Not all is lost, as this book of pictures tells you. There are still interior places in Malnad where people are as innocent as they were in the past. But the change is not too far away. Television is bound to come to every house in due course. Therefore, I am happy with this black-and-white book of pictures, which captures a way of life in a critical time where the old order passes away to make room for the new. A good photographer is one who can capture not merely the old or the new but something in-between too. This is such a book of journeys into the land of hills, poets, birds, and animals. Unfortunately, tigers are disappearing. There are only memories of tigers that once made the jungle secretive and alive.
Memory is also a picture—a fading picture to be captured in words. That is why I’m contributing more pictures of this kind in an introduction to a lovely picture book on Malnad.
Dr U R Ananthamurthy
05.08.10
