The Boy and his Buffalos

As a little boy in Lahore, I saw buffalos for the first time. They were strange animals, neither cow nor goat. To me they were like elephants without trunks. I was fascinated by them. I loved watching them wade in the water for hours. I would watch the young farmers accompany them, pamper them and clean them. The buffalos were the farmer’s pets, friends that they could whisper to. At times farmer and buffalo would swim together and the farmer’s wet clothes would cling to their bodies. I loved the buffalo and their young farmers. Continue reading The Boy and his Buffalos

Summer of ’88

Little did I know in the start of that summer it was my last one in Lahore. By the fall of same year I was 6,300 km away on British Council fellowship at Chelsea School of Arts. Then I was teaching photography at NCA. Most afternoons,after college, I would traipse the city to discover new places, sample food, drink copious quantities of sugarcane juice with lemon and ginger, and to photograph people.

Continue reading Summer of ’88

Filing cabinet pet-named Gold

If you have stored your treasures of archived negatives and slides like I have, hung systematically in a filing cabinet, I dare you to lift them out. Even a cursory glance using your naked eyes, will bring you face to face with those captured moments. Be prepared for a time travel ride in a golden carriage; the images have that magic.

Continue reading Filing cabinet pet-named Gold

intimate self-portrait

As I kissed last of the guests good night after my birthday gathering, I could sense cold creeping up, my light and my shadow sentinels, stood motionless.

I felt weak and exhausted, torn between self-preservation and self-harm. Continue reading intimate self-portrait

A Touching Story of Healing Hands-London

Artist and masseur Ali Zaidi gets hands-on about healing the body, mind and spirit. Ignore the picture though, he doesn’t practice rake-i.

Let me begin by saying that I was not always comfortable with my body the way I accept, respect and love it now. Love is an important word that I repeatedly return to throughout my work as a self-confessed connector. Continue reading A Touching Story of Healing Hands-London