Sudharak Olwe

On World Hunger Day, an ace photographer’s walk down hunger lane are made more poignant by the pandemic which haunts us today. It does not happen often with a photographer that he cannot bear to look at the image he has captured. But then he realises that he must not only face the photograph himself but show it persistently and insistently till that hard to bear reality reflected in the image transforms.

Mumbai is always buzzing, day or night. During the day, the streets are packed with traffic and pedestrians, rushing about. The suburban railway stations are crowded with commuters at all hours. The footpaths are taken over by hawkers and their customers. At night too, the city is on the move, even if the traffic is somewhat less. Night shift workers commute back home in the trains and buses. Not surprising, therefore, it is often known as the city that does not sleep.

It’s the harvest season and the entire village of Chawad in Chhattisgarh is hard at work in the fields or carrying bundles to their storage rooms. Satrupa and Premlal Sahu take turns to work in their family’s fields while the other looks after their two children. Nine year old Tushar is active though he is underweight. And their 18 months old toddler Lokprabha, who was only two kilos when she was born, is now just 8.5 kilos.