Bringing it to an End- Maha Nabami

Nabami marks the end of the Durga Puja celebrations for us, it is officialy the day that you last see the mother and the day after that is when she is due to be immersed into the ganges. Rituals are mostly the same but a photographic delight is the ritual called Dhunuchi Nach ( the dance with the claypots filled with burning coconut shells). The dance evolves from a folk form it is an homage to the mother on the evening of Ashtami. It happened late on kali Bari. Not much to write as the void feeling of ending festivities is slightly difficult to explain but to give an impression of the withdrawal syndrome I can quote I missed work purely because of the fact that Durga Pujo is over. Here are some shots from the event and this is last in my series from Durga Pujo 09.

Ladies bringing it on

Twirling smoke

Smokes of worship

Smoke Head

The Juggler

Moving through it.....I wish i cud latch on sharper focus...too bad shutters were max at 25

She was just amazing...kudos to her spirits

Dhakis go bezerk with the spirits as well

Another round of blessings, gathering the divine elements

The last worship ritual I got to saw for Nabami

And here ends the whole die hard festival fun, this marks the begginning of the wait for the next one.

Subho Bijaya to all !

Madness rising - Maha Ashtami tracking

Saptami was wrapped up with a late dinner and some total clueless adda as we call it with friends at home. Ashtami was definately an extended agenda. We had kashmiri gate and new delhi Kali bari on the list along with the morning anjali ( the offering of prayers to the goddess on Ashtami morning) as the priortiy. Ok so the day began with some hurried dressings, quick dash of cologne to smell well and that extra tweak of gel to look totally the man ! Rumpa sported a sari and she looked neat neat with that on! We met at kali Bari and in the mean time had booked cabs for the trips to kashmiri gate. The Biriyani is supposedly aswesome there and I wudnt contradict it wasnt. One thing that I felt about kashmiri gate Durga Pujo samity was that they seemed like classy Bengalis. There are sects within Bengalis and one of them being the classy, intellectual, posh creatures who can purely deterr you with their extreme pedigree. The crowd there definately reflected that quality. Not to forget some very very pretty ladies and a mind blowing arrangement of food..getting out of Kashmiri gate was a task. New Delhi kali Bari was a brisk and regular visit and then came the plan for some lassi at Gol Market. Bombs I tell u, the lassi is good enough to drown ur intestines in pure ecstacy and put you off to sleep in a matter of seconds. Too bad I didnt take it's shots...by then we were all crawling and dying to hit home. Evening wrapped up with a treat to Sondhya aroti, the joining prayers between Ashtami and Nabami. Wasnt done to well so didnt take enough shots...out of the many I took I am posting a few.

You have to take flowers off a basket and hold them in your hand while the Purohit recites the mantras. Then you need to throw them back into another basket that is circulated. They finally reach the feet of the goddess idol. The struggle to get flowers was a treat and an irritation to watch

There are so many faces to witness and appreciate. I wanted to capture a bit of the faces but then dropped the idea as you never know when I get sued for taking shots without permission

Here comes the lamp of blessings. You are supposed to take the heat of the flame by placing your hand on it and then blessing your own self with a clean movement from your head to your face.

The crowd never seems to get enough of her and I never seemed to get enough of them

A few final requests to the goddess

Here come the kashmiri gate pujo Biriyanis...they were stashed with mutton and I realized their potency later :))

Seeing through a bit of faces in between

A small little footage to Rumpa as well....!

The Fortnight of the Goddess- tracking Maha Saptami on Debi Pokkho

The madness is rising, the fact that it is getting intense is something that I could feel. Saptami is the 7th day of celebration and the accepted second day of bong bonkerisms. After the hectic schedule of Shashti i woke up on the 25th Friday with a marginal headache and loads of shots to be processed. Now since Shashti was a rush, I wanted to Saptami a mature shooting day and not get too trigger happy. The other aspect I had taken a call on Thursday evening was I will try and not shoot frames which are commonly expected after every durga puja from a DSLR wielding enthusiast. Day begins with me shooting a mail to Mumbai to a long lost friend who is back in touch, posting shots on flickr, publishing the Shashti blog and then get ready to rumble war cries. Amby, Sekhar and Tamal made it home and from there Rumpz and me were hiking towards ground zero for the day, Kali Mandir, C.R. park. en route I step on my esteemed wife's slippers and get sent off to pick the spare ones with Sekhar thankfully offering company. Finally the day begins, Kali Mandir sounds of some real impressive sondha arti ( the evening offering of prayer) which is earmarked with some brilliant Dhak ( percussion instrument), some awesome moves of Dhunnuchi Naach ( the dance with angethis) and prayers to the Goddess. Firing a few there we trudged to the K block market Puja and a bit of B block Pujo as well ( these are two separate residential pujo venues). In the journey my heels and toes felt like pecked with hot needles, I swaeted off atleast 3 kgs and was no where close to be being a pretty site but thats the fun and the essence of pandal hopping ( venue hopping ) of this festival. The sheer movement, the fact that you will be rubbed against another sweaty body and not take offense of that and you will also consume every piece of junk food forgetting the year long mathmatics around your BMI and calories is proff enough that Bengalis learn to really let themselves loose during this time. At last , apologies for the fact that I have not been able to take or return calls during this time...the noise levels are crazy right now...you will miss the nuke drop forget the faint cell phone rings.

