N and S

here are some pictures of N and her mom S. of course, they are so beautiful, it doesnt take much to make beautiful pictures with them. N is seven months old at this time.

the following two pictures remind me of the iskon painting of krishna and yashoda.

Avi

avi's portraits.

old people

visited an exhibition by bangalore's top photo journalist K. Venkatesh, about old people in old homes. very hard hitting photographs. the old homes he has photographed are more like orphanages for old people, mostly coming from lower income stratas of the society, many of them just abandoned at the gate by their children. this would have been quite unthinkable in india a couple decades back, but now the numbers are rising, especially in cities.

i took this shot in "gorkhi mandir" in gwalior, winters 2006.

incidentally i am reading a book which covers various aspects of "humans" (the book is called "Human"), and recently was reading about how old people are valued in various societies across the world and factors based on which various societies assign status to a person. there is a clear correlation between how industrialized a society is and how much value it gives to its older people. the more industrialized a society the more marginalized its older people, especially by their own children and society in inter-personal context. the less industrial a society, or more agricultural, or tribal it is, the more value, status and respect its elder people get from their children, family and society, for their life experience and the wealth of knowledge. does it mean that being humans, as a society, we value someone only if we can get something in return? so in industrialized societies (long lasting)status comes from the wealth accumulated, and age and experience are not of much importance - as "years of experience" don't mean much in the fast pace of development. where as, in agricultural or tribal societies, where things tend to be the way they always were, experience and knowledge accumulated over years are useful for young people, so old people are "respected" for that. this is kind of a depressing thought.

as a society if we are incapable of sincerely caring for our own old, who in today's times have less and less to give anything in return(of course we conveniently forget what we have received in past), then can we really claim that the love and care we give to our next generation is truly selfless? is it really possible, for some one to selflessly love their children and not care about their parents? they are the two ends of the same relationship after all! i dont have a personal experience of this, so its hard for me to fathom, but it really leaves me guessing.

why is the love from parent to child stronger and lasting than love from child to parent?

i took this shot in hampi, next to "krishna temple", mid 2006

sold.

very encouraging weekend. sold a few pictures at the bazaar, and a very positive response overall. will display the pictures for sale at one of my friend's clinic very soon. this will be a permanent display - like a private gallery ;)

displaying pictures for sale

displaying some of my pictures for sale this  weekend along with the "Sustainables' Sale" at Art House. please come to  check it out and bring your friends too.

ranthambore - artisans from kendra and people from shamota

here are some pictures of people from shamota's potter's family.


ramkesh prajapat, mastram meena

ramkanya devi

no, she has never been to any finishing school.

doli bai

bapur meena

why cant this little girl at right not be a "priyanka chopra"? just look at her confident and arresting expression!

here is what i remember of the conversation going on at this time between her and devika, i have translated it to the best i can..


her: i can come to bangalore too, i can make a choolha like this for you at your home


devika: we dont have cows there, how will you get the dung to coat it everyday


her: oh that shouldnt be a problem, like you send parcels from kendra to bangalore, so you can get the dung couriered.

here are the pics from kendra artisans of "dastkar ranthambore". following is a sequence of a lacquer bangle being made.

he has these various "bricks" of colored lacquer.

first he heats up the base, lacquer stick, then puts a base coat, which is that sharp yellow coating on this picture. then he adds coating of the desired color on this heated up base stick end.

ghanshyam

oh no, they dont change colors like that at the end, these are different bangles ;)

and these are the girls working on quilts etc at the dastkar kendra.

mamta

syani

santara

seema

these are no dastakar artisans, just girls bursting into a laughter fit at their own comic act - trying to use umbrellas for shade - while riding an open air jeep. and the umbrellas were about to fly off in the wind, and of course there was no respite from the extreme heat and sun in ranthambore afternoon. they can still manage to have a good time. :)

notice the look on our driver's face, he's not amused at all. quite a contrast from our happy trio.