Photography

  Election 2024                         Recently one of close friend Sahji Joseph came to Ranchi to cover last phase of electioneering and made a programmed to Visit Dumka, Godda, Raj Mahal and its surrounding just to see the whirlwind tours of leaders from different parties and to get the pulse of election in this sultry heat and in the scorching sun at 43 degree Celsius. It was quite difficult for everyone to venture out of their houses and to hear their respective leaders but the leaders and their supporters were sweating out in this inclement weather as they have to get the votes from them.                         So in this way I met with some of the top leaders of the respective parties and got their versions and came to conclusion that most of t...

  Pretshila Hill Boys             While covering once, Pritipaksha Mela at Gaya in Bihar, where it is believed in Hindus that the dead soul couldn’t attain salvation or peace until they are not worshipped by doing Pind Daan to the departed souls of the ancestors in the month of last September and October every year. So in that pretext I was in Gaya and covering the pious events. This is the event going on for centuries and there is belief that without worshipping at Pretshila hill the souls of the ancestors who died suddenly in some accident couldn’t get salvation. It is a steep hill of the hight of 676 steps and climbing is very difficult due to its steepness. For the bulky and old person it is quite difficult to climb so the locales are operating palanquins and take huge charges from the devotees. Children also help pilgrims in offering puja and get some tips.           ...

  Tagore Hill, Ranchi             This hill popularly known as Morhabadi hill is just 4 Kms away from Albert Ekka Chowk in Ranchi and 300’ ft high with a long history of the revered poet Rabindra Nath Tagore, that’s why it is called Tagore hill. and sunset and also become hangouts for youngsters but before that it was an Ashram for Rabindra Nath Tagore’s elder brother Jyotindra Nath Tagore who was the guiding force of Rabindra Nath Tagore, under whose guidance talent of Rabindra Nath Tagore flowered and he become the first non European who won Nobel Prize in 1913. And even before it was a rest house. After climbing about 250 steps people reach at the top of the hill and from there bird eye view of the Ranchi is seen it comes under one of the scenic beauty of Ranchi, people gathered at the top of the hill to watch sun rise and sunset.             As Ranchi is situated a...

  About Ranchi              Ranchi is one of the oldest city and state capital of Jharkhand about 23 years back it was carved out from Bihar and came into inception of new state Jharkhand, popularly known as the city of picturesque   waterfalls inviting tourists from all over the world to have a visit and spend some calm and quiet moment in its meadow. Previously it was the 2 nd or summer capital of Bihar due to its moderate climate; it has also very old deep rooted cultural and historical importance too. It comes under tribal state as about 28% population of this state are tribal’s with rich culture and celebrate their festival with great zeal and enthusiasm. Sarhul is one of them, which is celebrated in the month of April every year, in which young boys and girls in red and white attire dance all the way in the city after having good traditional food and slurping locally made Handia highly intoxicant beverages. ...

  Tribe Dongaria Kondh             Once I was travelling deep inside of Odisha where I found a unique tribe called Dongaria Kondh. This tribe mostly lived atop Niyamgiri Mountains in wilderness of the Eastern Ghats region of South Orissa a fascinating Kuvi speaking tribe are called Dongaria as Dongaria means mountain Kondh means caste. The Niyamgiri hills are densely forested with deep gorge and cascading streams. Their living and attires are very attractive. They use to wear simple but colorful and traditional cloth, women and men both use to wear hair clips, women also use to wear a small knife in their hair and three rings in their nose and men two. Sometimes it is quite difficult to differentiate between men and women as they look same in their attire. Women wear traditional jewelers as well as wild flowers in their hair. They are far from modern day life due to severe lack of lliteracy, but some youth are using mobile pho...

  Anna Hazare Kites             In the early November month of 2011, I was on assignment in Gujrat and touring all along the Ahmadabad City as well as interiors of Gujarat state. In the mean time I was moving around in a densely populated area of the city where a shop selling kites of Anna Hazare grabbed my attention, then I asked the shopkeeper why these kites have the pictures of Anna Hazare? He smiled and replied that this Aanna Hazare is a saint and is in the process of changing the present political scenario in Delhi with churning out a great revolution with Arvind Kejriwal ,   at that time Arvind Kejriwal and Co. was also in very lime light and relevant with the revolution with a broom symbol so that he will broom out the corruption from the present government of Delhi as well as of other states.. I also came to know that the shopkeeper is stocking Anna Hazare kites for the Kite festival which commence on 14 th of...

  Phulwaria Dam, Rajauli             A very beautiful and attractive water dam is situated just off the Rajauli Nawada NH 20,, it came into inception in 1985 constructing across Tilaya river and village Phulwaria under Rajauli block of Nawada district in Bihar with the length of 1135 meters and hight of 25.13 meters. This area has Hindu significance Saints such as Rishi Durvasa,Gautama and Lomasa have their Ashrams in the jungle of Rajauli and there are some peaks in the name of those Saints. Rajauli is also famous for Gautam Buddha wild life sanctuary                Due to its captivating beauty and conjecture of pleasant natural scenario this dam is surrounded by hills from all sides is also called Meghalaya of Bihar and attracts tourists from faraway places, who enjoy the exciting boating into the dam. The Bihar government is supposed to develop this dam a...

