Raghu Rai and wife Gurmeet on being partners, in life and in work
Image: Bikramjit Bose
It was 1986. India was still reeling from the aftermath of Operation Blue Star and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984. And the first Indian Magnum photographer, Raghu Rai, had not only captured the recent tragedies but was ready with his seventh photo book on a very different subject—the Taj Mahal. His gaze didn’t frame the country’s most photographed architectural marvel as an exquisitely crafted ivory-white marble mausoleum alone. Sure, the domes and minarets peeked through each image, but Rai’s camera focused on the cycle of life, and even death, around this great tomb. The black soot of the steam engine, children playing by the railway track, skeletal remains washed ashore… through his imagery the vestige of the past became part of the everyday. Back then, he had just befriended Gurmeet Sangha, a young student of architecture still figuring out her specialisation, and she immediately became enamoured by the humanity he had infused into this majestic building. “I knew the Taj Mahal as this great monument but through his photography I suddenly got to understand it as a cultural being,” she recalls. Even as she reminisces his unique vision, and how it helped shape her own multi-disciplinarian approach as an award-winning conservation architect today, her husband of 28 years reminds her of her audaciousness back then: “She had moved to Delhi from Chandigarh and was discovering her new-found independence,” he says, before teasing her about their first date, “Do you remember how you held my hand when we crossed the road? She was too much… still is!” says Rai.
Time Lapse
The two are nestled in the heart of their Delhi home, in warm shades of rosewood and sunlight. The dining table is laden with the sights and sounds of breakfast hour—the 50-year-old Gurmeet in her spot at the head of the table, and 74-year-old Rai by her side, seamlessly passing each other butter knives and fruits, one completing the other’s meal. The 24-year age gap seems to have evened itself out over the years in the most unusual way, with Rai’s child-like exuberance perfectly balancing Gurmeet’s serene authority.
Their conversation flits from the mundane—figuring out if Simba and Laila their dogs have been walked, exchanging notes on their two daughters and Rai’s children from his previous marriage, or whether they’ll spend the next weekend at their farmhouse on the outskirts of the capital which has become Rai’s space to unwind and get away from the bustle of the city—to the more cerebral as the architect and the photographer dialogue over how the pretty picture and cosmetic restoration are taking over their respective industries.
Double Vision
Gurmeet serves as the director of the Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative in India and continues to work closely with UNESCO. “I look at heritage as my right, my responsibility,” she explains. And even as Rai worries about her constantly taking on the government, he remains mostly in awe of her commitment to her work: “She believes in the inherent goodness of the universe. I admire that,” he says.
She fills us in on her conservation work at the Mughal Fort, Patti, Punjab, where her team got rid of the footprint of a colonial police station and went deeper to find the foundation of a similar police station built in the 1850s that they’ve retained within the structure. She explains, “The monument speaks to you. When it’s speaking to you, you have to listen very carefully.” Rai adds, “But with the Insta-generation and need for quick results, people don’t have the time to listen to these whispers.” However, instead of lamenting the current clutter of priorities, the two have become mentors in their fields, using their prolific experience to shape and mould talent—she is constantly training her team of architects, and Rai guides documentarians through his school, the Raghu Rai Centre of Photography.
Rai is clearly the sceptic between the two, his prodigious photojournalist past a testament to his questioning mind. But there’s an old-world charm about him, an even-tempered consistency. Gurmeet is as meditative, but a believer and follower of the Sadhguru school of thought; she’s also the more voluble of the two, her passion visible. The two are the sort of couple who stand strong in their individuality, creating a perfectly aligned and beautifully balanced diptych.
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