Different Childhoods

“Be careful! Where are you going?”
Well-dressed, sheltered kids curbed their naughtiness as they heeded the warnings let out by the elders. The polythene, trash strewn water could be deep. They wanted to have fun but not at the cost of their clothes or the anxious commands of their elders. As they climbed up and down the steps cheerfully and carefully under the watchful eyes of their parents, two other kids jumped down from the platform in the middle of the pond.

The new entrants playfully jumped through the shallow, dirty water towards the side of the pond. The sheltered kids watched spellbound with wonder and amazement at these kids gamboling through these dirty waters. Do not know what was going through their minds as they looked at the kids who freely frolicked in the waters. Different childhoods – sheltered versus unshackled!

As parents or elders, do we sometimes shelter our kids too much? Should we let them enjoy the simple things in life? Do we curb their natural, curious instinct, exploratory spirit in the process of sheltering them? I remember we used to sometimes float paper boats in the roadside puddles. Do not see that happening very often now a days. Are the kids today more mature, more worldly-wise albeit minus the playful, exploratory spirit?

The ride on the motorcycle, a converted Yamaha RX100, was a great feeling, as usual, a slow ride with no helmet.  With the warm dusty breeze on my face as I rode along, I reached the rocky terrain at the slopes of Gwalior Fort.

The local Jain community has worked wonders around the monument, having cleaned and landscaped the whole area.  Gardens have sprung up around the base of the Fort, with walls built to harvest rainwater, to irrigate the trees that have been planted.  The area is very clean, quite a contrast to what I had seen before.   I also had to take off my shoes as the community deems it to be a religious holy place.  So, I walked up the small but arduous climb barefoot on the path, landscaped with rough cut stones and cement.  My feet were burning as I stepped on the stones but happily, I climbed to the monument, in anticipation of photographing the beautiful sculptures.

As I reached the monument, I was impressed.  The statues have been cleaned and well-maintained.  There are twenty six statues of Jain Tirthankars in various upright and seated positions.  There is a mention of the monuments being built around 1424 a.d. under the reign of Tomar King Dungar Singh in an inscription in one of the caves.  Built between 1398-1536 by kings of Tomar dynasty, these are quite a spectacle to behold.

Ek Patthar ki baori is in the first cave, a water reservoir carved out of a single stone.  Honey bees swarmed around as I peeked into the locked baori.  As I photographed the details of the statues, a group of pilgrims came up to pray.  I quickly took a couple of photos to show the scale of the statues.

The largest idol of Bhagwan Parshwanath seated on a Lotus is the largest single stone carved statue in the world.  It is 47 feet high and 30 feet wide and extremely difficult to photograph in its entirety.  More on this later…

Here is a photograph of the row of statues as seen from an opening in the rock…

]]> http://www.naharas.com/blog/2009/03/gopachal-parvat-gwalior-fort-ek-patthar-ki-baori/feed/ 2 http://www.naharas.com/blog/2007/11/bhoomi-jathre-an-earth-journey-2005-tale-of-a-tree-by-shiri-dance-company/ http://www.naharas.com/blog/2007/11/bhoomi-jathre-an-earth-journey-2005-tale-of-a-tree-by-shiri-dance-company/#comments Sat, 01 Dec 2007 07:49:38 +0000 Nitish http://www.naharas.com/blog/2007/11/bhoomi-jathre-an-earth-journey-2005-tale-of-a-tree-by-shiri-dance-company/ I was perusing some old photos today and came across photographs from Bhoomi Jathre held at Fireflies Ashram near Bangalore, India. This was a fantastic event held from dusk to dawn and with only word-of-mouth publicity. I went with Dada on the Yamaha RX-135 that Sukesh had lent me. Thanks to Sukesh, I was able to enjoy this event. Dada and I, both had a nice time enjoying quite a wide spectrum of music and dance performances. Looking at these photos that I have been hoarding for so long, I think I should share some photos from the evening.

These photos are from a dance performance called “Tale of a Tree” performed by the talented dancers from Shiri Dance Company.  I love the theatrical lighting on the dancers. All these photos are shot handheld without flash.

(“Dilemma” featuring Kriti Achia of Shiri Dance Company)

(“Love Dance” featuring Preeti Sunderajan of Shiri Dance company)

Man Mandir has undergone a fantastic cleanup. The blackened walls in the inside chambers have been cleaned and very few bats remain. The dark stairways leading to even darker circular dungeons now have lights as well to guide the tourists. This is where the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad and had him executed. I took some long exposures of the dungeons and Jauhar kund.

After photographing the colorful tiles of Man Mandir Palace and visiting the chambers in Man Singh Palace, we went to see some older monuments in the Fort.

Some things never change: the desire of us mortals to leave our name etched in stone for generations to see. I have been to so many beautiful monuments and places that have inspired misguided lovers and mortals to etch their names on the walls thereby disfiguring those for others. Sometimes, all this reminds me of ‘Ozymandias’ by PB Shelley or even of that beautiful song by Kansas – ‘Dust in the wind’ (esp the lines – “all we are is dust in the wind”).

This particular graffiti looked fresh and brought to mind my surprise at seeing graffiti on Eiffel Tower in Paris. Now I really digress but I must tell you this; still cracks me up on my stupidity. Having heard so much about the graffiti and the messages for Jim Morrison on his grave, I had gone to Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise in Paris. It started raining and finally I saw a mausoleum with people around and graffiti on the walls proclaiming how Jim is loved and lives on etc. It easily seemed the most popular tomb around and I photographed it and the music lovers from all angles. I am about to head out when I see an American tourist taking a picture of his boys in front of a comparatively small grave behind the tomb. Wondering whose grave it was, I check out the tombstone. Lo and behold! It was Jim Morrison’s! Having gone all the way to the cemetery, I had almost missed out the grave that I wanted to see. You can imagine how foolish I must have felt.

Anyways, back to Gwalior Fort: I sought out some of my favorite views of Vikram Mandir, ShahJahan Mahal and Karan Mahal.

I keep returning, hoping to find better, more dramatic light. Still have not found what I am looking for but hope remains. I am sure I will be back again, to relive the moments I have spent with near and dear ones while walking, playing around the monuments in the Fort. The clock keeps ticking as this very moment passes us by. ‘Dust in the wind’, indeed!

In Dec 2004, I was in Bangalore on an assignment. It was the last evening of Bangalore Habba ’04 at the Palace grounds. A grand stage was set in front of the majestic Bangalore Palace. Thanks to Inayat, I was able to photograph a spirited dance performance by Nirupama-Rajendra and Abhinava Ensemble. All the photos in this post are from that performance.

I have been thinking of putting up a portfolio of dance photography on my website. Over the past two years, I’ve photographed quite many dance performances but I have just not been able to share the pictures on the web. Slowly, I am gleaning pictures from those performances.

Have you seen the studio photography of RJ Muna? About two and a half years back, I saw his dance photography. Even though those were studio images, my heart yearned to shoot dance performances. His images inspired me to shoot dance.

Photographing dance performances is fun and challenging as well. One has to shoot without flash, have fast film speed, an arsenal of fast lenses and like everything, you learn to anticipate movements and shoot on instinct.

Long back, I read somewhere -
“Work like You don’t need the money.
Love like You’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.”

Maybe, I should add to this -
“Photograph something like you’ve never seen it before.”