My Uncle Homi

Hootoksi Tyabji, 2005

Homi Kharas was the brother of my Grandmother Tehmina Kharas-Lalkaka.

We called him Uncle Homi and as I child I was very fond of him, I thought he was funny and kind. I never saw him without a camera slung over his neck and he was an essential part of every important family occasion that needed a photographic record!

Uncle Homi was born in 1913 in Bombay and lived in a beautiful, airy bungalow by the beach at Land’s End, Bandra. Till he was 11 years old he stayed home and had a Mehtaji (Gujarati tutor) who taught him gardening in the mornings and reading and writing all afternoon.

Uncle Homi’s love of Photography grew out of his mother’s keen interest in it. Shireen Mami (as we kids called her) began her lessons in photography in 1923 when few women in India were educated or encouraged to learn anything outside the home. This was especially so when they had children to look after as they were considered the only stimulation that a woman needed.

Shireen Mami would return after her photography lesson bringing home exposed glass plates (there was no film in India in her time) which her young son Homi would help her develop, and it was here that his love of photography was born.

In 1930, he was given his first Portrait Brownie Box camera, and in 1931 he won his first (of many) awards in the Illustrated Weekly Snapshots Competition.

Uncle Homi’s love of the outdoors took him walking, hiking, and birding every weekend. He was the founder secretary of the Bombay Hikers, and Editor of the first Photographic Magazine from 1955-1983, called the Agfa Photo Gallery, which was distributed free. He was also Editor of India’s first full-color magazine called Photography Today.

On his walks through the city, Uncle Homi captured on film, the drama of life going on around him which was missed by most. His photographs, whether telling a story or capturing an emotion, always speak to me as they have to many, in India and abroad.

Uncle Homi’s legendry cartoon caricatures of his wife Aunty Mani and himself, were made into cards that the entire family eagerly looked forward to receiving every Xmas. He also photographed and produced our annual family Xmas cards some of which you can see below which were produced between 1939 and 1995.

A Selection of Uncle Homi’s Chrsitmas Cards...

And last but not least, his card for 1995...

Click to read Tribute to Homi Kharas by E. Alkazi/Art Heritage