Description

About The Book

This book is a silent offering — a tribute born of memory, longing, and love. For over thirty years, Kashi has lived within me — not merely as a city, but as a presence, a whisper in my soul, a resonance that calls me back time and again. These photographs, taken over more than a decade, are fragments of that inner journey. They are not just visual records, but personal echoes — my attempts to hold on to something elusive, sacred, and eternal.

It has not been easy. To seek Kashi through my lens was to seek myself. And in doing so, I often found both slipping just out of reach. The camera, over the years, has become an extension of me — sometimes a mirror, sometimes a companion, sometimes a question I could never quite answer. There were moments of silence, of surrender, of unexpected grace — when the city revealed itself, not in grandeur, but in the quiet curve of an alley, the shadow of a passing figure, the hush of first light on the timeless ghats.

Kashi is not meant to be captured in photographs. It is meant to be felt, absorbed, carried within. These images are my humble homage to a place that continues to unravel me, shape me, heal me. A place where time folds inwards, where the sacred walks barefoot, and where my soul has always felt most at home.

About The Author

I am Dipanjan Chakraborty, Co-Founder, Director and Chief Scientific Officer at ZeiniX Life Sciences, Bangalore. Born in Kolkata, I grew up inspired by the legendary Satyajit Ray and absorbed the city’s dreamy, romantic spirit — much like many others from the “”City of Joy.”” My travels across India began early in my childhood and continued extensively through my academic and professional journeys, both within the country and abroad.

My fascination with photography took root during the holiday travels in my school years. Somewhere along those journeys, I picked up a camera — more out of curiosity than intention — and what began as a fiddling soon became a deep, enduring love. The arrival of digital SLRs transformed this casual interest into a serious passion — eventually becoming an obsession. Over the past fifteen years, I have been fortunate to travel widely, exploring forests, remote wildernesses, ancient cultural centers, oceans, and mountains.

My photographic work has been featured as photo-stories on platforms such as Rediff, published in journals like Jol-Jongol, and included in limited edition books like India Unveiled, Light Down Magazine, and India in 100. My work has also been exhibited by organizations such as Retro Kolkata, Chobi-O-Ghor Foundation, Beyond Vision, and ASX, among others.

I am deeply passionate about creating visual chronicles and memoirs of human existence. Rather than confining myself to specific genres of photography, I find inspiration where these boundaries dissolve.