Miami-based Ami Vitale zipped through Maharashtra last month, and photographed the kushti or wrestling schools in Kolhapur. The traditional sport has been photographed before, but Ami has done the photo-story because red-clay wrestling is in its last lap.
"...The Indian Fighters Federation in the capital of New Delhi stunned thousands of fighters when it announced prohibition of fighting on red soil and ordered fight clubs to buy mattresses for their arenas. Ending the traditional red clay wrestling was an idea sprouted from the aspiration to achieve more Olympic medals since the last and only medal India brought home in wrestling was a bronze in 1952," she wrote in her 84-picture photo essay
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Iceland's volcano
Photo copyright: Whitehotpix/ZUMA press
National Geographic’s volcanologists and teams of experts must be tracking Iceland’s volcano which erupted and disrupted air travel across continents. And so would be hordes of journalists and photojournalists. What an assignment!
I wanted to see pix of the phenomenon and found two nice photo-galleries taking one closer to the volcano. Check how the volcanic eruption looks from NASA’s satellite cameras.
National Geographic has sourced pictures from the Icelandic Coast Guard. Some pictures of the Lightning at volcano And the plumes of volcanic ash shot by Arni Saeberg
Time magazine has put up a collection of pictures in The Eerie Beauty of Iceland’s Volcano
Monday, April 05, 2010
Faces of the Holocaust
Caption: German soldiers of the Waffen-SS and the Reich Labor Service look on as a member of an Einsatzgruppe prepares to shoot a Ukrainian Jew kneeling on the edge of a mass grave filled with corpses in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, USSR.
Photo Courtesy: United States Holocaust Memorial [Photograph #64407]
My friend Abhijit Bhatlekar from Mint sent me this link. Polish photographer Maciek Nabrdalik, who is part of the mentorship programme started by James Nachtwey's agency VII, decided that he needed to capture the faces of the survivors of the Holocaust before they fade away forever into history.
I think the concept and the pictures are brilliant. Do check Maciek Nabradik’s project Also read the reader comments on this New York Times photo blog, and tell me what you think of these pictures.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Two poems
Srishti Shenoy, the lovely daughter of my Sharjah-based friends Vidya and Praveen Shenoy, has arrived in India on annual summer vacation, and guess what she has started doing lately – writing poetry! And I remember a line from Polish poetess and Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska: I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems!
So, I reproduce the first two poems Srishti, who is eight years old and will join Class III this April in Sharjah’s DPS School, has written for her school magazine.
If I were…
If I were a butterfly,
I would spread out my wings
If I were a bear,
I would eat sweet things
If I were a crocodile,
I would go snap snap
If I were a fish,
I would go swim swim
But I am happy to be me…
Lovely Colours
Red is bright
Orange is light
Yellow is a sun
Green lettuce in a bun!
Blue is water
Indigo is darker
Violet is the last
So lovely are the colours of the rainbow!
I don't think I even knew how to clean my running nose when I was eight, forget writing rhyming poetry. When I pointed out that the last two lines don't rhyme at all, she replied matter-of-factly, "No they don't". Thats good I thought. That way, she would come out sooner out of the confines of rhyme meters.
So, I reproduce the first two poems Srishti, who is eight years old and will join Class III this April in Sharjah’s DPS School, has written for her school magazine.
If I were…
If I were a butterfly,
I would spread out my wings
If I were a bear,
I would eat sweet things
If I were a crocodile,
I would go snap snap
If I were a fish,
I would go swim swim
But I am happy to be me…
Lovely Colours
Red is bright
Orange is light
Yellow is a sun
Green lettuce in a bun!
Blue is water
Indigo is darker
Violet is the last
So lovely are the colours of the rainbow!
I don't think I even knew how to clean my running nose when I was eight, forget writing rhyming poetry. When I pointed out that the last two lines don't rhyme at all, she replied matter-of-factly, "No they don't". Thats good I thought. That way, she would come out sooner out of the confines of rhyme meters.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Inge Morath
Picture copyright: Magnum Photos
I came across Inge Morath’s legendary photograph of Marilyn Monroe on the sets of Arthur Miller’s The Misfits in a photo exhibition Leica, the great camera-making company, brought to Mumbai a few years ago. That exhibition also had some images from Henri Cartier Bresson, who always used a Leica 35mm camera for all his pictures. Two images - Morath’s Monroe, and Bresson’s painting like portrait of Kashmiri women dressed in traditional clothes on a hill top at the crack of first light – remained etched in my memory.
