wanted to go rafting too, and it was my weekly off too. With a lil help fm Chinki Sinha, I made my decision. I rode all the way to Kolad on my bike, and did get onto a raft. Although I must admit, I expected it to be a lil more adventurous, scary, rough and all. At 2:30pm I hit panic mode, cause I was supposed to be out from there at 1, en route to the presscon. So I revved like a maniac, and at one bump I almost flew off the bike, which I must admit scared the hell out of me. I somehow reached three minutes before his speech got over. While he was heading out he was mobbed by us photogs and TV crews as always. I turned round and saw Neeta Ambani waiting patiently for him to finish off, while her PA or driver or god knows who, held on to her purse! But I wish I had something in the foreground, maybe Mukesh Ambani himself, to establish some sort of context or just depth.

Animal Instinct

2008-09-19T16:13:00.001-07:00

Currently reading Bitter Fruit, a translation of Saadat Hasan Manto's short stories by Khalid Hassan. Will be reading the Hindi version of Manto's work soon. Interestingly, he wanted to mark his grave with the following, "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, here lies Saadat Hasan Manto and with him lie buried all the secrets and mysteries of the art of short-story writing. Under tons of earth he lies, wondering who among the two is greater short-story writer : God or he." His family wasn't quite sure of what the reaction would be to such an epitaph. They ended up marking his grave with these lines by Ghalib instead, "Dear God why does time erase my name off from the tablet of the living? I am, after all, not one of those words that is mistakenly calligraphed twice and, on detection, removed." Am pretty sure the above lines would have more impact and sound more beautiful when read in Urdu or Hindi (not marathi for sure, as some morons would like it!). Photo taken at Tarkarli beach, random fisherman going to fetch his net that he had cast in the morning. He got that police jacket from some cop in the village.

Red Garden King

2008-09-15T22:43:00.001-07:00

It's official now, we don't get along. Shooting the departure of the Lalbaugcha Raja, was quite a harrowing experience. Reached late on the bridge, didn't get proper space to shoot, had to beg for elbow room from a bunch of amateur photographers, got drenched for 3 hours since I had left my jacket at a friend's house (ain't I smart?). Also His departure was delayed by 3 long hours. Got pushed and squashed by a million people who wanted a glimpse, felt like I was hanging off a cliff with a bus load of people wanting to throw me off. In all this madness ended up cutting the arch, which I didn't realize till someone pointed out. Sitting in a lousy hotel in Hyderabad, eating stale idlis and drinking really bad bad bad BAD butter milk. The good places are all full. Anyone who can guess the reason, gets to shoot His departure...next year!

The view from my house

2008-09-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

is quite nice...and soothing too. Sunsets over the past few days have been quite spectacular.

Maheshwar

2008-09-04T06:02:00.000-07:00

At the crack of dawn, from a distance it looked as if a loony was abusing the Narmada, on zooming in a bit, found out that he was just feeding the fish.

Watching Windows

2008-09-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

In a rather fucked up mood these days, nothing's really working in my favour, allegations flying at me like the soundtrack to a bad dream. In a fit of rage, I asked the lab guys to make a huge-ass 30 x 20 print of this. Will hang it right above my bed, so that it does what it has to, remind me of Vengurla, the fiery red light inside the Lighthouse, all the fish and prawns, yummy Sol Kadi, and in the process, pep me up every single day. And no, the image ain't staged or spiked, the colour is as it was, and I honestly don't know what this guy was looking at, much like me... He wasn't very pleased when I took the foto tho! I smiled and told him am just a student of photography, and flashed my old, college I-card, of Xavier Institute of Communications, where I was enrolled in the post grad diploma in Journalism. Dropped out in no time, didn't find it too exciting, and was told I wouldn't end up making anything of myself ever if I didn't finish the course. What the heck, I saw some good movies there and read and saw all the photobooks in their library (a section untouched since a decade or so) and also, I do put their I-card to good use... sometimes!

Statistic

2008-09-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Or at best a 2 line city-brief in the corner of an inside page in either a tabloid or a newspaper, or maybe a 3 column photo-caption. Cops washed off their palms after placing the sheet. But for those who do know him, it's just the beginning of getting used to his sudden and permanent absence.

Bombay Central

2008-09-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

Intoxicated and asleep on a cart.