  Somersault             Once I was travelling deep into countryside of Bihar and suddenly I saw some children jumping into a rivulet indulge in merry making and enjoying their acts with full zeal. So I stopped for a while and watched their interesting activities. They had the competition among themselves that who is jumping from highs and doing some better somersault acts than the other. Their activities were like visual delight. So, I aimed my camera towards them and started taking some pictures of the children and got some good and telling pictures of their activities. Those were from poor class and from nearby villages and enjoying the vacation as their schools were closed.               Seeing their interesting acts I thought that as they are from poor class and didn’t have any opening or approach to the high ups so that they cannot participate in some of th...

                               Ketty Memsahib         Born in 1952 being the daughter of Anglo Indian mother and Welsh father this 73 years old but attractive lady Catherine ‘Kitty Teixeria’ popularluy known as Kitty Memsahib Lives at a none descript place called McCluskieganj about 65 Kms west of Ranchi City, with a good motor able road crosses through high Sal trees is the drivers delight. So far Kitty Memsahib is concern she use sell fruits near the railway station for survival, which she use to grow in her farm, although she is the proprietor of acres and acres of land in that area but after the death of her mother in 1988, she left alone and after sometime she married a locale Tribal man and in due course she become the mother of four children and in this way her life completely changed. As she remini...

                               Sonpur Mela   Sonpur is a small city and sub-division in the Indian state of Bihar, situated on the banks of sacred river Gandak (Narayani) and the Ganges River in Saran district. Once this city was famous for longest railway platform. Its fair which is very much popular, vibrant and colorful fair held on Kartik Poornima (full moon) day on the confluence river Ganga and Gandak about 20 kms across Ganga river North of Patna, the convergences of these sacred river regarded as holy site among the Hindus. Basically it is peasants fair and people from far off places even offshore countries come to see it. But now the distant is halved due to new rail and Road connectivity from Digha in Patna to Sonpur directly. It is also popularly known as Harihar Kshetra Mela. Its main attraction is the biggest cattle fair, ...

                                    Sun and Jetliner             Being a visual media person and a wonderer I got chances to travel at many places in India as well as abroad. In this way once I was in Digha a very beautiful, calm and quiet place and most popular sea resort and tourist spot, but not so on national or international radar, I just heard about Digha sea beach, so once I made programmed to visit that place. Then after charting out the route one fine day I reached Digha a small town about 187 Kms south west from Kolkata which is also called “Brighton of the East” where luckily I got an accommodation near the beach. The meal which served before me whom I relished most rices with Dal, fried potatoes, fish curry, and begun bhaja a typical meal of Bengal’s ti...

                                                                Chinese fishing net              Once I was touring Kerala and loitering on the beaches of Fort Kochi which is famous for Vasco Da Gama sojourn, he was a Portuguese explorer and for the first time he explore India by sea route. And at the same time it is the birth place of eminent Malayalam vocalist Yashu Das . So I noticed the setting of the sun and the whole sky turned into a colorful canvas, and created a great breathtaking view, as I had my camera with short zoom attached I made lot of frames of the silhouetted Chinese fishing net which came out well and once it a...

                             Handia a rice beer Handia a toxicant is a symbol of celebrations, friendship and hospitality is produced locally almost in every house in deep into the rural part of Jharkhand and also source of income and livelihood for many household in rural areas. It is a women oriented business. It is made after drying the rice and mixed with powdered of about 10 tablets of Ranu or yeast per Kg rice and kept in large earthen pot or handi with mixture of water and left untouched for 3-4 days for fermentation or turn sour, after that it’s become consumable. It has less alcoholic content it is not making the consumer alcoholic and compensates the loss of water in the body during summer. Tribal’s can live without food for long if he consumed Handia as it fulfills the lack of food and water during summer for longer period and save them f...

                                                                       Beedi Workers         Once I was on assignment in Mid Bihar, where I found pitiable condition of Beedi workers at Bihar Sharif in Nalanda district. There I came to know that the Beedi workers are working in unorganized sectors or informal sector are mostly illiterate and less paid. Those are divided into three categories. 1. The tobacco growers are mostly farmers, 2. Kendu leaves collectors who are mostly tribal’s and forest based workers and the 3 rd one are those who roll the Kendu leaves with tobacco. They are very low paid laborers, home wor...

  Love Locks             The story of Love Locks is about 100 years old which ended on a tragic note. As the folklore goes one local Schoolmistress Nada fell in love with a Serbian officer named Relja and they were deeply committed to each other but Relja went to war in Greece, where after the war over and collapsing of Serbian Front on October 06, 1915, Relja fell in love again with locale Corfu women. After learning this Lady Nada got severe shock, she broke up with Relja and could never recover from the devastating blow. Fell sick and later died as a result of her unfortunate love.             Just to symbolize their unbreakable love the young couples use different methods to make their love immortal the young girls write her and her beloved name on the padlock, affix it on the railing of the bridge which is called Love Bridge and use to spend some time at the point wher...

  Agriculture of Bihar             Due to its abundance availability of ground and surface water the region of Bihar has got rich agricultural and alluvial land which produces rich agriculture products. The main agriculture crops are rice paddy, wheat, jute, maize, and oil seeds. Also some of the vegetable products are Cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes, radish, carrot, beats etc. This sector itself gives more than 70% employment. With The vision of state agriculture policy to produce of maximum agriculture products to come up to the national average. Opening of new markets has necessitated increased production which is guiding force of competitive markets.             In Bihar the major rice produced are Sona, Masoori, Basmati and Swarna due to it alluvial soil and favorable climate. Some of the pulses produced are Arhar, Urad,Moong, Gram, Pea, Lentils and Khesari and thi...