Dare to dream: the little mermaid

Be like the little mermaid who dared to dream. She traded in her fins – and her voice – for a pair of legs so that she could follow her dream. Despite the evil witch’s best laid plans and obstacles, in the end, the little mermaid was triumphant.

Unless she dared, she never would have achieved.

It’s magic when you dream. And poetry when you dare to follow that dream. There’s a sense of renewal…hope…alchemy…serendipity…peace…

Take the plunge. Follow your heart. Take that risk. Just (like Nike says) do it. It will all work out in the end. Trust…the little mermaid!

Culturally yours: Battery Park Dance Festival

Culture should be made accessible to the masses. Pricing plays, concerts and dance recitals at an attractive price point is a step in the right direction. Better still is making it free. Like the Battery Park Dance Festival in New York City every August. Held in the open air, on a platform erected outside an office building, the festival is open to anyone who has the time and the inclination to attend. And there was quite a crowd. In fact, a lot of people came down from their offices to have lunch and take in some of the performances before heading back to work.

On the first day that I attended the festival, I was pleasantly surprised to see an Incredible India! poster proudly displayed at the venue. You may think that living in India, I would have had my fill of Indian dance forms. You would be far from the truth. Dance performances in India are, a lot of times, by invitation only, or are held on weekdays when it’s difficult to attend. I’ve seen more Rajasthani dance performances than more popular forms like Kathak. This was my chance to experience Indian dance forms live, ironically, far, far away from home!

In the picture above, the dancer is performing the Ganesh Vandana, a prayer in dance form to invoke the Indian deity Lord Ganesh.

Yay for making culture accessible to the masses!

iPhoneography: The fruit seller

I’ve always lived in cosmopolitan cities, which is probably why small towns have always held a strange fascination for me. Even as a child, when I went to Kanpur to visit my uncle, I was fascinated by the old part of the city where he stays. I could spend hours wandering the narrow roads, or looking down from the balcony at the street hawkers, who took over half the road, at the melee of humans, animals and vehicles fighting to make their way through what was left of those narrow lanes, the cheery greetings to passers by – everyone seemed to know everyone there. So on a recent road trip to Aligarh, as we drove through the small, congested towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh, I ran down my iPhone battery furiously clicking away.

While we were crawling through a traffic jam, this fruit vendor caught my eye. The pile of papayas kept wrapped up in newspaper, a few of them sliced open to display their brilliant orange color and freshness contrasted beautifully with the dusty backdrop of the town and the dark browns of the furniture in the mud smeared shop behind him. He stood there waiting patiently for customers, just watching the traffic inch along in front of him, while behind him another man was hunched over his work, and to the far right an old man watched over the scene while talking to the shopkeeper (who was invisible from where I was).

The colors and the contrasting actions made for an image with a lot of character, I thought. What do you think?

A photographer’s best friend: coffee!

Sounds wonky? Were you expecting me to say a tripod or storm cover or index cards?

Seriously though, think about it. A lot of times, we spend almost all day outdoors, roaming around in search of picture opportunities. And taking in new places. Traveling around. In the heat (or the cold). All that walking around with your camera in tow sure does take it’s toll!

And when you’re hot and tired (or cold and miserable), with your feet screaming in agony, you sure are thankful to see a cozy coffee shop around the corner. If you’re in New York, it will almost always be the Starbucks mermaid who will greet you and soothe you.

Therefore, I say, Starbucks = coffee = a photographer’s best friend!

Harsh realities

There’s something powerful about this image. The angry young man demanding silence, a harried looking woman almost in tears. I shot this during a recent trip to Dilli Haat. It’s a still from a street play on female literacy.

It’s sad to realize that there still are people, especially in rural areas, who see no reason to educate their daughters. After all, they’re just going to get married and look after the home.

I found another startling fact recently. One that cuts across the rural and urban divide. That of stress levels. According to a recent Nielsen survey, Indian women feel the most stress – about 87% of Indian women are stressed all the time. Mind-boggling, isn’t it?

I can only be go down on my knees and thank God for all his blessings and grace in my life.