Memories Of Me

2008-08-31T13:33:00.000-07:00

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10....readyyyy!

Went to meet an old friend today, in Kandivali (which is nothing but a permanent construction site). He's got an adorable 2 year old kid. We were hanging around in his building and it was kinda nice and endearing to see my good old buddy transform into such a warm and loving creature. All thanks to fatherhood! I don't have any good images of Amit and his lil boy, but I stumbled upon this. I dunno about anyone else but it took me back to my own childhood....

Splendor

2008-08-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

Found this while digging through the archives.., shot outside our office.

Kunkeshwar Temple

2008-08-25T15:02:00.001-07:00

From a recent trip to Sindhudurg...

Mo Pride

2008-08-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

How about this expression ?!?

Pride

2008-08-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

Don't know his name, but he was one of the 500 or so people who participated in the Gay Pride Parade on the 16th. They started off from August Kranti Maidan and the rally culminated at Girgaum chowpatty, which in a few weeks will be host to the Ganesh immersions. It was quite cool to shoot with none of the headaches of deadlines or any competition, since our magazine isn't out yet. Quite sure I was that someone from this entire parade will end up at the beach. This one is my personal favourite these days.

Distant

2008-08-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

This photograph is staged. Saw this run down house at a Konkan beach, and I had to shoot it. So I asked her to peep. A strong sense of unbelonging envelops me whenever I come back from a tour... There is a constant discomfort, a numbness I can't describe. Kinda lost, and drifting.

Disguisedly Unemployed

2008-07-18T03:57:00.000-07:00

Sheer joblessness prompts me to dig out all these weirdass fotos. Her name is Smita Mitra, till some days back she was also rotting at yechtee. Co-ordinating shoots for Braanch! About a year back she was to interview Pankaj Kapoor at 8 freaking am in the morning, and yours truly was assigned for the shoot. Hungover like a bat, I crawled to the shoot, and midway through the interview Pankaj-saab has to leave due to a family emergency. Dammit, I couldn't even throw a fit, coz I like his work! So we crawled a lil more to the nearest Barista (bad bad bad coffee!), and killed time! And I assume you have nothing important to do (why else wud u be here?), please move over to Chip's blog post on 100 things completely right about our jobs

Caption This!

2008-07-18T02:34:00.000-07:00

Superfishial City

2008-07-17T05:15:00.000-07:00

The best part of shooting for yourself, is that you don't really have to worry about the scanners or the deskies, and how they think the foto is too black or can't be printed or what are u trying to say mr.photographer!

Aizawl

2008-07-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

Slaving for money... in the heart of the city

2008-06-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

The latest bit of news is that I have quit the hindustan times. Am headed to be part of a new magazine, which has no name yet, and I can't really give out any details about the same. This photograph was taken before I went for my tour to the Northeast. I was on my way to shoot some gymnastic nonsense at Shivaji Park. An annual affair. I could hear drums and stuff from far aawy, and I saw a small little procession, passing through cricket pitches and all. I found that very amusing. All the little boys padded up in the nets hung up their bats to watch this procession. I kept walking towards it, shooting as well. I was working towards a foto, where I cud show the above, till I went closer and I saw this lil boy holding up the umbrella for the kid on the horse. It was the rich kid's initiation ceremony, into Hinduism, the whole white thread across the chest affair, after which he had come to visit the Ganesh temple at Shivaji Park. True to my reputation I chucked the assignment and hung out with them. The relatives walked and kinda danced all the way back to a hall closeby but I wasn't interested in that. they passed through Raj Thackeray's house, a person I completely abhor. Anyways I couldn't help notice the John Lennon tshirt. This city... and it's strange contrasts! Reminded me of a movie called Bread and Chocolate.

Kohima

2008-06-05T23:40:00.000-07:00

From Imphal the festival travelled to Dimapur in Nagaland. I got off at Kohima, to chill for a day. Ideally I felt like staying back in Kohima for the entire month. People are friendly, almost like Shillong. I walked quite a bit, to the market, to Raj Bhavan, to the war cemetery (where I spent some hours) and finally to Dream Cafe, which is quite a pretty place. I sat by the window and watched the clouds come over Kohima. I went back to the cemetery for a little while again. Right under the cross there is a sitting area, where mostly youngsters hangout, with their bottles of beer and whisky. I made friends with this one couple. Forgot their name, had it written down on my diary which got drenched in Diphu(Assam). After sometime, they had an argument. And its a strange situation to be in, to be stuck around a quarreling couple.

