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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.    ...