Notes from the creators:
Dipti Bramhandkar (writer): My last booked flight to India was cancelled due to the pandemic in March 2020 and I haven't been back since 2019. My sadness of being away from my family, especially my grandmother, was the impetus for writing this piece. I was trying to reassure myself that eventually I will return and be reunited with my family and that in the meantime, India resides inside of me.
Archana Kumar (photographer): 5 years ago on December 11, my mother died. Suddenly. The grief has changed me profoundly. I feel and see everything more deeply and more vividly. My images are suffused with her light, fleeting and intense at the same time. She was my Mother India.
Kabir Kumar (composer): Growing up as an Indian kid elsewhere in the world meant discovering my Indian-ness from afar: visiting my grandparents during monsoon rains, hearing old Bollywood tunes in the living room, going to the neighborhood Indian Store to buy achaar and poring over my mother’s old photographs. Mother India reflects this cultural confusion: samples of Rajasthani folk music, Hindustani classical flute and rain on a metal roof meet and meld with each other over a Western rock groove.