Aab means Water in Kashmiri.
Along the Romush River in Pulwama, Kashmir, boys have spent their summers in the water for generations. They swim, dive, float, wrestle and play. Aab documents this ritual. I was one of those boys.
Returning after years in Delhi, the river didn't feel the same. As a river's course shifts, so does the way one inhabits and perceives their own body.
When do we become conscious of our bodies? When does shame shatter the innocence of childhood? Like water carving a riverbank, shame shapes our identity. What we are as children, we are no longer as adults.
Shame is a rebound function. It requires a witness—a person, a social code, a mirror. Before this witness, a body is simply flesh and bone.
Aab captures children in and around the Romush, long before shame and the body begin to settle in their minds.

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