But everything falls into place as Raghubir Singh, one of India's most well known photographers, draws his Nikon to capture telling moments in the chaotic ordinariness of Indian life. Such trophies pepper his 13 books, the most recent one of which, River of Colour: The India of Raghubir Singh, carries images from his body of work over the past 30 years. A retrospective of this work and more, currently on at the Chicago Arts Institute, also opened last week at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi. It's on till February 28.

Singh's photographs are like logo-images of India. Pictures of the Ganges, Varanasi, Rajasthan, with the sights of villagers, workers, pilgrims and sadhus, all smeared with the exotic-India cosmetic. Frequently, the pictures break into chaotic compositions which Singh says are images of his India-experience. "I'm not trying to do a portrait of India," he says. "I'm shooting what's inside me." That is sometimes hard to see; Singh is demanding on the viewer, would prefer they understand the history of visual arts. Sometimes, the images break through that demanding barrier. Then, it's magic as it should be.

-- Bandeep Singh