Monument Mitra Ishit Bavniya Story: From Engineering to Photography

"The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”– Mark Zuckerberg

Hillary Clinton poses at Jahaj Mahal, Mandav (Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, India) during her visit. Photo Credit: Ishit Bavniya

When did you start photography? What is your perspective towards it?

I had started photography during my school days while I was passing out from the school my father gifted me a roll camera. It feels like yesterday, because I remember in 2012 digital cameras were in the market but my father had a roll camera that he gifted me, the one with the film. I used to look at the photographs taken from that camera, it made me very happy and gradually I started thinking that the pictures I take are different and the way I look at the world is different. So, I started saving money while my engineering was going on and when I had enough saving I bought a new digital camera and that's how my photography journey started. And, this journey is beautiful because I feel photography is my life.

How your passion for photography is helping you achieve your life purpose?

Look, I never had a motto in my life like 'I have to do this or that'. What I realized is to live my life very simply and in a beautiful manner. I believe to earn money that fulfill my needs, have respect in society and I wanted to live my life enjoying my passion of photography and make my parents & brother proud for their sacrifice.

How photography changed your life?

It truly changed my life. When I was pursuing Engineering in Computer Science between 2013 to 2017, I took photography seriously in the first two years of college. I saw a lot of youth are fascinated towards photography while doing engineering and a few turned out to be an amateur photographer. But, I was having a great time and was enjoying life doing travel photography, meet new people, explore. Gradually, I realised that I really love it. So, I finally dropped the college and decided to switch my career to photography from engineering.

It wasn’t easy decision as my family was not positive about me dropping college. Soon, I started making my place in heart of people through my photography and it became my identity during my college days. One day I was invited by I-Inspire Foundation at LSA College (Dhar) to speak about my passion for photography at LSA College in Dhar City where two foreigner girls from Egypt and Botswana (Africa) were also invited to speak about their passion. It really made me feel the life I have chosen has inspired others so I am being called to inspire more.

The recognition I received had assured me that I am doing well. Now, when I say I made my identity that means I did something valuable in life and gained respect by doing something that people appreciate. I always think if I had become an Engineer, I may not have earned the respect I earned due to photography. I may not have become successful in engineering as much as I have become successful through photography.

Life is a puzzle. Solving the puzzle is not easy because you will be guided to walk on the path where you have no choice other than accepting it, and you won’t be able to leave that path until you hear the voice of your heart. If I had continued the engineering, then I had probably ended up earning a fixed income without knowing what I love doing.

I believe, everything happens for a good reason. The decision I took brought glory to my family and that makes me feel proud of myself today. I don’t regret for leaving engineering during the final year.

How does it feel to be a photographer? There is so much competition in this profession which wasn’t there a decade before. Don’t you feel stressed?

It is a very creative field. For me, it’s an amazing feeling to be a photographer. Life is fun when you are holding a camera and travelling to places you have never visited. You get chance to see life from various angle which you don’t see from open eyes. Stay awake in dark night in jungle to shoot star trail is not an experience one can enjoy being just a photographer who click pictures for money.

I never feel stressed because when I see around, I see everybody is running their own business for money, and everyone is doing photography at their level. One should be passionate enough to be happy in what they do. I attain peace, happiness and made myself financially stable by following my passion.

Do you believe following your passion has made contribution to shine your Dhar city?

I hope so! My love for photography made my life an example for others to follow in Dhar city. Dhar is a very small city and there were only a few people in the field of creative photography whose life is truly inspiring during my childhood. Shri Babulal Ji Dixit, Mr. Sudhir Das, Mr. Chetan Soni, Mr. Rocky Makkad are amongst those I adore for their creative photography. Their style of photography is unique and they are such creative minds who knows how to play with the camera.

My story from engineering to photography is known to all my friends and family today. Initially, my parents were not supporting me & they didn’t want me to become a photographer, just because they would never want to hear people saying that ‘he clicks photos’ or ‘he is a wedding photographer’ as this was considered a good career during my childhood days.

I remember during Mandav Utsav there was a photography competition, and a huge amount of price money was kept for winning photo. I told my father if I win the first price, I will switch to photography, he agreed. I was lucky to shoot a winning photograph on theme of ‘The beauty of Mandav.’

