Guarding our families and land

This photograph is from the late 1990 at my paternal village near Sri Muktsar Sahib, a south west city in Punjab. I am not sure who took it, but it would have been developed in Muktsar. Here I am as a little boy in the arms of my uncle Jaswant. Ours was an agricultural family, who like many others or decades, if not centuries, had owned and tilled lands for grain. However, since the 1970s the Insurgent militancy in Punjab had begun to disturb the peace of the villages and towns, and by 1990 it was at its peak even though between 1987 and 1991, Punjab had been placed under the President’s rule.

The father, son and their gun

Image and Narrative contributed by Rizvi Amir Abbas Syed. This picture was taken in the 1960s at “Friends Studio” in sector 5 market, Rourkela. My father (left) worked for Hindustan Steel Limited which later became SAIL, Steel Authority of India Limited. My grand Father (right) was an Officer in Excise department when Bihar, Bengal & […]