Guwahati - The year gone by

One year ago I had come to Guwahati. On this first anniversary, I want to share those experiences in the city that have left a sign on my heart.

I love photography. Thus, the best way to share my special experiences in Guwahati is by selecting 12 of my favourite pictures from the year gone by! Let me start this journey with Bhaona, the traditional theatre of Assam, which was an unforgettable experience!

(1) Bhaona, the traditional Assamese theatre: The first image shows a Bhaona actor dressed as Ram, waiting for the start of his performance. Bhaona was introduced by sixteenth century Assamese Vaishnavite social reformer Shrimanta Shankar Dev. This theatre group had come from the Majuli island.

This wonderful experience was enhanced because I was also able to see the actors putting up make-up and costumes, and getting ready for the performance. I loved being able to do that, to have a look behind the scenes, and to click pictures of their preparations.

That day they were performing the part from Ramayana where king Janak holds a Swayamvar (a competition to select the bridegroom) for his daughter Sita. This part of the play has different kings and princes who come to the Swayamvar with the hope that Sita will choose one of them. In Bhaona, usually men play all the parts, including the female parts. Thus, the princess Sita and her friends were all young men dressed as women.

It was fascinating to see the actors getting ready and putting on the make-up. I love looking back at the images from that evening. It was definitely a highlight of my life in Guwahati.

(2) The mighty Brahmputra river in Guwahati: When I had reached Guwahati in December 2015, I had been booked in a hotel close to the Brahmaputra. In those initial days I was able to spend the mornings and evenings to explore the life along the river. This was crucial to understand how this river influences the city life.

Because of that initial experience of living close to Brahmaputra, I make sure every month to go back to the river and spend a morning or an evening soaking up the different aspects of life on its banks.

I have selected an image of Brahmaputra that I had clicked on a cloudy evening of August. Due to the impending monsoon floods, a ship to help the monsoon affected persons was moored near the Kachari ghat. I love the contrast between the dark clouds and the light coming out from the ship. The picture also gives an idea of the way the river swells up with water during the rainy season.

(3) The Baul singers at Ambubashi: Kamakhaya temple in Guwahati is the most important pilgrimage site of the north-east and Ambubashi is its most important festival. The festival brings together Naga sadhus and thousands of pilgrims from different parts of India.

It was a riot of colours at the Kamakhaya temple during Ambubashi 2015. I was feeling drunk by the sounds, sights, colours and smells of the never-ending crowds. During this visit I discovered the Baul singers and my heart belongs to them.

My favourite experience of Ambubashi was with a small group of Sadhus and Baul singers sitting in a corner of a Shiva temple. Some of them were smoking pot. Among them was an old man, his arms thin like sticks and a box of talcum powder in a hand, filled with some seeds, so that it was making a swish-swish sound. He was in trance, standing and swaying gently with his eyes closed and his hands moving in delicate gestures. Behind him, a bearded man with drum and an ektara (one cord) was singing about feeling lost in nature and the contemplation of God.

That voice, that song, that rhythm of the ektara-drum and the serene face of the dancing old man touched me profoundly. Just to think of them makes me feel peaceful. It was one of the most touching spiritual experiences of my life.

(4) The landfill site of Boro Gaon: It is a small village off the national highway that goes around Guwahati. You can smell the city trucks full of garbage before you see them, going up and down the main road of Boro Gaon.

If you are not attentive, you can miss the landfill site very easily. However, if you follow a garbage truck, you will see the mountains of garbage and the people who work there, including many children. The rotting fruits and vegetables, give this place a sweet, slightly sickening smell that infiltrates your body and your cloths.

In the mountains of garbage you will also find the large and ugly looking Greater Adjutant storks, that are on the endangered list. You can also see other more beautiful birds, including the graceful egrets in pristine white and delicate yellow.

It is impossible to visit the landfill site and not be affected by it. When I think about that visit and look at my pictures, I still feel slightly sick.

I also remember my feelings of surprise that people working in the garbage dump had seemed cheerful enough, nor did they seem to mind that I was clicking their pictures in that place.

