Self-taught shutterbug who shone through odds

For a girl married at 17, life was far from the rosy picture of a romantic, blissful wedded life “complete with wearing beautiful sarees, applying makeup and lipstick” she had once envisaged. Reality dealt a cruel blow right from day one for young Sarvesh who had to resign herself to be content not just with life behind a ghunghat but also a sadist husband who burned her with cigarette stubs. “I saw no hope—neither in my in-laws who’d do nothing to change their son’s wayward ways or in my parents who told me that only a girl’s asthi (remains) comes out of her husband’s house, not her,” says the now-60-year-old who had no recourse but to fight destiny and chart out a new path for herself.

With the help of a lady in the neighbourhood, Sarvesh managed to flee from this hell and ask a women’s organisation for help. “It not just gave me shelter but also introduced me to a man who went on to become not just my friend but also a mentor and guide,” she reminisces. And when, on her birthday, he gifted her not just with Gorky’s Mother, which is a story of a courageous woman, but also a camera, her life changed. “I remember how just holding that camera saw a new person in me emerge,” says the self-taught shutterbug who went to become one of the country’s few women news photographers of that era.

And one of the first things she did was to chop off her long tresses and get into a pair of jeans. “Both of which were not just signs of rebellion but of freedom for me. They made me snap all ties with my past and surge ahead with renewed vigour,” she says.

Of course, things didn’t come easy. Sarvesh was surprised to encounter not encouragement, but extreme hostility from fellow lensmen. At the spots where all newshounds would gather, male photographers would "regard me as a trespasser - as someone who had no business to be in their 'territory'. There’d be snide remarks and efforts made to sabotage my efforts just by bad mouthing me and my work," she remembers.

Having started out as a freelancer, assignments were few and far between, so money was scarce. “Whatever I earned would go into buying film, developing it, etc,” says Sarvesh who would save money by either going hungry or eating in a langar. But she carried on relentlessly, and yearning to carve a niche for herself, was not content with the “soft stories generally associated with women but assignments that only a few brave men were given”. So, on her own, she went to disaster zones including areas hit by the Uttarkashi Earthquake (1991), Jamnagar famine (1992), and the Kargil War (1999) that incidentally got her an award from the Government of India. “My pictures started getting published, but as with all freelancers, life continued to be tough. But I was happy,” she smiles.

And then, in 2001, her exhibition, ‘Women in the time of flux’, became the turning point of her life. With growing confidence, Sarvesh found newer horizons to conquer — a keen runner, she has not just participated in marathons but also bagged medals in competitive running, done mountaineering, trekked in the snow, and on her Kailash-Mansarovar yatra, she has walked more than 35 km at a height of 18,000 feet. She has also brought out a coffee-table book on contemporary women photographers.

“Having already travelled to many destinations abroad, my aim is to travel the whole world,” says the lady who, for more than 10 years of her married life, had to be content with just peering out into the street from behind the curtains of her room. Now, of course, the tables have turned… And how!