Life through a lens

I had heard so much about South Beach in Miami, Florida.  While working on an assignment in South Florida, I decided to visit the South Beach in Miami on a weekend.  I took the scenic coastal route and it was late afternoon when I reached South beach.  I was mesmerized by beautiful clouds, clear inviting waters and people out to enjoy the beach, the sun.  This was one of the first pictures as I stepped on the sand. 

As I photographed this colorful beach scene, Sebastian approached me and smilingly asked who I was shooting for.  Always nice when somebody is interested in your work and your equipment.  It turns out he is an actor in Chile and on being asked if he would like a picture, agreed to pose for me.  I had him jump next to one of the numerous colorful umbrellas along the beach. 

Walking along the beach, I met Latrisha with a dazzling smile.  Her bikini matched the clear green waters nearer to the beach and I wanted to take a portrait of her.

While photographing her, my cell phone rang and after answering my phone, I put it away in the side pocket of my long shorts.  Little did I realize as the waves came onto the shore that my phone was getting drenched in sea water as I sat along the beach to get a better angle.  My moto Q died a watery death that evening. 

There are very colorful life-guard stations along the south beach.  Each life-guard station is painted different.  While photographing one of these stations, I saw Kiwi with a cute smile, big innocent eyes and dreadlocks with silvery beads.  As I approached her dad for a photo, she became shy and would not smile at all.  She had just come out of the water and water dripped out of the beads onto her face.  All I wanted was a smile from this cute lil’ kid. 

Somehow, she took a liking to the flash on my camera with its’ big diffuser and looked at it with curiosity and dead serious eyes.  So, I showed her how one could trigger the flash by pressing the test button.   From then on, it was a child’s play for her and she took an immense delight in pressing the test button, time and again.   I like this portrait that shows her delight in having fired the flash by pressing the button yet again.

It was a good day for people-watching and meeting beautiful strangers on the Miami beach.  I vowed to return earlier in the day another time…

I visited Gwalior Fort again. It has been overcast and rainy the past few days but the Sun decided to shine again today, maybe, to mark the occasion of World Tourism Day. With Dada and Bobby, I drove up to Fort from Urwai Ghati instead of my usual hike up from the Gwalior Gate of the Fort. I had brought photos of Kushwahji and others that I had taken on my previous trips to the Fort and they felt happy on receiving the photos.

Man Mandir has undergone a fantastic cleanup. The blackened walls in the inside chambers have been cleaned and very few bats remain. The dark stairways leading to even darker circular dungeons now have lights as well to guide the tourists. This is where the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad and had him executed. I took some long exposures of the dungeons and Jauhar kund.

After photographing the colorful tiles of Man Mandir Palace and visiting the chambers in Man Singh Palace, we went to see some older monuments in the Fort.

Some things never change: the desire of us mortals to leave our name etched in stone for generations to see. I have been to so many beautiful monuments and places that have inspired misguided lovers and mortals to etch their names on the walls thereby disfiguring those for others. Sometimes, all this reminds me of ‘Ozymandias’ by PB Shelley or even of that beautiful song by Kansas - ‘Dust in the wind’ (esp the lines - “all we are is dust in the wind”).

This particular graffiti looked fresh and brought to mind my surprise at seeing graffiti on Eiffel Tower in Paris. Now I really digress but I must tell you this; still cracks me up on my stupidity. Having heard so much about the graffiti and the messages for Jim Morrison on his grave, I had gone to Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise in Paris. It started raining and finally I saw a mausoleum with people around and graffiti on the walls proclaiming how Jim is loved and lives on etc. It easily seemed the most popular tomb around and I photographed it and the music lovers from all angles. I am about to head out when I see an American tourist taking a picture of his boys in front of a comparatively small grave behind the tomb. Wondering whose grave it was, I check out the tombstone. Lo and behold! It was Jim Morrison’s! Having gone all the way to the cemetery, I had almost missed out the grave that I wanted to see. You can imagine how foolish I must have felt.

Anyways, back to Gwalior Fort: I sought out some of my favorite views of Vikram Mandir, ShahJahan Mahal and Karan Mahal.

I keep returning, hoping to find better, more dramatic light. Still have not found what I am looking for but hope remains. I am sure I will be back again, to relive the moments I have spent with near and dear ones while walking, playing around the monuments in the Fort. The clock keeps ticking as this very moment passes us by. ‘Dust in the wind’, indeed!

I saw this solitary swimmer floating in a pool surrounded by ripples in the water.

