From Konkan, where I Stand
Ashwathi Vijaykumar
“ There is much beauty here because there is much beauty everywhere� Rainer Marie Rilke
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It was a four hour journey, and since trains running south of India are normally an hour or so late, the travel time always increases by an hour. I had no clue about the place apart from what I had read on the internet. But stepping down, I discovered that unending streams of lively water and intense landscapes surrounded me. In even the most mundane and least significant hour, it became a sign, and an evidence of this desire.
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In 2005, a town named Chiplun in Maharashtra was severely devastated due to floods. On my recent visit, I wandered the streets and villages of this town, speaking to the locals. I realized that this flood often becomes a part of the conversation. The people I met and I spoke to had lost their memories, their belongings, and their assets in it. Every year, the first rain that gives off that fresh, earthy fragrance reminds them of the memories they had lost with the rains.
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I was intrigued by the expressive correlations between nature and every human emotion and stage of growth. At the same time, I continue to wonder where or when in life we cross over that tenuous edge between striving, pushing ahead, fighting and needing, to where it is simply enough to create in cloistered silence some small memory of significant joy.
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There was a small village that I visited in Dapoli, Maharashtra. Similar to other villages, this too had a small temple at the entrance. I presume that this is something of a norm across most of the villages in Konkan, or at least that is what I discovered. While I was walking through the streets of the villages all of the homes were locked. The streets seemed deserted, and there were no cattle sheds in the vicinity. The crumbling brick structures span out in all directions in the eerie silence, which seems to be all that exists there. I met a few locals and they informed me that people travel to different places in and around the village for their daily wage. Quite a few of them work in either farms or at construction sites, which was the reason why it was so empty.
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In the 1950s, people travelling to Mumbai from Konkan had to take a couple of routes to reach the destination. The Konkan Railway was built in the late 1970s through thick forests and the mountainous terrain. Over two thousand bridges and ninety one tunnels were built through the mountains and across rivers. There were a number of impediments and quite a few deaths as well. In its initial phase the Konkan railway was single-track, and unelectrified. This made it very difficult for commuters, as the travel time was considerably long. Of course, the situation has changed over a period of time. Now the doubling of the railway track has already begun, which will definitely make life easier for the passengers.
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When I met Mr. Ganeshrao, he was in his late 70’s. He was a graduate from Mumbai University and was back in his village trying to give back to his place of birth. His father had a family business which they used to run in the little town of Dehna. He spent a lot of time and effort trying to establish his business in Mumbai. The lack of transportation made it difficult to carry the products to the city. There were no trains connecting the village to the city, and he had to go by road which would have been the longest route then. At the beginning, he did succeed a little. However, he was a victim of the political rivalries of the town. He said to me “Straight trees are cut first.” He couldn’t do much after that. Everything has changed since then.
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I met these two boys in an Adivasi village. They were untidy, messed up, yet so polite. They said to me, “Didi can we be of any help, can we show you around the village?� I am sure I looked like a tourist, with my camera and tripod. I asked them to tag along with me for some time. They used to collect wood for their family. The family business was to make alcohol; the burner has to be burning all day. They didn’t go to school but there was a weekly study session set up for all the children of the village. They had dreams to travel to the city to have a better life for themselves and their family
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The education system was in place but not very strongly imposed. The younger generations are going to school, and are taught in the vernacular language, which was in keeping with the culture and background of their ancestors. They wore the traditional nine yard cotton or silk saree which was elaborately draped around the body, and was traditionally worn by women with their jewelry, nose ring and black beaded necklace.
