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This morning, as I stood at a roadside tea stall behind the Writers’ Building, the city paused for me in an unexpected way. Amid the clatter of cups and the drifting smell of tea, I noticed an old man seated nearby, carefully arranging flowers into small bouquets—petal by petal, thread by thread—preparing them for a day of selling. Age revealed itself in his face and in the unhurried rhythm of his hands. Every movement carried the weight of years. One […]

This photograph was taken in 2019 at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. It was not my first visit, but it was undoubtedly the most profound. No matter how many times one witnesses it, the sheer vastness of the Kumbh defies comprehension. It is not merely a gathering—it is an entire civilisation unfolding along the riverbanks. The Kumbh Mela holds within it the whole of India. Millions arrive from every corner of the country—saints and ascetics, pilgrims and seekers, householders and […]

This photograph was taken in April 2019, on the streets of Kolkata near Kalighat. Then, it was only a moment—fleeting, unassuming, absorbed into the everyday rhythm of the city. Today, in 2026, the same image carries a weight it did not possess before. Time has altered its meaning. Reality has caught up with it. The years in between have been scarred by an intensification of violence against women—violence that can no longer be muted, rationalised, or buried under polite silence. […]

The photograph was taken in 2008, on the streets of Kolkata, during a quiet walk through the city. It was a cold winter morning. The old man sat by the roadside, unhurried and withdrawn, having spent the entire night there with almost nothing to keep himself warm. Perhaps no one had ever stopped to photograph him before—not photographers, not social card agencies, not anyone who might notice his existence. As I crouched down and moved closer to frame him, he […]