In the land of majestic giants

In early February, Ashwin Ezhumalai presented his photos of the Himalayas at an exhibition in Citadines Centre d’Art. Taken over six years during different treks with other Aurovilians in rarely visited valleys and passes in Himachal Pradesh, they capture the different aspects of this stark yet magical high altitude landscape: deep valleys, rock-strewn glaciers, grassy uplands, sacred lakes, immense starscapes, and stunning snow-capped mountains playing hide-and-seek with clouds. Ashwin points out that while physically the challenges are immense at such an altitude – making the quality of the photography all the more remarkable – “in the presence of these tranquil, majestic beings full of life and energy, it became an inward journey, a journey of getting to know myself and discover who I was and who I was becoming: and at the end of the trek the outcome outweighed all the demerits and left me with a profound experience, a sense of feeling whole and alive!”. Above all, the exhibition was an experience of the vastness, purity and unearthly beauty of a landscape in which we humans seem awkward interlopers, dwarfed by something which transcends our limited vision. It was both humbling and refreshingly liberating.