A return to roots

He is my grandfather. I have grown up taking holidays to this little town— Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. I try to help take care of him. I do what I can. I thought I would immortalise him on black and white film. Zishaan Akbar Latif writes. Stories in pictures

Dhanji Anklesaria is 89 years old. I am told he has lived each and every one of these years as a strong, dominating, hotheaded, relentless and principled man. I believe it is these characteristics that led directly to my existence.

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He is my grandfather. I have grown up taking holidays to this little town— Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh. I try to help take care of him. I do what I can. Aside from being my mother’s strict father aside from the secret stories, I am told about his complicated Parsi familial past, and aside from the fact that he is old, reclusive and alone, I feel close to my grandfather… because I see myself in him.

I thought I would immortalise him on black and white film.

After starting, it soon became evident that this was not about photographs anymore but an effort to balance the sensibilities of a grandson and the sense of a photographer as I went on documenting a fierce man in my family, but a man who I started relating to because after spending time with him I realised what he is at 89 is me at 26.

— Best known as the still photographer for the Bollywood hit 3 Idiots, the author is a Mumbai-based lensman whose work has been published in several international publications. His work was most recently on display at the Delhi Photo Festival.