Through my photography project for this fall, I am documenting real migrants whom I have been interacting with during my stay in Paris. All these people are from India’s immediate neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal etc. Back home we are aware of India’s strained relationships, specially with Pakistan and Bangladesh based on political, religious and racial turmoil. The partition has left some deep scars not just on the maps but also on the people. My family has also suffered. In India, I cannot recall interacting with any person of these nationalities ever. Ironically, in Paris, these are the people who talk to me the most. They (and me) are at utmost comfort, with each other, which I find fascinating. Maybe because there are similarities in terms of culture, food, language etc. or may be it is just the familiar faces, something reminding me of home in a foreign land. This project is still work in progress. But it is exciting for me to see the results of a few stories, in the form of photos and videos taken by me. So, far I have been able to take photos of the owners of a Pakistani fast food centre and a Bangladeshi mobile accessories shop.The photos document their life in Paris, and portray them in light of my conversations with them. Being migrants in another country, they too seem to have the similar fellow feelings that I have, but when it comes to being photographed they seem to go into a shell. They are reluctant to pose for photos and don't want to be recognised. They seem fragmented in thought and expression. Fragmented between who they are now and who they were ‘then’.
Pakistani fast food centre
It was an intense start. On an average I spent an hour talking to them in general. They treated me with complimentary desert and coffee and I asked if I could photograph them. They turned me down 3 times, every time asking me to come another day. Until, one day I could finally, manage to take a few.
Bangladeshi Mobile Accessory Shop
India and Bangladesh have an even stranger relationship I feel. One of the first people I made friends with here in Paris, were the Bangladeshi guys in the mobile shop as I went to their shop for a SIM card. At first, they spoke to me in French, but then I heard them talking in Bangla (my mother tongue) and I immediately changed from English to Bangla out of excitement. And then the conversations would shift and jump around anything that we have in common. A few days later when I asked him if I could take their photos. They were reluctant but I begged and promised that this is only for school project and not to be posted any where online.They share with me more off the camera. While photos are okay but videos are an absolute no no. One of them have even lied to his family about his job so he requested me to not put any photo or video on social media.
I am trying to explore migrant emotions (specially in the subcontinent) in this project. Although all of them were not forced to migrate but it is interesting to understand their feelings through dialogue. The feelings of being in a foreign land, finding themselves suddenly put into a situation of familiarity and trying to discover the rigidness or the awkwardness of our otherwise politically defined relationship.