(5) The lake and the marshes of Deepor Beel: It is one of the protected natural areas of Guwahati. Its marshes provide a unique eco-system for the nature. During the monsoons, it becomes a real lake. During winters hundreds of migratory birds from north Europe arrive here. It is also one of the popular picnic places in the western periphery of the city.

The main parts of Deepor Beel where tourists usually go, have boats for visiting the lake and taking a closer look at the birds. However, there is an alternate way to reach parts of the Beel, that is not very far from the garbage dump of Boro Gaon.

After passing through the garbage areas, if you cross the railway tracks, you reach a more isolated part of the Beel full of thick and big round-shaped leaves, flowers and birds. When I had visited it, it was the beginning of the summer and most of the migratory birds had already left for their homelands in the north. However, I am planning to go back to visit this place this winter.

It is place of peace and quiet, an amazing experience!

(6) North-East GLBTI Pride Parade: In February 2015, the first north-east parade was held in Guwahati. As usually happens in the Pride parades, it was a colourful event with different cultural activities. I was pleasantly surprised because somehow I had an image of Assam as being a very conservative place!

The picture that I have selected from this parade is that of a woman singer from a band in Shillong (Meghalaya) who had sung about the rights of the lesbians and persons with alternate sexualities.

(7) The monkeys of Guwahati: Local newspapers regularly carry reports of wild animals in Guwahati, including leopards and wild elephants. The city is surrounded by hills and forests. As explained above, Deepor Beel Wildlife park is part of the city. About 60 km to the east from the city, along the Brahmaputra river, it also has the Pobitora wild life sanctuary.

In the city, it is easy to see monkeys, ducks and geese. For example, you can see the golden langur monkeys near the Umananda temple in the Peacock island off Kachari ghat. Near by, in the Ugratara pukhuri you can see hundreds of ducks and geese. The temples are full of the more common rhesus monkeys as well.

I have selected the image of a baby monkey at Nabagraha temple to represent my joy at this close contact with nature in Guwahati.

(8) Festivals of Guwahati: Like the rest of India, Guwahati has a rich calendar of social festivals, especially the three Bihu festivals linked to the agricultural life. Durga Puja, Kali puja, Manasa puja, Vishwakarma Puja and Saraswati puja are some of the most important Hindu festivals. There are also the festivals of other religions that are widely celebrated here, especially Idd and Christmas.

I love participating in the festivals. Below you can see a picture of Saraswati puja from a girls' school of Guwahati, for which young girls were dressed up in saris and they had put on make-up, looking like "little women".

(9) Discovering the rock music: I prefer Hindi film music from 1960s to 1980s. I also like Hindustani and Western classical music. I am also open to popular English music of 1950s to 1970s. However, I had thought that I did not like the noisier music styles such as grunge and metallic rock.

In Guwahati I discovered that I can also appreciate the music of heavy metal bands, especially during the live performances. By chance, one evening I found myself in a metallic rock music concert and I enjoyed it very much. I still can't bear listening to it on radio or on my Mp3 player but in a live concert, I think that it can be fun.

Guwahati is a traditional city that values the legacy of Shrimanta Sankar Dev and Madhav Dev through traditional dance and music. At the same time, it an active hub for more contemporary music with well known singers like Papon and Zubeen Garg. Finally, it has different groups active in the rock music. The image that I have selected to show this aspect of Guwahati music life has the singer Rudy Wallang from the group Soul Mate.

(10) Life in the Brahmaputra islands: A meeting with the well known thinker-writer and activist of Assam, Prof. Sanjoy Hazarika from the Centre for North-East Studies (C-NES), took me to visit one of the islands in the Brahmaputra river at the periphery of Guwahati.

The riverine islands of Brahmaputra are beautiful places with white sands, the majestic river and the green fields, often full of flowers of different colours. At the same time, they are difficult places to live in, as they are usually without any services and get flooded during the monsoons.

It was a beautiful experience to visit one of the islands and to have a glimpse of the lives of people living there. It was another example of how the mighty Brahmaputra influences and shapes of the lives of people.

(11) Dances, plays and cultural events in Guwahati: The city has a rich cultural life with frequent opportunities for watching dances, plays and other cultural events. Places like Kalakshetra, Robindra Bhawan and Shilpagram play an important role in the organisation of such events, with the help of local music and dance schools and clubs.

