Incense Ashes

A decrepit Sufi dargah sits alone off a busy Delhi street. The edges of its solitutde are further sharpened by this orphaned agarbatti stand.

There's no one here. Yet I feel I’m not alone here. Hello, who’s here? Ho, it's a djinn!

Leaves of Grass

Two Japanese tourists captured clicking each other in a New Delhi garden. It was all quiet. The tree leaves were still. The birds were chirping. No traffic sound intruded into the scene. We could as well have been in Tokyo's Imperial Garden.

Booming Delhi

It is raining rupees. Middle class India never had it so good. There are easy loans for plots, apartments, cars and even Bose stereo systems. Malls* are mushrooming and flyovers are sprouting all over Delhi. The city landscape, and its character, is changing rapidly. Unfashionable Preet Vihar in East Delhi no longer looks unfashionable.Someone who visited Delhi five years before would have difficulty in identifying certain parts of the city. These are interesting times, my dear.

*This picture was taken at Pacific Mall, in suburban Delhi.

The Pepsi Generation

Stop*! Beware of Pepsi! Stop! Beware of Amreekan imperialism! Stop! Mother India is in Danger! Stop! Have Neembu Paani! Stop! Colas are sucking off underground water from the fields of dying farmers! Stop! Stop! Stop! Oh, the kids don’t care!

*This picture was taken in New Delhi.

Traffic Light Intimacy

It is not easy to be a lover in Delhi. Moral police is never far away. But still some private moments can be discovered in public places. Like this mobike couple groping intimacy in a traffic intersection.

Unexpected Showers

New Delhi. Mid-May. 6 pm. Hot and humid. People leaving offices. Bus stands crowded. A storm. Dust everywhere. And then the rain. All taken by surprise. Everyone happy but also inconvenienced. Gutters swelled up. Highways flooded. Traffic blocked. Everything in confusion.

The Hindu Purdah

Who says only conservative Muslim women have to hide their faces behind the purdah? Here is a Hindu woman*, perhaps newly married, hidden inside a yellow cloth. How does she look? What is the color of her eyes? What is her world like? Tinted with yellow?

*This picture was taken in Mahipalpur, New Delhi.

The Newspaper Walla

Mr. Raju carry on with his newspaper-selling business in Ghaziabad - a Delhi suburb. He wears a pink shirt and rides on a red cycle while newspapers are carefully arranged on an unpainted wooden table. He is quite content. At least when's he having his morning cuppa of chai.

Lady In Pink

Four 9-6 people, in their 9-6 dress dullness, stands no comparison against the dazzle* of the lady in the evening dress. But why are they not looking at her?

The picture was taken near Delhi's Palika Bazaar.

Accident!

He was riding on a bike. He was driving fast. Suddenly the bike slipped. Accident*! The traffic came to a standstill. People shrieked. Is he dead? Somebody said. Some looked anguished while many looked at their watches. (They could be late for office!) But the man survived. Fortunately.

*This mishap took place in Delhi’s busy Ring Road, opposite Sarai Kale Khan Bus Stand.