The Haunting of Sheda Jatt of Village Gehal Bala – My favourite Photograph of 2025

By Ibraar Hussain

I’ve been away for a while, 3 weeks plus a few days on either side, so probably a month away from the website, apologies to my friends here as I’ve a lot of catching up to do.

It was 3 weeks of shooting, having two camera bodies; an Olympus E1 and my most recent acquisition, the slightly later Olympus E3 Four Thirds DSLR. I had the Zuiko 12-60 f2.8 f4 permanently attached to the E1 and the Zuiko 50mm f2 Macro to the E3.

I took 4 full CF cards and as you can imagine, I’ve keeper after keeper, so choosing one was very very difficult.

I settled on this, more so because of Sheda, the old Jatt village lady’s story which sort of manifests itself in her haunted look.

She’s been haunted by Fairies and spirits for many years, including other members of her family, leaving them with nothing, culminating in a regretful tragedy involving her only son. Sure, people will likely mock, sniff and laugh at Old Third World villagers and their superstitions – but this is just ‘white man’s burden’ talk; as I’m inclined to believe everything I’m told, no pinches of salt included.

This was shot with the Olympus E3 Zuiko 50mm f2 @ f2.2 ISO 100

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About The Author

By Ibraar Hussain
Ibraar aka Ibbs formerly from London, but now a long way from home in the Suffolk border in East Anglia England. An anarchist at heart with a liking for photography, especially travel snaps in both film and digital. Contax and Olympus DSLR’s are my go to shooters.
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Comments

Gary Smith on The Haunting of Sheda Jatt of Village Gehal Bala – My favourite Photograph of 2025

Comment posted: 28/12/2025

Good to see you're back!
Great photo.
Looking forward to seeing the fruits of your journey posted somewhere.
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Ibraar Hussain replied:

Comment posted: 28/12/2025

Thanks Gary A couple of posts coming soon. But I’ve been quite ill and recovery is slow. Hanging up my cameras for a while until next time.

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Leon Winnert replied:

Comment posted: 28/12/2025

Interesting photo, beliefs and experiances are beliefs and experiances. They are waht that are and are to be resepected. I wish you a speedy recovery from what ever it that ailes you

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Ibraar Hussain replied:

Comment posted: 28/12/2025

Thanks you my friend And agreed

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Russ Rosener on The Haunting of Sheda Jatt of Village Gehal Bala – My favourite Photograph of 2025

Comment posted: 30/12/2025

Well I am intrigued by this lady's story. Although I am a white man, I was brought up by my grandparents and have experienced a lot of things since an early age which a materialist world view simply cannot explain. I think that is what attracted me to photography at first. I wanted to see if I could photograph the things I could not see with my eyes.
In any case this is a compelling photograph. The shallow depth of field seems to isolate her from and pull her away from the material world. Her eyes seem to be holding something words can't describe. Good work!
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Ibraar Hussain replied:

Comment posted: 30/12/2025

Thank you Russ, you’ve seen more Or less what I have. Her story was very intriguing - the amusing thing was that I found her earnestly taking to Welsh man Steve in Punjabi! Steve was busy nodding and understood Jack diddly squat! Hehe! However he did mention that he did receive certain vibes from her. Steve himself is zeroed in generations of Celtic myth, legend and folklore. Apologies about the “white man’s burden” quote - poor use of literature there, it’s from Kipling and in hindsight I shouldn’t have used it as I doubt many people would have understood what it means.

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Ibraar Hussain replied:

Comment posted: 30/12/2025

Like to add that the way she has draped the muffler makes her look like a phantom

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Russ Rosener replied:

Comment posted: 30/12/2025

No need to apologize for the "White Man's Burden" reference. I am fully aware of that Kipling quote and all the trouble it caused many places in the world. No offense taken and that is interesting about your friend Steve.

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Geoff Chaplin on The Haunting of Sheda Jatt of Village Gehal Bala – My favourite Photograph of 2025

Comment posted: 31/12/2025

Welcome back! Excellent photo but more importantly getting the story behind the image, well done.
It reminded me my elder daughter had told me about forty years ago not to drine to the Pyrenees that day. I ignored her and some lunatic French militiaman decided to overtake a line of traffic at speed, creshing into and destroying my car. My wife snd son were taken by helicopter to hospital - both recovered fully over time fortunately. So maybe the Fairies, or quantum ground state, do talk to us.
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