A week in Ranchi breezes by

What a ride 3 hours on a country bus that rattles and a driver that believes in no stops for no one actually he is a truck driver, but he was driving a passenger bus on this day , as no other driver was available.

Learning was if there water on the windshield and you do not have a working wiper well then just rub some tobacco on the windshield and wash it off, n there will be no water sticking to the windshield, another hidden property that no one tells u growing up, a reason to have a stash of Khaini with oneself on a road trip .

At Ranchi, Kantatoli which is a bus stand am greeted by my dear pals husband and whisked off to there home to a wonderful breakfast and a good chat with her son revealed he is headed to new delhi for admission to NIFT, the school for fashion technology.

As we chat with my friend Seema's son, I keep hearing the name of TJ Natrajan, n on the 3^rd coming up of his name, did venture to ask, who it was on whose recommendation he had applied to NIFT, n was told he is my friend TJ Natrajan, n they were told about him by me, and how I had put them in touch with him for there son’s future.

Wow so I acquired some good karma, how nice is I. 

Evening 4 30 and she was off to Delhi, leaving me with her husband and daughter, the lovely duo who made my days such a pleasure, while in Ranchi.

The 1^st day of the workshop was a Monday and never realized when it was Friday and time to wind up the workshop.

In between met with a wonderful pal Smitha Gupta, from school, and even got invited to their house for a wonderful dinner, and a meet and greet with her family members, 3 wonderful kids,  and husband. 

Another week of travel starts up

The education tour is on, loads of theory and not enough images,,,

I will be learning about some festivals as I do my research work with some doyens of the folk culture and follow that up with some quality time with my parents and then off to

XIC Ranchi for a workshop on photography for filmmakers and photojournalists.

Teaching is a most exciting time, as one has to be sure of what one says which influences the students and also makes one go back to basics, time for self-exploration too.

Recently has the opportunity to spend some time with Mr. Barun Mukherjee a brilliant cinematographer and it was an amazing experience to learn some just by being in his presence and listening to him talk.

Truly inspirational in the time when I am just chasing work and business angle alone and not shooting as much as one would should be.  Time to get the camera again I say.

misadventure at lenovo service center

Extremely bad experience with the service center, without screaming and misbehaving nothing gets done.  In andheri, Marol service center at HCL tower.   I suggest you shut it down if you can’t afford to hire descent staff.

Every customer including me was told over the phone that phone was ready 48 before we got there; the wait once there was at least was 2 hrs. The phones were not ready and it was. Was made available, that too after calling customer support and complaining about the mismanagement of the center.

The receptionist is overworked and the language that is used there would shame an auto garage, talking in crass and disgusting abusive language.

The next time my phone develops a defect, I would definitely think twice before visiting your workshop, it is not a place for a gentleman or a women of proper upbringing to visit.

I am ashamed and sorry I ever bought a Lenovo phone, and am forced to be subjected to just crass low down uncultured and abusive receptionist.

If you are not able to hire proper and decent staff please make it all mail order service so we do not have to meet and interact with such uncouth staff.

 I shudder to think if there were a female accompanying me, your staff would be behind bars for misbehaviors for sure today.

I was finally handed a dead phone and told, ok check it, and if it does not work come back another day, is this really how you treat the clients who has spend over 20 0000 on your product?

I will definitely never ever buy any Lenovo product and will make sure no one near and dear does so, I will also be going to the social media and the press with my story of your treatment meted out to customers

New camera time

After a long time I was involved in shooting and testing a camera

Yes time to buy another camera, is it a whimsical buy or a well thought out buy?

My 35mm canon 5d mark2, is 8 years old, and still doing OK,

I did see some signs of age on the camera recently and thus on the trip to find newer cameras.

Here are a few images from the camera Sony a7s, 

NO post Processing, as captured

1 : 1 crop 

Listing other cameras that I am using

Canon 5d mark2

Canon 7d

Sony NEX -6

Sony NEX -7

Casio exliim (don’t remember the rest)

Previous cameras that I owned along the way , 

Hasselblad 501 cm

Toy view 5 *4 field camera

Nikon 1dx

Sinar 4 * 5, f1

Sinar 4 * 5, f2

Nikon fm2

Nikon fe2

Nikon n90

Nikon n90s

n thats only in 14 years of career in photography. 14 cameras already 

Changing HIstory

Bidding on a job that will make a difference in the life of a few people in there manner or survival, and then yes it will restore history ( or distort ) depending on how I work it,

Mumbai- Jamshedpur- Kolcutta- Mumbai- Kolcutta- Mumbai n its only 18th

Another month has slipped by,

Went on a trip to Jamshedpur to meet parents, mom is 76 and is so strong, makes one feel proud of Mother, and what she is able to achieve.

A week back we started renegotiating on a project that had been shelved for 12 months, and while on this trip

Serendipity struck and I was able to shoot a game of Sekkor final, aren’t you curious game it is?  

The trip was cut shot by an assignment form one of my favorite clients after 3 years almost, so it involved a rush to Mumbai and then again the day post the assignment was back again to Kol and Jamshedpur to finish my visit to my mom,

Followed by a Pick up shoot at Burdwaan on the film we are working on,

As usual the folks at Burdwan was awesome and very helpful, and was I glad to see them, it involved lots of food, I mean lots and lots and yes we even met a musician who did a few songs for us for the film, how nice was that I ask,