Walking on the yellow brick road: A couple moves towards the khandoba temple in Jejuri one of Maharashtra’s most sacred place. Thousands of worshippers across the state converged at the temple (built in honor of lord Shiva) on the occasion of Dassera. Highlights of the celebration include smearing of entire village & the temple with turmeric powder.



Close-up portrait of Indian circus clown performer Rama in his clown make-up as he smiles while he is practices for his performance on the net.



Accident - Fire Due to a Series of High Pressure Cylinder Blasts - A dead body being recovered from the fourth floor of the Retiwala Industrial Estate building after a major fire gutted the estate at Ghodapdev area near Ranibaug in Byculla, Mumbai.



26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack- The Mumbai Terror Attack also known as 26/11 is one where many valiant heroes died as well as many innocent civilians. The attacks, which drew widespread condemnation across the world, began on 26 November 2008 and lasted until 29 November, killing at least 173 people and wounding at least 308.




26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack-An action by India's National Security Guards (NSG) on 29 November (the action is officially named Operation Black Tornado) resulted in the death of the last remaining attackers at the Nariman House, ending all fighting in the attacks.

26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack-An action by India's National Security Guards (NSG) on 29 November (the action is officially named Operation Black Tornado) resulted in the death of the last remaining attackers at the Nariman House, ending all fighting in the attacks.

A tribute was paid to the victims of 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack at Nariman House in colaba. People lit candles for the martyrs & victims of terror attack, while a Rabbi, flown from Israel prayed for the victims & world peace.

Fireman tired of dousing a massive fire at Vishal Compand in Rehnal village near Bhiwandi takes a drink break. Fire fighters from six civic corporations worked out of their skins to control the fire. Around 20 chemical godowns in the industrial belt were gutted by fire.

INSIDE THE LIBERATED ZONE- Chhattisgarh

Deep in the heart of India, a revolution is brewing. Armed teenagers have replaced the police, and the hand pump is the only symbol of state. My reporter & I traveled into an area of darkness that is a seceding nation within the heart of our nation, and found little evidence of India.As the white Tata Indica car, that sturdy child of modern Indian enterprise crosses a small town called Sukma along Chhattisgarh’s state Highway 43, the terrain changes. Rows of forlorn electric poles stand without wires, like stitching needles without thread. Occasional stretches of devastated roads — ripped apart by land mines in countless ambushes of police and paramilitary patrols — rattle your spine and you’re calm. Children do not run behind the car; instead, they throw you a quick, tense glance, trying to guess which side you are on. “sir” the driver, all concentration, tersely says, “We are inside the Liberated Zone.” This is the gateway to a land unseen by globalizing, booming India, yet only an hour’s flight northeast of Mumbai. It is a lush land at the country’s heart, sprawling across 10 states. It is a land where the Indian state no longer exists.Chhattisgarh is the Liberated Zone’s bloodiest battleground, with 134 policemen killed by Maoist terrorists between January and October 2007 year. Tribals allege that the government and its business cronies have carried out a multibillion-rupee trade in local tobacco and firewood, without sharing the spoils with them. So, the government has been shunted out.Every government-run primary school, post office and hospital in the Liberated Zone has been taken over by Naxalites — the local engines of Maoist revolutionary thought who take their name from a 1967 peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal. In Maoist territory, a few rusty hand pumps are the only memories of a fugitive government. The schools, the dams, even the tax system, are run by the Naxalites. Villagers pay with money, or with food, shelter, clothes and medicines. Families who cannot even afford that in this desperately poor area where the monthly per capita income is Rs 200 (40 per cent below the national average) give their men and boys to the revolution as tax.“The Maoists told my family we have a choice: either the men join the movement or pay up Rs 500. We were given three chances to pay, in food grains if not cash,” says quiet 19-year-old Pancham Dhulia at Kurti, second of the five relief camps on the 80-km highway from Sukma to Konta where victims of the Maoists or people disgruntled with them live in constant fear of reprisal. “My family could not pay. They handed me over to the movement as tax.” The police station’s only link to the outside world was a solar wireless set. There are no telephones here, no cell signal, and no electricity. When the Maoists came on November 2, 2007, there were desperate requests for help. Armed reinforcements were 200 km away. They were not sent. Officers feared they too would be wiped out.THE OTHER ROAD into the Liberated Zone, Highway 43, is the only bleak artery that the government retains in about 1.3 lakh sq km —of Naxalite territory across the state. Along the highway are the five relief camps that stay huddled with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) shelters.From here, the Indian state issues its nervous and disturbing answer to the siege. It recruits boys and girls as young as 15 as special police officers (SPOs), arming them with World-War-vintage .303 rifles. While the security forces concentrate on guarding their own posts, these youngsters patrol the roads and guard the camps.The counter-insurgents are called Salwa Judum, the movement to purify, in the local Chattisgarhi language. At Konta town on the Andhra Pradesh border, there are 180 SPOs, many of them young girls. They joined so that they could support their families, left homeless and unemployed by the Maoists, with Rs 2,000-3,000 as a monthly government allowance. “If I do not hold the gun, I will be killed, now that we are on the other side,” says a 16-year-old SPO, requesting anonymity. “Also, I get to earn to feed my family.”BARELY TWO KILOMETRES away in the red beyond, the children of India’s own intifada play cops and Maoists, in which little boys acting as comrades vanquish the “corrupt and evil” police forces. “Maoists have burned down the roofs of many government schools. They suspected the police of taking cover on school rooftops. Thatched, sloping roofs have come up instead. In scores of towns on our route —Pamed, Narainpur and Koligoda —Maoists run the schools, distribute grain and construct dams to irrigate this lush, fertile land. In Bijapur, emaciated village elder Dhuma Bulla says: “police are the ones who are hunted. They then blame us. How do we trust them? We haven’t seen them around here for years now. The Maoists rule here.”Similar memories haunt Dantewada district, where on November 2,2007 eleven policemen were killed in a roadside ambush. After asking at three houses, we get drinking water from a wary villager. Nobody talks. Nobody volunteers to be a guide into the red fortress. Barely two kilometers into the forest, a stranger in mud-stained shorts and a vest, appears. “Please return,” he says in Hindi, in a clear voice. “We have been following your movements.” He stands his ground, waiting for us to leave.

