Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

This weeks wordpress weekly photo challenge is Solitary. I am posting a photograph from one of the street shoot at Mumbai.

The Flora Fountain area around Churchgate station at south Mumbai is famous for second hand book stall on the street. This is the area where you can get used books on almost any genre, category at reasonable prices. If you are lucky and try enough, you might end up getting some rare, vintage and out of print books also.

This man sells the book on the same area and is immersed in the book himself, aloof from the surrounding.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Everyday Life

For this week’s photo challenge, I am posting some of the picture from street photography and photo walks from Mumbai. It mostly portrays the life of urban poor, daily wage earners and life in general on streets.

Worker at ship breaking site. Darukhana, Mumbai.

 

Clicked this somewhere outside the raey road station in mumbai. A cobbler sitting at his self made road side shop. I find this picture fascinating simply because the kind of look I see on the face of this man. As if he has strange sense of calmness in his being and about what he does, but looking at his eyes I found some contradiction and it seem to carry myriad questions about life and survival in the city of mumbai.

 

Home Bound | Young boy returning home.

 

Fish Vendor, Raey Road, Mumbai.

 

Worker at the casting factory at Raey Road, Mumbai.

 

After hard days work.

 

This is a common sight in Mumbai where you will find these young kids running tea stalls on a footpath or in a some corner of a busy junction. They run tea stall along with supporting home and not to forget the studies at night school. So much for that age !!!

 

No matter who you are, need to communicate is universal. | Worker outside his factory, busy on the call.

Bombay Diaries – Vasai Fishermen Colony

Clicked at by-lanes of Vasai Fort, walking through fishers men’s colony, leading to the beach. Some one has painted a direction for the way to beach as there are many by-lanes around that area which all ultimately leads to the beach.

Fishing boat lying idle at beach.

This area is mostly inhibited by fishermen as most of them are engaged in the fishing business and so these sight of drying fish outside their home os very common.

Son of fisherman playing outside his home.

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Free Spirit

I believe in life, I believe in karma, I believe in death.

Everything else is in between these. Free spirit to me is being free of bondage’s and dogma’s. Free of notions that limit our reach, free of beliefs and practices that blind our vision.

This is my interpretation of this weeks photo challenge theme “Free Spirit”. This being first entry in the theme, I am not sure about the general protocol of the challenge but whatever I have known and read in the blog, I hope this is fine.

Of questions, emotions and lost moments !!

I took this portrait at one of the street shoots at Mumbai’s famous Abdul Rehman street market where this young boy was selling toys on the street. When I posed a camera towards him I got one poignant look from him which is also visible in his eyes. Those eyes as if hiding so many questions, emotions and lost moments in it.

Postcards from Haridwar

Haridwar is regarded as one of the seven holiest places to Hindus which is an important pilgrimage city in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India. The River Ganga, after flowing for 250 kilometres from its source at Gaumukh at the edge of the Gangotri glacier, enters the Indo-Gangetic Plains of North India for the first time at Haridwar which gave the city its ancient name, Gangadwara.

I am posting here some of the photographs from a short visit to Haridwar.

Wooden toy shop on the streets of the city. These are small toy Dholak (two-headed hand-drum) on the display.

Streets of Haridwar | You will find such streets very common where there are many aashrams, temples side by side on a long stretch of a road.

This is one of the most common sight at the streets where you will come across plenty of saadhu’s (wandering monks). The north Indian land, particularly that of Uttarakhand is considered to be the land of mystic where many people keep wondering around such holy places in search of Moksha (nirvana) and devine knowledge.

Street side barber.

Scene from Har-ki-Pauri ghat at the time of Ganga aarti.

Devotee at Ganga aarti.

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If you want to experience how the faith and belief of one of the biggest religion in the world (Hinduism) drive the human race in one of the biggest country (India) in the world, you have to visit the place and see it for yourself.

Additional Information: 

http://haridwar.nic.in/

http://www.euttaranchal.com/tourism/haridwar.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism

Of dreams and reality

He has dreams, but before that he has stomach to feed.

This is a common sight in Mumbai where you will find these young kids running tea stalls on a footpath or in a some corner of a busy junction. They run tea stall along with supporting home and not to forget the studies at night school. So much for that age !!!

Kankhet – An experience

During the visit to Jim Corbett National Park we got an opportunity to stay at one of the most beautiful location inside the Kumeria forest reserve “The Den”. The place is located on the banks of Kosi river which runs through the national park. On the other side of the river there is a small village called “Kankhet”. One of the most beautiful village I have ever seen with around 100 families making the most of the village.

It was my idea to visit the village once we got to know about it from the resort management and then our fellow traveler Mr Sharma with “18 till I die” attitude suggested, we go and visit some random family and ask for a cup of tea. Not a bad idea at all. It was almost dusk when we reached there so could not click many pictures but the experience was unforgettable.

Young boy at the banks of the river Kosi who was accompanying his father who came to get some water for household work. I tried speaking to him but he was not in a mood to entertain.

Some of the boys who are watching Haryana Ranaji cricket team practicing | Haryana cricket association conducts cricket camp every year at this place for its Ranaji team. They also provide cricket gears and some basic training to these boys as a goodwill gesture who regularly come to watch the cricketers.

Locked door at some random house at the village.

The home we visited at the village.

Nirmala and Anil. We visited their home and had a wonderful tea made by their mother. I liked the spirit of Nirmala, the way she spoke and the amount of knowledge she had. I always believed that children from town are relatively smart than children from rural areas for obvious reasons. This girl proved me wrong. She is updated about latest movies, music, Indian cricket team, about Delhi and “Bombay” and many more things…..

Anil. So much innocence and hope in the eyes of this little child.

Nirmala and Anils’s elder sister, getting water from the river for household works.

Page from Anil’s workbook.

One of the most beautiful sunset I have seen. Kankhet at dusk.

Hide & Seek

Mussoorie | After many hide and seek moments I finally managed to click this picture. Her parents were shopping in the next shop and this little brat managed to escape from their eyes smartly, only to discover me with camera.

An evening on beach

The city of Mumbai has been blessed with some beautiful beaches which are unfortunately not maintained properly by the authorities. However one exception is the Gorai beach which is relatively clean, may be because its less frequented by the people. On one beautiful evening I got an opportunity to explore the beach with my camera. Here are some of the clicks. 

The Gang of Gorai | These are boys from gorai fishermen colony who plays cricket on gorai beach on sundays. They like to call themselves Super Warriors and has almost 16 member team with Shane Kenneth as their captain (boy in yellow T with bat).

The sister act | Elder sister guiding her younger sister | This picture speaks a thousand words.

The boy with the cycle heading home at dusk.

The member of the super warrior. Batsman, witty, smart and talented.