Pictures and words

A fellow door lover, Ricky Gui's work 'Singapore Hidden Door' is very inspiring. What is amazing is that it captures whooping 600 doors hidden in the backyards, alleys and forgotten corners of the country. I remember when 'The Doors of Kathmandu' got Published on Archdaily, the first link in the suggestions was the 'Singapore Hidden Door' series. "Behind every 'Hidden Door' lurks possibility of past tales of childhood, romance and history." writes Ricky on his Blogpost . This sentence captures the beauty of his work perfectly. It's appreciable how he worked for one year to complete the series. Check out his entire blog here. This series reminded me of my own adventures in the bylanes of Chinatown and Little India in Singapore. That was my first international trip and it was wonderful exploring a new country. Adding a few photos below.

I met three old men for an assignment today. They have a very special skill which has almost died. They say,  that there are only 4 or 5 Paggis are left in  Kachchh  today. Paggis are men who identify the footprints of People and animals and get information about them. They help people, police and even army in investigating the foot traces of terrorists, thieves, lost cattle etc. I went to their village with Naeven Bhai, the driver of Sehjeevan who knew them well. This meeting was one of the best one since a long time. I had only a few hours to cover their story and come out with a photo essay. With a lot of curiosity, I bombarded them with many questions. A crux of what came out is below: They belong to the Sodha community of Sindh, Pakistan. In 1971, during the India Pakistan war, they crossed the border and took refuge in India, in Kachchh. They were eventually given special 'Paggi certificates' by the police and also once invited by the police and the Intellig

My interview with Swasti Gautam on the Doors of Kathmandu project, for Republica, Nepal. A must read for the people who are interested in the project! "Nipun came to Nepal from Delhi, India, to work on a post earthquake reconstruction project. An architect by profession, Prabhakar quickly became  fascinated by the various styles of doors he saw in Kathmandu. “I started taking pictures of the doo rs in and around my workplace from my phone,” says Prabhakar. “These unique doors reflected the culture of Kathmandu and it was also pleasing to simply look at them,” he adds. Prabhakar says that most of the capital cities in Asia have a great western influence. “Even back in Delhi, I have noticed that architectural designs are not traditional anymore,” he says adding that Kathmandu felt different. The ancient architecture was still distinctly visible in the public as well as private domain. Having a background in photojournalism, Prabhaker eventually created a professional photo serie