Dear you,
My Ajji passed away on 8th July, 2024. On the twelfth day the family gathered at the old house in Padaru, the home where she lived and where my parents still do, to let her go the way we know how.
I have spent years photographing other people’s most tender days from a step outside them, close, but never quite in it. This was the first time the day was my own. I was not the person with a job to do in someone else’s room. I was inside the grief, and to my surprise it was quiet. Calm, even. The house filled with relatives, the rites went on, the lamp stayed lit beside her garlanded face, and we simply sat with it.
I made these on my phone, without thinking much about it. It was a totally different state of mind for me, and I think that is exactly why I want to hold on to them.
Yours truly,
Sharath Padaru
