I was born and raised in Goa. I moved to the USA in 1988 for graduate study, and obtained a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
My subject interests lie chiefly in Landscape, People, and most aspects of Culture. I don't do Weddings, Fashion, Sports, or Wildlife.
For well over a decade, Goa and Iceland together have served as my photographic lodestar. I have also been inspired by the Death Valley of California.
I have worked extensively in Goa, depicting the land and its sui generis ethos. My photo archives bear witness to the destruction of Goa's environment and its slide from an idyll into the chaotic dreck that matches today's India.
I have traveled widely in Iceland for over 12 years, to most of its remote areas, in an ongoing exploration.
I am also a musician with a lifelong immersion in the musical traditions of India.
Currently I live in Iceland and spend significant time in Goa.
The images I create comport with my sensibilities. My photograph is not simply a documentation of “reality" but is imprinted with my own aesthetic choices.
This is the final edition of this series. The photographs in this project are an attempt at conveying a sense of the character of Panjim. I wish I could have undertaken this exercise some 25-30 years ago when much of the city of my childhood was intact and before a good portion of it was permanently disfigured by third-rate concrete designs, the kind you see all over India today. The march of progress necessitates change, true, but it did not have to be this version of change. What has been lost is irretrievable. Whatever worthwhile that has managed to escape the philistinism of the past two decades should be nurtured through judicious public policy. Here’s hoping for the best.
All the posts dealing with the heritage of Panjim are consolidated here.
I am a GSB with roots in Goa.It is depressing to see depredation of this state in all spheres. Unrestricted influx from elsewhere, callous attitude of local themselves in preserving whatever they have, and the sickening destruction of the environment.
Very good set of pictures. Really proud of you for fantastic set of pictures. Thanks a ton.
Lovely images, Rajan! The intensity of your sentiment is palpable there. I have longed to relive those years of my childhood. Very nostalgic indeed!
Thank you for the series of pictures of Panjim which brought memories flooding back.
I am talking about times during the Portuguese era ( the 40’s 50’s ) for instance the ‘Clube Nacional’ in its heyday….when the Panjim elite enjoyed the functions and danced till dawn during the Christmas, New Year and other festivities.
It appears the owners or occupiers of these properties do not maintain these rundown architectural ‘gems’, which could be lost, to us oldies.
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