It certainly is the best seat in the house, but sitting close to the boundary of a cricket field does not necessarily ensure you would have a good time watching the match. Cricket is like a religion in India. An unusual game, that goes on all day even through lunch and tea. Naturally then, covering this game in India is like covering it nowhere else in the world.

At least four hours before a match, photographers start out for the stadium, winding through noisy, mile-long lines. The lines of spectators are so long that one wonders if the last man actually gets to see the full match.

Security is often difficult. Parking passes are virtually impossible to get. So there’s little else a photographer can do, but walk along crowded dusty paths carrying heavy equipment. Certainly not a good thing for the faint-hearted!

It was no different at the India-Australia one-day match in Vadodara. The intense bag-checking by the police at several places made getting into the stadium an adventure sport by itself. Undeterred, spectators thronged the stadium well before the game. A glimpse of the players during pre-match practice was all it took to drive them into a tizzy. The cheering in the stadium is so loud that all laws on noise levels seem to be breached. Only the law of the willow prevails.

Photographers too go into a tizz when players appear, albeit for a different reason. When players practice in front of photographers, a straight or cover drive or a throw from a fielder sends us scurrying for cover too. Lenses get hit, laptops take a rap. Recently a photographer got hit on his head by a jet-paced-ball from an Australian cricketer. He  was lucky to come away with only minor injuries.

Such escapades happened at Nagpur too, but here, the photographers protested. Most Indian cricketers comply with photographer requests not to practice in front of them. But some young ones prefer to practice in front of the lenses. After several hits to man and machine, a confrontation ensued between players and shooters, and organizers intervened to prevent fisticuffs.

But it’s not always brotherhood and camaraderie among photographers. On smaller grounds, fights break out over a scarce resource - the right spot. Tempers usually subside when the first ball is bowled and lenses are trained on players. The game rolls on under the beating sun, giving us a taste of the warm nay hot country. Water becomes scarce at some venues, so does food. These are available in the press room,  often a winding walk or climb away, but photographers (especially us with news-agencies) usually don’t have the luxury of time to go there.

Not scarce though, are emotions running high. When the men-in-blue (Indian players) hit a shot, or a visiting player is dismissed, the stadium erupts as possibly the noisiest place in India. Turning a deaf ear to the noise, keeping one eye on the game, and the other on the laptop, is challenging. It’s like a circus, a modern-day gladiatorial game, involving sports-persons and photographers battling heat and thirst, dust and deadlines.

For hours players slug it out with bats and balls and we with our lenses and laptops. Finally the match ends, with a non-stop deafening roar from the crowd after an Indian victory or a deafening silence after the home-team’s defeat.

The departure of fans is no less chaotic than their arrival. Crowds are not enthusiastic to leave till the last player has left the stadium in the team bus, waving to them, that is if any were visible from behind the curtains. Now that’s extracting value for ticket-money!

After the crowds disperse, photographers leave too, clean-bowled by the time we reach our hotels or homes. All that’s left now is to dip into some curry, put our feet up and call it a day. Howzatt! for some curry and cricket?

During nearly two decades of violent Kashmir conflict, I have covered fierce gun battles, between Indian soldiers and Muslim militants, suicide bombings, rebel attacks, massacres, protests, mayhem, violent elections and disasters.

But the question that always comes to mind is “what is the hardest to shoot?’

I always remember protests or riots, clashes between stone throwing protesters and gun-toting Indian troops. Stress levels quickly rise as me and my text colleague, Sheikh Mushtaq, realize that our assignment will not be easy whenever we go out, mostly on Fridays, the day when Muslims offer congregational weekly prayers, which turn into weekly protests against Indian rule in Kashmir.

There is literally no place to hide and shooting is nearly impossible when angry protesters take to the streets and rocks rain down; Indian troops retaliate with tear gas shells, rubber bullets and many times with live ammunition. Most of the time we, with protective gear and camera equipment strapped to our shoulders in backpacks, are stuck in the narrow streets of downtown Srinagar as impatient crowds and ruthless troops battle for hours.

Blood is always spilled in the streets of Kashmir where tens of thousands of people have been killed in two decades of an anti-India insurgency.

