Wall Art in Rajasthan

Art and architecture go hand in hand in Rajasthan. Apart from the magnificent forts standing tall for ages, the state is also filled with colourful paintings on walls. During my visit to Rajasthan in December 2018 I saw some beautiful murals on the walls and captured them through my viewfinder. I have wanted to put up a blog post on the same since then but some hindrance or the other always prevented me from actually doing it. Now, after almost 22 months, I have finally managed to compile some sort of a post. This is going to be predominantly an image heavy post with some interspersed sentences.

Lockdown 2020

This period of lockdown has taught me one thing – we often fail to see what’s around us. We are confined to the four walls in our home and feel trapped quite often. We want to go out into the streets again, to meet our friends, to loiter aimlessly along the banks of the Ganges with a ‘ভাঁড়’ of tea in our hands. We wish for the end of this crisis. But we forget we have our own little world at our home – our family. Our life has sped up so much that we hardly have time for our family.

Puri in pictures

Puri, one-third of the Di-Pu-Da trilogy, is the most frequented destination for many Bengali tourists. I myself have been to Puri about eight times. Earlier every alternate year we used to visit Puri until 2011. Despite going so many times the fascination never ended. Each time it felt like the first time. The crashing of the waves as it neared the shore, the long walk along the sandy beach, the delectable sweets sold by the hawkers on the beach, the hustle and bustle of people – everything evoked a sense of fondness.

Since owning a camera I have wanted to go to Puri to frame my childhood memories. Finally last December in 2019 we landed up in the city with a huge group of people comprising of relatives and cousins. Through this post I would like to show everyone some glimpses of the scenes I witnessed.

Baranagar Heritage Walk

Kolkata has a lot of things to offer us among which we know very few. One of these is the rich heritage of Baranagar about which I had no idea. So when I came to know about a heritage walk to be conducted by Chitrakotha I eagerly jumped on board and registered. I had been to Baranagar before to visit some of my relatives but never ventured out on the streets to explore the place. This made my excitement more palpable.

On the 23^rd of February I joined a motley group of people in Sinthi More who had gathered on a Sunday to delve into the heritage in the nooks and crannies of Baranagar. Our team leaders were Mukut da and Soumyashree di with whom I had collaborated on a photography exhibition last January. Among them was Siddhartha Sir who is an avid blogger himself apart from being my teacher in Calcutta University (you can find his take on this day here).

An Adventurous Afternoon

Living in Kolkata since birth, I have seen a lot of photographs of the tram going through the Maidan but had never ventured out myself. I decided to tick this off my bucket list last November and called up people asking if they wanted to join. I had no idea where to go because the Maidan is a huge space. Luckily after enquiring some people and with the help of the internet I found out I have to go to Esplanade Tram Depot and look out for Tram No. 36 going to Kidderpore from Esplanade.