Narail, Bangladesh
it sure was a treat to experience this.... we didn't really know that such a thing actually existed in Bangladesh.... a horse race; a rural horse race!!..... the moment we heard about this, our heart leaped.... and I couldn't even think of taking my eyes off this event..... Shudipto has let us see the country.... can't thank him enough.... this was yet another superclass tour organised by TTL.... something to remember for a long time.....
Narail is around an hour's drive from Jessore.... but the place where this race was supposed to happen was not that easy to get to..... a further one hour's travel was required before we could see some horses.... it was the village Khashia in Lohagara Upazilla.... we had to cross the River Nabaganga by boat and also needed to travel by some local motor vehicles, which created some unique sound!
it was a demonstration of prestige.....
"Sada Ghora" was the majestic winner.... except only once, it always achieved a head start and the jockey Bulbul was guiding the majestic animal like an expert rider!!
it was amazing to see how young they were and also, how competitive they were..... their competitiveness made the race attractive....
whether its a winning horse or not, there's a bond that remains intact.... they were all tired at the end of the race and needed some time to catch their breath....
there was only one real competition for Sada Ghora.... he won one race beating Sada Ghora.... but his joys were short-lived....
the horses had to be taught the way of the race.... the trainer and the jockey would take the horse down the track to give it a feel of the soil....
the race went on into the fading light.... the last and the deciding lap.....
and there was no stopping Sada Ghora.....
had no idea about this event, actually..... and discovered everything after reaching there.... we discovered all that in testing weather conditions.... reached there by around 1:00PM, but as it turned out, the race didn't really get started before 4:00PM.... there were five laps and the whole thing lasted up to around 5:45PM, under fading light.... the weather was even more tasking on the participants.... we could see that on the soaking wet bodies of the horses and the exhausted faces of the jockeys..... the jockeys were something to see.... didn't expect them to be that young.... forget about child issues.... this is rural Bangladesh and you have to accept what you get.... this is the tradition here..... they are not just low on their weight; they're low on their age as well.... the winning jockey was only 12 years old!!..... but you have to say that he was good..... his body language tells that he doesn't want anything lower than the first prize....
after the race, I hardly had two minutes to complete the portrait of the winner, "Shada Ghora" (literally meaning, White Horse).... improvisation was the key here.... my D700 was suffering from a weird problem with flash sync.... and I discovered the problem right before I started for the tour... so, I couldn't take my chances with this.... I banked on the only way it worked.... optical trigger.... used the built-in flash at lowest power and triggered the SB-900 in SU-4 mode..... Zaim did a great job adjusting to the "dancing" horse and also adjusting to the constantly changing angle of the photographer as a result of the dance.... the SB-900 was bounced into a white collapsible reflector.... used the white side rather than the silver side.... Zaim held both.... the light was tricky, as the sun had gone down quite a while back.... there was hardly any ambient light available to create a dramatic backdrop..... but the moon was up and there was a palm tree to anchor to....
the jockey, Bulbul, was quite a character.... he said that he's been racing for more than four years!!..... and his experience can be seen in his riding..... he's been busy of late.... just one day before, he was racing at Faridpur!!.... and he claimed that he doesn't lose races!!..... thats quite a claim, but he surely had the spirit..... Shada Ghora lost lap number 3 to another horse, but came back to win the rest.... it was a majestic victory!!
anyway, that was that for the day..... it took some time and effort from us to reach back to Jessore.... more on that later....
