In a distant village in the northwestern Indian Himalayas, quiet prevails in the classroom of a government primary school. The children sit with their lessons open in front of them, poised to learn. The only thing that's missing from the scene is the teacher, who seems to have played truant today. The children still try to make the best of the situation, to fulfill their obligation of being good students. I look at a little girl who attempts to balance herself between the sheer enjoyment of fantasy and a critical understanding of it -- she not only revises her own lessons but also encourages others to do the same. For a while, she is not only a schoolgirl but also a schoolmistress.
Through these photographs, I have attempted to reflect a pure moment in time where the boundary between reality and fiction is blurred... a series of tableaux catching the moment before verbal labels obscure action. These are the moments between marginalization and matter coming into form, a pointer towards a greater understanding of the specific social structure within which a creative mind operates in its own given time and space.
