Dot.com jail in the making

This story I got because of my personal contacts which I had built inside the Bhopal Central Jail administration. They called me to tell me that they have set up computers with internet facilities for the use of the jail inmates. This was the first of its kind in the jails in the country and so I went ahead and visited the jail to know from the inmates on their new hi-tech facility provided to them by the authorities in 2001.

IT would be IT or Dot.com time for the 30,000 odd prisoners in the various jails across the State next year as they get trained to make use of the latest computer technology and the Net. This huge project was initiated by the DG Prisons Shakeel Raza who said that linking the various jails through computers is a better alternative to manual labour dependent and expensive work.
Talking to the Hindustan Times, Raza said that the first phase is to link all the central jails and then later on link the sub jails to them.
The project is costly says Raza and adds that ‘though the Police Head office has shrunk our budget we will go ahead with it.’
Some prisoners who are learning computer operations at the Ass jailer and the jailer’s office within the jail premises say that they are having fun with the computer and have a better opportunity to get a job once they are out of jail without having to pay to learn it.
The jail Superintendent says that even official letter written to higher officers are typed and saved by the jail inmates on computers.

All bio-data’s and old files of the jail inmates are now keyed in and loaded onto the system that would enable anyone around the world to access them.
The cost of the new conference room done up at the jail head quarters has been marginal for the jail department as the total man power came from the jail and only the raw materials had to be bought for them says DG Raza.
The jail department has ambitious ideas of creating a well-stocked CD library so that the CDs are duplicated and used in various presentations made by the state police department and other department within the State.
“The project in very big and we have plans to educate the inmates along with my officers on video conferencing in the near future,” says DG prisons Raza, ‘this will enable all to know each other well and thus reduce the burden of paper work for the officers’. This would also act as a medium for education on various vocations taught in the jail and thus reduce the problem of looking for good teachers, he adds. But there would be checks and balances and filtering too on the use of the computer with internet facilities.

No Cake on Uma's Birthday

This story just so happened that when the then BJP Chief Ministerial candidate Uma Baharti had come back to the lake city of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal to celebrate her birthday that she forced the State President Kailash Joshi to give her ladoos. Since I was present I the room I hit upon this idea of writing this story on how Uma Bharati just coming out of an controversy of offering an egg laced cake to Lord Hanuman during her election campaign which the Congress Party try to use to their advantage only to see themselves defeated by a whole lot of cream on their face by this very same sadhvi who cherished the cake for a year or so before her own party men played her spoils by snatching the cake from her to pass it to a older man and now with a fresh young blood of the right wing block.
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After the egg on her face imbroglio following offering a cake at Hanuman temple recently, BJP's chief ministerial candidate Uma Bharati has probably decided to shun like plague the egg-laced confectionery.
Apparently having decided not to touch a cake with the proverbial barge pole, her 44th birthday today (Saturday, May 3rd, 2003), was shorn of hype, glamour or yes, cake. If she was offered anything, it were the humble Mawa sweets.
The firebrand Sadhvi took a train from Gawalior to Hoshangabad where she performed Puja at the holy Narmada river in the morning. Then, it was time for a meeting. Later in the day, she arrived at her residence in the State capital.
After two hours of rest, she prayed to Gods and Goddesses for the party's fortunes at her home. The chief campaigner of the BJP is facing probably the sternest test of her turbulent political careers as she leads the party in the coming State Assembly elections.
While meeting a clutch of local corporators and party workers, Uma showed the signs of stress and exhaustion after the first leg of her 'Sankalp Yatra'. The travel-weary leader sported a forced smile on her face all the time.

A Gun-totting woman bodyguard brought a genuine smile to her lips when she presented Uma with a rose and a birthday wishes card. The bodyguard received a warm hug in return.
On her way out to the State BJP headquarters to hold a meeting with senior party leaders later, Uma stopped at the Banganga Durga Mandir only to find the temple doors locked. An Aarti she planned to perform there would have to wait for another day.
At the party headquarters, Uma was recevied by a handful of party workers. She proceeded to the first floor of the BJP headquarters where State party president Kailash Joshi blessed her. The party's State general secretary Kaptan Singh Solanki. also greeted her. Sweets, needless to say strictly milk-based, were also offred to her.

A Survivor's Tale

This picture below fetched me the World Health Organization's Photo Competition award in 2005 in the theme 'Health & Disability'.
This picture was taken 29th of November, 2004. My friend Abdul Jabbar who runs an NGO for the betterment of the survivor's affected in the Bhopal Gas tragedy which claimed thousands of lives in 1984, said that one survivor needed urgent help and only the media can do that for her. Jabbar who knew I was working with Hindustan Times and also feeding images for the AFP requested me to come since most of the other local journalist and photographers in Bhopal had refused to help him in his struggle.
He had told me how this 40 year old Gazalla (then 36) had to fight with a lot of red tape to get her treatment done free of cost from the Madhya Pradesh Government. This made an interesting story and so I requested Jabbar to take me to her home. Once inside I found that she had lost her eyesight and also was paralytic on one side due the side effects caused by the Union Carbide pesticide plant's gas leak. Then to my luck I saw an old black & white picture of a very pretty girl in her teens and asked her father 'who is this good looking girl', he smiled and told me that it is Gazalla herself when she was 16 years old. Immediately I asked for the picture to be cleaned up an asked Gazalla to hold it next her present state of face.
I came back to the office and filed this picture along with an story caption for Hindustan Times - Bhopal edition and also send a few images to AFP. The picture was given three column space in the Bhopal live pages. The Next morning to my suprise I was getting calls from various newspapers, magazines and TV Correspondents from across the country asking me for the address of Gazalla . Later that day I got to know from my friend Jabbar that, Gazalla's home was flooded with TV crews from across the country and senior correspondents from various leading newspapers. Well I felt happy that I was able to do something worth for an lady who required help. As for Gazalla herself, after a hectic day called me up and thanked me for all the help I had done for her and her family.
Later in 2005 I entered this image for an World Health Organization photo competition and to my surprise it got awarded and was put on display at the Annual World Health Conference held in Switzerland as one of the 10 best photographs from around the world in the theme 'Health & Disability'.
The WHO officials later the same year send three sets of Postal cards with my picture on it and told me that they had made world wide release of these post cards. This award is more precious to me than any of my previous International awards which I had received so far.

36 year old Gazalla a Muslim girl who was blinded by the Bhopal gas tragedy shows an old photo of herself 20 years ago in this picture taken at her home on November 29th 2004.

Fast Track President

The below pictures which were taken on the Former President A P J Abdul Kalam's visit to Bhopal and also the first outside New Delhi after taking over as the President of India. These pictures were shot keeping in mind the protocol the presidents had to follow which he did not like as he later told Hindustan Times - Bhopal Editor at a high tea party in the Governor's house. Kalam also praised the pictures himself which was told to me by the RE of HT -Bhopal.


A Man in Hurry: President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam sure lives life in the fast lane. Inspecting the guard of honour, he took off like a missile, leaving behind his guards several paces while ideally, he should have been walking in their midst. At the end of his canter, the escorting guards, marching at their meticulously measured pace, were yet to catch up with him by a good distance. These images were taken at the Bhopal airport on Thursday, September 5, 2002.