It was a pleasant and beautiful day in Srinagar, a city of over one million ringed by snow-capped Himalayan mountains, but tear gas brings bittersweet tears to my eyes and rocks sometime make me bleed. I clutch my camera, adjust the focus and aperture and keep on shooting masked rioters and police replying with slingshots, teargas shells and bullets. A rock came towards me, I ducked but it hit another cameraman. He was bleeding lying beside me. On many occasions, I had to drop my camera and take care of injured reporters and photojournalists. Several times even I was not lucky.

Years back I was hit by a tear gas shell and then enveloped by a cloud of dust and tear gas smoke. As the tear gas shell exploded between my legs and tore my calf muscle badly. Mushtaq from a distance was looking at me helplessly as the rattle of gun fire followed screams and cries for help. I was bleeding and fell unconscious. After hours I found myself in a hospital and later spent months in bed missing the thrill of photography.

When Kashmir last year faced some of the biggest anti-India protests in nearly 20 years, photojournalists faced the wrath of security forces and angry protesters.  Many of us were beaten up by riot police and demonstrators, protesting Indian rule in the disputed region. They break our cameras and sometimes beat us with batons and gun butts.

It is painful and disturbing but when I see people writhing in blood and dying with bullet wounds, my pain disappears and I feel guilty when police do not allow us to photograph the tragedy. I feel disappointed when they stop us after ambulances and hospitals are attacked.
People often ask “what is the most difficult to shoot in a conflict zone?”  I always say “protests or rioting.”

Four Reuters photographers covered the recent attacks in India. Here Arko Datta, Jayanta Shaw and Desmond Boylan (Chief Photographer, India) recall events.

Jayanta Shaw
My first experience of the Taj Mahal Hotel had been as a teenager on holiday with my parents in Mumbai. Those were fond memories. I would never have thought my second encounter with the Mumbai landmark would be so dramatic, tragic and scary.

Arko Datta
Just the previous night, I was at the Trident-Oberoi hotel, shooting pictures at the Gucci shop on the ground floor, next to the main entrance of this five-star hotel.

But since there had been no warning of an impending threat, the city continued to go about its daily chores.

Wednesday was a long day at office, and just as I got home and settled down, the first call came in, of a firing at Leopold café. Mumbai is no stranger to trouble or gang-wars and that’s what most of us in the media thought this was, especially as the area where Leopold café stands is known to witness shadowy activity as the night wears on.

But in an instant came the news of another shoot-out at Chhattrapati Shivaji railway station that most of us refer to as Victoria Terminus or just VT.

I sensed there was more to these shoot-outs and I needed to move, and try to get more information on the way. I told my colleague Punit Paranjpe to go on to VT while I headed for Leopold.

On the way I was getting a flurry of calls - with the stories only getting more bizarre - firing and blasts were being reported out of the Taj Mahal and Trident-Oberoi hotels as well.

Slowly it became clear Mumbai was seeing attacks and sieges at different locations. I decided to head for the Taj Mahal hotel first, with reports of gun shots and blasts still being heard from there.

Even as I took cover near the hotel, came further information of a blast near Nariman House and another as far as Vile Parle, close to the domestic airport.

I called Punit and told him to file his first pictures ASAP, and I decided to move. As I walked towards Leopold, I heard a blast behind me near the Taj Hotel. I ran back, only to dive for cover as there were more blasts which turned out to be grenade explosions. People were running in panic, and the darkness added more to the chaos.

There was occasional gun fire from inside the hotel building, but there was very little to photograph. This is when I heard of a fire raging at the Oberoi-Trident. I rushed there, only to be kept at a safe distance by the cops, like the rest of the media. Just then, we got more news of an explosion near a petrol station! A few of us photographers sped off on bikes, getting images of the post-blast debris - a mangled car and two-wheelers and cops on guard at the site.

After criss-crossing the streets of South Mumbai, chasing every bit of news that was coming my way, I was back outside the Taj Mahal hotel.

As I shot pictures of the hotel on fire, my thoughts were to get these to clients as soon as possible, while ensuring I stayed out of the line of fire.

