The INDIA I See & The INDIA I Know Nearly eight decades have passed since India began to call itself a nation. As part of an early generation born in a free, democratic, young nation, I saw an India in transition — a nation that wanted to bridge the past with the present and the future. Right up to the time I hit my 30s, the India I knew was the one that I often saw through my father’s photo-essays. As a Gandhian, a freedom fighter and a photo-journalist, he perceived India in the light of his experiences. After every conversation with him, I would just come out vowed by the simplicity of his thoughts and an urn of ideas that would ignite my imagination.
It was one of those conversations that also changed the way I began to see India. Dad propelled me to find an idea that a younger India will be inspired by. Unbeknownst to me, this catalysed a longer journey that I couldn’t have imagined embarking on at that time. The search for what could inspire introduced me to an India that I didn’t know existed. While travelling the country’s length and breadth for projects like Maa Tujhe Salaam — Vande Mataram, Incredible India, Jana Gana Mana at the Siachen Glacier, Swarnim Gujarat, School Chale Hum and more, I began to discover an India that very few people are privileged to experience in a lifetime.
The richness, the variety in cultures, traditions, festivals, everyday-rituals, arts, attires, beliefs, languages had me hooked for life. Over the years, I have internalised the arts and cultural beliefs of the Rabbari tribes in Kutch, related with the emotions of the soldiers that guard our borders, and deeply felt the pride that the adivasis in Bastar, Nagaland, Jaisalmer and Sambalpur have for their indigenous ways. Setting my eyes on the Gaumukh, the Himalayas and the vast Indian ocean made me realise that we’re an infinitesimal part of a much larger, and expansive civilisational journey. The India that I have come to understand through these experiences and more is the one that thrives on mutual love and respect, which have become addictive necessities for me. I crave to know that India more closely, and so my quest to discover it remains undiminished.
About a decade ago, I began to think about creating a repository of stories that can harbour India’s humanity. It dawned upon me that there’s so much about India’s living culture and civilisation to preserve, to ensure the future generations understand their roots. My 1000-film project, Virtual Bharat, was born out of this thinking. These unique films are being curated to become the next generation’s legacy, for them to know the India their ancestors came from. When I look at the manner and the pace at which we’re losing indigenous identities of our regions — turning everything into brick and mortar — I feel an even greater degree of urgency to grab the tiniest bit of our legacy and capture it before ‘development’ takes it all away from us. The India that I have seen and known is fast fading away to compete with a progressive, fast-paced world. But I wonder if we have forgotten that most parts of this world have embraced development while preserving their legacies, and keeping them sacrosanct…
While making my most recent film, Aham Bharatam, for the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, I realised that it will indeed take a lot more than one film to eternalise what we have been gifted through our civilisational journey over thousands of years. It reiterated my belief in Virtual Bharat that celebrates a Bharat which is rich, diverse, simple, minimalistic, rustic, festive and quiet, all at once, in equal measures.
All someone needs to do is visit the India they wish to experience. Or find Virtual Bharat on YouTube, where every ounce of India resides for posterity…
Live free! Live proud! Live human!
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