the pinaki.info blog » a little diary behind the www.pinaki.info website

02 Sep

Campo Maior

Portugal . www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

30 Aug

4.47pm, Alantejo

Portugal . www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

29 Aug

9.39pm

Lisboa . www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

28 Aug

Capela dos Ossos

Campo Maior, Portugal . www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

26 Aug

Noon, Alentejo

What does my wall think about my shadow? Sometimes I wonder about this until I realise I’m wondering about things… And then I feel annoyed and out of …

07 Aug

Munkabong

“My son made a cry like a monkey when he was born, mad and deaf,” he says, pointing to the now grown-up man sleeping on …

06 Aug

9.20pm, Jaalan

And Rashid was always getting lost. He was three years old and the family had been stuffed in the back of the pickup, and there …

05 Aug

5.57pm, Moskva

www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

03 Aug

8.42pm

And it got so hot the bitumen on the roads turned to mush and the trucks that cleared the streets at night were sent out …

26 Jul

An ill wind

But that summer sleep was no good, and it brought nightmares like an ill summer wind blowing in all the bad stories, and I dreamt …

23 Jul

Luchshi Gorod Zemli

Or The Best City on Earth, by Muslim Magamayev in 1988. Better in Russian here You have never been to our bright city, You’ve never dreamed in …

22 Jul

9.55pm, Kolomenskoe

And maybe we were all going crazy because it was ten at night and there was still light in the sky, because the sun almost …

12 Jul

Fredka

And we stuff ourselves into the little kitchen – there are only small kitchens in Russia – cram ourselves into the little ground-floor room at …

09 Jul

Kolomenskaya, 8.52pm

And I lay, light-headed, half in the sun and half in the shade, while the berezki rustled between the raw concrete and the yellow tiles. …

05 Jul

Kashirskaya, 12.43am

Zaur is from Baku and we have nothing in common except music, and that’s enough, so he calls his son to meet us in the …

29 Jun

Beyond Gurun

And that wind. That terrific wind that kills houses and roughs up the sea and turns daylight into a milky haze and throws sand over …

28 Jun

Sufayri

And there’s sand on the lens and we’re stumbling over tires and a stuffed toy horse. And Sayh Sufairi, the Plain of Copper, is just …

25 Jun

3.47pm

Somewhere south of the Ja’alan, between road, desert and sea. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | …

24 Jun

2.39pm

Khamis has lived in the wadi dust for a lifetime, without electricity, a phone or an address, with a donkey instead of a pickup truck, …

22 Jun

Wataed

The sun has set but the light keeps reflecting off salt and water and sand and clouds. And the light is slipping away and we’re …

22 Jun

8.10pm

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19 Jun

Tabook

And we’re crunching over the bits and pieces of the machinery that stood half a century ago in the factory where the sheikh used to …

17 Jun

8.08pm

Mukhaynig is a secret place, just a handful of houses of Sineidi, Bareeka, Saalmi and Hadmal slapped together in the earthen desert, downstream in the …

15 Jun

Mukhaynig

Mukhaynig is a place so removed from the outside world it looks like the ragged edge of a badly told fairytale. Because the light is …

13 Jun

Sayh Sufayri

The three month-old summer wind blows from the south, whipping an entire desert’s worth of sand across Sufayri, the plain named after its copper coloured …

05 Jun

Ruways

It was the hottest month of the year, the time when tires explode in a mix of indiscipline, text messaging, speed and heat, and Ali …

05 Jun

10.17am: Daffah

High over the sea, on the cliffs of Daffa, the boy with oily hair walks up to me and raises his little face in greeting. …

03 Jun

Surfing, Heddah

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27 May

4.10pm

We’re crunching through sand where the wadi spills its guts out, the badlands of sand and dust and bits and pieces of stone carried with …

23 May

Khamis

Khamis is up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

21 May

Hani

Hani is up here now. This is the view from her house in Qohbon. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat …

16 May

Snoop Dogg

Sami is up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

13 May

Diesel

Mohammed Abdullah Shahu al Balushi is up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you …

11 May

Awayna

The Masjid Awayna is up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really …

09 May

Ayman

Ayman is up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

08 May

Umm Khalid

Zeinab is up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

05 May

Mithadhmat

Saalma is up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

04 May

the movie star

Shama is up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

02 May

2.02am

www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat …

30 Apr

12.34am

www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

27 Apr

3.37am

Moskva is up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops online | & if you really insist, Twitter

