Several times it has happened that a particular shoot recce is conducted, but for some or the other reasons, the shoot doesn’t take place. Sometimes it’s budget issues, other times it’s just the unforeseen circumstances. We had done several recces in the great city of Amritsar in Punjab, saw the historical Wagah border parade and went to India-Pakistan border villages back in 2019. The historical city of Amritsar, the most pious for the Sikh community, witnessed the most brutal chapter of modern Indian history. Partition of India in 1947 had devastating effects for the people migrating between today’s India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Two districts of Punjab – Lahore and Gurdaspur – while four districts of Bengal – Nadia, Dinajpur, Rajshahi and Jessore – were partitioned between India and the two Pakistans. The bloodshed and displacement of millions have created a never-ending trauma on thousands of families even today. 

Early this year, in 2024, we scouted old mills of Mumbai which once ran the heart of British Empire in the Indian subcontinent. The mills came on the map of colonial Bombay in the 19th century spread across the neighbourhoods of Chinchpokli, Byculla, Dadar, Lower Parel, Parel etc. and produced ample amount of cotton and textile products to run the economy of the British Raj. The mills also facilitated the economy of Mumbai post-independence till the 1980s when a major strike at the mills – the Great Bombay Textile Strikes, 1982 – lead to shutting down of the mill region or Girangaon, soon to be replaced by commercial and residential skyscrapers. Today, some of the mills that are in ruins, are either controlled by the state government or are privately owned by corporations, while majority of others have been converted into concrete jungles. 

This year we scouted in the Shiwalik Range of the Himachal Pradesh, foothills of the Himalayas. Historically, the villages of Dharamshala and around were part of the larger Kangra district (that includes today’s Kangra, Lahaul-Spiti, Kullu, Hamirpur and Una) belonging to the undivided Punjab, administrated directly by the British. The Kangra district bordered China (or Tibet) in the east, Punjab Hill States and Punjab States (Chamba, Mandi) to it’s north and south, while the western strip touched Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur. The partition of India did affect Kangra and one can count a handful of horrifying stories of migration in the villages of Kangra, for its close proximity to the India-Pakistan border.