For Suchitra Vijayan

2008-06-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since this space has been updated. My friend Suchitra Vijayan called me a lazy bum, so here I am updating it a lil. I was out, touring, across the North East of India. Travelling in a bus with an Israeli dub reggae band (DUB LFO), a brit punk band with a brass section(Too Late Lucy) , Guru Rewben Mashangwa (a folk artist), Warklung Baba( another folk artist who sings his stuff in heavy metal style and a didjeridoo) and lastly Raghu Dixit. This was from my first day in Imphal, Manipur. Its a strange place. Some people are over friendly, some just want you to get outta their sight. The militants have banned Hindi music and bollywood, so none of that shit was floating around thankfully. But these guys were really cute. They didn't understand anything Í spoke, and the same applied to me. I couldn't get what they said or were upto. After some time, their contractor came. Thankfully he understood English. He told me they were in love and have been this way since he can recall. He didn't wanna gimme any specifics, names etc. But on hearing the word love, both of em looked at me, then looked at each other and smiled and went back to their own sweet world.

Jumping to Conclusions

2008-04-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

Shot this a day before Republic Day 2005, my camera had conked off some days back and was in repairs. I was pillion riding with Vasant Prabhu, a very senior Indian Express photographer (I was working at IE back then). Prabhu has had a hard but exciting life, and he has some really fascinating stories to tell if he wishes to open up, but he doesnt do so very easily; not to most people. We decided to stand at Bandra flyover and take some cliched fotos of all the street urchins selling flags and all. I borrowed Prabhu's D100 to shoot a couple of frames cause I was getting anxious to shoot, hadn't shot a picture since a week or so. And the moment I had the view-finder to my right eye, I saw her walk in to the right corner of the frame. I was in the right place, right time, with the right lens, and the only thing I was unhappy about was the choppy light. She came, she offered him a little tricolour, he resisted, but then took it in his hand, had a closer look and gave it back. She persisted, but he wouldn't buy it. Prabhu was quite cheesed off, this could have been his foto, his credit. This was the first time Vikas Khot edited my pictures, and what a wonderful editor he is (irrespective of what people say about him). Everyone was quite kicked about this foto, including Prabhu himself, as the day progressed. I was damn pissed when I didn't see the photo in print the next morning. All of us thought it's a big deal that a soldier is refusing to keep a small flag and all. Years later when I was in Gujarat, hanging out with some BSF guys, who had come from Kashmir on election duty in Ahmedabad, I realised my folly. I had misunderstood this photograph. I don't think any one from the armed forces needs to hold or wear anything to show what they feel for their country.

Who is this lovely boy

2008-04-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about posting this foto for some days. It was shot at a school for autistic children, a place where I wanted to go two years back, but was denied access by the principal of the school. I made it this time anyways, thanks to Alifiya Khan, our reporter, who was doing a story on World Autism Awareness Day. The children at first scared me a little to be honest. Made me blank. I took a tour of the place and finally zeroed in on the playroom. There was a swing, a ball and lotsa mats inside the room, and a small trampoline too. I saw him(the lil boy in the foto) jumping on it, and after 5 minutes another boy came and stood next to him, the boy on the trampoline moved towards the window and the other one started jumping. After 5 minutes he left the window and sat on the lil swing and then rolled around on the mat and played a lil and came back to the trampoline and got his spot again. Jumped for five minutes till the very same boy who displaced him earlier came back. No quarrelling, they exchanged places immediately. I now knew that this was a cycle, a pattern, an order. Everyone in the room was doing the same. After a while when I went to a different classroom, where they have all the interactive ways of teaching em, I heard a boy mumbling something repeatedly. Paid attention and realized he was singing Dard E Disco, in his very unique way. The boy in the foto was in the room as well, he was playing with these air bubbles that their teacher was blowing at 'em. I spent a good 45 minutes in this room, the bubbles made for interesting, soft images. While editing all of it back in office, we unanimously zeroed in on a different foto of our champ, which had the Dard E Disco boy in the frame as well. What hurt was that while I was leaving from there, the principal called me to her cabin and said, "Please don't publish their names." I didn't argue, just said okay and left. He has a very sweet name, and I couldn't understand her problem with the name since we were publishing his face anyways. This photo was on my PC's desktop since the past 3 days, till my sister saw it. She couldnt find any information about the kid or the foto in the file info, and I wasnt around, so she quietly renamed it as " Who is this lovely boy?" I am supposed to answer that when she gets up in the morning!

