I'M BACK, I'M BACK

If you read the large print at the top, you know I'm back. Missed reading my blog? Those of you who did not, why were you reading the blog in the first place? Stop now. I took a break for a while, because I just didn't have the kind of time I needed to write a halfway decently write-up on the blog. The Bangalore schedule was hectic and maddening, followed by a family function, so I figured rather than write something I wasn't happy with, I'd time some time off. And now, I'm back.

Spent the last month of April in Bangalore. It's a beautiful place and the big thing I did there was honing my new found passion for photography. I'd made up my mind before I even got there that I was going to do railfanning (or trainspotting, in simpler terms). It's something I've wanted to do for a long time and I kept doing it in and around Mumbai but not to the extent I should have. The night before my railfanning session, someone asked me why I wanted to do it. I'd never really thought about it before, it was just something I knew that gave me satisfaction and I knew I wanted to do. So I thought for a minute, and it came to me; I wanted to do this, because to me, it is the representative of what makes photographers great beings.

From the dawn of our era, we have always been driven by a need to store images, climb higher and do more than we should be able to. The human philosophy is to stretch our limits. We cannot fly, but we wanted to. So, we built machines and equipment that would help us. We cannot breathe underwater, but we wanted to. We found a way to do that too. Why do we climb the highest mountains, or venture deeper into uncharted places that no one has ever been before? It is the spirit of human discovery, the desire to explore and it's beautiful.

Well, I completed my target of clicking photographs and I couldn't begin to tell you how amazing it is to be with trains, getting to be a part of their world. That's why I wanted to reach Bangalore and spend a few intimate moments with the timeless Indian trains for the adrenaline rush or the fear of being caught. But so that I could feel something I shouldn't be able to feel. What it feels like to be a part of the big maze called INDIA.