Travelling with a film crew is a novelty, but for this photographer, the rush was of finding himself in the middle of a red-dust-kicking trail along Chhattisgarh. Often overlooked as a destination, an unhurried September scouring of the state brought home the joys of on-the-fly travel. Groomed by the monsoon, the Bastar region unveiled itself to his lenses—caterpillar-green forests, wall murals and dokra art competing with the post-rain pomp of the Chitrakote Falls, dubbed the ‘Niagara of India’. If the places he ran into were a revelation, so were the people met along the way. Entire neighbourhoods dotted with the ware of artistes who trade stories and laughs on the side, villagers that led him to a feast of custard apples from the backyard. Chhattisgarh, for this traveller, was unpredictable—and unforgettable.
Kounteya Sinha is a mountaineer, explorer and an urban nomad with a compulsive knack of running away from home since the age of five. After being a journalist for 16 years, his latest medium of storytelling is through images that he says nourishes his soul.
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