Like Cartier-Bresson, Inge Morath has also captured some of the leading global thinkers, poets, artists, writers, film-makers and film stars in portraits. Born in Austria in 1923, she completed her studies in Berlin, and became first a translator and then a journalist. A friend of photographer Ernst Haas, she wrote articles accompanying his photographs. It was Robert Capa who invited Morath to join Magnum Photo agency as an editor. She began photographing in 1951, and later assisted Cartier-Bresson as a researcher for two years. In 1955, she became a full Magnum member.
Morath travelled extensively and worked for a number of world’s leading magazines. She shot photographs on the sets of John Houston films. Her photographs of Marilyn Monroe on the sets of Houston’s 1961 film The Misfits (which was scripted by playwright-writer Arthur Miller) brought her instant fame. In 1962, she married Miller. Her initial work is black and white, but she continued shooting in colour right up to 2002, when she passed away.
Thanks to the wonderful re-design by Magnum Photos recently, about 12 different features of Morath’s work are now available for us to see on their website. Apart from portraits of Houston and Miller, her camera has captured painters like Pablo Picasso, Francoise Gilot, writers Francois Sagan, John Updike, Anais Nin and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, playwright Harold Pinter, fashion legend Yves St Laurent, French couturier Pierre Cardin among others.
Apart from the Marilyn Monroe series, Morath has captured pictures of Hollywood legends like Yul Brynner, Audrey Hepburn, Peter Houston, Ingrid Bergman, Elia Kazan, Dustin Hoffman (who starred in Miller’s Death of a Salesman), Liam Neeson (who acted in Miller’s play The Crucible in 2002). There is also a beautiful portrait of Anthony Quinn shot in 1959 at a café. Quinn’s two companions can’t get their eyes of the star!
Since her death in 2002, Magnum Photos gives away the Inge Morath award for women photographers below the age of 30 who want to work on a long term documentary photography project. Please also check the work of Olivia Arthur , the 2008 award winner.
I came across Inge Morath’s legendary photograph of Marilyn Monroe on the sets of Arthur Miller’s The Misfits in a photo exhibition Leica, the great camera-making company, brought to Mumbai a few years ago. That exhibition also had some images from Henri Cartier Bresson, who always used a Leica 35mm camera for all his pictures. Two images - Morath’s Monroe, and Bresson’s painting like portrait of Kashmiri women dressed in traditional clothes on a hill top at the crack of first light – remained etched in my memory.
Like Cartier-Bresson, Inge Morath has also captured some of the leading global thinkers, poets, artists, writers, film-makers and film stars in portraits. Born in Austria in 1923, she completed her studies in Berlin, and became first a translator and then a journalist. A friend of photographer Ernst Haas, she wrote articles accompanying his photographs. It was Robert Capa who invited Morath to join Magnum Photo agency as an editor. She began photographing in 1951, and later assisted Cartier-Bresson as a researcher for two years. In 1955, she became a full Magnum member.
Morath travelled extensively and worked for a number of world’s leading magazines. She shot photographs on the sets of John Houston films. Her photographs of Marilyn Monroe on the sets of Houston’s 1961 film The Misfits (which was scripted by playwright-writer Arthur Miller) brought her instant fame. In 1962, she married Miller. Her initial work is black and white, but she continued shooting in colour right up to 2002, when she passed away.
Thanks to the wonderful re-design by Magnum Photos recently, about 12 different features of Morath’s work are now available for us to see on their website. Apart from portraits of Houston and Miller, her camera has captured painters like Pablo Picasso, Francoise Gilot, writers Francois Sagan, John Updike, Anais Nin and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, playwright Harold Pinter, fashion legend Yves St Laurent, French couturier Pierre Cardin among others.
