A day in Hampi doesn’t begin with the camera. It begins with awareness. I wake up before the first light hits across the boulders.

I still remember the first time I came to Hampi in December 2013. It wasn’t a planned journey. It was curiosity, more than anything else. I had a camera, but I didn’t quite know what I was looking for. I was drawn to the scale of the place, the stories everyone spoke about, the monuments that stood like markers of time. I came here as a hobbyist. I left with questions I didn’t yet understand. The stone chariot was where I stood the longest that day. Like most first-time vis