Photographs are segregated into 3 categories- ‘Street’ photography titled, “Little chaotic people”, ‘Nature’ photography titled, “God’s own business” and ‘others’ titled “Oh my god, so pretty….” things
“Little chaotic people”
Along the sides of the already narrow road, hundreds of men and women come to life as the sun slowly hides behind the dome of the “Murugan Temple”. Fruit sellers and vegetable carts take up every inch of space available in that entirely crammed up street. Women selling hot bhajjis and vadas’, men catching up for a smoke on the pavements, ‘bhakti’-bitten aunties chanting their way in and out of the temple, men busy with their business in small shops that are no bigger than the tiny cubicles at corporate offices, old men and women who carry their wisdom in their ragged frames selling knick-knacks, drunk lads who glare and flare up in fits of rage; some lie on the roadside, narrowly escaping injury and death as vehicles, both heavy and light speed through. And then of course children, precious little children, who smile through their eyes….
“It’s the sights, the sounds, the smells, the noise, the buildings and the utter disorganisation- ‘Life’ enthralls me in all its chaos. Their lives might look insignificant at a glance. But take a look closely and you realise they are the real survivors, the real men and women of the world, the real people. They ride no flashy cars and live in no lifestyle homes. They know no marketing strategies and hold no bank accounts. And yet they survive, walk through life enduring all that it has to hurl at them. And in their faces I see expressions so rich and diverse, they breathe life into everything around them. And this is how the whole of my Chennai is. I guess this is how all of my India is, and I am yet to see it all. In every part of the city you will find such a street, full of enchanting lives- beside every shopping mall, behind every disco bar.
This little section is not about Thoughton or me. But it is a very essential part of this blog, and therefore me. The real reason for having this section is nothing but a small desire to get a peek into the lives of some of the most interesting people I have come across.
I call them the “Little chaotic people”, and this section is simply all about them”.
God’s own business
I once had to take a copy test while applying for a job as a copywriter. One of the questions went- How would you describe the colour ‘blue’ to a blind man? My answer was this.
In conversation with a blind man:
“….and the evening sky was a brilliant blue….”
“Blue? What is blue?”
Well, for a person who can see, darkness is the absence of light. What you can see, that darkness, is what I call black.
Black is the depth of the human mind. Blue is the depth of the ocean.
It is the intensity of the sky when it bears clouds and the refreshing cool when it’s bright.
It is the smell of the violet flower, and the flutter of the wings of a bird in flight.
It’s the fragrance of earth when it rains and the tranquility inside every peaceful heart.
I did a terrible job at it. And I didn’t get selected for the job, as can be expected. The realisation that followed was shocking!! That, words were no match for describing the astounding beauty that was Nature. And also that describing about something, anything, to somebody who already knew how it felt, was no big thing. The real joy is when you can give a new experience to somebody who has not known something like it at all before. Like for instance, if through my words I can make a blind person understand something as simple as the colour blue, I think I would consider it an achievement, one that I would rate highly. After the assignment, when I read through it, I felt I could’ve written it better and in so many different ways. I could’ve used humour, I could’ve been poetic or even romantic, but it still would’ve remained as mere words and flown past the blind man, without as much as even a blink of his eyes.
I stopped describing excessively about nature after this incident. I realised I should just mind my own business and not bother trying to do things that were beyond me. I still write sometimes about certain places when I feel like it and also take pictures, but with full realisation that I am also just another viewer, not the creator, not even a presenter of His ideas. To the people who cannot see what glorious paintings He makes on His canvas, but are blessed I believe, with other abilities, and to the painter Himself who unravels it to His children, I say thank you, for throwing some light into my own head. You’ve opened my eyes and here I am now, stealing a few of His works to share it with the world.
“Oh my god, so pretty”…things
One of my very good friends once made fun of me, saying that making me happy must be like the easiest of things to do on this planet. All one had to do was to put me on a truck and send me off to a distant village, where there were trees, goats, cows and a clear view of the sky. Though everybody including myself had laughed at it, I got thinking about it the other day seriously. She was right, I did find happiness in the strangest of places. In the wag of a puppy’s tail, on the ground covered with animal tracks, in the constantly changing clouds up the sky, in the gaze of a calf’s eyes and so many such things. This one is full of such photographs, where I go completely crazy and exclaim- “Oh my god, so pretty”…… You can except pretty much everything here.
