this friday

mumbai is witnessing the highest tide in the history.

while, i am witnessing the lowest in finencial front.

but life is flux, busy and full of surprises.

i went to dahanu with nachiketa radhi and other friends, not knowing that this may start a new chapter in life.

there i met Hemant Babu and Michellel Chawala of Nomad India.

they are into community radios.

and soon i will be able to explore my hidden talent broadcasting too.

hemant is in the business of setting up low cost transmiters in the different part of the country.

and he felt i will be of some help in trainging people fir creating there own programs.

( he saw two short films on the sunaday evening)

and here i am...

thinking about my early pre-telivison days, when i had a great romance with the radio.

i was a hard core AMEEN SAYANI fan and got selected as a drama artist for ALL INDIA RADIO varanasi, after failing the test twice.

along with SUDHARAK OLWE and PRIYANKA BORPUJARI, i am the part of training 17 women ( i do not want to write that they are muslim and atleast married once, as priyanka wrote in her report. )

we had three sessions so far. and yesterday , they had their first experience of shooting pictures with holding Nikon D3, the most reputed and expensive digital camera of the time.

i will write more about my experiences of these workshops with images.

I promice to myself !

words from a friend

My friend Nachiketa desai invited me to spend a weekend with other friends at Dahanu.

i met great people who smile and laughed with my camera.

Nachiketa wrote these words for me on orkut !

thank you Nachi for so much love !

Nachiketa

The Philosopher Photographer

I met Ravi Shekhar in 2000. I was the editor of indiainfo.com's multi-lingual portal and was looking for best of talents who could contribute to the Hindi portal. Ravi, essentially a photographer, had worked for the Hindi weekly Dharmayug and the Illustrated Weekly of India. Indiainfo had a section on 'religion and spiritualism' and another on 'travel and tourism'. Ravi volunteered to write for both the sections. I had not seen his writing and wanted to check out his writing talent.

Ravi returned after two days and handed me an article on the city of Mumbai. The feature on Mumbai had a very refreshing air about it. Since then began our journey together. I must admit here that a factor that drew me endearingly towards Ravi was his Banaras connection. Banarasis are in general 'mast maula' - carefree.

Ravi had come down to Mumbai in 1989 to work with a photo studio which had some ambitious expansion plans. After he helped the owner expand the studio, Ravi was told to go back to Banaras because the studio could not afford to keep him occupied full time. Ravi decided to slog it out in Mumbai.

Ravi started working as a freelance writer-cum-photographer for the Times Group's two most respected weeklies - Dharmayug and the Illustrated Weekly of India. Impressed by his work, the Illustrated Weekly of India offered him a full time job as the staff photographer.

During the course of his work as a photographer, he came to know about Vipassana, the Buddhist method of meditation and self-exploration. He was also attracted to Osho's philosophy. His photography took him all across the country, while his spiritual inclination helped him look inwardly.

Ravi is an amiable person who makes everyone he interacts with comfortable. He radiates peace and harmony. This gets amply reflected in his photography and writing as well.

Ravi, thank you very much for capturing those lovely photographs!

he wanted me to meet TOBI

it was a surprise!

we are at press club-

we means-

ravi, sudharak, priyanka and surendra rao,

we should have called Pooja too!- says sudharak.

but this , he was telling me 6.30pm in the evening.

i was there with him at VT.

he has asked me to meet in the evening to sit in the press club for the drink!

and i reached.

i did not know why we are going to drink?

he wanted me to meet TOBI,

a german photographer, who was in the city for last seven days, shooting mumbai.

he is on the world tour shooting 11 great cities around the world

he reached mumbai after shooting, cario, narobi, dubai, cape town,

and he will be going to bangkok, shanghai, tokyo and new york.

the pictures will be used with an music orchestra to be staged in muninch in september.

and i shook hands with tobi at press club.

he is a very tall man well built and energetic.

he is a musician and performs on the stage as clown.

he was a mechanical engineer before breaking away to his creative talent.

he showed us the photos of the cities he has shot.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT

he is carrying a folding bicycle with him.

so for the shoot he goes on his small bicycle.

we came out of press club.

his bicycle (size of the wheels were much smaller than a children's bicycle but with 7 gears) was parked out side the gate.

he is a comic character!

we say him all the best for his future journey!

and he paddled away!