Apart from the Marilyn Monroe series, Morath has captured pictures of Hollywood legends like Yul Brynner, Audrey Hepburn, Peter Houston, Ingrid Bergman, Elia Kazan, Dustin Hoffman (who starred in Miller’s Death of a Salesman), Liam Neeson (who acted in Miller’s play The Crucible in 2002). There is also a beautiful portrait of Anthony Quinn shot in 1959 at a café. Quinn’s two companions can’t get their eyes of the star!
Since her death in 2002, Magnum Photos gives away the Inge Morath award for women photographers below the age of 30 who want to work on a long term documentary photography project. Please also check the work of Olivia Arthur , the 2008 award winner.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Women in Parliament
Picture Courtesy: Office of President, Rwanda/Frederick Munyanbuga
The sickening drama over the Women's Reservation Bill is finally over. I hope it does not repeat again in the Lok Sabha.
I came across this interesting chart showing the percentages of women in global parliaments. The data has been compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the basis of information provided by national parliaments of 187 countries as of Jan 2010. The chart gives percentages of women in both houses of parliament, and India ranks a pathetic 99th in the list. But guess who tops the chart? Rwanda
Rwanda has 45 women in the 80-seat lower house, and 9 women in the 26-seat upper house. Thats 56 per cent in the lower house and 34 per cent in the upper house. COmparatively, India has just 59 women in the 545 seat lower house, and 21 women in 233 seat upper house. Thats 10.8 per cent in the Lok Sabha and just nine per cent in the Rajya Sabha.
Even Pakistan has better figures. In the 2008 elections, 76 women were elected to the 342 seat Pak lower house (22.2 per cent), and 17 women found a place in the 100-seat upper house (17 per cent). Our other neighbour Nepal has sent 197 women in its 594-seat lower house (33.2 percent) and ranks 19th in the list. China ranks 55th in the list.
Leading the list are countries like Sweden, South Africa, Cuba, Iceland, Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Mozambique and Angola in the top ten with more than 38 per cent women in their parliaments.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Tree squirrel
Spotted this big one on a jackfruit tree at Periyar wild life sanctuary, Thekkady. She was attacking the jackfruit when I distracted her with my shots.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tributes to Sachin Tendulkar
This is an email forward. Just had to post it. My office television usually beams news, but on India match days the whole office congregates near it. Yesterday, nobody could go away from the TV. Sachin crossed the first hundred, and rapidly moved towards the second. And everyone was just sure Sachin would create history, and no one wanted to miss the moment. He seemed to have decided that he won't give away his wicket, and he did not till the last ball of the 50th over was bowled.
_____________________________________________________ “Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it."
- Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight.
"Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job."
- Yaseer Hameed
"To Sachin, the man we all want to be"
- What Andrew Symonds wrote on an Aussie T-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin
“Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives"
- BBC on Sachin
But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers would not fix the odds - or a game - until Tendulkar was out.
"Tujhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?"
Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch.
“Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal.”
- Brian Lara
"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin"
- Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)
"The more I see of him the more confused I'm getting to which is his best knock."
- Former wicket-keeper-batsman ML Jaisimha
"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility -all make for a one-in-a-billion individual"
- Aussie Glenn “Pigeon” McGrath
"I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play,"
- Wife Anjali on Sachin’s retirement plans.
"I HAVE SEEN GOD, HE BATS AT NO.4 FOR INDIA"
- Aussie Mathew Hayden
"Even my father's name is Sachin Tendulkar."
Tendulkar's daughter, Sara, tells her class her after the teacher informs them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai.
“I am fortunate that I've to bowl at him only in the nets!”
- Anil Kumble
Question: Who do you think as the most important celebrity?
Shahrukh: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachchan.
Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!!
-Shahrukh Khan in an interview.
“India me aap Prime Minister ko ek baar katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par Sachin Tendulkar par ungli nahi utha Sakte..
- Navjot Singh Sidhu
“He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also.”
- Waqar Younis
A banner once said-
'I WILL SEE GOD WHEN I DIE BUT TILL THEN I WILL SEE SACHIN'
“Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world.”
-- Allan Donald
“I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin. His reflex time is the best i have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec. To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.”
- Allan Donald in a Cricket Talk interview
“On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!! “
- Australian cricket writer Peter Roebuck
"Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to politics. It's clear discrimination."
- NKP Salve, former Union Minister during the ball tampering controversy
“There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.”
