Aditya Dhawan
Taking photographs in the metro could be injurious
to health because people do not like them to be ‘caught’
by others on camera. Their rebellion, however, does
not work with the State that continuously records
their activities via surveillance cameras fitted in every
compartment. Hence, I would call Aditya Dhawan’s
shots as candid shots taken with a mobile phone.
Metro coaches are a mini cauldron of Delhi’s diversity
of classes and castes. Though class is apparent from
clothes, caste cannot be exercised in these coaches
because democracy works fully here. Lower castes and
upper castes share the same seat here. Metro coaches,
in that sense, are the true manifestations of Indian
democracy that assures constitutional rights to people.
However, the variety of approach to life could be seen
in the ways people dress themselves up and hold their
bodies in these coaches. Even if there is a strange sort
of leveling of class and caste happening here, a curious
look could reveal that there are some elements that
pop out from people that make their life statement
palpable. It could be a style statement or it could be a
philosophical approach to life, or it could be the sheer
presence of reality and inescapability of the quotidian