Trigger-Happy, Point-Blank Range

Parpiani, Mid-Day’s photo-editor, has avoided the cynicism and darkness that characterise cop photos. That makes him believe it’s not unusual for policemen to carry their own children (he shot an officer who came to see the exhibition, carrying his sleeping child in his arms). Instead, many of the photos catch policemen off-guard while they aren’t playing at superheroes. A couple of cops giggle at the camera as it catches them in an empty urinal in one photograph. In another, policemen wield their lathis on a man framed in an improbable pose of refuge.

For the most part, they are trying to work, brows furrowed, while Bombay erupts around them in all its eccentric glory. There are unknown policemen getting water spritzed on their faces after a roadside shave, resisting seduction by eunuchs and seemingly guarding a clothesline.