I explored Mandav for four months for a perfect photograph all day and night. One day when I was returning from Mandav I heard a sound of flute and I was wondering from ‘where the sound coming from?’ and I followed the sound and I saw a very old man was seated on the pile of hay playing flute, and suddenly I realized Rani Roopmati Mahal is behind the scenery. At that moment, I felt this is my winning photograph amongst the hundreds of photograph I clicked. I submitted the photograph and the second price with the expected reward money.

I went to my father and told I won the prize but he said its not the first prize so you can’t drop engineering for photography. He repeatedly said, what will people say that his son left Engineering and gave an example of a movie. I am not inspired by movie, I want to do photography that is why I want to leave engineering and learn photography in Delhi at ‘Raghu Rai Centre of Photography’ for training. It was a Diploma course so my father was again concerned that what will I say when people will ask about my qualification. Since I was very firm, he said choose me or photography. I told him I want both. When I shifted to Delhi, my father stopped talking to me. I always felt guilty when I used to do shoots. I always missed him but on the other hand my mother was supporting because she trusted my elder brother who always gave my feedback to her but my father didn’t start talking. After some months, he got normal as my brother insisted him. When I completed my 1.5 year course, I had opportunity to take part in exhibition and I was lucky to have my 9 photographs (including photographs of Mandav) shortlisted by Shri Raghu Rai (Padamshree) himself. It never happened that 9 pictures were exhibited of a student and it consisted two of my photo stories, one was on journalism and another was on classical music. I invited my parents at the exhibition, and when they saw how I am being praised that time they were satisfied with my life decision. After that my interview was also featured in Dhar news.

I feel my little contribution to bring glory to city begun with my photographs of Mandav exhibited at Raghu Rai Center of Photography.

Do you believe there is a lot more to learn and explore in photography? What are you exploring new in photography to contribute in the development of city?

When it comes to learning, I experienced that learning is a never ending process. You should keep learning. Like ,we used to tell Raghu Rai sir that you achieved a lot, awarded with Padmashree, Mother Teresa used to pamper you like her own kid, so what else you want? So sir always said, I am still practising, I still want to learn a lot, and when a person like himself is telling this so I will never be wrong. Because that time I didn’t have anyone who would tell me that learning is an unending journey. I realized learning never ends. We learn every day. And making mistakes is must. So I do make mistakes and I learn from them. So I will not say that I have given enough contribution in the development of my Dhar city but somewhere I played my part best to set examples. When I was in college, I have heard people who were from Dhar used to tell Indore city as their home town but not Dhar as it was not known and Indore being the main city of Madhya Pradesh is most popular. I remember, there was a young boy who was from Dhar but he would tell that he is from Indore so I asked him why he didn’t tell you are from Dhar and he said nobody knows this place that’s why! So, I said people will only know when we will tell them. Similarly, I saw people from other part of Dhar will also tell they are from Dhar even if they are from Mandav. Why to hide the reality? I always told my friends in Delhi I am from Dhar, the city of great king Raja Bhoj which is known for its world heritage nominated site called Mandav. My friends in Delhi were fascinated to visit Mandav every time I have shown my photographs of Mandav. So, it was always in my mind that the city and the heritage site from where I belong should be known not only in the country but also in the world.

How will you describe Mandav in your words?

Mandav is a Gem. Why I call it a gem not because I belong here but Mandav having unique heritage palace architecture built in shape of big ship known as Jahaj Mahal (Ship Palace) with beautiful landscape, along with many heritage palaces and fort. I travelled many beautiful places including Shimla, Bhuj, Calcutta , Mumbai, Delhi , Jaipur , Udaipur, Maharashtra, South India, Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu and to explore but beauty of Mandav comes from its landscape. It is kind of a hill station and specially the way monsoon season brings out its elegance, there is no match to it. It resembles heaven. When clouds come down to the road it is just beautiful, beyond explanation. And, the monuments holds a lot of history and it is amazing in itself.

What is your best experience in Mandav?

The best experience I had in Mandav consist of two times. First, it was during the Hilary Clinton visit to Mandav and I received call from Naidunia Press Bureau Chief and he informed me about her visit and ask me to cover her. I did a lot of research about her since she was specially visiting from US to India to see Mandav and Maheshwar. She stayed in Maheshwar for about 2 days and then her visit for Mandav for only 2 hours. She visited Jahaz Mahal and Jami masjid.

