All posts filed under: Culture and Communities

One Bengali Monsoon Wedding and a Rare Feast –III

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After I experienced the most dramatic Orchestra by the Frogs and Company, drunk Kaushik later that night told me to rethink leaving for home instead consider this as a mystical invitation for a tribal wedding that he will be attending later that week. I was already on an extended journey here in Bengal, but incessant downpour set me up for long at Kaushik’s home in Jhargram. During one of those rainy nights Kaushik received a phone call, where his friend invited him a day prior to his sister’s wedding . I got excited and we decided to leave, with a condition. His friend asked us to reach by the daylight. We started from his home on time, but rain and bad roads took whole day to reach that place from where we had to take the last jeep for the wedding home to his friend’s village. It was a strange place. There were many people but I felt there was no one talking. Like at any crossroad in the world, people were walking, buying things, …

One Scary Night at the India Pakistan Border – Visiting Tanot Mata Temple Longewala

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Amongst the six major wars since Independence in 1947, India fought its deadliest battle with East Pakistan which resulted in the Birth of a country called ‘Bangladesh”, in 1971. But, even though, the Indian Army was confronting the rogue Pakistani soldiers in erstwhile East Pakistan, Pakistan decided to engage Indian Army and opened the western front in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan where only 120 Indian soldiers were manning their territory against 2000-3000 Pak soldiers with 40 Tanks. It was a night attack in a vulnerable open desert landscape which back fired for Pakistani Army six hours later but by then they had bombed most installations with heavy causalities. It is known that amongst all of this the only structure that was left as it was, was a mother Temple called Tanot Mata Temple, with 120 men winning an unusually long fight. My work was done by the noontime. After a whole morning of chasing a Manganiyar tribe, I finished my interview with the old tribal singer and requested Veeru’s great grandfather to sit under …

The True Story of Sati-I

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In India, the term Trimurti is used in reference to the three faces of god. They are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. They are collectively known as the Trinity. Together they represent the oneness of the universe while retaining their distinctive nature and are known for their ability to grant boons. Hymns are chanted every day all over India, in temples and homes, and countless stories abound in their praise. Here is the tale of Sati, the wife of Shiva King Daksha was one of the sons of Lord Brahma. Daksha had many daughters. Twenty-seven of them were married to the handsome moon god, Chandra and among his remaining daughters, Dakshayani was married to Shiva. Daksha was not at all happy with Dakshayani’s choice. Shiva spent most of his time either on Mount Kailash in the freezing Himalayas or in Cremation grounds. To make matters worse, he looked positively dreadful with his long, dark, matted locks and that snake wrapped around his neck like a garland. Daksha felt that his beautiful daughter deserved a better husband. …

10 Secrets about Maha Kumbh Mela of 2025 that Each of us Should know

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Tonight is Paush Purnima night as I right this. And it marks the start of the largest and the Oldest Congregation of Humankind ever meeting at the Sangam of India’s three ancient Rivers Ganga, Jamuna and the legendary Saraswati. The Maha Kumbh Mela of 2025 is set to take place in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, from January 13 to February 26, 2025. Kumbh literally means a kalash “Pot” or “pitcher” in Sanskrit. and has significance going back to the times unknown. It is the most remarkable gathering of ascetics from all sects, traditions and cults in India. The Kumbh Mela is believed to commemorate the legendary event of the churning of the ocean (Samudra Manthan) when the nectar of immortality (Amrit) was discovered. It is said that a drop each of this divine nectar fell into the rivers from the ‘pitcher’ the kumbh at four locations where the Mela is held, giving these places immense spiritual significance. Bathing ritual is the most significant ritual performed at Kumbh. Although taking a dip in the sacred waters on …

Narayan Kaudinya Anuradha Rudrapriya Upadhyay Gadhimai Mela Festval, Nepal

10 Years to an Insane Assignment Of Life ‘River Of Heads’ 

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It’s been 10 years of those 10 electrifying current-passing days for what brought seeing to my spirit. Even today I only think of ‘why’, was I there or was it that I was demanded by the Mother to witness it. Someone who has been away from most kind of cruelties, being born in a lineage who never tasted fish, leave meat. May be it happened to shake wake me up for all what life revolves around, some harsher realities, some withering truths. To may be learn the ways and come out of the skin of merely being a meek observer that after a decade of witnessing it eventually brought me immense strength. And learn to observe to absorb. And I absorbed;  the smell of the blood, the count of the severed big buffalo heads or peacocks, even pigs, goats, ducks and bodies of geese. And of course it were not the fallen bodies that pricked me but those dead big open eyes that were always looking at someone or the Sky but not you. And …

What Happens When You Don’t Tell Your Stories?

