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Souptik Datta

The world is a crazy place and two things fascinate me the most:

1) Finding compelling stories.
2) Giving them a voice and a shape.

Stories are omnipresent. For instance, when I am walking down the street, my senses are constantly scanning the surroundings, looking for potential stories. To acknowledge what drives a great story is probably my curiosity. Asking "Why?" is plausibly the most prominent thing I have learnt over time.

"The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon."

Rohingyas: The Harum Scarum crisis in Bengaluru – The Softcopy

Tiny homes, No toilets. More than 50 percent of children living in refugee camps suffer from malnutrition.

Bengaluru: The persecuted Rohingya Muslims in Bengaluru are grasping at straws, trying to survive in their tiny shanties without proper sanitation or water facilities. More than 50 percent of children living in the area suffer from malnutrition, activists Thomas Mathew and R. Kaleem Ullah who surveyed them found.

Recently, Laila Begum gave birth to twins who are growing up malnourished be

Srishti Art Attack: Love, Art and Dissent in New India

It was 9 pm on a cold January night when thousands of people assembled at Ram Leela Maidan to witness one of India’s finest statesmen – Atal Bihari Vajpayee – speak.

That night, Vajpayee spoke of freedom, democratic rights and fundamental rights to disagree with those who rule us. Today, the very party he represented has turned the narrative on its head by launching a new-age ‘saffron democracy’ where love is censored, art lies dispatched and dissent is being mercilessly crushed.

On January 14

'That Night, I Wasn't Safe in My Own Campus': Jadavpur Student Speaks Up

On September 19, a clash between students at Jadavpur University (JU) and members of the BJP’s youth wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) escalated on the day Union minister Babul Supriyo was to speak at the campus.

The minister was shown black flags when he arrived and after an impasse, violence broke out in campus with ABVP even indulging in arson and the ransacking of various shops near the college gate as well as the Student Federation of India’s office.

Amid the uproar, several f

Dear Bengalis, Is This the Bengal We Always Wanted?

On Tuesday evening, BJP chief Amit Shah’s roadshow in Kolkata ended in a scuffle between his supporters and students holding placards which said: “Amit Shah Go Back.”

Soon after, stones were pelted, bikes were burnt and the gates of Vidyasagar College were set on fire. Amidst the chaos, the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar installed inside the campus was vandalised.

Vidyasagar was a prominent academic educator, a reformer, a philanthropist and one the greatest Bengalis of all time. He stron

India's First Female Graffiti Artist Kajal Singh AKA Dizy is Transforming The Walls With Her Bold Vibrant Strokes

In the last two decades, graffiti and street art slowly made its way into India's vibing art culture — evolving into something more than just throbbing murals embracing the streets and public spaces across cities. Kajal Singh, who goes by the moniker 'Dizy Arts', is making quite an impression with her vibrant work. She speaks to The Tribal Box, about her journey to being one of the first female graffiti artists in India.

Being A Graffiti Artist Was A Distant Idea For Me

"Trained in Bharatnatya

No direction home yet for Bengaluru trans community – The Softcopy

Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum says that at least 60 percent of the transgender community has no access to BPL cards.

Bengaluru: The state government is yet to create state and district cells for transgenders under its Policy on Transgenders, 2017.

The unavailability of the cells and a transgender census results in the community not getting access to Below Poverty Level (BPL) cards, government housing, Aadhar cards and monthly pension schemes, among others.

Rs. 75 lakhs were allocated for

Valley of fear: Migrants leave Kashmir – The Softcopy

Migrant workers in Kashmir flee home and tension surges among the locals.

Bengaluru: Several migrant workers in Kashmir fear for their lives and are planning to go back to their home states after two workers were shot by militant outfits on Oct. 17.

Rashid, a carpenter in Srinagar plans to leave home at the end of this week. He said, “The situation is scary here. Every day we go to work in fear, hoping to come home safe.”

However, Rashid is in a dilemma. He fears that if more workers leave th

Places I have worked

I have been a contributer for The Wire.in, The Tribal Box and also have been selected for National Geographic India and BBC Travel

My Photo Assignments

Video Assignments

Video documentaries, the powerhouse of storytelling, hold a great potential in revolutionizing today's multimedia journalism.

Immersive Storytelling: I often use interactive clickable infographics to tell my stories.

Ground Reports

Bagalkot Flood Rehabilitation Camp, 2019

As I walked across the camp where 40 homeless families have taken refuge, I found sheer misery. The broken clock hanging at the corner was stuck at 1 AM. There was no electricity. Brief showers of rain were extremely erratic. While people stared blankly at the dampened walls, some resorted to alcohol to seek solace. Even though Red Cross have been providing them with relief materials every few days, they are out of food or water. This little boy stood at the corner, silent, away from everyone. He didn't speak much. As I pointed my camera at him a smile gleamed across his face. But I anticipated, and suddenly the smile faded away, his eyes lit up with a very familiar dazzle. As I walked away from the camp I was reminded of a girl I had met last year at Varanasi. Zoya, her eyes had the same dazzle. These eyes seem to follow me everywhere, each assignment, a new pair waits to haunt me afresh.




Shot for @ircskarnataka @indianredcrosssociety
Help to rebuild Karnataka,
www.RedCrossKarnataka.org

Let's Talk?

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Phone: +91 8971809374

Email: souptikdatta5@gmail.com