When I fell in love with Guwahati in the morning...

I always feel cities are the most enchanting early in the morning, before everyone gets up and when you can still hear the chirping of the birds in the city Center. The city is the same, yet quite different. I think it's actually easy to belong to the city when you can absorb it a but more, and in many cities mornings are perfect for this...

He had swag :)

Brings back childhood memories...

My feelings about the fantastic city ambiance were reinforced by Guwahati on a recent visit to the city. Since it's so much in the east, sunrise happens really early in the morning (before 5am) and I got up just at the right time to walk out of my hotel and explore the streets. Just the previous night the mayhem of the traffic had not much inspired much confidence in walks in the area, but the morning was so much different.  As the sky changed colors with the rising sun, people doing early morning activities also came out. Some did pooja at the temple, while others just carried things around to shops for the busy day ahead.

This dude got up only to be photographed :)

Hard work starts early in the morning for some...

An old woman disappearing into an alley...

However, the most interesting for me were are hand-rickshawallas who waited patiently for customers to come. Please don't get me wrong, I am completely against the practice of humans pulling other humans to transport them and would rather have these men rehabilitated in better jobs. But we know that it's unlikely to happen soon, though by the next generation they will certainly become much less common. They try to send their kids to school so that they can have a better life. I know this because I have interviewed many of them in the past and always been impressed by their vision for their next generation.

Customers are few at this hour, so conversations are possible...

The busy Guwahati market...empty though!

Giving me company in the walk

We don't see them much where I live, so was very fascinated by them and went and spoke to a few. They were happy to see this guy with long hair interested in taking their portraits and happily posed for me. Talking to them also took me back in time to Kanpur, a big city in Uttar Pradesh, where we once had a bad accident when our rickshaw toppled over. This was even more interesting as the accident happened in a hospital where we had gone go see a relative patient. We all survived though!

Sadly recent visits to Kanpur have failed to revive my fond childhood memories, and by that I don't mean the accident at the hospital. Hmmm...such digression from the topic. I always end up doing it...

Anyway, my morning continued into a wonderful day ahead which first started off with capturing some local fishermen in a village close-by catching fish in traditional ways, and later in capturing life of Bamboo...more on this soon :)

Respect for all the hard work!