The press and media was not at all comfortable in communicating with her. She is very down to earth person. It’s not like that she wasn’t talking to anybody, what they did was they just ran to her and didn’t give her much space so she was hesitant. No one was able to speak English and she didn’t know Hindi, so other than the Bureaucrats, I was the only one who could communicate in English with her. I thought my pictures are going to make mark in the history if it get published at national and international level. Due to very high level of security no one was allowed to go near to her but somehow I asked the person in charge that I just want one picture. I got this great opportunity and also asked her – ‘How did you like Mandav?’ and all the press people started their camera and recording and she said spreading her hands wide ‘Mandu bhot acha hai’ and that was my picture and everyone was shocked and looking at me like what did he say to her that she is saying Mandu bhot acha hai.

I took the best shot of her. I called Mr. Chandan Khanna from AFP and told him that I have an amazing picture of Hillary Clinton in which Mandav is highlighting and she is giving and amazing pose and expression and I want it to publish through you. He asked me to share the picture for publication. Each photograph was sold in 23k each and I sold about four pictures. These four pictures were publish but along with that it was also published on Getty images, IB times, CNN politics, and also on New York post & Washington post.

My second best experience was of Star Trail and milky ways. I was very scared to go to the forest in the middle of the night as stars shines the brightest in the night and the issue was that my parents won’t allow me to go at late night hour and that too alone. But, I went for a star trail shoot with my dearest friend and mentor Positive Rishikumar so that my family allow me to go. It was not easy as we used to sit in deep-dark areas, away from light which was not familiar to any of us. I used to set the camera and both of us used to cook in bonfires and watch movies. Those memories are unforgettable.

What all things you noticed about Dhar - Mandav which most of the people didn’t notice yet or pay attention to? What it lacks?

I believe everyone in Dhar will agree that the biggest attraction of Dhar is Mandav. But, how many people know that Mandav is a World Heritage Nominated site since 1998? Ask people if know what are the advantage to be a world heritage site? Ask people if they know a world heritage site attracts more international tourist in compare to just any heritage site? Ask people if they know tourist comes to visit a world heritage site don’t come to experience the luxury? How many people from Dhar who made themselves very successful at national & International level are doing a little for the development of Mandav? How many politicians, bureaucrats, social worker, artists, historians have thought that preserving the culture and tradition of tribal people in Mandav – Dhar will be the right way of development of Dhar?

The reason why Mandav is still on the list of World Heritage Site is because lack of preservation of tribal art and culture in our region, and adopting modern lifestyle is not any more acceptable for foreign tourist to know the city.

Mandav is known for its landscape, nature beauty. Cutting trees for making hotels with swimming pools, offering alcohol for visitors comfort is not the way Mandav needs attention. Instead, we must create conceptualize platform like “Rann Utsav” during Mandav Utsav to attract foreign tourism and also hosting Heritage Conclave to invite International speakers to bring world attention to Mandav.

Yes, we need youth to learn & speak recognized foreign language to attract foreign tourist like youth in Delhi at the very young age connect with International tourist directly and host them to earn money being their travel friend/guide. But, we also need tribal people to become more receptive towards tourist and humble host to welcome them to make them experience tribal culture as the culture of wearing traditional tribal clothes & ornaments is almost disappear.

We need the present hotels in Mandav to maintain more cleanliness, hygiene hospitable because it will increase the flow of foreign tourist in Mandav-Dhar. Money exchanges, Nice Café with WiFi connectivity is must in Mandav at presently.

How much you have explored Mandav and what are the best things about the city with your experience?

I will not say that I have explored 100 % but 99% for sure. There is no corner that I haven’t explored in past 5 years. I used to visit Mandav every week without the reason. Because, I love it. I always went for a random visit to shoot photographs as it was not compulsory to visit only monuments. I used to chill at places where I could enjoying viewing landscapes, specially at sun rise or at sun set. It’s very different feeling to work sitting in an open area and working on my laptop. Mandav was built by kings for rest and pleasure so do I enjoy the same while doing my random visit.

The city of Mandu is surrounded by baobab trees, native to Africa. The royal palace of Rani Roopmati is still eco the royal romance of Rani Roopmati and Bajbahadur, while the gateways (Darwazas) speak of a history of imperial conquests, with spell-binding Afghan architecture. A walk through Mandu will leave you awe-struck, specially during monsoon season when the cloud floats around you.

Would you agree Dhar city be renown as the City of Fossils in the world for it’s dinosaur fossils?