27 Apr

1.41am

And it was Paskha, the Russian Orthodox Easter, and we were outside the church in Podolsk, the one on the hill from where you could …

23 Apr

Moskva: Sandpaper

Up here now. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & pinaki.info on Facebook | Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops | & if you really insist, Twitter

20 Apr

Tawang

On our way to Sela, just before Tibet. I’m not going to write anything because I’m in the middle of the 7,600 word Moscow piece and …

15 Apr

The old wound

But to understand Russia you have to understand the weather, and what it can do to the land, and how it can sandpaper the berezkas …

13 Apr

Moloko

And mornings meant Lubyatova cornflakes soaked in Domik v Derevne moloko, the one with the babushka and the dacha and the berezka on the carton. …

11 Apr

Andrushka

And the snow can be cruel too, and while we’re tearing into pig hearts before Paskha in the little kitchen Andrushka was on a surface …

06 Apr

Racing donkeys, 5.48pm

I’m back. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops | pinaki.info on Facebook | & if you really insist, Twitter

03 Apr

Yulia

“The problem is that it’s easier to break down houses and start from zero than to restore them,” says Yulia, before she starts her eight-hour …

31 Mar

Zdorovo

In Russia there is a babushka for everything. You will find the old ladies struggling impossibly outside with groceries in the cold, wool socks hitched …

26 Mar

Costya

Somewhere outside, past the thousands of trees and the villa that cannot be demolished because the owner has a paper signed by Lenin, past the …

22 Mar

Podolsk

And even the Pahra turned to slush and slowed to a crawl, and we cram ourselves into the smallest kitchen in Russia, sipping dry, homemade …

18 Mar

Banditsky Peterburg

And the girl who had gone a lifetime without ever kissing anyone had a dream once that she was lying on the couch with a …

15 Mar

Novie Russkie

Gregory breathes heavily in his slick purple robe, panting through a haze of cognac and icons, while the snow drifts through the open doorway into …

12 Mar

Uspienski Sobor, Kreml

Outside the Uspienski Sobor of the Kremlin, the group of women huddled together. “I didn’t notice the winter is almost over,” said one. “What are …

10 Mar

Moskva: sandpaper

“Moscow in March is sandpaper,” said Tatyana. Like when the wind kicks up and your fingers go dead and your lips freeze till you can’t …

06 Mar

Clutching at Limqasil

The furthest Khamis bin Rashid bin Khalfan al Nasibi has ever been is Rustaq, four hours of hiking and crawling and tiptoeing over rock away. …

25 Feb

October 2004

My knees buckled when I first saw the path on the inside edge of Oman’s Grand Canyon that I had to walk and get a …

19 Feb

Pepper Fryberger

The Other Fryberger is up here. www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own & Nikon Muscat Photo Workshops | pinaki.info on Facebook | & if you really insist, …

15 Feb

6.10pm

The music’s so loud we can’t hear ourselves think. And as the sun sets behind the old house the dancer twirls through the last bit …

08 Feb

October 2007

That last part, when you know you’re beyond ever stopping, happens in slow motion: the camel runs out from the trees and across the mountain …

06 Feb

12.04am

wwww.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own

02 Feb

6.54pm

A brother – a web designer – dances with his younger sister at a relative’s pre-wedding party in Muscat. Their father sings in the band …

31 Jan

9.51pm

Father and sons – one of whom is the groom – gather at the mosque their ancestor built, receiving well-wishers before the marriage. There is …

29 Jan

11.44pm

It is a quarter to midnight and the Balushi from Karachi is kick-starting the pre-wedding party, sashaying across the compound where the groom’s family is …

27 Jan

the Chronicle of Planets

Manama, Bahrain. 2004. I was there to shoot the first F1 race in the Gulf, which was quite unbearable. I’d rather have spent more time sitting …

19 Jan

Howling over Yasab

“The old people say that since we didn’t have any utensils in the old days we used to drop the flour for the bread right …

06 Jan

Shidyt

October 18, 2008 I’m sitting 1,300m up the northern slopes of the Jebel Kawr, squeezing limes into my bottles of water, licking the juice off my …