Sindhi New Year

2008-04-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

So...my people celebrated the Sindhi new year on the 7th of this month, and who else will go from our office to cover such a thing...me!! After some really badly sung folk songs, this troupe of dancers came on stage and danced to some cheesy Hindi songs, right under the nose of Jhulelal, who is by the way the god that sindhis and sikhs pray to. (Massive psychedelia if you notice: clouds, water, colours, and he sits on a whale or something!!) . The audience, consisting mainly of senior citizens was stunned. The women were fuming but didnt know where to look or complain to, coz the organizers were all on the stage getting a closer view, and the men, irrespective of how old they were, knew exactly where to look! I was pretty excited about the foto myself. I thought they'd splash it and talk about how stupid religious functions are these days (so what if it was my own community?). But then, the ever so wonderful sub-ed called asking for options...neater, cleaner, festival type options.

Street style

2008-03-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

This somehow reminded me of my own childhood, when we'd get silly toys for 5 bucks and enact roles such as He-Man etc. People selling this kinda stuff can still be found outside some weddings and temples on some big festival day; like today outside the Shiv temple at Jogeshwari caves, on the occasion of Mahashivratri.

With-held

2008-01-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

Walking is good, tiring, but very productive, for me. As Alex Webb says, "I only know how to approach a place by walking. For what does a street photographer do but walk and watch and wait and talk, and then watch and wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown, or the secret heart of the known awaits just around the corner." (And by quoting that, am not trying to call myself a street photographer)Anyways, for a long time they didnt know that I was shooting em. It's only when I went up to ask a couple of questions, did they realize that they have already been photographed. They didnt have a problem with that, they had a problem telling me their names, especially the boy. And our newspaper doesnt like to publish pictures which lack information, especially about the subject. Child Labour may never get banned, mainly because the children are aware of the atrocities that occur in the remand home at Dongri. Paused, thought, pondered, and didn't release the image.

Two

2007-12-24T01:40:00.000-08:00

A bewildered Narendra Modi looks at a man donning a Modi mask during his victory procession through the street adjacent to the BJP office in Ahmedabad.

Prakash Khanolkar

2007-11-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

73 year old man, can't hear properly, has tremendous back trouble, keeps his wife's photograph by his bed all the time, keeps a little plastic toy next to him to remind him of his grandson who came to meet him only once. Stays at the Manav Seva Trust's Home for the Aged. His mates told me that he had a love marriage and before eating anything he keeps a lil morcel next to his wife's photo.

The Kapurs

2007-10-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

Photographers: Mr. Kapur, please Sir, one photo with wife!!
Sanjay Kapur: Not now, after the match.
Photographers: Sir, please sir. Loloji, one picture please.
Karisma Kapur: Come on Sanjay, let's get it over with it.
Photographers: Madam yahan pe, facing the light, thoda aur aage... thoda sa...please please...okay okay...aye TV...peeche hat!
Sanjay Kapur: Everyone, meet my wife Karisma, ex bollywood starlet, that's her new look!!!

Modi-Fication

2007-10-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

Before he arrived I was determined to make an image, that was gonna be my take on the current situation. One image, that shows my disgust for the man on the screen. They were projecting some old footage of Modi and his work in Gujarat, right next to a portrait of Gandhi. Asaramjee Bapu, , was showering a lotta praise on the tyrant. And a thousand gujus, were chanting, "Dekho dekho kaun aaya, gujarat ka sher aaya". All diamond merchants, financers of the Modi government. And such impatient men, with no respect for anyone around them. From the first speaker till the man himself, each and every word uttered was reeking of Hindutva and the need to systematically elect Modi as PM and ensure the marginalization of people belonging to other religions. Shame on us, especially the media.

Young Love

2007-09-10T04:07:00.001-07:00

Senior citizens practice a day before a Valentine's day event, for people of the same age. The couple in the foreground aren't part of the celebrations, they were just sitting in the park and having a conversation

Can't Shoot here please...

