Binary Lives

This is a small tribute to two incredible women I know - Sonal and Rupa. Hailing from Goa, born to a Pahadi father and a Maharashtrian mother, these women have one common fight - the fight for love. While one is famous for her stand on LGBT issues in India, the other for standing by her love in circumstances most lovers today would not be able to. Its not everyday that you meet a set of twins so passionate about love.

Of Faces

Caffeine for a City

The Mumbai Suburban Railway network, referred as the "Local, by Mumbaikars, has the highest passenger density compared to any other urban railway system in the world, and is the oldest railways system in Asia.
Rightly called the 'Pulse of Mumbai', the four railway lines comprising the network act as arteries and veins of the city, transporting populations where they are required.
The Local is the caffeine that keeps Mumbai awake to make it the city that it is.

I'd heard Bombay never sleeps

Trance Ganesha

Every Ganapati Visarjan, Mumbai comes alive. While the city bids adieu to its beloved elephant god, its citizens throng the streets - singing and dancing in joy.

As you manouver the city in a taxi, which you know you're gonna pay double than you normally would, waves of Bollywood remixes, house music, Justin Beiber and dhol beats combine to produce energy that pulsates, vibrates, breathes through you.

                                           And then you reach Haji Ali.

This pandal and the devotees who come here groove to music few would associate with Ganapati, religion or even India for that matter; for these choose to express their devotion for the Lord through - Trance.

Devantakanashakarin: Destroyer of Evils and Asuras

Rudrapriya: Beloved of Lord Shiva

Shadows in trance

Lamakarna: Large-eared Lord

Vignaharta: Demolisher of obstacles

Manomay: Winner of hearts

Until next year...

--
Help me continue bringing you untold stories through photos and films. Become my Patron. Follow the link: https://www.patreon.com/prashansa

Out! My first book cover!

Edited by Minal Hajratwala, Out! is the latest anthology of Queer literature to come out of India. Published by India's first queer publishing house Queer Ink, readers have called it 'One of the best things that happened in the field of queer publication. A collector's item!' Follow this link to get a copy for yourself here.

In Bengaluru, a law student falls in love as the nation’s highest courts decide whether his love is legitimate. In Mumbai, a film star and a parent discuss their own journeys of “coming out” as advocates of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement. In rural Kerala, two girls row a small boat and feel their hearts open. These are the lives of queer Indians today: poignant, gripping, and occasionally even hilarious. Through their original and unforgettable stories, penned by the community’s master storytellers as well as emerging writers, Out! offers a glimpse beyond the closet doors – and into the lives and dreams of India’s most misunderstood minority. Editor Minal Hajratwala is the author of Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents. The book won a Pen USA Award, an Asian American Writers Workshop Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and a California Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Writing Prize. She spent the 2010-2011 academic year in Mumbai as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar researching a novel, while also writing poems about the unicorns of the ancient Indus Valley. She is a writing coach, and her own creative work has received numerous awards. As a journalist, Minal has worked for eight years at the San Jose Mercury News and was a National Arts Journalism Program fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is a graduate of Stanford University. Minal spends her time between Bangalore and San Francisco.

Glimpses of Gods in this Urban Jungle

The wave of modernization that took place in India in the 1960s saw the shutting down of  hundreds of mills around the country. The drive spelt doom for lakhs of mill labourers who found themselves unemployed overnight with large families to take care of.

Modern glass buildings which house international banks and multi-national companies now occupy the compound.

These statues that adorn the parking lot stand testimony of a country eagerly leaping for modernization while still holding on to a past that was and is still beautiful.

--

Help me continue bringing you untold stories through photos and films. Become my Patron. Follow the link: https://www.patreon.com/prashansa

Alternative Initiatives

Alternative Initiatives is a Mumbai-based theatre initiative started by noted film, television and theatre actor, and a published author of short stories Mona Ambegaonkar. 

 The one-day Theatre Workshop was aimed to build awareness of how relationships are built between characters/people and their space.

Mona with the workshop attendees.