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I met a girl, Rakhi; she was going to college and she was quite smart for her age. Rakhi told me a story. She confided in me that couples who love across two different villages are either put out of the village or killed. Honor killing is a possibility; hence the girls always keep away from the boys. She said, “I can never think of a love affair, it’s an insult to our family. I want to study and be like you. I cannot commit such a sin and endanger my life or my families.�
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From Konkan, Where I stand This project speaks about Konkan and the people living there, from where I see from. The very first thing that kept me going was to research about the history of the place and the curiosity to understand the existence of people around. Unfortunately, with no traces found about the recent history, I shifted my approach to look for books and archives which can give me a better understanding. However, that only gave me a gist of how it was around half a dozen decades. Few initial findings revealed that the lifestyle has not changed much or rather has not progressed significantly as compared to neighboring states like Goa, Kerala and so on. The poverty level and education is still growing and developing. The dialogue between me and the locals sounded more like bed time ancestral stories heard from the past with speaks so much about aesthetic theory. It focused mainly on the personal life experiences and Konkan railways Photography being such a strong medium to express just about anything is an unsaid thing, but with very little to no evidence pertaining to what I was looking for was a struggle in itself and added another humongous task. Well, the photographs that I could get hold of in Mumbai and Konkan area were a deluge of formless ones and some accidental, very few of them had that coherence even in their strangeness. Photographing people and knowing more about them was tricky but intriguing. A portrait so much like the past, which seemed like the time had paused for a very long time
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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IMAGES Fig. 1, Page 1 Found Archives Maharashtra
Fig. 11 | Page 18 Found Archives Location Unknown
Fig. 2 Page 4 Ashwathi VijayKumar View from the Window | 2015 Maharashtra
Fig. 12 | Page 20,21 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Chiplun, Maharashtra
Fig. 3 | Page 6,7 Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra
Fig. 13 | Page 22 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dapoli, Maharashtra
Fig. 4,5 | Page 8 Found Archives Location Unknown Fig. 6 | Page 10,11 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Ratnagiri, Maharashtra Fig. 7,8 | Page 12,13 Found Archives Location Unknown Fig. 9 | Page 15 Found Archives Location Unknown Fig. 10 | Page 16,17 ,Ashwathi Vijaykumar Untitled | 2016 Maharashtra
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Fig. 14 | Page 23 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dapoli, Maharashtra Fig. 15 | Page 24 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dapoli, Maharashtra Fig. 16 | Page 26,27 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dapoli, Maharashtra Fig. 17 | Page 28 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dapoli, Maharashtra
IMAGES Fig. 18 | Page 29 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dapoli, Maharashtra
Fig. 26 | Page 38 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dehna, Maharashtra
Fig. 19 | Page 31 Found Archives, Unknown Location
Fig. 27 | Page 39 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dehna, Maharashtra
Fig. 20 | Page 31 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dapoli, Maharashtra Fig. 21 | Page 32 Found Archives, Unknown Location Fig. 22 | Page 35 Found Archives, Unknown Location Fig. 23 | Page 35 Found Archives, Unknown Location Fig. 24 | Page 36 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dehna, Maharashtra Fig. 25 | Page 37 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dehna, Maharashtra
Fig. 28 | Page 40,41 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dehna, Maharashtra Fig. 29 | Page 42 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 30 | Page 44,45 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015=6 Maharashtra Fig. 31 | Page46,47 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2016 Dehna, Maharashtra Fig. 32 | Page 48,49 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2016 Dehna, Maharashtra
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IMAGES Fig. 33 | Page 50 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 34 | Page 51 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 35 | Page 52 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dapoli, Maharashtra Fig. 36 | Page 53 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Dehna, Maharashtra Fig. 37 | Page 54,55 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 38 | Page 56,57 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 39 | Page 59 Found Archives Unknown Location
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Fig. 40 | Page 59 Found Archives Unknown Location Fig. 41 | Page 60 Found Archives Unknown Location Fig. 42 | Page 64,65 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 43 | Page 66 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 44 | Page 67 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 45 | Page 68,69 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 46 | Page 70,71 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra
IMAGES Fig. 47 | Page 73 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra Fig. 48 | Page 73 Ashwathi VijayKumar Untitled | 2015 Maharashtra
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