2007-09-10T04:05:00.000-07:00

PR people stopping us from shooting some belly dancers, backstage at the derby.

Muzammil Ibrahim

2007-09-07T04:08:00.000-07:00

Same shit, different day! That sums up the CAFE attitude. "Face Nahin Dikhta Hai", blind bats! They were shot by yours truly for the ultra boring squarish layout of their front page. CAFE is a ragmag with mounds of untapped potential. So instead of sticking with a staff fotogs picture, they took a depthless boring film still. Two rather. Muzammil could make a wonderful cowboy. It's a pity I couldn't arrange for a cowboy hat.

Abbas Ali Moghul

2007-09-05T01:20:00.000-07:00

Former stuntman, and now an Action director, Abbas Ali Moghul.

Aazadi

2007-08-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Mangesh Takerkhede, leader of a rappelling group, crosses a treacherous edge near Gandhi Smarak, National Park. The rappelling event was organized by his group, Nature Outdoor Education Trust,. Around 50 first timers tried their hands at rappelling a 40 foot rock-face. The participants later went on a clean up drive at the Park. The event is aptly named Independence Day Trash Dash. He placed the flag near the starting point, where the participants rapel down from.

Published with desired results

2007-08-17T09:28:00.001-07:00

Rashida Kotawala, lost her husband during the 1992-93 riots. Me and Gigil Verghese(our correspondent) had gone to interview another riot victim, who told us about her. Rashida mends bags near Vile Parle Station, a job that her husband used to do at the same place. Someone read this story in Delhi, was quite moved by the picture(dunno which one got published in Delhi, coz I had given three options) and now plans to help Rashida financially. One of her sons is studying to be a doctor, while the other one is studying at Ismail Yusuf College. She still believes that he will return someday. I wish we do more such stories. (Trying to track down Gigil's story, will add a link once I find it)

My Blue Umbrella

2007-08-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

In Cherrapunji, while sipping on the best red tea, near the weatherman's office.

Eeshmaayeel

2007-08-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

Ramlila, backstage.

Up Yours

2007-08-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

At a local hockey match at the Bombay Hockey Association. Yesh, I still prefer calling it Bombay!!

New Photographer in Town !

2007-08-15T22:03:00.001-07:00

More from the same pipeline incident. When this boy noticed us he did this. Raju Shinde got a bit too excited. He wanted to go ahead and shoot, in doing so, while crossing me, he slipped and took me into the muck with him. Both our cams went flying. Since I can't strap my ultra expensive helmet to my bike, I still had it on my head. And I was saved from hitting my tiny head on a smaller pipe. Lucky. Raju wasn't so lucky. His shoulder hit the metal. He had slipped once already...from the pipe straight into the muck.

Pipeline.

2007-08-15T21:56:00.001-07:00

On Indy day, after lunch, roaming. Raju Shinde(fotog from Mumbai Mirror) calls, speaks of a broken pipeline, he and I make more calls, but since its Indy day, no officers are around to give any info. So we move around Powai, like fools. Little later I gave up, he was still searching cause he hadn't shot anything all day. Two minutes after I gave up he called, saying he found the spot. I have never shot a pipeline burst, so I turned and went there. Dodging heaps of shit, walking on a mossy pipe, wearing canvas shoes! I was keen on shooting against the light. So I walked through the water, Raju also did the same. Both of us were as drenched as this little boy.

Random

2007-08-14T03:10:00.000-07:00

Waiting for his colleague, one of the Mahalakshmi backlanes, explored outta utter boredom.

Pin Drop Violence

2007-08-12T07:27:00.001-07:00

Took a cab all the way from Bandra to reach Mikanos, reached in time to catch PDV and the ever forgettable/avoidable Pentagram on stage. Shot my ass out, and sped in a cab to office. This was supposed to be in the inaugural edition of HT, in the entertainment section of our 32 page photo supplement,with a run of the mill name like Mumbai Magic. I reached and they said edition closed. The entertainment section had only Bollywood, which is quite sad. We came up with 32 pages of stunning if not brilliant images in a matter of 6 days. The supplement was jointly edited by Soumitra Ghosh(our foto editor) and Michael DuCille (two time pulitzer winning fotog fm the Washington Post and a wonderful soft spoken person). DuCille had a session with the deskies too, on how important pictures are and how to use fotos. Too bad no one from that gang is left. Numerous attempts have been made to make another foto supplement, probably of HT's best pictures or like a pictures of the year, but none materialized mostly due to reasons best left unsaid. For those of you who didn't catch our Magic,sad to say there is lil chance of getting to see it, coz it's not even there on the Net. I have a couple of copies, if anyone is interested. And yes, it did work like magic!

