… 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…
this time i wanted to meet some of my lost friend with whom i shared a 10X10 space in kolkata for three years … 1997-2000 … since then i do not know their whereabouts …
i was a student that time … used to get 1500 bucks per month from my home to spend over a month which include food and rent expenditure … we used to share all our expanses and maintain a very low life… we knew that, we are here to finish our study … that’s all… some of them were there to get coaching on competitive exams.. some of us were students … means, we did not have enough money in our hand … it was just ok to have …
there was a concept of half tea from a local tea shop… we used to have a sip for 75 paisa … we used to take our lunch early in the morning , so that we can skip breakfast and save some money … we used to travel through local train, so that sometime we can travel without tickets… many students do that even now …
after i joined IT industry, i was put out of kolkata, i was in southern india since i joined the industry.. i could not go back, i could not catch them up with the latest happenings on their side… i was kind of pretty ashamed about it and somewhere in my mind i was feeling sorry for not able to connecting them… in this era of internet, they still do not practice internet at a large…i did not know their mobile phone number, i lost my old phone book as i don’t use any of them now… everything i manage electronically … so i missed them … it has been years even they could not contact me for whatever reason… i don’t blame them, i blame myself …
and this time i really wanted to meet them… i met one of my room mate who stays near my home town and on a winter evening we decided to see them… and next morning we started on a bike ride … they stay 80 km away from my house , however, i have never gone to their home … i was not even sure, whether i would see them at home …
i only knew the place name but did not know how to reach there … asked many people en route and finally i stooped myself at a local bazzar to find one of them… surprising i found him, but i was so sorry to see him… he changed himself totally different… once he was all our boss and now i saw him working on some video editing stuffs … don’t know what he does actually .. his attire was not right … i wanted to reach other friends through him… he was totally absorbed with local politics, i found eventually …
he took me to another friend and then from him to another to another … the whole day we spent was awesome … we could go back to those days, saw old albums, shared those chit-chats, cracked jokes about people we did not like those day blah blah blah …
it was an eventful day altogether …we were so happy to see each other, so happy to meet once again …
i took loads of photos … i did not want to miss this day in my life… i was coming back to my home with loads of memory this time … i was little carried away that day … it was a national highway i was coming through … i saw the sun is setting in … the day was just going to be finished … suddenly i stooped in the middle of the road and parked my bike side by … i looked back at the road from where i came … it was an awesome experience for me just before it became darker …
[ first photo was taken in 1999, just 10 years back, guy with a black color high-neck T shirt is actually me !! ]