Hello. Welcome to Our Neighbours, Our Stories! Pictured today is Jigna, the lady that runs the Village Stores in Great Bedwyn.

I started this project on 15 July after feeling disconnected from my family, my friends and my loved ones. I missed how life was when I was growing up in the 00s. I vividly remember meeting local people in Leicester with my Dad as a child. The shop where we bought watch batteries from owned by the Dad of one of my school friends, the multitude of shops, restaurants and community events we visited on Belgrave and Melton Road in Leicester. The delicious vegetable samosas, masala dosa and chilli paneer from Bobby's, Mithaas and New Purnima of Mombasa.

I was born and raised in Leicester. I studied a Social Sciences degree at Aston University in Birmingham, and lived there for six years. After 18 months in London, I realised life in the capital wasn't for me. I struggled to find my people but I still enjoy visiting.

Our Neighbours, Our Stories hopes to remind people of the incidental everyday encounters that can improve someone's day. Simple acts of kindness like opening the door for a stranger, asking a neighbour about their day or simply going for a walk and chatting to someone on the street. These conversations are vital in our lives. To build a friendship. To have a conversation with someone with similar interests.

I have met people during this project that are going through a hard time. They feel alone, they feel isolated as there are no bus services where they live and they feel stuck.

If you are in the area, please do come along and meet me at Bedwyn Baristas this weekend. See the portraits. Read the exhibition magazine. Marvel at the beautiful flowers from Jayne Manley at Sunnyhill Flowers and Bedwyn's Sirron Cottage Flowers. Go on a walk with one of the maps by Bedwyn Footpaths Group. Bedwyn is easily travelled to by train from London Paddington, Reading, Newbury, Hungerford and KIntbury. If you are travelling by car, we are not far from the A4 and the M4. Feel free to follow me on Facebook and Instagram. See you soon.

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In this debut episode, I am introducing my first-ever solo photography exhibition, Our Neighbours, Our Stories.

Tucked away inside Bedwyn Baristas, formerly the Old Bowls Club off Farm Lane, the exhibition is a space for cross-generational reconnection.

I share my personal journey as a gay, British-Gujarati Indian man born and raised in Leicester. I dive into why I chose analogue film and how independent coffee shop owners are helping steer a new era of village connection.

Step inside Bedwyn Baristas on a Friday morning, and you’ll see exactly what I mean. The digital world likes to keep us segregated into boxes. Algorithms feed us what people our own age like. But at the Bedwyn Baristas counter, the algorithm breaks down completely.

You see a young person sitting with an iced latte, sitting right next to a lifelong resident with a cup of tea reading their morning paper. Generations that usually walk past each other on the street are suddenly sharing a table, sharing a laugh, and navigating a conversation. It’s a reminder that community isn’t something we look at on a screen. It’s simply meeting in the same room.

In a world of smartphone cameras and filters on social media, film forces you to slow down.

You get thirty-six frames on a roll. You have to wait. Film has a unique texture—a grain.

To a younger eye, that grain looks artistic. But to the older generation, that grain is just the texture of memory. It’s how their wedding photos looked. It’s how their childhood was documented.

By displaying these portraits in this space, I wanted to use a visual language that the twenty-somethings and the eighty-somethings understand equally. Pictures of the North Wessex Downs, our local faces, captured on a medium that spans generations.

So, this is my invitation to you.

Whether you are an art lover, curious to discover some untold stories or just someone who really appreciates the taste of a good flat white or cup of tea with a sweet treat.

Take a walk down Farm Lane. Turn left at the sign for Bedwyn Baristas

Look up from your phone. Look at the people and maybe start a conversation with the person sitting next to you.

The exhibition will officially open at Bedwyn Baristas on Friday 28 August at 8am.

Thanks for listening to this first episode. I’ll see you in two weeks.

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