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India

A Bangladeshi Wedding: Nabil & Maisha

Photographers: Mark & Andrew
Bride’s Wedding Outfit:  Ritu Kumar
Make Up: Lopa, Farzana Shakil and Dreams
Location: Shenakunjo, Dhaka, Bangladesh

They’ve been childhood sweethearts since the 5th grade. Nabil used to walk past Maisha’s class just to look at her. She knew. Whenever he came by, she would glance his way. Phone conversations after phone conversations led to the start of a deep friendship. A friendship that lasted through the years. Their love blossomed which eventually led to a surprise midnight proposal to Maisha at the Bashundhara lakeside. Nabil presented her a carton full of love letters, gifts and memoirs from their childhood. It’s like a fairy tale come true.

And on the 8th of January 2011, Nabil and Maisha sealed their love for each other in a grand wedding ceremony.

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A Bangladeshi Wedding: Maisha’s Mehndi

Photographers: Mark and Andrew

It’s time I continued this series on Nabil and Maisha’s wedding. There’s just so much to share from their wedding that I have to put it in a few blog posts!

By the time Maisha’s mehndi rolled around, Alex and I had to travel back to Malaysia to cover another wedding. It was a really hectic week for me! I was just recuperating from my food poisoning and all that traveling made me a little tired. But it was really wonderful getting to know Nabil and Maisha, and experiencing the hospitality they extended to us. We were treated so well, like family. Not to be left out, Alex, Andrew and I participated in their holudh too… And our final photo with Nabil and Maisha before we left Dhaka.

The day we flew off, Mark landed in Dhaka. A new chapter began… so the following blog posts and images were entirely taken by Mark and Andrew.

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Sri Lankan style wedding: Ganendra & Malini

Photographers: Grace & Andrew C
Ceremony: Kalamandapan Hall, Brickfields
Dinner Reception: Kelab Golf Negara Subang

When I first met Ganendra & Malini for the very first time in my home, they told me that they wanted to hire a photographer who was different – someone who would be able to capture moments and come up with creative shots. They said that they didn’t want a ‘traditional’ photographer for their wedding day. Of course, the difficult part was convincing their slightly more ‘traditional’ families that they are making the right decision. Fast forward to their wedding day and after the slideshow montage had been shown to the family and guests… I was so pleased when Malini’s mum came up to me to say, “Grace, thank you for the wonderful photographs! You managed to capture emotions, not just the event.”

I beamed. :)

Who wouldn’t?

After the event is over, the cake has been eaten, the decorations taken down, all you have are memories and photographs. I am so glad that our photos were able to record the emotions felt by Ganendra & Malini, family and friends on that special day in August.

Introducing… Malini.

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India: Sights, Smells, Sounds

A kaleidoscope of colours, smell and taste. I did not imagine India to be anything else but interesting. In my list of countries to visit, India is definitely not one of my top 10. But at the end of June 2010, I had a taste of India. AND, felt the burning heat of the sun, all 40 degrees of it. I was in India for a corporate shoot. 8 days, 4 internal flights, many hours on the road and 5 cities later, I felt I had seen two different sides to India.

On one hand, you have poverty…

Children with growths on their heads, young girls who barely look like teenagers holding on to babies, begging on the streets…

And then you have development…

Fancy buildings that look so futuristic. Offices with coloured glass windows. High end apartments that only few can enjoy.

What a contrast.

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A Glimpse of India

I have never been to India before, but I have this stereotypical image of people living in slums, cars honking all the way, and poverty stuck in my mind. When I arrived in India about 5 days ago, I realized that there are certain things to India that I never saw. Firstly, I think they speak a lot more English than some other third world countries. I met drivers who went to university, studied IT but never graduated. There is also quite a lot of infrastructure readily available to the people.

Perhaps the places I went to were ‘sanitized’ in some way. I am in India for 10 days to shoot various IJM projects, mainly in the cities of Bangalore, Nellore, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Jaipur. When I arrived in Chennai that night (10pm local time), we traveled for 2 hours to this toll way, and started shooting video + stills! I didn’t expect my shoot to start at midnight, but it was rather fun.

I even got to climb a truck in the process. (Sorry a bit blur, taken by a work colleague). I think I smelt a little cow-ey after that.

After shooting for 3 hours, we traveled another 2 hours to our location, Nellore. It’s a small town between Chennai and Bangalore.

The drivers in India are pretty bold… and mad, I would say! It’s scary to drive here. And I fear for these women who stand in the middle of the road, sweeping the highway. Seems like a little futile too.

At this moment, I’ve left Nellore, traveled 8 hours to Bangalore by car, flew to Hyderabad, and New Delhi. I did not manage to upload many photos, but I hope this gives you a glimpse of my journey so far!