Sonepur Mela

As unique and similar to any other festival that happens in India there is the usual religious aspect to Sonepur Mela where throngs of people from rural India come over to pay their respect to Hindu gods…And then visit the fete that has local music shows,lot of street food, the usual commotion ,multitude of people, people singing devotional songs people coming from foreign lands either to soak in ,a Ferris wheel that comes out from nowhere, lot of sidekick joy rides next to this Ferris wheel or giant wheel as it is called here and an array of small make shift shops that sell quite a varied stuff. So actually Sonepur is not quite unique in itself. Or is it? It is a question that depends upon the experiences gained during the festival, but it does live up to its name for it the largest cattle festival in Asia. It is also a festival where you can purchase nearly anything and to the delight of everyone view quite a lot of things. An elephant for example certainly steals the limelight. Quite an exhibitionist it is. Knows its worth and then flaunts it well at the festival. One does wish he or she could be one. For the elephant is well fed, is taken care of and is surely the king of the ghats. Sonepur is surely a mix of emotions in actions and none better could be seen on the opoosite of the river that forms a bridge between the festival ground and the cremation grounds, the contrast being too striking. It also goes to show the accepting nature of the place and its people that allows such variations and flexibilities. Sonepur is definitely the mix of many such individual stories and breeding ground of dreams for many.And will continue to remain so. Sonepur Mela is an annual month long festival that usually happens during Nov in Bihar, central India.

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About

India, b. 1980

Siddharth is a freelance photographer from India. He took up photography after completing a degree in business administration from IIFT, Delhi in 2005 .Since then he has been selected to attend workshops such as Young Asian Photographers Workshop 2006 at Angkor Photography Festival), VII at Kashmir (2007) with Gary Knight and TPW’s Focus at Monferrato 2007 (Italy) with Stanley Greene and Kadir Van Lohuizen.

His work has been shown at festivals such as Foto Freo 2008, Fotonoviembre 2007, Musee d Elysee, Switzerland (March 07) , Angkor Photography Festival 2006 and Festival of Light 2007 as a part of group exhibitions. He has also been published for various international and national publications like Asian Geo,Himal Mag as well as selected photo competitions like Travel Photographer of the Year, Venice International Photography Competition, and so on. Of late he has won TFA awards held in Bangalore in collaboration with Tasveer.

His work is also distributed by Zuma Press (USA) and OnAsia Images (Singapore).

Currently he is working on long term book project that involves work on Rajasthan. He also covers stories of human interest.

Based in New Delhi, India, please contact him at one.phish@gmail.com.

Siddharth Jain's current location:
Delhi, India

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Sonepur Mela

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