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A poor widow lived with her two sons and two daughters-in-law. All four of them scolded and ill-treated her all day. She had no one to whom she could turn and tell her woes. As she kept all her woes to herself, she grew fatter and fatter. Her sons and daughters-in-law now found that it was a matter for ridicule. They mocked at her for growing fatter by the day and asked her to eat less. One day, when everyone in the house had gone out somewhere, she wandered away from home in sheer misery and found herself walking outside town. There she saw a deserted old house. It was in ruins and had no roof. She went in and suddenly felt lonelier and more miserable than ever; she found she couldn’t bear to keep her miseries to herself any longer. She had to tell someone. So she told all her tales of grievance against her first son to the wall in front of her. As she finished, the wall collapsed under the weight of …

List of 70 First Indian Women Masters in Various Fields Who Made History

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India, that is Bharat, is the birthplace of Spiritual Wisdom, of Imagination. Be it giving the zero, the decimal system or even the most sophisticated rituals of Body Science- Yoga, to the world. It is the birthplace of the Buddha, Mahavira, the 10 Sikh Gurus; to an extent Indian civilisation has also been the only culture where Women were given the status of Deities and have been prayed to as Goddesses. Ancient Indian texts have mentioned that wherever a women is not respected, there Lakshmi- the goddess of wealth does not stay. There is also a Sanskrit shloka that talks about the value that girls bring in comparison to boys in a way no where else is seen in the world. दशपुत्रसमा कन्या दशपुत्रान्प्रवर्द्धयन, यत्फलं लभते मर्त्यस्तल्लभ्यं कन्ययैकया It says, that One daughter is like ten sons. And that the result of the bringing up ten sons is achieved only by nurturing one girl. But of course life of a Women has never been easy at least in the Indian Subcontinent such as the pleasing …

A Dairy of a Photographer and his Incredible Rural India Stories

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Being a Photographer myself, I have always been fascinated by the old world charm that Rural life provided to my spirit. And Its not just about India but whole of South and South-East Asia had an unexplainable charm to it, still has. There is so much in common. Culture going centuries back. And today in 2023, when the world has started sprinting at a breakneck speed; when people, younger generations have almost, already left things behind; I feel an urge and need to conserve things, documents, stories, creations and life of the past. As much as I can in my limited means. And what better there is to learn and study from someone who himself has been a conservationist in the real sense. Jyoti Bhatt’s work is a proof in itself, that had there been no him, we wouldn’t have ever known what Rural India of the past looked like. Here sharing excerpts from his travels, some never seen images and stories that only his closed ones must have known. The diary of Jyoti Bhatt …

A Brief History of Time and Walking in the Ancient City of Varanasi

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– All say i have gone on my mother, slanting slope with a dead end like nose, high cheekbones, eyes watching from a socket, paler complexion. Today when i lied beside her listening, i saw a few lines sketched around her lips, tight forehead, intense she looked, and looked old. I leave for Kashmir the day after for a month and wanted to post this write-up which i wrote six months ago on the ghats of Benaras. I am drunk tonight. … Holi city, indeed Crowded by boredom Of new and the old Japanese is written on the walls, Telugu, Gujrati, Hindi, Marwari and deity of the falling doll, Walls are tall as lanes are narrow concluding steps Going towards the flow Ganga looks like one today The sun is shining on the polluted dark A bark flows with the river, with a free body, swelled liked a shapeless balloon Him, crows are murdering more. But the noon is calmer here, they say, river trudges up from there background chantings and prayers from sound systems …