i love achchan’s camera, especially the 70x210mm zoom, without which i never feel like i’ve shot a picture. all i need is an excuse to get it out. and there couldnt have been a better excuse today!

it never fails to amaze me how different i can be behind a camera…totally unlike the usual self-conscious, at-times-introvert that i can be. i’ve been amid a crowd at puri, atop a half-broken-down roof to click pictures of the police bandobast when orissa’s biju patnaik passed away, or talking to (photogenic) strangers like the old watchman at a dam in bangalore, the enfield-rickshaw-wallah at beyt dwarka, or the boy on the cycle who had huge bulky and colourful plastic water carriers on either side of his puny vehicle.

this morning i was shooting the kids and the ‘older’ kids as they threw colour and baloons at each other from my house on the sixth floor, and one of them caught me in the act. before i knew it, all of them were looking upward! and i dont even know anyone in our building, since i go home just once a week.

anticipating my embarrassment, amma immediately ran to my rescue, but she walked away nodding her head in disbelief. in no time, and in spite of the six floors between us, i actually got ALL of them to pose for me !

now, if only the photographs would come out fine too 😉