Naxals in Chhattisgarh

SIKHS PROTEST --People of the Sikh community gathered at Mulund station staged a rail roko against the Ram Rahim, whose body guard open fired in whcih 45 year old balkar singh died & 2 were injured.

People propose politics dispose: People who suffered loss of life and property , listen to the speech of BJP leader Gopinath Munde in a rally against Government of Maharshtra as the government provided insufficient services for the needy

CRIMINALS NO MORE-A group of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and hijras dance on the streets after the New Delhi High Court in a historic judgment on 2 July 2009 decriminalised consensual sex between gay men by repealing Section 377 of the India's Penal Code.

People from offices all over Marine Drive came out to watch the high tide.Mumbai faced its 3 day highest tide in the last 100 years. According to reports, tides measuring up to 5.00 metres were seen in various areas of Mumbai city including Gateway of India, Marine Drive, Mahim beach and Worli Sea Face at around 1:30 afternoon. The civic body, Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), had already warned that the city could see one of the highest tide on July.

Indo Japan Coast guard combined exercise programme in Arabian sea.

A traffic signal indicates a signal to the investors to halt as the Bombay Stock Exchange in the backdrop is falling almost daily to the global economic crisis.

Bridge, pipeline collapse on train in Thane, two dead-The motorman and a passenger of a CST-Kalyan local were killed and 11 persons injured when a girder from abridge under construction fell on a water pipeline, which, in turn, collapsed on the moving train near Thane station. With debris on the tracks, the Central line was blocked, disrupting suburban and long-distance traffic for the entire day -- 27 long-distance trains were cancelled and more than 20 were rescheduled.

