Dark

nobody@flickr.com (Arun Titan) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:29:08 -0700

Arun Titan posted a photo:

We went looking for it. We got more that we could ask for. Darkness!

We had recently gone for a 10-day trip to Kolkatta and Varnasi. On the way back, we wanted to document drug addicts, slums and prostitution in Kolkatta. We, totally 8 of us, stayed at Satyajit Ray film institute. Three of us, Dhanus Baranidaran, Balaji Maheshwar and myself packed our bags with camera gear and left looking for the place around 5 PM. Friends had advised us not to go there, especially not with the camera, they had said "you might lose more than just a camera, if you are caught".

Looking for the directions to reach the place, we asked a tea shop owner "Bhaiya, your dosth, anyone drug wala hai?". That guy gave a weird look that was enough to send us go look for someone else for directions. We got the same look when we asked a ricksha puller.

We did not know Hindi, but we desperately wanted to get to that place. We found some guys, who seemed educated, asked them and they gave a name "Shoba Bazaar" and told that if we start now, we might be able to reach there in an hour, which would be the right time to meet the people who we were looking for.

We asked if it is alright to take cameras and take photos. The advice was the same as their other friends'.

The Kolkatta metro took about 30 minutes to take us there. We asked a taxi driver "idhar, prostitution area kidhar?". "Ask the policeman standing there" came the reply filled with sarcasm.

As we went on looking for someone to ask, we were overcome with shame to ask for such a place. Finally, one of the guys summoned up enough courage and asked a boy in that street. He pointed us to the end of Shoba Bazaar, there began Sonagatchi.

Since it was too risky to take photos, we hid the camera and moved forward. One end of the street you see a full-fledged Ganapathy pooja - loud music, lights, people. Middle of the street, school girls going to tuition, carrying the burden of books on their back. And on the other end of the street, something strikes odd. At least it would have for any layman, but not for us! We went there looking for Dark and we found it.

What we saw was many girls waiting for customers. And we realized that everyone was watching us in that street. All three of us were very tensed, went to a shop nearby and they started smoking. Their hands were shivering, hardly able to grip the cigarette. I told them to keep their calm and not to show their tension.

As we kept moving, our cameras still hidden in our bags, we could see pimps and girls approaching us. One girl, she seemed drugged, came to us and she caught my shirt and groped Balaji Maheshwar. I pushed her away and we started walking out of the street without looking back. Once we got out of the street, we were thinking of other ways to get through the street and take some photos, any photos! We walked for a km and came to a junction. From there we took a taxi and went into a parallel street. The footpath of this street was filled with girls and they were approaching people (there were also people who were approaching these girls!). As we boarded the taxi, we told him "Bhaiya, go slow, we want to take photos... if someone chases us, go fast". He was shocked but agreed. As the street was dark, I had my camera in burst mode (continuous shots) and at maximum ISO, 12800. As we went through the street, I had my finger pressed on the shutter release button and started shooting. One girl noticed us and started shouting "Camera, camera... jao.. jao..". We do not know who was more frightened - us or the taxi driver! He floored the accelerator and we were out of the street. We were still not satisfied with the photos but the taxi driver did not want any share of this "adventure".

After walking another km, We got another taxi to go through the street again. As we were going through the street, people started noticing us and a pimp started chasing us away. The taxi fellow went fast and we came out safe. This time we all had enough of this. We were happy to take whatever photos we shot and left with our camera and life!"

Even at ISO 12800, the frames could not gather enough light. It was Dark, not just the place, the lives of those people!

Here are some of the photos which we managed to take against all odds.

Uploads from Arun Titan, tagged roadside, with geodata

Dark