Monday, March 25, 2019

The Chair



restful
not restive

vacant
but not for long

available 
for new occupant

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Homecoming



I took this picture, which is one of my favorites, at the Taj West End hotel in Bangalore many years ago. The scanned negative has suffered, like many of my old negatives, so that the viewer of today may not see what I do, when I look through the eyes of memory.

The staircase led to the suite where I always stayed when I visited Bangalore. (The small building, deep within the hotel grounds, has been remodeled into the Tata Suite, and the staircase is no longer visible from the entrance.)

When I took the picture, I first removed a distracting vase of flowers from the niche on the left. The simplicity and warmth, the sense of expectation caused by the dark staircase ascending into light, perfectly expressed my feelings about coming home.

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Portrait: Who Are You?



Bhashwati wrote:
Aap ne tasveer kamaal ki lagaayi hai aur log garden garden ho rahe hain dekh kar.

i hope the subject of the composition is also feeling garden-y.

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

Double-Exposure


I studied for my first-year science degree in Bombay in 1954, while staying in a boys' hostel, VMKBS (VM Kapol Boarding School), a Gujarati charity.

I still didn't own a camera, but I believe that I took this double-exposure with a borrowed Rolleicord twin lens reflex. The negative from which this scan was taken was badly damaged, but it gives an idea of how we entertained ourselves in those days.

I took a number of such pictures, with enthusiastic cooperation from my hostel-mates. I mainly used the parapet on the building's roof-terrace as a set, because it offered a big blank sky to serve as a backdrop.

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Bhashwati wrote:
And mr god looks doubly exposed in your composition.
Exhausted and disinterested in his devotees lekin auto pilot mein raising hand to bless.

Bach ke rehna re baba aise blessings se bhi


Sunday, March 03, 2019

Motherhood


freedom
or
fulfillment
or 
abject enslavement

half-part of man
or
his victim