It reminded of the countless hours spent swimming in the Beldih club pool in Jamshedpur, India. When it rained, other folks would go inside the club building. Most of the times, I would be the solitary swimmer in the pool.

Have you ever had a swim when it is raining? Imagine yourself in a pool as raindrops fall, one after the other, on your face, as the body floats in the blue waters. I always felt a strange exhilaration, calm, at peace with myself.

I visited the Scindia School after what seems like ages. The drive up to the fort via the steep Urwai ghati brought back memories of the days spent at the school. The old houses (our hostels) still look the same with the trees that seem as young as ever. I remember hurling my hockey stick at the tamarind tree in front of Jeevaji house for some juicy imlis. Sometimes, the stick would get entangled in the old limbs of the trees only to be rescued by the forceful strike of another stick borrowed from a housemate. And then, we would rush to the games fields with pockets full of the loot, content. Ah, those beautiful moments remain as fresh in my memories…

We visited Astachal with the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the young eucalyptus tree and remembered looking at the old ramparts of the fort in the background as the sun went down over the hills beyond the fort walls. I remembered Mr Chatterjee with reverberations of his voice as he sang - “surya ast ho gaya..gagan mast ho gaya…pag pag hum gaate chalein…aha gaate…aha gaate” (The sun has gone down…the sky is rosy and ecstastic..we are singing with every step…”). It looked just the same but there were no boys, no roll-call and no school astachal this evening.

Also, I finally got to see the light and sound show in the vicinity of the beautiful Man-mandir built by Raja Man Singh. As the deep voice of Amitabh Bachchan started the narration of the chequered history of this famous fortress at Gwalior, multicolored lights spot-lighted the historical buildings around the area one by one as the sound-bytes changed.
A mild winter breeze blew as I sat on the edge of the wall, trying to keep my camera steady and wishing I had brought my tripod with me. I was under the impression that photography with-or-without flash was not allowed. The lights of the Gwalior city below, twinkling like stars, winked telling me that I will be back again.

Not keeping well the past couple of days, it was not very pleasant to be in bed all the time. I usually keep fit so the sudden fever, cold and cough totally caught me unawares. I utilized the time by reading when I had the strength. I just finished the “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden. It is a totally engrossing novel and very well researched. Being set in Gion district in Kyoto, it brought back memories of my visit to this part of Kyoto in August 2005.

I had a long day walking and shooting pictures as usual and since all the beautiful temples closed around 4:30 pm, I decided to see if I would be lucky to see a Geisha or an apprentice-Geisha. I had heard of the famous Geisha district of Gion and about how one might see a Geisha rushing to an engagement in Gion. When I reached this street called Hanami-koji, I felt as if I had been transported to another world altogether, devoid of flashy neon signs with beautiful traditional Japanese architecture of teahouses with paper screens and wood. I walked up and down carrying my heavy camera bag but it didn’t seem that I would be lucky to see a Geisha that night.

About Hanami-koji…Shimogama-san told me - “koji means street,hana is flower,mi is seeing”. Among the interesting people I met in Hanami-koji were Shimogama-san and his steady, Sukada-san who were visiting from Kobe. They were taking pictures of each other using a cell phone and seeing them in traditional yukata, I wanted to photograph them too. Both of them loved the pictures I sent them. In the picture, Sukada-san looks lovely in the light of a paper lamp hanging outside a teahouse.

I also met Yurika-san and Yuka-san who I photographed with their camera. Then, I asked if I could also take their photograph. It turned out that they were friends of Sukada-san. As I was changing to a wide-angle lens to take a picture of them, suddenly the screen-door to the teahouse opened and there stood a lovely Geisha, looking flustered to find me sitting on the door, changing a lens. I was stunned too and by the time I recovered to ask her permission to take a picture, she was gone. Uhhh….I missed it!

Anyways, I walked quite a bit more and then, I saw a Geisha and a Maiko (apprentice-Geisha) walking with a patron of theirs. Lot of young girls were excitedly trying to take a picture of them with small cell-phones and ofcourse, they missed it. The patron saw those girls and asked the Geishas to stop for a picture for them. They stopped since the patron had asked them but now, their beautiful smiles were not visible for the camera. I also took a couple of pictures of them before they walked away. As they walked, their smiles were back. One day, I’ll get to photograph a smiling Geisha too.

If you have a chance, read - “Memoirs of a Geisha” - you might like it. And, if reading does not interest you, see the movie based on the novel which is out in the theaters.

Talking of theaters, let’s see when I get to post the pics of the dance troupe from Osaka that I took at National Theater of Japan in Tokyo.

I love experiencing different cultures and must say, I loved Japan!