The only difficulty is to receive information about the cultural events in time. I wish that soon someone will start an email based mailing list or a website that provides regular information about the different cultural events planned in the city.

Fortunately, the place where I stay is not very far from Kalakshetra and Shilpagram. As part of my morning walk, often I walk to that part of the city so that I can gather news about the cultural events planned there. They have wonderful programmes but sometimes there are few people watching them.

This year I had many opportunities to watch beautiful cultural programmes in Guwahati. I have selected a picture of the Bihu dance from the Republic day celebrations in the Veterinary College grounds in Guwahati, which was a wonderful experience.

(12) Spiritual experiences in Guwahati: I have already mentioned about my visit to Kamakhaya temple during Ambubashi and the opportunity of listening to the Baul singers. I have also been to Bashistha and Nabagraha temples. However, I feel that temple visits are more cultural experiences rather than spiritual experiences.

Guwahati also has Namghars, simple sacred places for Vaishnavite cult inspired by Shrimanta Shanker Dev. I found more spiritual experience in visiting the Namghars. The  visit of Sri Sri Ravishanker in Guwahati was another of the spiritual experiences, though a little different from what I had imagined.

I like reading spiritual books and was expecting to hear something enlightening from Sri Sri. However, I found his speech to be a little disappointing, as he talked in platitudes mixed with marketing of his numerous brands, from "Sudanta tooth paste" to the "Art of Living Ghee" and "Shakti drops".

Walking on a ramp like a rock-star, he was surrounded by hundreds of delirious fans who chanted "Guru ji, Guru ji ..." and clicked his pictures.

However, I enjoyed the brief session Sri Sri conducted on meditation. Usually I have lot of difficulty in meditating. However, his approach of initiating with certain physical movements seemed to work with me. Ever since I have used that approach to meditation with good results. So even if I did not find any particular spiritual joy in his speech, I found it in meditation!

CONCLUSIONS

I have enjoyed putting together this post and selecting the pictures to go with it. It was great way to look at the hundreds of pictures I have clicked in Guwahati during 2015 and to have a flashback of my experiences in this city over the past 12 months.

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Indian Soldiers in Italy 1917-1919

A coincidence brought me a book about Indian soldiers passing through Italy during the last years of the first World War (1917-1919). This post is about Camp 3, the resting camp of the British in Faenza (Italy) based on the information I found in this Italian book by Enzo Casadio and Massimo Valli.

Introduction

I know that my maternal great-grandfather had been in Europe during the first world war. I had heard the stories of his coming home from the war with a bag of British pounds and how this had brought prosperity to his family. He must have passed through the port of Brindisi or Taranto, because that was the way used by Indian troops for coming to Europe. I don't know if he had stopped at Camp 3 of Faenza, but I would like to immagine that he had been there!

My great grandfather Hiranand (from Karyala, Jhelam district of undivided India - in 1947 this had become part of Pakistan) had died in the 1970s. However, when he was alive, I was not interested in the family history and had never asked him anything about his European experience.

Indian soldiers had been in Italy in both the world wars. During the second world war they had taken part in the war in Italy as shown in the film "The English patient" (1996) where Naveen Andrews had played the role of the Sikh soldier Kip. Different Indian cemeteries in Italy are testimonies to those Indian soldiers, and there are some books about those days. I had visited the cemetery of Indian soldiers in Forli once.

However, there is much less printed material about the Indian soldiers in Italy during the first world war.

Ethel Graham and the Zauli Naldi family

Faenza is a small town, about 50 km south-east of Bologna. It is famous for its ceramics.

Enzo Casadio and Massimo Valli from Faenza have done research and written about the history of their town during the second world war. Some years ago, they found about a collection of pictures from the first world war during a casual meeting with Prof. Francesco Emiliani Zauli Naldi.

