Power of Camera Better Than Words!!

Sometimes, before a leader speaks, the photograph has already told you something.

At the 81st United Nations General Assembly, my camera gave me two first impressions of a new generation of South Asian leadership: two young Prime Ministers from South Asia making their maiden statements at the UN, both seen by me for the first time not on a television screen, but through my camera viewfinder.

First came Mr Tarique Rahman, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister.

He came to the UNGA hall along with his official entourage; he looked sharp, composed and dashing in a Western suit, with a bright red tie adding a sudden splash of colour to the formal setting.

But there was another layer to his appearance that caught my attention.

When PM Tarique Rahman spoke, he did so in Bangla, his mother tongue (It’s my mother tongue too!) In that same UN chamber, he was following a family tradition: his father, President Ziaur Rahman, had addressed the UN General Assembly in 1980, and his mother, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, followed in 1993. Tarique thus became the third member of his family to stand at that global podium.

The Handshake That Had to Wait…..!

Then, in another venue inside the UN Secretariat, came Mr Balendra Shah, Nepal’s 36-year-old Prime Minister.

Balendra Shah calls on the UN Secretary-General António Guterres during his fist visit to the UN as Nepal’s Prime Minister in New York.
United Nations; New York; September 24, 2026
photo: Jay Mandal/On Assignment

Tall, slender and unmistakably Gen-Z, he entered the room where UN Secretary-General António Guterres was waiting to welcome him and pose for the customary photograph. Dressed in black national attire, dark glasses and his distinctive black Nepali cap, Shah looked, for a fleeting moment, less like a traditional head of government and more like a Himalayan rock star making an appearance at the UN.

There was something wonderfully unconventional about the scene. The young Prime Minister seemed completely at ease in one of the world’s most formal rooms, so much so that, while the photographers were busy capturing the moment, the customary handshake appeared to have been temporarily forgotten.

Guterres, ever the diplomat, had already extended his hand. Shah, meanwhile, seemed to be giving the cameras his full attention.

A brief moment of diplomatic choreography followed: the photograph first, the handshake second….!

Of course, the handshake eventually happened and, with that small Gen-Z detour behind them, the young Prime Minister headed for the UN General Assembly Hall to deliver Nepal’s statement.

Two men. Two countries. Two very different styles and yet, in their own ways, both carried something distinctly of home onto the world stage.

And for me, there was something particularly memorable about the experience.

I saw both of them for the first time through my camera lens.

That is one of the small privileges of being an accredited photographer at the UN: sometimes history enters the room, and before you hear the speech, you meet the person through the viewfinder.

The shutter clicks.

The moment is frozen.

And much later, perhaps, the photograph begins to tell its own story.