Bond makes Safe!






A dangerous tent to sit under and breakfast, but this Mahout had once even used it as a shelter against rain. He fears not!
The interwoven bond that forms between an Elephant and its Mahout is an indian bed-time story.
Elephant taming is a famous 'family business' here.The Mahout as boy, is assigned an elephant calf and the attachment they share towards each other grows in range and dimension with time.
This was outside a temple here in South India.
- The Elephant, automated to bless devotees while the Master watched on.

'Drum'a of Life

Louder the beats, longer the distance travelled...and he makes his living.
Constant playing of the "Dholak", "Dolki" and "Damru" were his only purpose until he found customers - A fascinating young man, from the northern part of India who had travelled to the southern coast of Pondichery with hopes, initially hesitant to being photographed until few words were exchanged.
He perhaps did not know if his beats were rendered to perfection, but he enjoyed the rhythm and was by all means driven by it.
Accompanied by couple of his fellow mates, he was constantly being watched over by a manager who probably was his sponsor.
That implied i had to keep off.

After school.........


After the shutter snapped back, nothing really had happened to the kid. It was the age-old gimmick, a mother normally plays.
An act to re-establish the fact that she was the mother! But the girl seemed to be nonchalant.
One could just like that find such kids on Indian streets. Waiting desperately every afternoon for the school bells to ring, then speed back with barefoot to their vendor parents.Sometimes, critical competitions to reach back esp. when siblings are involved.
When back, few of them are of assistance during selling. But most of them are invariably mischief-makers in the opinion of parents.
The carefree attitude of this young one was apparent when she continued to stare at the camera disregarding what her mother had to offer.She knew anyways, the end result..
It was all smiles!!!
And 'Smiles' may never end until the mother continues to remind herself that there are smarter wagons for her little girl than the coconut selling wagon.

An ancient hobby

One of the favorite pass times....And the idea belongs to all of humanity. We have been doing it since the time we were primates.
With curly strands of hair caressing the ear, this little grandson of an Ice-cream vendor on the East Coast Road in Chennai, chewed that tiny little thumb of his, long even after my share of Cornetto was finished.
With stained hands of melted remains, i rushed to pull the camera out, not to miss the moment. But there was no necessity to hurry-up. The toddler was working on a long thumb-sucking session, with rhythmic repetitions. He did not know my intention and was quite content to hold himself still.
We have all done it. And some of us might have had a 'favorite finger' in this regard. He was one of us.
Perhaps his 'ice-cream' was unconditionally available and most important...... it never melted!
My clock had struck 2 pm.