Sumeet Keswani

A visual narrative titled Badi Mamma Walks into the Frame was published in Issue 55 (August 2023) of The Bombay Literary Magazine, an eight-year-old prestigious magazine that strives “to publish fine literature and promote a writerly perspective on narratives” through stories, poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, photo-essays, and graphic fiction. View and read it here.

The portraits and text in this photo essay constitute a personal homage to a maternal figure. In the words of the editor, Siddharth Dasgupta, “Keswani uses his camera to traverse a map of the everyday—in the process uncovering the majesty and extraordinariness of a simple life lived simply—a life that dances to the cadence of sunlight, the desire for chai; the need to hold on to the stories of a nomadic grandchild. A life suffused in colour, but at its most moving and persuasive in the empathies of black-and-white.”

Image by Sumeet Keswani