Shaan

2007-08-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

Just a lucky frame. Shaan belts out Tanha Dil at some TV show. The show sucked, but I kinda like the song.

F/22

2007-08-09T12:48:00.001-07:00

Another press conference, another bout of boredom. This could be used to understand depth of field. Location : Vie Lounge. 4pm. Thick glass with Johnnie Walker logo. Lots of bored photographers lazing, smoking, taking pictures of each other, taking a TV cameraman's case or doing what they do (second) best...bitching about other photographers. The outcast walks around, after briefly indulging in the above. Not really keen on shooting Lata Mangeshkar and some other singer, he finds solace in staring at the mucky waters of Juhu Beach.

Aww, look at that Heart Shaped Balloon.

2007-08-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

Am getting very depressed looking at heaps and heaps of unpublished work. Motivation is running dry. Not shooting much these days, due to various reasons. On Sunday, me, my sistahs and dad went driving around the city. Both my sisters are elder to me, which is good most of the time but unbearably bad sometimes. Sonia(right) is the most fun in our totally boring family. She buys balloons and stuff that she will never use. She gave this balloon to the eldest one, Shelley. When I got back home, I saw the balloon on the dinner table... almost flat!

Fashion Week, 2

2007-08-05T11:12:00.001-07:00

Pia Trivedi and Shruti Jaitley, girls cheering girls...

POI anyone?

2007-08-02T06:38:00.001-07:00

In Goa, was shooting some crappy advertising awards, partly sponsored by HT.

Near my house

2007-08-01T04:56:00.000-07:00

A cab, a pony, a watchman, some rain, and a modular kitchen.

Valentine's Day

2007-08-01T03:03:00.001-07:00

Mohammmad Saeed and his wife Afroze Jahan from Kanpur(U.P). Cancer patients. At a Valentine's Day function organized by the Cancer patients aid association at Bombay Central on the eve of Valentine's Day. Esha Deol and Dino Morea had come, they were surrounded by "media peepals", so none of the patients saw em, not that they cared coz they had no clue who Esha or Dino were. There was another girl, some item girl, forgettable. Anyways, Mohammed has throat cancer, could barely speak, he is madly in love with his wife for over 14 years, he was just goofing around with us, kissing his wife every now and then. This was jus one moment where she was looking at the balloon and all the fotogs and TV crew yelled, " Madam balloon neeche karo!" Dumbos. This was the first time that they actually did something on Valentine's Day. I wanted to give him a copy of this picture and others too, but I was lazy and continue to be so. I can be found humming Johnny Cash's Walk the Line whenever I think about this wonderful couple.

Hungry Kya?

2007-08-01T02:56:00.001-07:00

He's there at almost every body building competition, thats coz his personal trainer competes too. He came in late as usual, but this time they didn't wait for him. And when the president of the Indian Body Building Federation gave him his visiting card, this is what he did. Don't be mislead by the quality of light, its a hand held shot with the ultra heavy 200mm at 1/10 of a second.

Plasticbagboy

2007-07-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Shot and filed this yesterday. At a local football match. The sun came out strongly for a couple of hours, after days of rain. Gave this as a weather standalone. Might be published in our photos of the week section that comes on Sunday. The photos of the week is a good thing, but this picture doesn't have that long a shelf life. I doubt anyone found it of any interest tho. Shrikant and ALex, boarders of St.Francis D'Assisi indulge in a game of chess while the others keenly watch their school trounce St.Xaviers in the U-17 finals.

Adnan

2007-07-29T23:38:00.001-07:00

I dread shooting with Adnan Sami. He has this one stuffy room, with a lotta equipment and he wont pose anywhere else. I tried explaining that we shot here earlier when I was with Express and I can't repeat it, but the beast wouldn't budge. Finally I told him he could do whatever he wants. And he said can I show this...
He wanted a copy of this, but I never gave !

