I
was a 17yrs old college student when the October 1968 disaster struck the
Darjeeling–Sikkim Himalaya — 57 years ago now. About a week after
04Oct1968, my cousin, a friend, and I walked down to Teesta Bazar, where
I took some photographs with my father’s Zeiss Ikon bellows
medium-format camera.
Those photos, badly damaged over time, had long
been missing until recently, when I stumbled upon them while rummaging
through some old prints.
While using AI to enhance/restore the photos, I instructed the AI programs (Gemini's Nano Banana and ChatGPT) 'NOT TO MAKE ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN THE PHOTOS' and I have scrutinized the 4 photos to see that the details of the original are enhanced and preserved, not changed.
The restored image of the
Andersen bridge. It was brought down by the Teesta river during the 1968
flood. The blurry figures standing on the bridge are my cousin and a friend.
The original 57yr old image👆
The restored image of the Teesta
bazaar from the opposite bank. This area sustained a huge amount of
damage including a petrol pump and all the equipment which were swept
away by the rampaging Teesta. The remains of the Andersen bridge are
still visible today.
The original 57yr old image👆
The restored image which is still quite bad - but you can make out some
damaged homes and a lot of scars which are landslides... this area is where Krishnagram now stands in Teesta bazaar.
The original 57yr old image👆
The restored image of the Teesta bazaar is where the community hall and the haat bazaar
stands today. You can distinctly see the road going up to Darjeeling and
Peshoke in the upper right.
Please note: the captions which I wrote on the first 3 photographs 57years ago are reproduced unaltered in the AI images.
Praful Rao
savethehills@gmail.com
9475033744
No comments:
Post a Comment