Jasper and Ashu thanks for dropping by!

Check out the gathering

The are the Dhakis, they play the dhol if you want to say it that way. Travelling from the depths of West bengal, they bring in the grounded sounds of our roots back into the Urban celebrations

A Little Bit of divine rituals in between

And a few very divinely built faces

And a bit of firy Dhunnuchi Naach

The Fortnight of the Goddess- tracking Maha Shashthi on Debi Pokkho

Marking the beginning of the 5 days of Ma Durga's journey amongst the hearts and minds of every soul that call themselves as Bengali, Shashthi is the sixth day in the fortnight. I was rushing from work at our cab driver's mercy and the mayhem traffic of Delhi to get my feels for the home away from home Durga Puja of 2009 at C.R. Park. If I am not in Kolkata, the only place that can keep me away from missing this feast is where I stay. I didn’t expect a 1.5 hour traffic jam from Panscheel onwards to the dreaded right turn inside C.R. park, yes it was there, ready cooking and irritating. I skipped the ride, got off the cab and started my brisk walk towards the rendezvous point with my pals, camera bag dangling on one side and thoughts of Ma Durga's permitted rush playing multiple scenes inside my head. I always wanted to capture this iconic festival the way I wanted to see it but I also wanted to be different from the millions of shots that are taken during this period. Reached Market No 1 at 9:30 where Ambarish, Aditya,Tamal and Shekhar had already busted their caps for some time. I was itching to let go off the lens cap and start shutter tripping but I needed that magic potion called tea. In between Rumpa texted to let me know that I can get over with depression of being late and probably should engage in the feasting mania typical of us. When the rest of Delhi is miles from chicken or any form of Non Veg we Bengalis get the most voracious for meat this time. Probably there are a few stealth converts of veggies as well but I couldn’t care less. Started with Kali Mandir and back to the tea stall for a refill, rushed to co-operative K block for another round of sniping. Do our women look beautiful, well that would be an understatement, they look mesmerizing now and the eye treats just don’t want to stop. Shahshthi was marked with shooting till 1:00 in the night and then a late dinner at my place till 4:20.

Beginning my Shahsthi account !

Framing the Goddess and her Family

Rush Hour of the crowds

Some tight security at the entrance

A grand spectator inside the pandal

Towering above us all

Time for some prayers and a few requests here and there

Back ground work, these men make the gala event a success

Bring on the Music! Baul gaan in the evening

A spot boy watches the melody king

The Hanging feasts !

pandal hopping continues !

faces from the Shashthi Evening

May the Goddess Bless us tonight

Face thefts at around Delhi

Photojournalism Candid, Street, Street Portraits, sniping, people photography, what do you call this....this act of pointing ur big gun at the poor passing faces and blam!! u keep them inside your memory card and then your hard disk. I call it street photography and inside my head I think I snipe. Well how does that feature as a photographic skill, i think in street it is more of the ability to spot the moment, capture that passing character, be invisible but document what you like and still make good images out of an ordinary moment. All of this put together makes street photography my all time favorite genre, the rush of moments and the rush of faces and characters, each one of them. However there is this small little debate that I often have with my own self, why do all street shots depict the poor and the dejected? is it for their emotionally charged value? Is it the smug pleasure of not being there in their shoes or is it that the cliched term "poor India" actually sells?
My first shot that fetched me my first ever online fame was of a little girl doing roadside gymnastics, it got selected on the Nat geo site. A little girl pushing her limits to get her daily wages and I shot it...is it the moment that caught the appreciation or the helplessness? Now I may sound like a complicated mind or a pretending moderate but these are actually a few questions I kept on asking myself. Then one day I realized why I would want to shoot such moments and faces, I think I know why I want to shoot the "poor India" and the only cause and right I have to intrude into their daily lives is to pay my small little ode to their spirits. Everyday our streets are flooded with men and women who step out their with the only cause in their hearts, to earn themselves and their families the meal for the month or the day, undefeated, undeterred and undaunted. It is hard to step out in the Delhi heat forget doing photography but these champions of everyday life manage to smile, pass a joke, have a moment and carry on with their bread earnings. Every photo I take of them and every photo thats sticks onto my flickr page or this blog is a testament of how true spirits can win the most one sided of battles everyday. I want to share a few shots that I have from some of the regular street shooting I do with my friends at Old Delhi. Pure face stealing and all faces of everyday winners.