Eid

2007-07-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

This is a masjid near the Airport. It was very tough to convince them to let me in. A year later, someone from Indian Express went to the same place. I was very pissed, since my picture was never published.

Bleddy Murder

2007-07-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

Am breaking a rule here...The above image was published. HT Horizons, dated 25th July 2007. What was published was an insulting take on layout and design in the name of creativity. As usual, they said "face nahin dikhta hai", and they chopped the image into four mug shots. For the really concerned ones who wanna see what they did, I have attached a clip of the story. I even got a byline for this. Talk about rubbing salt. Social suicide. Yep thats what the band is called. And it was very risky shooting this. Its the last decent image I shot that I personally liked...in a really long long time. It was so much fun shooting it... What a waste.

Chucky's Back

2007-07-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

Before a stupid presscon at the Police Headquarters.

Hoppin Boy

2007-07-22T11:23:00.001-07:00

At the Jain Temple, near my house, a young disciple, running errands, making preparations for Mahaveer Jayanti.

Early Morning Nap

2007-07-21T11:23:00.001-07:00

One of the lazy volunteers at the 2006 Marathon.

Ganu

2007-07-20T01:00:00.001-07:00

I am staunchly against the Siddhi Vinayak Temple. They are nothing but a bunch of bullies. They built a wall around the temple and it causes so much discomfort to motorists and commuters, and stupid politicians like Raj Thackeray keep supporting em coz of their political gains. I was very reluctant to go for this particular Ganesh Rath Yatra, part of the celebrations of The Siddhi Vinayak Festival. I wanted to go for Jethro Tull's performance, at Shanmukhananda Hall, another boring venue. But I was kinda coaxed by Manoj Patil(our chief fotog) to go knock this one off and then proceed to Jethro. Jethro sucked, the sound was awful, and I got pakau images. Lesson learnt.

Imad Shah

2007-07-16T11:49:00.001-07:00

Imad Shah, part time actor, brother of Heeba Shah, son of Naseeruddin Shah, plays the guitar quite well, and he's got a print of Rene Burri's photograph of Che Guevarra. It would have been pretty easy to shoot him alongside that picture, but I left that shot for it wasn't too hot. He did that stupid Polo advert.

Dilip Kumar

2007-07-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

Have done a lil bit of burn on the right edges, its a conventional darkroom thing, not too gimmicky. He was waiting for his wife after an event. Very sweet old man.

Paralympic Games, Nagpur, 1

2007-07-16T00:43:00.001-07:00

Ganesh Surajlal Bhoga(13) plays with a balloon during a break at the paralympic games. He came to nagpur thanks to the association that looks after the rehabilitation of disabled people in Gadchiroli called Aamhi Aamchya Aarogyasathi. To encourage participation, the paralympic association has asked for organizations to motivate and train youngsters. He was very uncomfortable around so many people, could barely communicate, and he didn't win anything coz he was running alongside national level players, twice his age. This was the first time that he has ever stepped out of gadchiroli.

Paralympic Games, Nagpur, 2

2007-07-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hansraj Patil is actually a swimmer, a national level swimmer, his dad goes along with him for every tournament, takes care of him. They are more like friends, and they are from the place I was born in...Nashik. The swimming events were on the second day of the Maharashtra State Paralympic Games. On the first day they had all track and field events, which he had come to see. Hansraj was trying to learn the javelin throw from some people, but he couldn't. Both, father and son were joking about how the ace swimmer couldn't throw the javelin.

Policia

2007-07-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

This was a day of screw ups. I was on my way to shoot a squash tournament, when I saw this policeman drag this beggar woman by her hair. I started shooting, and one of his cronies tried to smash the lens. I could manage only a couple of frames before he sobered a little and started pulling her by her wrist. The camera was set on 50 ASA, had no time to change settings after the night shoot, so most of my frames were blurred. Apparently these are a bunch of policemen who arrest beggars, take em to court and send some of em to the beggars home and all. Aamir Khan had come to see the squash finals, I didn't file his picture coz I had a kickass action frame of the winner. I got quite a earful the next day for it. I protested, "Is the match important or Aamir"? And by the way they found this picture too down-market an image for a high society newspaper.

Paralympic Games, Nagpur, 3

2007-07-14T09:25:00.001-07:00

The only diver at the Maharashtra State Paralympic Games held in Nagpur last month. He's quite an old guy and has polio, have lost the book in which I had info about all the athletes. Will try to get details soon. For more images of this story refer to our paper's edition of July 1st 2007.

