A classroom experiment on Soundslides

Multimedia, audio, video… seems to be/is the emerging mantra for photojournalists. Convergence of different mediums have created a whole new world of opportunities for visual story-telling. Also, from this year World Press Photo has instituted a new contest to recognize multimedia photojournalism. Multimedia is here to stay. This multimedia slideshow was produced by me as… Continue reading A classroom experiment on Soundslides

Notes From the Field : Chikungunya

Notes From the Field – Nishant Ratnakar Date: Monday, 11th May, 2009. Place: D J Halli near Bangalore. At a locality known as Moulana Compound: "Have any health officials visited your locality since the outbreak?" "No Sir. You are the first outsider to have stepped in here since we noticed the disease in our Compound"… Continue reading Notes From the Field : Chikungunya

HERE IT’S 5 PUSH-UPS FOR EVERY 4

At an ongoing inter-school cricket tournament, the boys of Bishop Cotton School embarked on a novel method to juice themselves up when playing against weak teams: A self-inflicted penalty for every boundary conceded. Narcissistic and full of piss. That is what you normally associate cricketers with, even amateur or budding ones in this cricket-mad nation.… Continue reading HERE IT’S 5 PUSH-UPS FOR EVERY 4

HER LONG DRIVE TO JUSTICE

P A Venkata Lakshmi, a women auto driver in Bangalore city. Lakshmi is more than an auto driver. She is a law student. At the age of 33 years, this married woman and a mother of a 9 year old girl, has five semesters to complete before she can become a lawyer.

You never know what sexual harassment does to a woman, do you? It made Venkata Lakshmi turn to the law books, while driving an auto to feed her family. “She didn’t charge me a rupee more than the auto meter,” said an incredulous young girl who travelled in an auto in the city recently. She?… Continue reading HER LONG DRIVE TO JUSTICE

IN SEARCH OF AN ALMOST-MYTH

“We were told Ombattu Gudda didn’t exist. 28 kms and two days later, we live to tell the tale that it does.”   “A piece of advice to future visitors to Ombattu Gudda: Don’t go to this place without a map and a compass if you want to return to civilization on Monday. Get map#… Continue reading IN SEARCH OF AN ALMOST-MYTH

From Uzbekistan with love

All credits to the Bangalore’s infamous rush hour traffic jam, I reached Palace grounds an hour later than the scheduled time I was to meet the ‘Russian artists’, who are in the city as part of the travelling Jumbo Circus troupe. My worst fears were true; most of the artists who were initially waiting for… Continue reading From Uzbekistan with love

Saving (Finding actually) Private Bahadur

Circa July 2007 This is Men (Meen) Bahadur, a 10-year old Nepali kid at the Government Boys Home (Located close to both KIDWAI memorial hospital and NIMHANS) in Bangalore. Sitting behind him in the long corridor of the Boys home and crying, is a mentally disturbed inmate. I asked the officials why that kid was… Continue reading Saving (Finding actually) Private Bahadur