Burqa Diaries

I belong to Kashmir and growing up there I was very oblivious to the lives of this interesting, amphibious community of boatmen living on the lake. Growing up, I read about them and was deeply fascinated by their lifestyle and therefore the differences in culture of seemingly homogenous groups; for example Kashmiris. This led to my quest of leaving my job to do visual and oral documentation of the traditions of Kashmir. Palak joined me in this because of her love for travel and meeting new people and soon, we set out to explore.

For this film, we wore burqas and we travelled. It may look a bit quirky and slightly comical but the powerful anonymity this piece of cloth gives you is unparalleled. Our film making experience was therefore interspersed with fascinating encounters with an entertaining and conversational bunch of boatmen with a lot of stories; one of which even romanticises their descent from Noah of the Ark.

Winning this would mean that we've taken the right step towards documenting cultures through the beautiful medium of video and visuals. It would be especially encouraging because for the last week we have been despondent. Two days after we wrapped up our shooting, devastating floods hit the Kashmir valley and it has been horrific since.

We should, however, be chosen because we have tried to fit within three minutes, customs of food, marriage, and other aspects of lifestyle and made it dance to the tunes of the folk music of Kashmir.