17 April, 2009

Where the hell is Netra?

Ok, so I am sure of the very few readers of my blog that I have, must be wondering what happened to the Netra and me story based on our India trip.

Well to remove the suspense, nothing really happened. What happened was that we both contemplated on a lot of things. After Chennai we went to Trichy for the workshop. The students at Trichy were very nice and took good care of me and Netra. The heat was a little too much for Netra to get used to, but I am glad she adjusted without doing any nakhra. Sometimes she does get fussy, but that happens more on rainy days than on sunny days.

When I am in India, I become over possessive of Netra. I simply cannot think of letting her go away from front of my eyes for even a small time.

The college kids at Trichy were all so glad to meet Netra. A few also commented her, shook hands with her. I agree, I did feel jealous at it. But then I had allowed Netra to mingle with the others and hence I guess I should have been fine.

Netra was addressing that kind of a crowd (more that 100 students) for the first time. So as expected, was a bit nervous. It was surprising as I have been giving presentations and addressing crowds so frequently. I thought Netra will be equally comfortable, but it was not the case. The students at NIT Trichy were great with their hospitability. They did take good care of me and Netra. I could not have asked for more.

Came back to Mumbai, and there I let Netra rest at home, while I experienced the Mumbai Local rush, and the dusty markets. It was here that I missed Netra. Especially near the Mumba Devi temple. Netra's absence however was allowing me to contemplate on a few things. But of all things, I was shocked at my hesitance of wanting to click pictures of the markets that I once were so fond of clicking. A couple of years in the US had changed me to some extent.

The notion of the victim documentary, started haunting me. My conscience kept saying me that I could now no longer click those pictures of poverty, and people in sorrow and show to people in other parts of the world. What was allowed however to take pictures of the smiles and the little joys that existed amongst the people there. I was wondering if Netra would feel the same. Would she be as comfortable at clicking images of the temples and the surroundings, as she was a couple of years ago?

Thoughts kept coming and going. Got back to Mumbai airport and then to Bloomington via Newark.
Overall the trip to India was a great trip. Met loads of interesting people and enjoyed thoroughly!

In the mean time, in the US we have been having fun. Oh did i tell you Netra was so happy with the Holi that we celebrated in the US. I felt so proud of us. Inspite of being in a different culture, we were able to celebrate our festivals. From the corner of my eyes, I did see people drooling over Netra. I smiled.

3 comments:

wasabiworker said...

finally !! :)

you know looking at the multitude of photographs on flickr...i have begun to feel the same....

why do people take photographs of the sad old ugly only in india??? ...am still fine tuning my thoughts on it, so brain storming....to a considerable degree it may be what is inside a person ....and they see that what is without??...also i think people may like to be perceived as serious photographers if one is photographing what is dark and ugly....

netra has to get used to the crowds soon :))

Kshitiz Anand said...

Thanks for the comment Jyoti.
And that notion of the victim documentary is something we definitely need to think about.

I think that notion of the serious photographer is cliched. And lots of people think that way.. that only when they take such photos will they be taken seriously. One thing that that US has made me aware to is the different things people are passionate about and make a name for themselves in that area.

Netra is getting used to the crowd indeed. She might be getting a big brother soon though!

wasabiworker said...

:)...so the family is xpanding one way or the other :P

way to go :))

jyoti