FACES/PLACES

Friday, 25 May 2012

Bombay 2011-12

This month I complete one full year in Bombay. From the first showers last year to the one this year, the run has been a fascinating one; one that has been anything but ordinary. For the ever inquisitive soul, Bombay unfolds a new adventure everyday.

Bombay is...welcoming. It’s loud and its concrete and you’re in the middle of an ocean of people but it’s also quiet and lonely and there's music and life everywhere. Bombay offers independence, anonymity, freedom. The illusive 'City of Dreams' had me the very first time I travelled in the Local: right at the edge of the compartment door! Right at that moment, I knew life was going to be good. And Bombay has not disappointed me. This collection of photographs document those definitive moments that the city of Mumbai won me over - a small tribute to the spirit of the city that never sleeps and everything it has given me.

Monday, 9 April 2012

Moving Beyond Labels

My active involvement with the LGBT movement in Mumbai has given me the chance to interact with the much misunderstood Hijra and Transgender Community. What happened with Famila in Bangalore, and much before that, to Brandon Teena in the U.S are just two cases of the undeserved violence, discrimination and taunts that they are subjected to.

However this photo essay is not written to induce some kind of sympathy for the Hijra and Transgender community in the reader; it is to redefine and celebrate beauty born from the soul.

How beautiful it is to transgress beyond labels of gender.

To achieve that state where you are both but neither.

To break out of what is customary and source strength from your individuality.