02 Jan

Limqasil

Was it worth it? Khamis laughs out loud at the question, while his brother Salim, who couldn’t ever put together enough money for a wife, …

26 Dec

the Rubble of Bat

January 2008 A handful of kilometers away from the forgotten civilisation that erected stone tombs 5,000 years ago, Zuwayna squints across her courtyard looking for company. The …

14 Dec

Samakt

July 20, 2008: A quarter past noon. Hellishly hot white light bouncing off a landscape of rock outside. But I’m squeezing ISO1600 in the depths …

11 Dec

Deutschland

Up here now

07 Dec

Vakils of Misfah

Up here now www.pinaki.info | because the best stories are our own

29 Nov

au bout du monde

Amsterdam is up here now

26 Nov

la Danse aux Morts

Madame Cojean is up here now

17 Nov

Invitation

Now up at the Bait al Baranda, the second in the series. This is what Time Out Muscat said after the last one.

11 Oct

le Conquet

But it is twilight in le Conquet, and the sea is rushing in so fast it gives you vertigo when you stand in the middle …

05 Oct

Time Out Muscat

28 Sep

Paris, 5.05pm

Past Notre Dame, unbearably overloaded with architecture and tourists, where the faithful can buy a fake gold medallion from a vending machine for two Euros …

19 Aug

Kaliabor

No one goes to Kaliabor, not even the Assamese. But you can have a look at it here.

15 Aug

One way or the other

I suppose there are poor people everywhere, and some of them work through a hard life and their children start off a little better. But …

09 Aug

Wadi Slooh

Up here now. Huddled in the shade of goatskins, plastic sheets and dried thorn bushes, with civilisation somewhere behind the dust I’ve just kicked up, and …

08 Aug

the Mingis

A camel in Qafifa, where I shot the remnants of the Mingis. Who says only elephants have nice eyelashes? A muzzle helps when one moves …

05 Aug

Confessions

I have four pages of scribbles that I scratched into the Moleskine as the taxi lurched from one end of the city to the other. …

03 Aug

Failure at Kaziranga

Up here now. It is May 1999, and I’m in the jungles of Kerala on holiday from college. I have borrowed a little film point-and-shoot from …

23 Jul

Squeezing art out of geology

It was September 2005, and I was, after a year and a half in Oman, hungry for intellectual stimulation. I found it one Friday morning …

19 Jul

Three Men and a Trilith

Anything is possible in Dhofar, even an Egyptian journalist, a British soldier and a line of Iron Age rock arrangements no one has figured out …

18 Jul

Wadi Creepy

This is what 5.43 on a January evening in a dead-end wadi looks like, with the fluttering dishdashas somewhere to the south, a thousand and …

15 Jul

Stopping a moment

Up here now.

14 Jul

Tea Labourers of Silghat

Up here now.

11 Jul

Children and Grandchildren

The 135 rials Fatma earns at the school is spread wafer thin over the house and granddaughter she takes care of, and she had to …

07 Jul

Sibelle and the Persians

It is January 2007 and Sibelle and I are 2,100m high on the Jebel Akhdar, at the top of the steps that the Persian army …

02 Jul

Sibelle, windblown

This is what you get more than a thousand kilometres of desert away from Muscat: an unknown beach a couple of turns away from the …

28 Jun

Samakt: Draft

I need help. Is this piece worth putting up on my site, under the Oman portrait section? First useful comment gets a Bialetti Moka Express. …

20 Jun

Gallery on the Stairs

Starting now, I will be exhibiting one story at a time at the Gallery on the Stairs at the Bait al Baranda, Muscat. I’ll go …

10 Jun

Dead-Ends and Old Men

It was April 13, 2008, and I was at the end of a dead-end road, desperately looking for inspiration up a mountain. Instead, I found …

26 May

a Jeep called Viola

Dragging the fan belt along the highway at 140 wasn’t such a good idea after all. It was my second breakdown in three days. The …

19 Apr

Dinner for One

Not as good as this one, of course. Or this, for that matter. Or even the chai shop in Sana’a. But considering I’m in Muscat, …

11 Apr

A Quiet Cancer

I was a thousand metres above sea level near a prehistoric lake and the moon was so close and bright I had to turn my …

08 Apr

Twilight Grey

Hani is sitting under the caves gouged into mountains that give her village its name, wrapped head to toe in twilight grey, red and green …