Genesis - soumya.org

Independence - An Ancient Tradition

Against the backdrop of an exquisitely carved ancient temple, painstakingly chiseled from hard basalt and once buried under layers of earth to protect it from marauding invaders, a group of friends exult in the freedom of the 62nd year of India's independence...

The Independent

At a busy street corner, a mother and child earn a living from India's independence...

A Kodak Moment

In an increasingly digital world, a shuttered store at a tourist destination stands as mute testimony to a bygone era...

The White Swan

The forecourt of an abandoned mansion, pouring rain, slippery fields, screaming kids...the magic of cricket comes alive in a small town on the back roads of India...

A Call To Prayer

Freshly washed by the early morning rain, the open doors of the Mount Mary Church in Bandra welcome the faithful to prayer...

The Recycled Leader

In a country where recycling is a way of life, a politician's watchful eye protects docked boats from the vagaries of monsoon weather...

The Holy Man

People travel many miles to visit the shrine of one of India's most revered saints and wait for hours to catch a fleeting glimpse of him. On a sunny Sunday morning in Mumbai, we were pleasantly surprised to see him far from his usual quarters, quietly enjoying the sea breeze under the shade of a solitary pipal tree...

The Flamingos Of Sewree

A sharp turn down a grimy road opposite the eastern side of Sewree railway station in Mumbai, took us past haphazardly parked petroleum tankers, weighing stations and truck depots and deposited us on the empty quay on Sewree jetty. Striking up a conversation with the portly policeman on duty, we inquired if the visitors were still around at this time of the year? He nodded his head, smiled and said yes, adding that we had come at the perfect time to meet them. We followed his gaze over the adjoining mudflats to see a myriad pink specks dotting the black earth..these were the esteemed visitors...the flamingos of Sewree. In a phenomenon which defies some amount of logical explanation, every year thousands of flamingos come to this area surrounded on all sides by factories and refineries, calling it home for six months before they fly back to the Rann of Kutch to avoid the monsoon rains. We spent the next two hours watching the tide roll in, bringing the birds closer towards us and into the surrounding mangroves, marveling at this rare spectacle of nature in the midst of a giant metropolis and taking photographs of the flamingos of Sewree...

Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!
One a penny two a penny - hot cross buns! The rhyme came floating back from the recesses of my memory as I savored the smell of freshly baked batches at the quaint and slightly rickety Sassanian Bakery and Boulangerie in Mumbai. Add a beautiful Easter egg for company, some brun maska (a Mumbai specialty loosely translated as small crusty bun slathered with butter), three cups of Irani chai, an eccentric  bakery owner with a great sense of humor and it was the perfect start to the Easter weekend!

Last Man Standing

As the sidelines of cricket grounds get increasingly crowded by ritzy owners and their glitzy belles, clinking glasses and cheering fast changing scores on glowing screens, a diligent scorekeeper at the local gymkhana holds his ground as the last man standing...

A Generation Awakens

The sound of patriotic slogans wafting through the windows pulled me away from the squawk box beaming live coverage of the throngs of of youth (numbering in many angry thousands), gathered at the protest/memorial rally at the Gateway of India...Through the straining camera lens, I spied the children of a hutment colony paying their own homage to the brave martyrs of last week's events. No tv cameras, no reporters, no poster placards, just a simple ceremony which spoke silently of the feelings of a generation rudely awakened...

Honoring The Guardians

The last few days have been a flood of emotions as we drank from the fire hose...watching live media show mindless lunatics mow down innocent people on streets we frequent, getting pertinent and accurate information over the internet from strangers we had never met, detesting shrill hyperactive news anchors out to increase TRPs by creating panic over airwaves...and as things got more personal...seeing restaurants I have eaten in go up in flames, wondering if the bag of RDX was discovered in the spot I park my car in during midnight meals at Bade Miyan,  listening to my sister in law tell me that she can hear grenades going off a few streets down from where they live and finally, taking a detour past the war zone of Colaba causeway to pick my brother up once things had subsided. Though the family was safely at home that night, it was a constant effort to push to the background, the thought that it could easily have been some other night with a different personal outcome. It was to this spectrum that we added one more emotion tonight...the feeling of sorrow as we lit candles in the neighborhood park in honor of the fallen heroes who fought to save their city, my city...Mumbai...

Ganesha Ganesha

During the festivities of Ganesh Chaturthi, a participant in a fancy dress competition meets the elephant god on his own ground....

The Future Of India

On the 61st anniversary of India's Independence, a flag hoisting ceremony brings out the new generation in their finest patriotic gear...

Who Needs A School Bus

 Who needs a school bus when you can drive your very own auto rickshaw to school...with a navigator to assist in the journey!