As I went deeper into the village settlements, the roads became steeper and more difficult. It was raining during the nights as it often does in these parts and in places, we were worried about whether the jeep would be able to cross over the roads that had become gushing streams. I was visiting the Khokla settlement that stretches alongside the border, right next to the industrial region of Pasakha in Bhutan.
Archive for June, 2007
Beyond Sight: Photographs by the visually impaired
2007
06.08
06.08
Photography is the art of ‘drawing with light’ but can people who inhabit a lightless world draw with light? “Beyond Sight”, an exhibition of photographs by the visually impaired, is proof that they can indeed. “When a blind person touches a cup, he is also seeing it with his mind’s eye,” explains Partho Bhowmick, whose brainchild this is.
Photo by Mahesh Umrania (more…)
Jaigaon Diaries II: The Women of Deorali
2007
06.04
06.04
After a sleepless night, I was not looking forward to the day but things improved as soon as we took the detour towards Manglabadi area, veering off the town road into the villages. The town of Jaigaon is noisy, dirty and largely charmless but the villages around it are beautiful. The rains make sure that there is plenty of verdure and the people not only look astonishingly fresh, they also have the open hearts and friendly smiles that village people are known for.
Jaigaon Diaries I: A relentlessly seedy lodge
2007
06.03
06.03
I entered Jaigaon in the dark. It was 7.30 pm and the power had gone, a frequent occurrence in these parts. A market spread out on the road, little shanty shops lit by candles and kerosene lamps, a sprawl of a town. It had the precarious air of a border town, a shape-shifting town which sees much travel. It smelt funny: a mixture of diesel fumes, food odours, sweat and damp ground. I was told that it had rained continuously the night before–sharp, heavy showers that washed the fields but made the town more muggy. (more…)
Lens Eye View: Driving through North Bengal
2007
06.01
06.01
The little border town of Jaigaon lies at the foothills of the mountains where North Bengal ends and Bhutan begins. To get there, I had to travel to Calcutta (Kolkata) and from there by flight to Bagdogra, which is the closest airport and gateway to many of the hill stations in that part of the world. The flight was full of eager, noisy Gujarati and Maharashtrian families on their way to Gangtok or Darjeeling and I was probably the only one going towards the less scenic last Indian town of Jaigaon.
