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To call it a structure symbolizing classic minimalism would be an oxymoron. The Harmandir Sahib or the Golden temple of Amritsar is not only a photographer’s delight but also a place that can evoke feelings of serenity, awe and humility in you. As you approach the main square of the city which is the main thoroughfare and the   entrance to the Golden Temple, you realize that the chaos, haphazardness and lack of aesthetics that signify ancient and crowded parts of most Indian cities including Amritsar, suddenly disappear and a new world emerges.       The side alleyways skirting the main precincts of Golden temple are a complete contrast to the main square. They, like any other ancient part of Indian cities are crowded and crassly commercialized. Pink brick architecture and marble sculptures adorn the commercial outlets that lead to the Golden temple.   The signage of the shops, big and small are all uniform and aesthetically displaye...

More than seven decades after that bloody and Chaotic Partition that left the landscape and more importantly the mindscape of the Indian subcontinent torn into pieces one would assume the fate has been sealed and people have healed. By now the survivors of that horrific partition have either died a natural death or are now too old that time should have healed them. Photo courtesy : Google free images In 1947, before the British left India, they added the fuel and fanned the fire for carving out a separate state of Islam from the Indian Subcontinent. Sir Radcliffe who was commissioned to redraw the map of Hindustan and Pakistan, that separated the two countries apparently had no idea of the complex diversity, demography and the dependence that people living out there across faith and religion had. Nor did he understand the kinship ties that spread far and wide across the sub-continent and the havoc that his carelessly drawn out border lines would create.    ...

The Reptilian Calling It is the voice of a grown up man and he is frantically crying out in panic. Even when the phone is not on a speaker mode, we can hear his frantic panic driven voice. Vava Suresh – our host answers him on his mobile patiently without letting any of that panic get to him. We are in a car along with Vava Suresh and are being driven to the house of the caller. This is possibly his fifth call in the last fifteen minutes that Vava Suresh has received. Apart from the two of us, Vava Suresh and his driver there are seven other co-passengers in our car. We are slightly uncomfortable, but not because there is no place for us to sit. In fact, it is very comfortable at the rear seat But because all our other co-passengers are merrily occupying the boot space in the car. The last one, we picked up from the backyard of a small corner shop where Suresh had been summoned.  On a normal day, Suresh could be catching about a dozen snakes ranging from wall snak...