Yes! Recently, one of my good friend photographer Vinod Babu from Hyderabad came to visit Dhar. While we were exploring Mandav, he stopped by knowing there is a dinosaur fossil museum. He was so attracted by the those two dinosaurs so he - What is inside the area? I explained, it’s a fossil museum and he was shocked knowing when I told Dinosaur ‘nesting sites’ found in Madhya Pradesh. I jokingly asked, didn’t you know? He said, No. I told, In Baag which is in district of Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, a group of researchers have found two new nesting sites of dinosaur. The sites are reportedly at a distance of about 8 kms from each other. The nests formed by the dinosaurs at these places got buried under rocks during the geographical turbulence that happened about 6.5 crore years ago. The fossilized eggs of dinosaurs found in Dhar belong to the ‘Sauropod family’ of the extinct animal. “According to our study, the dinosaurs used to come from far off places to lay eggs in sandy areas here. These dinosaurs were around 20 to 30 feet tall,

In 2007 about 25 nests of dinosaurs belonging to the Jurassic period were discovered from the district. A large number of fossilized dinosaur eggs were found in these nests. The state government is already working to develop the 108 hectares area in Dhar district where crores of years ago the dinosaurs made nests, as National Dinosaur Fossil Park.

Reference:https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/dinosaur-nesting-sites-found-in-madhya-pradesh/article7666369.ece

How your passion can bring attention of Foreign tourist in Mandav? What would you do?

To attract foreign tourist in Mandav, it’s not the work of a single person, everyone should be united with a motive to promote our city. If I tell you from the perspective of photography, a lot can be explored. I can promote Mandav by organizing online exhibition through social platform. There is no particular website for Mandav or web portal for people to participate at events happen in Mandav. Govt should privatize promotion of Mandav and connect with youth who can promote Mandav through their art e.g painting, sculpture etc. And, also by organising cycling events, off road racing events, horse riding events etc during Mandav Utsav.

As the growing culture is the world amongst the photographers attract them to visit sites for photography, we can possibly promote Mandav for the best site for Star Trail night photography, and attract International photographers during Mandav Utsav.

What do you think who are the important people contributed in the development of Dhar?

There are many people who are doing so much for the development of Dhar and Mandav. In the field of photography, a very renown name is Shri Babulal ji Dixit. He was a very renowned photographer who also took Dhar to National level. Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru all knew him because of his skill and passion. He did a lot for Mandav, he published his pictures in international magazines and competitions. He won so many prizes in competitions . Also, Mr. Anup Srivastav, Mr. Durgesh Birthare, Mr. Akhilesh Verma are amongst those who are also promoting Dhar with their passion and art.

What is your message for the people of Dhar?

My message for the people of Dhar is not only to work for the purpose which need attention to fulfil needs of their family but each one should utilize his talent and little money to promote Dhar city. For example, youth into web development, graphics can promote Mandav through technology. Today’s generation is totally dependent on social media and websites. So, Govt can annually spend a little for the website and invite youth to participate to promote Mandav by sharing creative arts related Dhar, and about the events.

About - Ishit Bavniya

Ishit Bawaniya is passionate photographer. He is skilled in wedding photography. He holds the degree in creative photography from India's most prestigious photography school “Padmashri RaghuRai Center for photography.”

He is more of a self-taught photographer. He is from the city of Raja Bhoj called Dhar and work on assignment all over the country as a commercial photographer. Except wedding, he shoot documentary photos learning experience. He has explored all the corner of tribal belt in Dhar – Jhabua, and made photo story through photographs to create awareness of tribal culture and art. He made essay on Bhagoria festival of Walpur, Dist. Alirajpur as well as Hingot "the war festival of malwa" at Gautampura, District Indore.

He used to do documentary photography more and more because of few main reasons. Documentary photography allow you to think out of the box, interact with people, shooting festivals, rituals, even street photography. So it develops ability to interact with more and more people, life experience as well as developing my photography skills. Similarly in wedding photography it make more comfortable to interact to clients family and think out of the box even at weddings.

He has won a few awards from Dist. Administration of Dhar (Madhya Pradesh), photos published in renowned newspapers and news portals. Also, He did solo as well as group exhibition in All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society, New Delhi

His motto of photographic life is to make a special identity of Mandu in the international tourist market. Not only by name but also by channelizing the money flow to Mandav.