I prepared for a long vigil outside the Taj. The first pictures of the fire had gone and I was trying to digest the reality unfolding before my eyes. The dramatic events would last another forty-one hours, testing our endurance.

JS:
Earlier on the Wednesday, I was Guwahati, in the Indian north-east state of Assam, preparing to cover the India vs England cricket match . By 10pm that evening I was outside the Taj Mahal hotel smelling gunpowder in the air, with gunfire all around. I was thrilled for a while. I positioned myself behind a police van watching the hotel in flames before my eyes. I started shooting with my 80-200mm lens and Canon camera. Taking 15-20 frames I stopped at around 11pm to file my first pictures to our pictures desk.

DB:
Flying from New Delhi, I landed at Mumbai’s international airport on Thursday morning to reinforce our coverage - 11 hours had passed since the first shots were fired. The normally bustling terminal was deserted, giving me a strange feeling that something was very wrong,

I persuaded a reluctant cab driver to take me to the scene. Normally a 2-hour journey, it took 40 minutes through the deserted streets. Throughout he drive we listened to the radio. There were three confirmed locations under siege - Nariman House, The Taj Mahal and Trident Oberoi hotels .

Arko and Punit were already on the ground, busy trying to cover all angles of the ongoing story while chasing stringers for additional images.

JS:

Friday morning Arko called and directed me to Nariman House, the Jewish centre in Mumbai. I arrived at the police barricade after a 2 km walk and found panic-stricken locals watching from the rooftops. It was like a war scene. The sounds of a helicopter startled me.

Commandos were firing at Nariman House from the helicopter. I moved to a rooftop to get a better shooting angle.

The roar of helicopters and exchange of gunfire made a scene reminiscent of a Hollywood blockbuster. Arko informed me rescued people were coming out of the Oberoi Trident hotel, so I ran there.

DB:
For the next few hours I walked around. I heard sporadic AK47 gunfire, and I could hear explosions coming from inside the Trident Oberoi, where hundreds of silent onlookers were gathered.

Hours later, I was still dragging my luggage through the streets and several people approached me asking if I was an escaped hotel hostage. Eventually, I managed to check in to my hotel on the Marine drive.

We established the hotel as a pictures-editing centre. Using its wireless network, we could operate several laptops simultaneously. We used it as a charging point for phones, laptops and camera batteries. It was adrenalin that kept us going.

At the Taj, where the rampage ended, the media behaved like the pigeons and seagulls that perched on the building itself, scattering after each volley of gunfire or explosion, only to return to their initial positions.

AD:
During the city siege, Mumbai was panic-stricken, with only a whiff of rumour enough to send people rushing for cover and closing their shutters.

The city’s famed spirit had worn thin, people were shaken. They were feeling vulnerable and exposed by the lack of security. Theaters and other haunts were quiet as residents digested the uncomfortable reality that terror had struck at the heart of the country’s financial capital.

DB:
We relied on our instincts backed up by solid information on the ground, knowing from the beginning it was impossible for the four of us to staff each siege location round the clock – each one had over five positions to be manned, some of them dangerous and where you could be stuck for hours, others quickly changing as security forces would push us back.  Uncertainty and worries of how long the rampage was going to last went through our minds.

We made sure our first priority was safety, we worked sometimes together at the same location, covering each other. Arko and Punit, our photographers in Mumbai, had done their homework — this was the key to our success, managing a solid local network of contacts in a moment of crisis. From the start, we had all angles covered, we had planned for such a situation.

It was just a matter of putting it all into place and remaining calm.

People duck as gunshots are fired from inside the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008. REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe

Indian commandos take positions outside “Nariman House”, where armed militants are believed to be holed up in Mumbai November 27, 2008. REUTERS/Arko Datta

An employee (C) of the Taj Hotel (seen in the background) comforts foreign guests in Mumbai November 27, 2008. REUTERS/Arko Datta

Police escort a stranded guest from Taj hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008. REUTERS/Arko Datta

A policeman gives water to an injured child at a hospital in Mumbai November 26, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer

A policeman walks with an elderly man after shootings by unidentified assailants at a railway station in Mumbai November 26, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer

Pigeons fly near the burning Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai November 27, 2008. REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe