immersion emergence ISBN 81-7525-751-2 ravi agarwal immersion emergence the shroud : self-portrait ravi agarwal April 27, 2006 Copyright © 2006 by Ravi Agarwal All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy- ing, recording, or by any form of information storage and retireval system, without permission in writing fromt e publisher. Published by Ravi Agarwal, New Delhi, India. E-mail
[email protected] to order copies. Price: Rs 300 (India) / USD 25 (international); postage at actuals Printed in India by Ajanta Offset & Packagings Limited ISBN xxx To my parents Acknowledgements To the river waters, who let me in. To those who live on and around it. To my friends, family and colleagues, who were there at my asking, some all the while, some who joined along the way, or had to leave, even as I came and went. Nanni, Bharat, Aniruddha and Anjali, Salil and Monika, Amit, Jeebesh, Sveta, Monica, Rana, Shuddha, Dorothea, Sonia, Gauri, Gayatri, Bina, Sharda, Alka, Reena. To Ritika and to Anand, who directly participated in and helped deepen my explorations. To Geeti Sen for my first river writing. To my colleagues and friends at Toxics Link who accepted me on my own terms. To Cdr. Siddeshwar Sinha and Dunu Roy, who graciously shared their knowledge about the river. To Jeebesh for forever unfailingly showing my mind a light. To Naintara for patiently shooting me in “The Shroud”. To Aniruddha and Salil for lovingly designing and producing this. To my elusive inseparable Varda.