The Black Castle

City of Widows shot

A widow climbs the steps to the one of the dilapidated buildings of the Sri Bagwan Bhajan Ashram as the evening session of chanting ends in Vrindavan, the 'City of Widows'.

Latest Lucknow Tribune Tearsheet

Photography in Lucknow Tribune article on Raja Ram Mohan Roy, written by Michaela Wilson

Family on a bike

Bundi dog

Blind boy

Disused carwash

Parao Leprosy hospital

Avadhoot Bhagwan Ram Kustha Sewa Ashram is located on the other bank of the Ganges. There it was explained to me that the temple was founded in 1961 and while its roots where in Aghori they had moved on as they said ‘into the modern world’.
Part of their development was moving from practices that were seen as abhorrent to working with the lowest of society, the lepers. With this view, Parampujya Aghoreshwar started a service centre at Parao, Varanasi for the lepers in January 1962. This centre adopts the Ayurvedic and Fakiri system of treatment and prepares most of the medicines and received acknowledgement from the Guinness book of records for treating more leprosy patients in the world with 99,045 patients registered with ‘full’ leprosy and 147,503 with ‘partial’ leprosy all of which have been cured.
The patients are treated for free and on recovery they are expected to serve in the kitchens to treat the current patients for a period of time in return. No debt, no medical insurance.