The Salt Makers of the Little Rann of Kutch

Kalubhai

Kalubhai.  I have had the privilege of spending 2 days with Kalubhai and his family. Kalubhai is a 4th generation salt maker from the Little Rann of Kutch.

Salt-making is a laborious task. They work barefoot in the salt pans. This takes a toll on their legs and feet, and older people have permanent swellings and thickening of their skin. Both Kalubhai and his wife work this tough job.

The Rann is a harsh place - barren with almost no good water. The sun beats down so hard that people not accustomed to this climate will not be able to survive a summer here. The wild asses roam this arid land. The raptors fly over it looking for food.

The land oozes salt water. This is what is used for the salt making. Shallow wells are dug and the water is pumped into the pans. Uptil a few years ago, they ran water pumps on cude oil 24/7 for this. Now they run only at night. Electric pumps run in the daytime powererd by 2 large solar pannels. You can see these pannels dotted around the landscape - indicating where a family is working.

They get drinking water weekly. This is usually Narmada water which has transformed this part of the state. The water is still salty. The early morning sweet black tea we got had a distincive salty taste. That tea with the hot puri's Kalubhai's wife made for us made our daybreak special.

The Rann is vast. It is flat and featureless. The horizon stretches out in all directions. The landscape evokes a sense of melancholy.

The landscape is dotted with these small temples dedicated to various deities. They serve as markers on this featureless landscape.

Kalubhai's wife working on the pan. They flatten the base with their bare feet as they preapre a new pan. It is very hard work. The mud is sticky. When dried it hardens like a rock. We had to use screwdrivers to get it out of our shoes.

A control board. Sort of. Control of the pumps.

The boys of the Rann. Children of the salt makers

The gate at Zhinjuwada - The gateway to the Rann

The salt pans

The salt pans

Dawn. The white salt reflected the sky vividly.

Arrid

Food for the soul

Bajra rotla's, fresh toor rassa, special halva. It was amazing food.

We spent two nights in our tents next to their hut.

We bid adieu to Kalubhai and his family in the cold morning.

A slice of Mumbai - the Worli Sea Link

Christmas 2023. Didi treated us to a dinner in the Taj Land's End. Juicy mutton gravy and lots more. She also took us on a tour and showed us a balcony on one of the higher floors. Exclusive spaces for the exclusive folks of this world. We were lucky to get a glimps at all.

This photo is taken from up there.

Serious Observations of a Funny World

Portrait: The Mountaineer

A mountaineer. Once must learn how to live from him. How to be happy and enjoy every day. How to face challenges and climb over them. How to be simple.

Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50/1.4
Light: Natural light from a french window on the left (his right).


Portraits of the Soul

Sunday Flower

“Do not dwell in the past,
do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment. ”

― Buddha

Portrait: The Local Train Traveller

He travelled 34 years in Kalyan-VT local train. Saw the city change through a moving window.

Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50/1.4
Light: Tube light on the top-left and behind him.



Portraits of the Soul

Mulund Chronicles

Reconstructions were everywhere. The old giving way to the new

March 2015 - Oct 2016

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. Lived in various places and all of those had an impact on who I am today. For 5 years till my 4th std I lived in a small village called Tarkhad near Vasai town. After that for about 22 years we stayed on the University of Mumbai campus at Kalina.

After my father retired, we shifted to Kandivalli and then to Goregaon. None of these places felt like home. After a few years the family shifted to Pune. I stayed on for another year trying to do a startup. When me and Percy finally started working on an idea we shifted to his house in Warje on the outskirts of Pune. We stayed there for 2 years, mostly underground.

After the startup shut I moved back in with the family. Got married and we all shifted to Kothrud, Pune. Finally a home which felt like home.

Once while visiting friends in Mumbai I visited Powai. I was to meet them at some football ground. After so many years living outside of Mumbai it all felt grand - the large buildings and the hustle and bustle. I wondered if I would ever live or work in some such grand place again...

Next year I got a job in that same grand building opposite the football ground. The Supreme Business park. The financials were still a little shaky so me and the wife shifted to an unassuming 1 bhk in the old LIC colony in Mulund East.

I stayed for amost 2 years in Mulund East. These were few of the most difficult, happening and eventful years for me. Lots of things happened...

I got to experience my favourite Mumbai monsoon in full glory. Twice. I connected with old friends. Old life. I travelled a lot to Kalyan and Pune. My mum got sick. She passed away. My daughter was born. I had a health crisis as my B12 and D3 hit near zero. I got my ACL reconstruction done which had been pending for over 6 years. I repaid my startup loan. I brought a bike with cash payment.

So much.

Mulund East is old Mumbai. Some of the buildings there were derelict and rundown. 50+ years old. There was decay everywhere. Old people. Poli-bhaji kendra's where mostly these old people got their food. It was like shifting back in time.

