Short Service Commission

:)

107 regiment II

Mukut, my cameraman, who takes 15 seconds to make new friends. And Gobindo, who's clicking away to glory with this Canon camera.

107 Regiment

With the 107 Regiment, Indian Army on their flood relief operation in Lower Assam

Everyday

Kitchen and Sikkim Tea

Going back to Sikkim again. Tea and the kitchen ( in Dzongu) and Pema and Pema's sister. Pema is a lawyer. His sister is the world's best possible cook. They are sitting in the kitchen. The kitchen is an integral part of the house in Sikkim. Everything from watching tv, reading magazines, post-dinner-lovely-marathon-conversations-without-washing-hands, dinner, breakfast, everything happens here. Get the drift?

This tea is the best possible tea I have had so far, you get a bad version at the Oxford bookstore in Delhi ( in that stupid cha bar).

(Got a call in the morning, Affected Citizens of Teesta have been asked to call off their hunger strike, or else legal action will be taken. Next week, we travel to a lot of places, lot of places.)

The Hungry Tide

40,000 people displaced. More than 1,000 villages washed away. Dhemaji still remains cut-off from the rest of the world.

Bramhaputra

Sualkuchi II

Sualkuchi Silk village

Pictures taken at the Sualkuchi silk village in Assam. It's a 2 hour drive from Guwahati. Nearly 5,000 families engaged in weaving the best possible silk fabrics.

Rising Bramhaputra

Floods in Assam

On the road

This is what sustains us on the road. Hindi film music.

Hayagriva Madhava temple

Hayagriva Madhava temple of Hajo. The temple has an image of Vishnu, resembling the image of Jagannath at Puri in Orissa. This temple is also regarded as a Buddhist shrine by Buddhist Lamas. It is believed that, Lord Buddha attained Nirvana at this place. The temple was destroyed by Kalapahar and rebuilt in 1543 by the Koch king Raghudev

Sunday

This Sunday in Guwahati

Bell-metal

About 200 families are hammering out an existence from bell-metal in the Moria village of Hajo in Kamrup district of Assam the famed headquarter of the bell-metal industry

Shall we tell the President?

Shoot over

Shoot is over. My cameraman Mukut. On our way back, in the train, we would get the news that ULFA chief Paresh Barua has said Northeast FCI chief P C Ram is alive. A day later we would break the story, when another source would confirm the same to us. Unfortunately two weeks after this, P C Ram would be shot dead in an Assam police-ULFA encounter at a place called Borka in Kamrup district.

North Bengal

Favourite picture of North Bengal.

Leaving Gangtok

Gangtok, on our way out. I want to visit this place as a tourist.

Tea stop

This is the view from a coffee shop/tea stop. It's in North Sikkim.

Dzongu

We were hiding here

Myth

After the shoot, on our way out from Dzongu, we met Myth.

Inside the forest

Inside the Kanchanjunga national park and biodiversity area

National park

Early morning. We are trekking towards the core-zone of the national park. Really difficult trek, especially with equipment. We are going mad as the mighty Kanchanjunga starts playing hide-and-seek with us.

Morning in Dzongu

First view of the range from the Kanchanjunga National Park and biosphere reserve. And what a view!!

Evening

It's raining now. We are having tea and planning next-days shoot.

Entering North Sikkim

We are entering North Sikkim. So far we've filmed only two reports and tense about what's in store.

Dikshu

In the town of Dikshu, Mukut and I. Don't we look angry ( and funny) (anger: as people were refusing to speak on camera). Most of them are scared to speak against the state government/government policies.

Teesta V shoot

Our second story that never made it on-air.

Teesta V

(Pictures 1 and 2) (right) Teesta V project. 18 km of tunneling being done by the NHPC, to make the river water flow in the hills of Sikkim. This project is near completion. There are 22 hydel power projects planned in Sikkim

(Third picture) (left) (Near the Teesta V project)

Affected Citizens of Teesta

At the Bhutiya-Lepcha house. People are happy to have us around. We start shoot early in the morning in Gangtok. As we have a long, long way to go to North Sikkim. ( These are the people, nearly 200 of them on a relay-hunger strike, protesting the mega-hydel power projects in Sikkim)

Sikkim

We are really tired, carrying equipment, flight's delayed and as we enter Sikkim, this is one image, I will always remember. Father and daughter on a bike.

Teesta

First picture: What's happening to the river, near Kalijhora. Tunnels being dug for the "run-of-the-river" project. This is the North Bengal side. ( Mukut is on the shoot)

(Second picture) The Teesta from Sevoke Road.

Bagdogra

On our way to Sikkim from Bagdogra. Was raining when we landed. It's always lovely to be in Bagdogra and in North Bengal (my first airport)

Sikkim

Back from North Sikkim. We were in the Dzongu area on a shoot. We went inside the core zone of the Kanchanjunga National Park and Biodiversity Reserve. Chased by the police, hiding tapes, hiding along the Teesta, an experience like never before. Photographs, photographs, photographs. Will upload. Will write. But after uplinking reports.