Are we Moving Forward or Are we Simply Suspended in Motion

Sanyam Bajaj

Two cities. Two moments in time. One lingering question—are we moving forward, or are we simply suspended in motion, circling the same unanswered dilemmas? Delhi. A doorway stands open—an invitation, a threshold, a silent promise of progress. But step closer, and the illusion unravels. A staircase spirals in shadow, winding in uncertainty. Birds take flight, restless and without clear direction. And then, the temple bell—still, suspended, yet echoing through the image. It asks: Are we relying too much on faith, on ritual, on invisible forces, while the world around us demands tangible change? Can devotion alone clear the skies, purify the air, or alter the course of a metropolis choking under its own weight? Delhi—where tradition is woven into the city’s fabric, where history speaks through every structure, yet where the air grows heavier, unbreathable. The open door may symbolise hope, but what lies beyond it? A path forward, or another loop in the spiral? Berlin. A different skyline, a different rhythm. The TV Tower rises, a symbol of progress, of order, of a city looking ahead. But above it, the birds still circle—unsettled, uncertain. They mirror a truth we often ignore: even in the heart of modernity, of structure and direction, disorder lingers. We push toward a future we cannot yet define. We strive, but are we truly moving forward, or are we trapped in patterns too vast to escape? I took these two photographs on opposite sides of the world, in two different stages of my life. But across the continents, the questions remain the same. In Delhi, faith and tradition hold the city’s soul. In Berlin, ambition and structure push it forward. And yet, in both, the same flight of birds, the same quiet tension, the same moment of hesitation. Perhaps, the real question is not whether we are moving, but whether we know where we are going.