The Zauli Naldi is a well known noble family of Faenza. The pictures were taken by a British woman called Ethel Graham, who was living with the Zauli Naldi family between 1914 and 1922, as a governess or companion to Ms. Maria Zauli Naldi, mother of Prof. Francesco. He remembers meeting Ms. Ethel in 1930, when she had come to visit them in holidays. Ms. Ethel died around 1939. (Image below: Ms. Ethel Graham with Camp 3 commander and officials in Faenza)

As the only British civilian living at that time in Faenza, Ms. Ethel had access to the British officials and could visit the British Rest camp 3. She also must have been a photography enthusiast and thus could keep a memory of those days in her images.

British Rest Camp in Faenza

During the first world war, British soldiers were engaged in wars in France, Italy, Turkey, Balkans and middle east. Persons from the British colonies around the world were also involved as part of the British troops. Transporting troops from one war front to another through the British ships had become difficult because of the threat of German and Austro-Hungarian submarines. Thus, train travel through France and Italy to the port of Brindisi and Taranto in south of Italy, and then with ships through the Suez canal up to Bombay was preferred. It also reduced the journey time.

After reaching France, the British troops started their journey in Cherbourg, called British Camp 1. The end stop on this journey was the port town of Taranto in Italy, called British Camp 4. On the way, two rest camps were set up, where soldiers could get hot meals, take bath and receive medical care - Camp 2 in St Germain au Mont d’Or near Lyon in France and Camp 3 in Faenza.

As the number of persons increased, additional smaller satellite camps were set up in many other cities, towards the south up to Pescara and towards the north, up to Bologna.

Among the famous persons who passed through the British Camp in Faenza, there was colonel T. E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, on whom David Lean had made his famous film in 1962.

Indians in Camp 3

The camp for Indian soldiers was set up in Piazza d'Armi (The Armaments square, today it is Bucci park between Via Marozza and Via Oberdan), not far from the Faenza railway station.

Compared to the camps for British officials and troops, which had more decent houses and shacks, Ethel's pictures of the Indian camp show open spaces with soldiers making tea and cooking chapatis on makeshift chullahs. In the background some tents can be seen in a group. The pictures were probably taken in summer, since the Indian soldiers can be wearing dhoti, half-pants and shirts.

According to the research done by Casadio and Valli, there was a group of Santhals among the Indian soldiers, who had built the canals for draining the camp and then divided the camp in separate areas so that persons of different castes could live and cook in separate groups. They had also built the Tennis court for the British officials.

From the pictures taken by Ethel Graham presented in the Casadio-Valli book, two are presented here. In the first image, a group of soldiers pulling a carriage through the city centre, probably to collect water from a fountain. The second image shows soldiers cooking chapatis.

Conclusions

History remembers only empires and the powerful kings and queens. So much of our recent history remains forgotten, especially in terms of lives of ordinary persons. How many Indian soldiers died in Europe during the first world war, and who were they - who knows and who remembers it today?

Personally I find it very moving to come across images that tell something about those nameless figures who had travelled to far away places. Some like my great grandfather had come back to India to tell the stories, others must have died in the war.

Notes

If you wish to get this book, it is called "Il campo inglese a Faenza nella grande guerra (1917-1919)" (The British camp in Faenza during the big war 1917-1919). It is written by Enzo Casadio and Massimo Valli, and published by Casanova Editore Faenza.

I also wish to thank notary Paolo Castellari of Faenza, who shared this book with me.

Thanks also to Richard Burton for the correction of location of Camp 2 and for sharing the memoirs of his father Philip W. Burton, a signaler in the British army during WWI.

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Boats from around the world - 25 amazing wallpapers

Boats with the background of lakes, rivers and sea can make for some wonderful pictures and thus make great wallpapers. Here is a selection of 25 of my favourite images of boats from South America, Africa, Europe and Asia as high resolution wallpapers for you. These are images that I have clicked during my travels to different countries over the last deacde.

You are welcome to use these images in any way that you wish, in your blogs or websites. Please do remember to give credit to me (Sunil Deepak) and give a link to this page.

Click on any picture below to open it in high resolution in a new window. If you do not know how to use the wallpapers to change the appearance of your computer, laptop, Ipad or other devices, check the Wallpapers tab above for more information.

