Murzapur

Life and death in the trading town of Mirzapur, where the river Ganges meets the highland ranges of India

Medical missionary Ronald Carpenter captured this short slice of life in Mirzapur City and District in Uttar Pradesh, central India. Mirzapur was established by the East India Company as a trading town to bridge central and eastern regions of India. Here we see a market trader, a woodsman, women washing their clothes and their children while nearby mourners bathe their dead in the holy river Ganges.

Flanked by woodland on all sides this is a lush place rich with vegetation. The vendor's vegetable store holds an array of foods for sale. The ox driven cart which carries a magnificent pile of chopped wood in an inverted pyramid style, defies gravity. We get a glimpse of an ancient temple as a man stands at the entrance of one while right at the end of the film we see a body being prepared for its last rites as a boat lingers on the shore of the Ganges. Tejinder Jouhal