78 THE CARAVAN
BOOKS
Out of
Focus
What Raghubir Singh
did not see
/ ARTS
RATIK ASOKAN
the scene takes place in rajasthan, sometime
in the 1970s. A photographer passing through
the desert comes upon a well. From a distance
it appears romantic, the centre of rural life. But
up close he finds the well nearly dry, which is a
problem for the local peasants, who have no other
source of water. They have other problems too,
such as finding food. A drought seems to have
ruined their annual crop. And their livestock, too
expensive to feed, has been sent away. “I have
eaten only a bit of gruel today,” a peasant tells the
photographer. succession raghubir singh