Remember that each of these wallpapers is in high resolution. Thus, each file can be from 0.7 to 1.3 MB. If you have an old computer with limited RAM (less than 1 GB), you may need to downsize the image before using it as a wallpaper.

So here we go with 25 amazing high resolution wallpapers for you!

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Best of Art & Culture Pics, 2011

The digital camera and my frequent journeys mean that I have lot of opportunities to click pictures. A very small part of those pictures end up in a blog-post about the journey or on my photoblog, but most of the time, they are for my personal pleasure.

Thus, this year I have decided to present a few samples of those additional images, by selecting those images that have a special meaning for me or that I like a lot. Thus, yesterday, I presented the my Best of Nature and Wildlife pics from 2011. Today I am presenting my Best of Art and Culture pics of 2011.

(1) Images from Prague in Czech Republic: I want to start with a few pictures from Prague. The city is incredibly rich for appreciating wonderful examples of art, culture, history and architecture.

This first image is of the monument to the victims of communist regime. The broken up human beings on the stairs, surrounded by lush green gardens is very powerful.

(2) The second image from Prague is that of a group of socialist or Soviet style statues from the opera building in centre of the city. I have seen similar statues of healthy and happy looking peasants in different countries of ex-Soviet union and in countries like China and Mongolia.

(3) The next three pictures are all of sculptures by Anna Chromy from the city of Prague. It was love at first sight for me, on a rainy afternoon when I had seen her blind-folded musicians dancing to a silent music.

(6) This last image from Prague is from the Kampa museum.

Even with these six pictures from Prague, actually I feel that I am not doing justice to Prague and I could have added so many other images of sculptures and buildings.

(7) The next image is from the old city of Goias Velho in Brazil. I find the statue and the city square very Portuguese in its conception, and yet the presence of Amerindians living here and the black slaves brought here from Africa contributed something intangible and at the same time, concrete, to the character of this city.

(8) 2011 was for me, the year of discovery of Bidar in Karnataka. In terms of architecture, art and culture, I think that Bidar is a jewel of a city with the wonderful fort. The pictures below are of the other two special heritage sites that I liked - Khwaja Gawan madrassa and the beautiful Bareed Shahi park.

(10) In 2011, finally I could satisfy another of my long standing wish, to visit the Hampi ruins. It was a brief visit under a scorching sun and I didn't get the time to go down to Tungabhadra river. Still I am glad that I had this opportunity. It is a magical place.

(11) In 2011, I had 3 brief visits to London (UK). However, even though the visits were brief, I was determined to visit those parts of the city that I had not seen before. The next five pictures are from those visits - from Greenwich metro station, maritime museum, the women in the second world war monument, a statue near covent garden and the Victoria and Albert museum.

London is another incredibly rich city for art and culture lovers and I have so many wonderful memories from its museums and parks.

(16) The next picture is from Geneva in Switzerland. I also visited Geneva three times in 2011 and they were all short visits. Yet, in spite of the briefness of my stay, I used every small opportunity to explore the city. The combination of art installations and an extraordinary variety of flowers along the left bank of Le Man lake, made for a very pleasant experience.

(17) In 2011, I also discovered the Bologna's master sculpture Nicola Zamboni. The next picture presents one of his terracotta statues from Villa Spada in Bologna. I absolutely love these statues and can gaze at them spellbound for hours. In my opinion, they are pure magic.

(18) The next picture presents an exhibition of bronze and metallic statues with medieval warriors and women from Europe and Middle East by Nicola Zamboni and Sara Bolzani. It was another unforgettable art experience of this year for me.

(19) Sculptures by Mirella Guasti: I had seen works of Mirella Guasti for many years but somehow they did not make that impression on me till this year. Suddenly in 2011, I started looking at her work with new eyes and found them very beautiful. You can admire her work in the next picture.

(20) This last image is by another Italian artist called Ericailcane. A rebel artist who became known by his graffiti art on the Bologna city walls, he uses giant figures of animals to provoke new sensations. The sculpture of the giant cat looking hungrily at a big box of fish is called "Cor Dubbium Habbeo" (My heart has doubts).

I hope that you have liked my selection of my best images from 2011 on art and culture.

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You can see more of my images at Kalpana Image Archives.

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