… so it was a pre-planned event … worldwide … and bangalore photographers also joined together … early in the morning and walk the shoot … everybody brought their cameras … some of them even brought more than one … but there was one guy, different than others … not only he brought his 50D, we found he was carrying one Henri-Cartier-Bresson with him… some of the unparallel photographs of india, which i have never seen before…
photographying on the street was never so fun before … more than 20 photographers aiming at a single subject, specially an old aged man, was kind of in-convenince for me anyway, but he cracked a different idea all together… we were amazed to learn that, even a bride would not expect 20 photographers shooting at her marriage … he was always on a lighter mood … a great sense of humour …

if you want to catch him, late-night twitting is the way … he will always be there … if you want to be close to him, make sure you have a great argument power … though i have been speaking-chatting-sharing views to him regularly, i met him very recently … and found him, not just as a photographer, but as a great photo-curator who crafts and curates photography very delicately … ok, no prize for guessing, he is suyog, co-founder of bengaluru infinityF…

how many of you wake up in the morning by setting alarm in your watch? how many of you choose to put it for snooze for some more time? … staying here at bangalore and working for UK clients had made me a late riser … i actually repent … the weather at bangalore in the early hours are like perfect dose for a deep sleep…

… and it became a habit for me now … i miss sunrise … i feel sorry for not being able to capture the first rays of sun kissing over morning mist … i miss the sounds of hen … i miss twitting sounds of birds early in the morning … i miss the gentle breeze passing over in the early hours … i miss quietness of our planet earth …

i remember the days when i was living at kolkata, waking up early morning , to catch the morning newspaper before any of my roommate gets it … i was studying at kolkata then … 3 of my college friends who happened to hail from the same district, rented a 2 room flat on the top of a pharmacy shop … “swarnamoyee pharmacy”, if i remember correctly … there was a tea shop next to it … and i used to observe the business of that shop early in the morning … it all used to start as early as 4 AM … Mithu Da, the shop owner prepared tea daily… i used to observe quite surprisingly how he prepares cups after cups of tea … he had a rhythm … he had a style … all the morning walkers and vegetable vendors used to come to his shop for tea …

that was different than any other shop… seriously… there were lot more tea shops near by, but nobody used to attract customers like him … special tea was Rs 1.50 … we being bachelors and students, used to get at a discounted price … a cup of tea divided by 2 … one by two … i still remember people shouting at him, ” ai mithu, cha de re , cha de …” ( hi Mithu, give us tea ) … we used to listen from the top of the pharmacy… that was our living place…

Mithu da had a very strange fascination on bengali folk songs … every day at 4 in the morning, he used to play his music player … every day same album … i had never listened any other album during my stay for nearly 2 years … folksong by gosthogopal das… those were gems … i don’t get any of them in internet now … fortunately i have a mp3 album full of Gosthogopal das lokgeeti … whenever i listen to those songs, those days just surface in my memory … i almost can visualize those days … those songs were my morning bells and a wake up call…

a total of 3 yrs at belgharia, near bibha cinema hall … those were the days i cherish always in my life … i had some of my best times there …

[ both the photographs were taken at Armenian Ghat, near howrah bridge ... my effort to capture early morning activities ]