Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Haridwar / Mussoorie

Bones of a Building

My uncle has a retail shop which sells steel for construction activities in Haridwar. The story goes that my grand uncle was appointed as the Project supervisor when the Tehri Dam was being constructed nearby Haridwar. Since it would be a project which would go on for long, my grand uncle decided to make a house there. The house which therefore exists there is more than 50 years old. Although my my uncle was deported to Mumbai to learn better jobs to earn a better living, he was too far away from learning different things. He did not study much. Hence, he would not be able to grasp things so easily. After trying multiple odd jobs for varying months in Mumbai, he decided to go back and settle in Haridwar. 
Panoramas

Haridwar is a small town along the banks of Ganga. It is one of the beginning points for the famous hindu pilgrimages of Badrinath, Kedarnath & Gangotri. All three places have their own fascinating histories. Ganga at this stage is still pure enough to have a dip into or to see through the waters. The riverflow was gradual (unlike that in upper parts of the hill), so one could actually engage with the river. It did not make noise and allowed you to gaze at it quietly. Perhaps it would become more fierce in summers.

Hardwar has; one can say - a sacred centre, a business centre and an administrative centre. I will not be able to locate it on a map since my notion of this geography is very experiential. The pace of Haridwar's life is comfortable, and I shall substantiate and write about it in another post. Amongst recreational places are the ghats of Ganga, and the multitude of temples around. In the lane where my uncle stayed, there was a very weak idea of a community or a neighbourhood. These would be redundant and fancy ideas in the context.

However, nearby hill stations like Dehradun, Mussoorie, etc are interesting places to go for excursions.

Colours

It was almost the end of winter and all things were in a state of transition - the temperature, the skies, the attire of people and the colours of the place. Not only the trees had new leaves on them, they changed colours throughout the day as sun filtered through them. The Ganga was green against the bright brown hills. Everything was cold. 



Shadows


And I kept observing layers of shadows on things and wondered how would I draw them? All shadows of the  multidimensional word became flat graphical shapes which could be transferred on to paper. Light played with the objects and the objects firmly smiled back bearing the shadows, giving meaning to light.


1 comment:

sundarsonal said...

anuj i love your photographs