- Zimbabwean opener Andy Flower
_____________________________________________________ “Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it."
- Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight.
"Sometimes you get so engrossed in watching batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar that you lose focus on your job."
- Yaseer Hameed
"To Sachin, the man we all want to be"
- What Andrew Symonds wrote on an Aussie T-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin
“Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives"
- BBC on Sachin
But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers would not fix the odds - or a game - until Tendulkar was out.
"Tujhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?"
Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch.
“Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal.”
- Brian Lara
"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin"
- Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)
"The more I see of him the more confused I'm getting to which is his best knock."
- Former wicket-keeper-batsman ML Jaisimha
"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility -all make for a one-in-a-billion individual"
- Aussie Glenn “Pigeon” McGrath
"I can be hundred per cent sure that Sachin will not play for a minute longer when he is not enjoying himself. He is still so eager to go out there and play. He will play as long as he feels he can play,"
- Wife Anjali on Sachin’s retirement plans.
"I HAVE SEEN GOD, HE BATS AT NO.4 FOR INDIA"
- Aussie Mathew Hayden
"Even my father's name is Sachin Tendulkar."
Tendulkar's daughter, Sara, tells her class her after the teacher informs them of a restaurant of the same name in Mumbai.
“I am fortunate that I've to bowl at him only in the nets!”
- Anil Kumble
Question: Who do you think as the most important celebrity?
Shahrukh: There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricket were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachchan.
Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the GENIUS!!
-Shahrukh Khan in an interview.
“India me aap Prime Minister ko ek baar katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par Sachin Tendulkar par ungli nahi utha Sakte..
- Navjot Singh Sidhu
“He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also.”
- Waqar Younis
A banner once said-
'I WILL SEE GOD WHEN I DIE BUT TILL THEN I WILL SEE SACHIN'
“Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the world.”
-- Allan Donald
“I was bowling to Sachin and he hit me for two fours in a row. One from point and the other in between point and gully. That was the last two balls of the over and the over after that we (SA) took a wicket and during the group meeting i told Jonty (Rhodes) to be alert and i know a way to pin Sachin. And i delivered the first ball of my next over and it was a fuller length delevery outside offstump. And i shouted catch. To my astonishment the ball was hit to the cover boundary. Such was the brilliance of Sachin. His reflex time is the best i have ever seen. Its like 1/20th of a sec. To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.”
- Allan Donald in a Cricket Talk interview
“On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!! “
- Australian cricket writer Peter Roebuck
"Sachin cannot cheat. He is to cricket what (Mahatma) Gandhiji was to politics. It's clear discrimination."
- NKP Salve, former Union Minister during the ball tampering controversy
“There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.”
- Zimbabwean opener Andy Flower
Kingfisher again!!!
In "Zorba the Greek", Anthony Quinn manages to convince Alan Bates to take him on the boat to Crete to revive latter's inherited mine. On the boat, Quinn experiences some sea-sickness and comes out on the deck to breathe some fresh air. Bates joins him. They are chatting when a dolphin suddenly jumps on the surface and vanishes. Quinn exclaims "Look a dolphin! A dolphin!" like an excited child. But, Bates, who is shown as a bookworm and the exact opposite of the lively, wise Zorba, looks dumbly. Quinn asks him "You don't like dolphins? What kind of a man are you?" :-)
I had a Zorba moment each time I saw a kingfisher last year on vacation in Kerala. I couldn't get a clear, close shot as the bird flashed across and flew away. At Periyar, I could get a few shots, but the bird was too far for a clear shot. In Allapuzha, I finally caught up the bird. Just look at that blue and brown...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Actor-Director pairings
Liv Ullmann
Picture copyright: Everett
As I looked at this wonderful Time gallery of 10 actor-director pairs that worked the celluloid magic, I was hoping to see Satyajit Ray and Soumitra Chatterji or Ray and Madhabi Mukherjee featuring in this. But Time has skipped them. They have also missed another great pair of Federico Fellini and Marcelo Mastrioanni.
Madhabi Mukherjee in Charulata
Picture Copyright: Technica/Satyajitray.org
Can you think of others that should be in this list - Top 10 Actor-Director pairings
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