But Mumbai has it's charm. We felt at home. Me and the wify were finding back our feet in this city. The house was small and very old but it was still cozy. Luckily many of ours friends lived in Thane and nearby so Viviana mall was the new meeting place. Many dinners.

The Punto got used to the road from Mulund to Kalyan. Since my wife was pregnant she spent last trimester at her mothers in Kalyan. So most weekends I used to be there. On the others, we used to find our way back to Pune. I missed my mother and my little niece...

I used to get food from these very poli-bhaji kendras. One of them was run by a dude near the main chowk. He used to have chicken on some days and I used to get that. We employed an old bai who had grown up in the locality. She used to get fish - bangda, ravas, surmai, kolambi - for me and cook them in traditional style. Amazing stuff.

The office was super. We had an x-box 360, a pool table, a tt table & a mini golf course. Great time spent there. My health crisis made it extremely difficult for me to work and I thank Rishi for being patient with me. Eventually I left as I felt I did not do justice to the job at that point of time. That was the lowest point in my working career.

I shifted back to Pune to join my brother's startup. I had got very homesick after my mother's passing and I suppose I felt at home in Kothrud with the rest of the family. But this short stint in Mumbai will remain etched in memory.

The old markets of Mulund

The LIC colony. Reminded me of our campus. There were families who had stayed there more than 40 years.

The dude where I got my weekly dose of chicken curry.

Just Mumbai.

The new office was swank

Good times

The wife gifted me my dream lens. Super Awesome.

Powai

Mumbai rains. Oh I miss them.

The eating area of Supreme Business Park. We had waterfall view in the rains.

Powai

Old haunts. The Naka and DP's

Post the ACL reconstruction. Recovery was painful

Serious Observations of a Funny World

So You Want To Be A Writer

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.
don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.

–– “So You Want To Be A Writer” by Charles Bukowski

Patterns of Life

To understand is to perceive patterns.
- Isaiah Berlin

Beauty lies all around us. When we are open to receive beauty we will see patterns all around.

To be “open to receive beauty" is to cultivate a mindset of reverence and appreciation for all the that surrounds us - both minute and grand. We need an “active openness" which requires us to engage with our surroundings with mindfulness and intentionality.

William Blake, in his glorious poetic wisdom, said:
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."

When one adopts such an open stance, patterns of beauty reveal themselves with a magical clarity. The interplay of light and shadow, the juxtaposition of myraid forms, the cadence of the wind and water and of life itself — all become agencies of joy and a reminder of the inherent order and harmony that govern the universe.

In this state of openness, beauty is not merely observed; it is experienced. It becomes a source of inspiration and a reminder of the interconnectedness of all things. As John Keats wrote, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness." Beauty, therefore, is not transient; it lingers, enriching our lives with each encounter and leaving an indelible mark on our souls.

To see beauty and the patterns it forms is to embrace life with a full heart - it is an invitation to look deeper, to feel more profoundly, and to live with an awareness that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.


Photo taken at Badami on a Sony A7R3.

Sunday Flower

“If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment.

If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.”

― Oscar Wilde

Portrait: The Minchin

The singer who laughs a lot.

Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50/1.4
Light: Portable square softbox with strobe

Mutton Rassa

1 Kg Mutton (Thigh and Chops with little fat).
Wash throughly a couple of times.

Take:
1 tsp Sea-salt
1/2 tsp Haldi
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

Massage into the mutton.
Marinate in fridge for a minimum 3 hours. Cover with cling wrap so that there is minimal air contact.

The Watan (gravy mix):
4 black cardimum
6 green cardimum
10 black pepper
12 cloves
3" dalchini
1 star anise
1 javitri
3 bay leaves
2 tsp jeera
1 tsp badisoap
1/4 cup sabut dhaniya

Roast in pan with a little oil, remove and keep aside.

Add following to same oil:
10-12 Garlic
1 1/2" Ginger
3 Medium-big onions
2x2" Dried coconut
6-8 Kadipatta leaves
1 tsp white til
2 tsp khuskus
10-15 coriander stems

Roast-fry in a Kadhai (wok) with little oil till onion is golden brown.

1 Medium-big onion

Give a couple of cuts and roast on fire till light brown inside and a little charred outside

1x2" dried coconut

Roast on fire till completely charred.

Grind all the above to a fine paste.
Take a good amount of oil in a large pot and get it hot.
Seer mutton in the hot oil for a few minutes and keep aside.
Saute the watan till texture changes and gets curdly and oil separates
Add mutton to the watan and saute for a few minutes

Add:
Chilli powder (to taste)
Kala masala (2 tsp)
Garam masala (2 tsp)
Salt (to taste)

Add enough hot water to cover the mutton and cook covered for 60-90 minutes on very low heat.
Garnish with coriender and finely chopped mint.