“I was attending the Hungarian Film Festival nine years ago. One day, I decided to hop into a car with my guide and went on a tour of Budapest. By the end of the day, I had 240 photographs of which 20 are exhibited here,” says Rao, 62, adding, “Don’t look at the photographs as a critical commentary on Budapest, look at it as images of a beautiful place.” He indulges his fondness for the Roman architecture and statues that dot the city, but there’s tongue-in-cheek humour in the shots of Coca-Cola boards that jut into the landscape of a city—modern consumerism living cheek by jowl with the grand colonnades of the past.

Olasz, in his early forties, is a frequent visitor to India, says Dr Imre Lazar, director of the Hungarian center. “He is so fascinated by India that he keeps returning to the country with his camera,” adds Dr Lazar. Olasz’s works on Benaras are more studied and technically perfect than the spontaneous shots in Rao’s collection. He strips Benaras of its colour, presenting the familiar sights and scenes in stark black and white. The stereotypes of India—cows, narrow lanes, mud-baked houses and shrunken old women populate his pictures but the photographer also notices the winds of change—motorcycles and skinny mannequins. As with Rao in Budapest, Olasz’s gaze is arrested by glitzy shop windows, modern consumerism in the holy city. Clearly, some things are universal.