All in a day's work! I will stick to this caption.

Pondering think tank

Confirmation needed now is it ?

Our storyteller at the junction


Not so happy and a Pitbullish look

The undefeated champion

The power of  indomitable spirits

Amongst a Million faces are faces which are one in a million

The usual companion

Lost in patterns


At the end of this long rant, I would really appreciate what your views would be.This was not a justification blog but a blog to do a bit of mindshare. As usual brick and bats are most welcome and please punch that comment box for me. Have a great weekend!


Shivaji

Lutyen's Delhi Long Exposed

The place which I first saw in 2002, actually I started with was Gurgaon to be precise. A lone scpetic and hesitant "me" stepped into the world of opportunities here and been here since then, I should owe my bread to this city and I sure do. Not dwelling into the history but purely looking at this city from a third person view I must say there is a lot happening every now and then here deep inside it's broad tree laden roads, amongst the dreaded yellow metro boards, it's pubs and coffee bars and off course at the political centers. Delhi is a city of dreams, a city where aggression and a blurt of "B" words are Ok, a city which is powerful enough to transform the life of a 22 year to a 29 year old, a city which gives me my tomorrow. Like every other opiniated strong thinking modern brain I also have my opinions around what should happen better and what should not happen at all at Delhi, but, there is definately life which thrives to exist in every living second in this city, there are hearts which struggle to return home winning everyday and there are committments which crawl at every known corner waiting to have their hugs and kisses with you. Delhi has indomitable spirits, indomitable hearts, undaunted champions and millions of eyes which cherishes it's structures and it's skylines.


I had tried my share to see it differently through my apertured lens and all of them at night and I wanted to share what I may call a fraction out of the large numerical called Delhi Nights :))

Regal Cinema hall, Connaught place. Vibrant and dreamy!




Connaught Place LIC Building - I call this Insured mayhem!

The Symbol of Delhi

The peacekeepers - Delhi Police

The Rushing Moments whizz past you...u feel it the next day!

Occasional Intoxications ! 

A Flavour of Old Delhi- how can you miss this??

The Sleeping Giant with a mid evening madness at it's feet

The Streaky attempt at Jama Masjid

The Mad bazzar at Old Delhi - Cold tones !

Once again, a big thanks for the time and the read, leave your comments and dont feel guilt slapped to slap me, thats the best I can do to get to learn from you. Have a smiling day !

Shivaji Ghosh

A day spent with Jama Masjid and it's moments

Masjid-i-Jahan -Numa is the persian derivation of our very own Jama Masjid at Old Delhi but I prefer to listen to it as Jama Masjid of Chadni Chowk. Built by Shah Jahan in 1656 AD is surely the largest and best known mosque in India and is an architectural delight for the human eye. Since I took up photography, the mosque has been my top hunt because of my love for faces and moments but also for it's architecture. Somehow I had not had the best reviews about the photographer friendliness of this mosque but trust me when I say it is a street photographer's delight, the ambience, the moments and the peace and continuous motions in the courtyard and the praying areas offer some of the best moments an eye can look to compose.

I first thought of capturing this beautiful monument at night and especially when we ( Tamal and me ) picked up our first assignment " Delhi Long Exposed ". Thus on a family dinner occasion I got to witness Jama Masjid at night and that day I decided some day I need to step inside and shoot it.

On one of our daily "Old Delhi walks" if thats the best way we can term our walking through the deep rooted heritage of Chandni Chowk, we spotted the opportunity to get inside. Paying Rs 200 for a still camera was not a big deal but the anticipation of shots and the ambience was truly a rush.

My core focus was not on the architecture but on the people and the dailly life moments which make a vivid and intertwined story of their own everyday and every hour. Here are a few shots from my very short peek inside the rich treasure of culture, history, piousness and sanctity.

 Little slice of life at thecenter of the courtyard

 Splash of purity : A ritual before prayers at the middle of the courtyard

Moment of rest at the lord's courtyard

When the mind unites with the almighty : Silent Hymns

The Hour of Silent Praying ( This is a grainy shot...incorrect metering ) but this moment was just too god for me to ignore this shot

The Bow of Faith

Hope I could give a brief flavour of the treasures this place has to offer. Comments and critics will be welcomed with open arms...till I dont get to see and learn how my end products connect with the viewers, I will always be competing in illusional competition and grace. I need to know the brick and bats..please throw them as hard as you can.

Have a great day and a week ahead.

Shivaji Ghosh