Praying at Shrine 2

Uncertain Identity is a project that I have been gathering string on for a long time. It is personal journey through years of war and the memories of it. I was eight years old when the armed conflict began in Kashmir. Gunfights, bomb blasts and daily deaths became routine. Coincidently we didn’t have a dedicated playground in our area. So boys would play in a vast graveyard making cricket pitches within graves. The conflict added a small area to the cemetery- the martyr’s graveyard- a place where those who were killed by Indian soldiers would be buried. That’s where my friends and I would spend most of my time playing. Sometimes we in the middle of the game elders would bring dead bodies for burial. Once the burial ended, we would resume our play. But the war was gradually creating a different reality for children like me. As a photographer I often visit the spaces I grew up in, like the martyr’s graveyard. Through this project, I want to recreate those memories- scenes, smells and sounds that defined my childhood. It’s not just the documentation of the war in the surroundings but the battle inside my mind.