At The Edge

 A couple of weeks ago got an email from a journo with Indian Express. A story about vintage ads. Just came across the story: Nostalgia is most definitely a seductive liar. It places a rose-tinted glass over your eyes, and then coaxes you to view past without hard feelings. The result — we end up feeling wistful things that we weren’t so crazy about the first time around. But when 27-year-old, Vinayak Razdan chanced upon a tattered copy of a 1972 edition of the Reader’s Digest at his relatives place, the word nostalgia acquired a new meaning for him. “I flipped through its pages and found myself staring at a very young kohl eyed Zeenat Aman endorsing Taj Mahal tea in a purple salwar-suit, her hair - a pair of pigtails. It was a discovery. I stashed away the magazine,” says Razdan. Thanks to all these vintage ads, my blog got mentioned in this piece by Prem ankur Biswas for Indian Express .  -0- And this week, some of my Kashmir photographs (can be found at my oth...

Hello Rizia I love you I know you love me Because you Are my Ist Love & I was Damn Sure you will be back So Please Speak I Love you Since 2002 Photograph: Teenage love story on a wall of the central monument at Shalimar Garden in Srinagar, Kashmir. June 2008. In around 1619, Mughal Emperor Jahangir built Shalimar Garden for his beloved Iranian wife Noor Jahan. -0- Read my other post on  Mughal Gardens of Kashmir

Backdoor entry to Mansaram Ka Dhabba Peerah, Jammu &Kashmir June 2008 The place is renowned for its Rajma Chawal that come doused in pure Desi Ghee.

If areas around Indian railway tracks (at least in the north) are the dominion of Shahi Dawakhana and Hakeem Sahib, then area around Indian roadways are the dominion of Dr. Bengali. Why the roads? Is it the truckers and the soldiers? Maybe. More baffling is the question why the areas around railway tracks? Is it the coach driver? Anyway… In Jammu city you are more likely to see ads for and expect help from Dr. Malhotra. But, the area along the highway to Kashmir is again under the monopoly of Dr. Bengali. Advertisements offering guaranteed cure for unmentionable diseases and unlimited power over unforgivable weaknesses appear all along the road to Kashmir. All along the road their limp message, effective design, snazzy coloring and generous appointment hours(actually a whole day) with the "Dr" hardly change. The frequency of their occurrence is rather high around Udhampur district as here you can't look away from them as almost every third shop has these ads painted on t...

Jammu 9th June, 2008 Time: Around 7:00 AM Shot these photographs of rain clouds just moments before the first rain drop hit the ground. update: You can enjoy these photographs of clouds in a video too