The biggest problem facing the enthusiasts who love photography is their unflinching attitude messed up by traditionalists and the so called crony camera clubs that the ultimate aim of a camera is to shoot pictures per se..
Shoot pictures get a mighty kick seeing them on the unwashed walls of camera clubs , proselytizing nothing but self conceit ,, I shot this I shot that ,,but the camera is a mystical guidance tool , it touches it heals both the shooter and the person who is being shot..
The camera is the Third Eye Of Shiva , it releases your Tantric Kundalini. the picture you shoot is not just what your eyes saw but your cosmic inner soul saw ..I know many mystics who can stop you from shooting their picture , they wont let your energy trespass on their soul.. Many threaten you bodily harm if you shoot them like the volatile Naga Sadhus .
One day after I had shot Syed Masoomi Baba the head of the Dam Madar Malangs for many years , he asked me to show him how to shoot a picture I did the needful . it takes merely 5 minutes to teach a wise clever man photography and yes Fuck F Stops ..Syed Masoomi Baba took my camera and deliriously began shooting my inner soul ,like a little child who has discovered the reflection f the moon in a saucer of water.
I saw what he shot , it was me in a different light , within a cosmic silhouette of my angst.. the camera healed me of my alcoholism.. and in the era of the film i found it was more heady a brew and more intoxicating than the jeera or jambul I had at a Bandra Auntys hooch joint ,, much before I got addicted to the ubiquitous Old Monk..
My granddaughters began shooting pictures at an early age , and the touched the beggars or the hijras they shot ...they invariably bought a smile on the faces of the poor people they shot ..
My wife can shoot pictures ,, though she hates the camera for usurping a part of her life and her serenity ... but she does not hold it against me ,, the camera is not as self destructive as my bottle of Old Monk. was .
I learnt too late either you ride booze or booze rides you ...
So photography more than any other talent hobby bought me close to people I would have never met in life from diverse thought bringing about a common mutual acceptance ,,
I lost friends through the camera too.. but I am happy I did .. it was a much needed form of catharsis for my parched soul.
Now I can shoot pictures on my HTC Desire 826 with the same ease and effortlessness and today I shot a video on my Canon 60 D from the overbridge of a overcrowded Harbor Line local train , and it was crazy.. the passengers wanted to enter but they were stopped by people at the door and yet a part of them were curious trying to understand why the fuck I was wasting my time shooting their lifes travail ..a normal travel procedure of pain thanks to Indian Railways ,,
The camera put words in my head , the camera made me a juggler of words poetizing the world of pain I shot ,, and I have not yet prostituted the soul of my camera for commercial gains .
