Tarun Bhartiya (1970-2025): The bird that flew the coop

Tarun Bhartiya recently exhibited his mesmerising black-and-white photographs of the everyday lives of people, places, and objects of religious significance in Ri Hynniewtrep or East Meghalaya. Titled “Niam/Faith/Hynniewtrep”, the exhibition drew curious crowds in places like Wayanad in Kerala and Ahmedabad in Gujarat. It was the last exposition of a life of observation, engagement and solidarity that many of us were blessed to be a part of.

Bhartiya suffered a cardiac arrest and died on January 25 in Woodlands Hospital in Shillong. He had so much else planned out for 2025 and beyond.

A sea of humanity turned up to see him off on the day of his funeral on January 27. Representatives of the Hawkers’ Association, the Nurses’s Union, colleagues from the media and mass communication centre that he nurtured in St Anthony’s College, activists from the region and mainland India, singers, and his family came to pay homage to a person who loved and lived among communities where care, affection and sharing is unquestioned.

As those at the gathering spoke, those listening were reminded of all that Bhartiya had done for the region since he returned to the town of his youth in the late 1990s. With Bhartiya having been part of internationally feted…

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