A re-print of filmmaker Sabeena Gadihoke's book -- India in Focus: Camera Chronicles of Homai Vyarawalla -- packs in images by India's first woman photojournalist, of a country bursting with hope and promise, and a nation of heroic leaders who didn't distance themselves from their countrymen

Sabeena Gadihoke's association with Homai Vyarawalla spans a decade, right from the time the Delhi-based filmmaker worked on a film titled, 3 Women and A Camera. "Films can never capture the details a book can. And I didn't feel a film was sufficient to tell her story," says Gadihoke about India in Focus: Camera Chronicles of Homai Vyarawalla (published by Mapin Publishing in association with Parzor Foundation), in a telephone interview from her Delhi apartment.

Homai Vyarawalla was India's only woman photojournalist in pre-
Independent India

Jawaharlal Nehru hugs sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit after she arrives
from Moscow. This is one of Homai's favourite photos

The Onlooker was a magazine that Vyarawalla worked with. Here,
Indira Gandhi is being introduced to President Nasser of Egypt at a
reception held at Rashtrapati Bhawan

The associate professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University kept returning to meet Vyarawalla, now 96, over the next few months, using the time to record the life of the lady who, back in 1938, was India's only professional woman photojournalist. "When the Parzor Foundation was looking for someone to write about Homai, I was a natural choice."

That Vyarawalla is a Parsi had a lot to do with how her destiny panned out, Gadihoke believes. "It was uncommon for a woman in a sari to be out there in the public realm -- especially in Delhi -- photographing politicos during the day, and dropping by at gymkhanas and theatre performances at night."

Age is just a number
Describing Vyarawalla as "full of life," Gadihoke says she is far from conventional women her age. "She cooks and cleans, and is fond of gardening. The last time we met, we made a trip to a nursery because she wanted to buy select plants."

Vyarawalla's decision to hand over her collection of photographs to the Alkazi Foundation stemmed from a confidence in an organisation that would maintain her prints and negatives and allow public access to historically significant photographs.

Rahaab Allana, curator of the Alkazi Foundation, says his personal favourite is a picture of Jawaharlal Nehru seated in front of a screen, "which somehow shows a compassionate side of his character." Allana says the
collection will be employed "to pursue research documentation and create public access to the largest collection of vintage photographs."

Homai's favourites
Speaking of the photographs that feature in the Mapin-Parzor Foundation publication dated 2006, Gadihoke reveals that two of Homai's favourites were clicked in 1954, when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was waiting at Palam airport for sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit to arrive from Moscow. "When he spotted her on the tarmac, he walked up to her and embraced her. Here, of course, was the picture of our Prime Minister receiving the ambassador to the Soviet Union...but here also, was a picture of a brother giving his sister a warm hug."

The other favourite was taken just before the diplomat's arrival. "Nehruji was very camera-friendly," says Gadihoke, "and he posed near a sign that said photography was prohibited. Homai clicked it, and they both knew it would make for a great picture."

Gadihoke reveals that Vyarawalla lived in Rajasthan in virtual anonymity for years after the death of her husband, also a photographer. Gadihoke narrates an instance when Indira Gandhi mentioned Vyarawalla's name during an interview with a photographer from overseas.
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"Then, the sleepy town of Pilani, where she lived, suddenly woke up to the knowledge that they had this great
photographer in their midst."

A fancy dress party held at the Delhi Gymkhana Club after
Independence

Pearl necklace Connaught Place. This is Gadihoke's favourite image
from the book

Mahatma Gandhi and Frontier Gandhi are seen in an image taken when
they were off to attend a Congress Committee meeting where members
were to vote for the Third June Plan, or the decision to partition the
country. Susheela Nayar, Gandhiji's physician, is also seen

Jawaharlal Nehru stands in front of a signboard at Palam Airport in 1954,
when he was waiting to receive his sister Vijaylakshmi Pandit, who was
then Indian Ambassador to Moscow.
Images courtesy: Mapin Publishing All images are copyright
of Homai Vyarawalla

Clouds over Connaught Place
Not humans, but a picture of Delhi's Connaught Place, is the one that Gadihoke has a soft spot for. "It's a picture of Connaught Place back in the 50s. There is no traffic around, just lovely, fluffy white clouds overhead. To me, it's almost phantasmatic," she says. "You don't get to see Connaught Place like that anymore."
India in Focus, Gadihoke says, presents one person's view of history. It takes you through the life of a woman who saw British India transform into free India. "The book also marks a certain disappointment with undelivered promises -- what happened during the emergency, Homai's disillusionment, the way things turned out at the end of the Nehruvian era, and her decision to give up photography altogether."

Pulling Ho Chi Minh's beard
"Homai had a close, almost personal relationship with her subjects," Gadihoke reveals. And although press photographers were allowed to get a lot closer to public figures than other people, Vyarawalla respected their privacy.

Until recently, Gadihoke shares, "Homai refused to display a picture of Nehruji, Rajendra Prasad and Vietnamese statesman Ho Chi Minh, because the angle of the shot made it appear like Nehruji was tugging Ho Chi Minh's beard." Gadihoke is hopeful that re-printing the book in a soft-cover version will make it more affordable and accessible to readers.