My Photo scholarship 2011 entry
Worldwide | Tuesday, November 1, 2011 | 5 photos
Growing up in India, it was hard not to be fascinated with the "Kashmir Story". You hear it from your grandparents, who heard it from their parents and who heard from their parents. The "K" word was everywhere and as you can imagine, it lost its charm. I come from a family of travellers. I've covered tons of heard, unheard, famous, quiet, dirty, serene places in India and yet I avoided Kashmir. Simply because it got into my head that it is over-rated. But finally, this August, my mother convinced me to fly from Bangalore to Srinagar for a little vacation. I did. And I'm so glad I did. Kashmir was nothing and every bit like the words that are often used to describe it. But I realised that everybody views Kashmir in their own way. I saw it breathing again. Many of the shikarawallahs (boat men) that I spoke to said this year is the best in terms of tourism. There were smiles on faces, there were people on the road, and Kashmir was booming again. These pictures try to capture some of the liveliness that I saw. In terms of colours, people and places.
Originally I'm from Delhi, but settled in Bangalore & working with Reuters as a business correspondent. I graduated from University of Westminster last year with a journalism degree, but my love of photography that was gifted to me by the beautiful city of London stayed on. I intend to earn my way to a masters in photography eventually, but in the meantime, I want to learn, grow and click on my own, through my experiences.
This scholarship is something I would never have applied for. But that's what photography taught me, and well The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, that "when you have to shoot, just shoot. Don't talk". It inspired in me the confidence to approach people, to play with light and to see the world differently.
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