Home Sweet Home: Aizawl

 It was an unusual day in November, I was at Hangi Lungleng Tlang, enjoying the picturesque of the sun setting over Aizawl. The clouds went pale grey but there was no wind. I stood there at the hill observing the beauty of our city Aizawl. Suddenly, mist slowly flowed in from all directions. It felt like a dream; the clouds slowy covering  the entire city as if someone had cast a spell on it. Showers of blessing on a winter's evening. Soon the view was also covered by mist. It was all white, it felt like a dream. It was a cold unusual winter's evening. The droplets of rain slowly decreased and the curtain opened once again. The sun rays slowly teared up the heavy grey clouds. It felt like the angels have come to liberate us from darkness.  Our city has not vanished after all. I have never experienced the beauty of my city like this  before. The sun continues to shine through the clouds in glory till it goes down in the horizon. As twilight peeked in, the city lights slowly starts to flicker, decorating the city with diamonds, gems and gold. What a lovely evening it was, experiencing the essence of my home, my birth place Aizawl. My  Home sweet home...

I've put up a few images of what I've captured that day with my Nikon FM 2, the quality of the scanned negatives are not so great...but I hope you'll like the way I have arranged the images...

My Grandpa

His wisdom overflowed in silvery white lines

His thoughts inked down each day

His humility shines on his face

His humour, a joy for all

His voice, always a soothing sound

A man of great deeds

Yet disrespected by his own blood

And many a times, his values ignored

But he is still strong as ever

No one else will ever take his place

He is and will always be the greatest

He is my Grandpa

The Sunset of 28th August, 2011 (Aizawl)

It was a Sunday evening at Aizawl, my hometown. The monsoon tears have almost dried up, its already the end of August. Some people hate monsoon, but back at home it's my favorite season of the year. Monsoon may have all its foes, but it is that moment of time which reveals nature's wonder. Monsoon always refreshed the weary souls of nature. It always make me nostalgic. So that Sunday evening, the 28th of August, 2011, I sat in front of my computer goin' online as usual. Since it was a Sunday, whatever time was used was already spent well. Even though I was turning my back against the window, I can feel the light dimming down. But something was different with the light outside that evening. I turned towards the window and I was dumbstruck. Man! I've never seen such a beautiful cloud formation at the dawn of sunset! I grabbed my camera as fast as I could, locked the house and than ran up my terrace. I wasn't satisfied with the view from my house. So I rushed towards my neighbor's building. After getting a number of frames from the tall building next door, I again rushed towards another neighbor's house and stood there till the sun goes down.

It's not everyday that one gets to see such wonders of nature. I feel grateful to the Creator every time I look back at these images. And I'm sure that many of the folks back there in Aizawl who witnessed the sunset of that evening would have also shared the same thoughts as I did! It is one of those moments which could not be brought back at any cost. Memories of that sunset may have been captured in these photographs but what was seen with the naked eye remains a treasure forever. 

Cityscape: A Distorted View


Being a small town girl, living in big city gives me a feeling of constriction. The tall buildings and the mass of concrete structures make me realize the pace of development all over the world.The past few years of my life has been spent in concrete jungles; and I no longer enjoy the fresh view of the lush green hills and the blue mountains every time I wake up. I'm not against the ever increasing development (as it will never stop) but I can't stop dreaming about the green hills and blue mountains. My life is now surrounded by these physical concrete walls wherever I go and I have learned to live with it, forcing myself to accept it as 'normal'. During my visit to one such city, I tried to see the beauty in the walls which have haunted my thoughts. This body of work gives a distorted view a person inside a concrete jungle.