Mansinh Gadhvi…

Working as a guide at the Vijay Vilas Palace, a tourist place in Kutchh, Gujarat.

I have lived in Kutchh for 4 years and know how to speak Kutchhi a little… I was visiting this place when I just asked this man “Who is current King?”… I asked in Kutchhi…

And then it happened… This man, Mansinh Gadhvi, talked to me about the Palace, the kingdom and the history for almost an hour… By the time we reached to end of our talk, I was already past lunch-time… He so easily invited me for lunch at his home…

We were completely stranger a few minutes ago… and just by speaking a sentence in Kutchhi, we were familiar with each other…

Language binds people… and when people speak same language, they become Familiar Strangers

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: Tamron 18-270mm Di II VC
1/125 Sec @ f/5.6
59mm – ISO 100

Agni [Sanskrit]… Means Fire… One of the Five basic elements “The Panch Tatvas”

It has so many faces…

Kind & Gentle as a father, when it’s a camp fire…

Nurturing one as a mother, when it cooks…

Illuminating as a Guru, when it is in a form of candle or lantern…

And turns into Shiva, as a roaring inferno to distroy the bad…

Agni is called a Paavak [Sanskrit], a cleanser and sanctifier…

Sanctifies all that come in touch with it…

Earth, Water, Air & Sky also cleanse… but they become unclean in doing so…

Fire sanctifies, and yet remains clean…

And that’s why Agni is the purest element…

I clicked the picture above during Holika Dahan in 2009. The Event of “Holika Dahan” is a sacred and mythologically vital event in India… It is carried out on the eve of Holi… the festival of colors…

The story behind it is something like this… “Prahlad” was a kid who worshiped the God… His father “Hiran-kashyapu” was a devilious king, and was against the worship of a GOD by his son… He asked his sister “Holika” to get rid of this rebelious kid… “Holika”, who had a fabric which would never burn, sits in a huge fire with the kid “Prahlad in her lap… But the Good always prevails and Bad parishes… Holika parished in the fire even after having the “Fireproof Cloak” and “Prahlad” prevailed… Fire did it’s job of Sanctifier…

Come what may… I’ll face it…

It is a statement of Challenge…
Challenge… An eternal human natuare…
This instinct of challenging has made The Man evolve…
Because man started to challenge the nature…

This is the attitude that fosters one further on the path of success…
And the ones who lose sharpness to challenge, parish there and then…

Challenge the difficulties…
And if difficulties come challenging you…
Accept the call and fight back…
And remind you self…

Come what may… I am ready to face it…

I clicked this photograph on Private Beach near Vijay Vilas Palace, Mandvi, Kutchh… This little girl was amazed with the mad and rushing waves that come and go… The way she stood there watching the waves, I had this thought that “Challenge” is a human virtue which has very deep roots tracing back to the orgin of human race… I couldn’t see her face and eyes but her posture speaks up… She’s not affraid of the sea… She’s curious… and She can face it to know it…

One may ask… Which is the moment of utmost joy in any journey???

It’s not only the satisfaction of reaching at the destination…
Neither the excitement one feels before starting…

It is the path one takes…
The companions who walk together…
The laughs and giggles…
The sights and scenary…

It is even the hurdles one faces…
the trouble one falls in…
the pain one suffers and endures…

In all, it’s not the Start or Finish…
It the journey itself, the source of utmost happiness…

The rider’s face and bullocks pace are “shouting evidences” of this thought…

Above photograph is one of the most popular click in my portfolio… It has made it to the wall in two different exhibitions… Published in “Better Photography Magazine, January 2009″…

Clicked in Kutchh, during peak monsoon, on a causeway which was overflowing due to heavy rains in uppar parts of the local geography… Scooters, Motorcycles and cars were not able to cross it as water current was strong and levels high… but the Bull and the Farmer enjoyed every inch of the causeway while crossing…

When we grow up… the child inside doesn’t go away… it is just locked up somewhere… under burdens of responsibility and so called “Grown-up” personality…

But it was this child which had all the innocence… it was this child who never knew how to worry about anything…

The whole world was a canvas then, and you could draw what ever you wished without a single thought that “what would people say?”

That child always remains locked up… unless you release it yourself…

Let is come out… Life is much simpler with the inner child being your true self…

There is a very fine line between Faith and Superstition…

Faith takes you a step upwards…
Closer to God…
It is Open in nature and positive…

Superstition pushes your downwards…
Away from The One…
Closed and confined, suffocating and negative…

Faith may turn into Superstion…
and Superstition into Faith as well…
It is us to decide what we wish to choose…
A step upwards or a steep fall downwards…

All philosophers have said… Life is journey…

But what makes this journey an experience of a life time???

It’s the road that you travel on…
What matters is not whether you’re moving up of descending a slop in life…
All that make the life worth is the Pathway you’re on…

It about keeping you senses open to soak in as much of beauty of life as one can…
Even a downward journey is also beautiful, if one looks beyond grief of “Going down”…
Remove the horse blinkers, and look around…

Beauty and happiness reigns everywhere in Life…

It rained all through the morning till afternoon when we crossed Saputara Town. Just when we started to descend from the town the rain stopped. We were presented with some of the most beautiful scenery on the our way downhill…. This is how I came to this thought… ALL  DOWNWARD JOURNEYS ARE NOT BAD… It is the path that makes our journey beautiful, be it uphill or downhill…

My Sister’s comment: There is nothing like Heaven or Hell on this earth… Its there within your heart and mind… Nature has unleashed its beauty everywhere on earth, which needs a beautiful mind and loverly heart to identify and appreciate itself…

A Bird Flew of me
and I thought
What’s wrong with me???

I tried looking at my reflection
in the mirror of water at my feet
I saw my self, all creased…
I looked old…
What’s wrong with me???

I was confused… lost… almost depressed…
I couldn’t understand… why the bird left me…
I couldn’t accept… that I turned old & creased…
Worry grew… and took me over…
What’s wrong with me???

Then I saw him
with camera in his hand…
He clicked my picture… one… or maybe two…
I thought he would call it “The Old Tree”
Disappointed I thought
What’s wrong with me???

But then, he came back one day
with a print in his hand…
Said to me, “Look my friend… here you are”
And I saw…
A brid flew… but eleven were still there…
My reflection was creased… but it was water that had ripples
And I read the title…

Serene Reflection

He said, “It about how you look at it…”
“Nothing’s wrong with you, friend.”

I clicked this photograph at Thol Lake, 25 km from buzzing city of Ahmedabad. Thol Lake is a Bird Sanctuary. I had been there at 5:30 am before the sun rises, just to get some interesting shots. And finally, when the sun was up, this scene was waiting for me.

Loneliness….

A time when one is with own self…
A time when one is truly the soul…

A time when one retrospects…
A time when one interospects…

A time when one foresees…
A time when one closes eyes…

A time when one remembers…
A time when one tries to forget…

A time when one smiles….
A time when one cries…

A time when one finds something…
A time when one loses something…

A time alone…
A time… worth speding… Loneliness

Clicked this portrait of my sister when she was deep in thought sitting on banks of a lake… She was so lost in her own thoughts that I felt like she was really enjoying her time alone… And that’s how this thought struck me… Loneliness is not always something to be attributed to sorrow, pain or down-side of life… It can also be a time worth spending… I have tried to express this thought through this photograph…