The Russians dancers performing the Russians ballet at NCPA in Mumbai. Russian declared the year 2008 as India –Russia year, to build the cultural relationship between the India & Russian- ‘the days of saint Petersburg’. With the Kirov enthralling the audience at the NCPA, ballet may yet see a renaissance in the city. It is a disciplined art, involves long-term training, and takes many years to master. Many students start at five and continue till college. Ballet gives people a sense of inner discipline, poise, and grooming, Students also become aware of space and learn how to use it. Once in a while, a ballet group comes into Mumbai, and students gain exposure. Despite its qualities, dancers do not believe ballet will ever become as popular as say, Bollywood (Indian film Industry) dance, though it has plenty of scope. It is very expensive. To start, it requires strong infrastructure — a big studio, lots of space and a spring wooden floor to provide cushioning for the knee, back and shin.

A girl walks down the leaf less tree during the hot summer.

Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray with family visits the voting booth at Bandra in mumbai.

India's ruling Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, center, gestures as she shows a sword during a state assembly election campaign in Mumbai, India, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009. The State Assembly elections will be held in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh on Oct.13.

Narain Karthikeyan-shot for a special shoot with vitage cars. He has placed India on the world map of motorsport and he is called ‘The Fastest Indian in the World’.

Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra presented film star Amitabh Bachchan a silver Rolls Royce worth Rs. 3.5 crores as a token of appreciation for the latter's performance in the film 'Ekalavyya’ at Janak , Juhu Mumbai

Adi Godrej in his Godrej office in vikhroli,Mumbai.

Nitin Kannamwar at The Tennis court . He was officiated as a line umpire during the mens single final in wimbeldon 2007.

Chanda Khochar MD and CEO ICICI bank

lAKME FASHION WEEK GRAND FINALE

A model selection round for Lakme Fashion Week at Hyatt, Mumbai.

Kenyan John kelai (in white vest marked no.1) leads the race as citizens cheers the sprinters at mahim.

Players of Don Bosco basketball team after winning the match against St. Joseph at Wadala . Bosco won 34-31 against St. Joseph.

Participants of MWG in the Finals of Triathlon comprising of 1.4 k.m. of swimming at Girgaon chowpatty 40 k.m. of cycling and 10 k.m. of runing at Marine Drive (from NCPA to Wilson College)

‘12 most memorable minutes of my entire life’

Lens man Anand Shinde retraces his steps as he helped the police nab 2 bank robbers
Jan. 22: It was another day at work on Thursday and I was at the Malabar Hill police station to click photographs of diamond merchant and filmmaker Bharat Shah who was arrested after a court in Silvassa issued a warrant against him.
At around 1.10 pm after clicking some of Shah’s pictures, a fellow cameraman and me decided to follow the police van in which Shah was taken to the court to get some exclusive visuals. Little did I know that this decision would give me the most memorable twelve minutes of my life.
Just as we were chasing the police van, a white Maruti Suzuki Esteem brushed past me at full speed. The driver of the car did the same to the police vehicle. We thought that the driver was a rich spoilt brat using his father’s car, so we got to our job of clicking exclusive pictures again when at a distance we saw the car knocking down the traffic policeman who tried to stop it. I stopped my bike to check what happened. The police vehicle also halted to check on the injuries of the traffic policeman. At this point, the first thing that came to my mind was that the driver of the car was possibly a terrorist who was trying to dodge the police.
But the mystery unfolded when assistant inspector Ghanshyam Palange rushed towards me and asked me if I would be interested in chasing the car. Without a thought, I asked him to ride pillion and rode off. The car was zooming at over 80 kmph and I was riding at a speed of around 65 km per hour. During our chase we saw two people inside the car who looked like foreign nationals. The car then sped dangerously past a BEST bus and was later abandoned before the Raj Bhavan gate.
When we asked a passerby who left the car, he pointed towards a taxi. I then overtook the taxi and stopped in front of it. Mr Palange immediately got off the bike with his loaded service revolver and pointed it towards the robbers. The taxi driver got out of the cab and started shivering. Several people were watching the action from a distance.
Mr Palange then asked both of them to get out of the taxi but the duo started hurling abuse at him. The assistant inspector started abusing them in Marathi and then I intervened and told him to abuse them in English, the language they would understand. All this while, I was capturing every frame trying not to miss even a single exciting picture.
Finally, both of them were arrested and a police van took them to the police station.