These are pictures shot as symbolic salute to a great painter of Light .And these pictures I shot for those followers lovers admirers of Mr KG Maheshwari who are not aware of the passing of a great legend ,, and sadly my country India remembers them only after they have passed away never to return.
He was placed on a bier in his favorite suit , and in hands he held his work Silver Memories this was a picture I would have loved to shoot and share only his creative hands and his creativity and does creativity die I dont think so.
The Maheshwari family is linked to the Birla family and Mr Maheshwari as a young man spent time here with the Mahatma at Birla House .
He was a strict disciplinarian but he was never rude or offensive once I was telling a gathering at my Club PSI that I had bought the Nikon D80 on a loan, he got off his chair and said hobby should be kept as a hobby you take loan for business and shut me up.
And he loved me all the same and would tell me that one could find KG Maheshwari , but out will come all my pictures on Google Search.
In spite of his poor health he came and visited me at my studio and told me he would get a blazer stitched by me ..I felicitated him and Mrs Maheshwari with a shawl and silver coin.
He came to my son Asifs wedding perhaps it was his blessings that Marziya Shakir the youngest street photographer was born.
I was the first one to reach Tiny Heights and broke down twice I could not see him silently dead.. and I condoled Mrs Maheshwari her strength conviction kept him alive she was his anchor .. she kept him afloat when the big waves came .
His Son Kamal Sab told me he the end was peaceful it came in the night ,,the entire family saw him move away from this world into Param Lok.
Maybe I did not really learn Photography the Mahehwari way but I sat for him as model.. and learnt the finer things that go beyond shooting , he was a very rich man but frugal he used bedsheets as reflectors , and a single main light , the same camera Mamiya 330 and the same tripod 50 year old . but he was not a miser , he just did not like the waste and the cravings for new equipment .
Mr Plahha serviced his cameras late Mr BW Jatkar was his Boswell he was Samuel Johnson and I was part of this trinity .
We sent our entries to camera salons and it was great fun.. he loved my granddaughter Marziya Shakir and her photography and his wish was once he got over his debility I should bring her home .. my earlier visits were at Maheshwari House and once he shifted to Tiny Heights this was my first visit sitting in the departure lounge.
Most of those who were there to send him off were his relatives , friends family from the photography fraternity Mr Prasad Pawaskar , Viinay Parelkar , Atul Chaubey Shridhar from PSI. Mr Rajen Makharia Mr Parpia and many others all teary eyed he had touched us all with his humanity and his humility ,,
I followed the cortege from Tiny Heights to Banganga crematorium.. The body left for Banganga at 3.30 after the various rituals were performed by his son grandson great grandson.
I could not see the state of Mrs Maheshwari but she strong till the end and I sat at her lotus feet begged her forgiveness for breaking down at his body and my emotional outburst ,and this is for those who were there at his funeral in spirit but not in body.
RIP Guruji
RIP Babuji
RIP Dronacharya
RIP Maheshwariji