Marathi Baana, 1

2007-07-14T09:17:00.001-07:00

World Environment Day

2007-07-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

A chameleon basks in the morning sun at Borivali National Park. Mahendra Parikh of Indain Express was also there, we both have very similar frames. Had pitched it for World Environment Day, the people at the helm told us that they will have to use it really big for people to understand it...I thought it was a very lame excuse.

Bose Krishnamachari

2007-07-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

Bose Krishnamachari, at his studio. Not really fond of his work, he's no Dali, but he's cool.

Marathi Baana, 2

2007-07-12T04:16:00.000-07:00

From the most amazing show I saw in a long time, kilos of energy in these guys. Its called Marathi Baana which translates as Marathi Pride. Ashok Hande(director, producer, everything) calls it 70mm marathi drama or something like that. Didn't have much time, so I couldn't shoot backstage. Will be posting more from this series.

7/11

2007-07-11T01:51:00.000-07:00

I don't recall his first name but Mr. Pandya was one of the people who passed away in the Mumbai Blasts (7/11). His daughter Hita Shah was helping her children Het and Madhavi do their homework when I went to her residence.

Survivor

2007-07-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

After 26/7, quite a few buildings collapsed, the most famous being Sadaf Manzil. This lady is the lone survivor of the bldg collapse near Metro. The caption seems to have vanished from the library file, so I have no more info on it. Besides am just posting this one coz am too bored of searching for other fun images. It's a newsy image but I never really thought much of it myself. I wish I was stationed a lil lower somewhere, the shot would have been better, but the damn people, they was angry and was removing their rage on us fotogs! As usual we are mostly on the receiving end, police people get angry, they hit us, mob gets angry, they hit us, anyone gets angry, come whack us please. Sitting ducks we are!!

No smoking, no eatables

2007-07-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

More from the first fashion week I shot. Backstage, they were all waiting for the solution on all those dangling things on their eyes to dry up. Wish I had a wider lens or the 5d.

Sundari 777

2007-07-08T10:32:00.001-07:00

I know, I know...it's a bit mean on my part...but what could I do? Saw this and couldn't stop myself from shooting. This is at the stupid French resort I stayed while I was in Mauritius! It was right near the sea, beautiful and all and they had no concept of doors in the rooms...and the bathroom had no ceiling, the food sucked, and I didn't see anything of Mauritius, apart from the places where I had to shoot. I was also told to conduct an interview with Emraan Hashmi, Celina Jaitley and the entire cast of Jawani Diwani, I gladly disobeyed!

Kimonogirls

2007-07-08T00:33:00.001-07:00

I like the small events, where there is less of security and not many TV channels. Especially when it has something to do with kids; people don't give a damn about a photographer lurking around backstage. There is lotsa access and freedom to move around, and some cute kiddy pictures that everyone would love to see. These two were rehearsing before their performance at the annual function of a dance academy. I went along with one of our fotogs, coz I was killing time in office. Never filed this coz it was his assignment!

SRK

2007-07-07T08:04:00.001-07:00

There was a time when he was everywhere, promoting KBC, promoting sunfeast, promoting Tag, promoting every god damn thing. He even came to a building near my house, not many people do promotions this side of town. Promoting. Shooting. Press conferencing. And all the time he'd rub his eyes. Sleep deprived fellow. This was at one such presscon! I had to crop off his left hand while shooting coz he had a mike which had Tag written on it, and we are against branding. In most of my images on that day he had only one hand, and that too kept fluctuating from left to right.

Migrants

2007-07-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

Now why would anyone do this...First timers to Bombay, from Uttar Pradesh, they wandered towards the Mithi riverside in Bandra Kurla Complex. And they took turns sitting on this tree in the middle of this dump, that too against the light. This happened too fast, so I didn't even get off my bike. One watchman spotted em, he ran towards em, blowing his whistle and all. I thought he would pull him down and it would make for an even funnier picture, instead, he stopped near me and started asking me if I had permission to be here. He wanted to see my ID, and said stuff like this is govt. property and all. While all this was happening these two vanished, and I vroomed away while this champ of a watchman was calling for assistance. Fotogs always get stuck, remember Kundan Shah's Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron!