June 10th 2013
6:00 AM, the alarm rings, I head out for a run. It’s almost 7:00 AM now and I need to freshen up, have breakfast and leave for work. 8:20 AM, getting past the typical Monday morning rush hour, I manage to make it on time. At Oodio, we always have a morning call at 9:00 AM with the co-founder who allocates us jobs for the day. 9:30 AM, I have been assigned to cover a conference for Microsoft Ventures and I must head out to the shoot pronto.
Since I never had formal photography training, it was indeed an exciting challenge to understand all the technical factors that made a great photo ‘great’. Oodio, fully aware of my inexperience, took me on board as their youngest intern. Initially, learning was just random experimentation with a lot of dark, white, and blurry images; now I exactly understand what each number means.
10:20 AM, Microsoft India Research Labs awes me with its giant American corporate feel and the conference commences at the Accelerator. 12:30 PM, seeking an opportunity of the refreshment break, as the President of The Debate Club, I have to make some calls to the co-organizers of The Bait ’13 (an inter-city competition we are organizing) enquiring about a venue for the event.
3:00 PM, the conference ends at Microsoft and grabbing a bite of a cheese sandwich, I head back to office to back up all the coverage data. I reach Oodio and learn that our e-commerce clients and wedding photographers landed us with new jobs for post-production and so I decide to take them up. 4:00 PM, the co-organizer informs me that the venue costs 60,000 INR. This worries me as The Debate Club Bangalore already has a negative figure balance. 5:00 PM, the part I look forward to the most, I head to piano class and my new teacher ensures that I have a thorough practice session. I feel rejuvenated.
Traveling always gets me thinking about my choices—“You plan to just sit at home for a year?” People often confuse a gap year with inactivity whereas my reality is far from it. When I graduated from high school, I had boldly decided to take an unconventional detour. Although I felt quite scared, I chose to add value to my life and engage in things that I felt a personal connection with. For the first time by this decision, I wasn’t living someone else’s life.
Oh well, I have bigger worries—I need press coverage for the debate event. No, I need a venue first!
7:00 PM, I’m home; I boot my laptop and start designing a sponsorship brochure. 8:30 PM, the organizing team reviews the brochure, implements necessary changes after which I send it out to all companies who could potentially partner with The Debate Club. 9:00 PM, after 17 long emails, I realise that I also have to send out e-invites to all the schools in Bangalore. 9:30 PM, we begin an hour-long conference call with the organisers, who, with their diverse opinions, made it really intense. Meanwhile, my caring mother ensured that I gulped a few spoons of rice and curry. 10:30 PM, I need to start researching on Mexico for Harvard Model United Nations India 2013. This is my first MUN conference, another opportunity to stand in front of an audience, and do what I love, to express my opinions on a topic in search of viable solutions. 12:00 AM, I usually spend time learning on Quora, but tonight I just feel like reading V. S. Ramachandran’s “Phantoms in The Brain”. I don’t know what time it is, I have fallen asleep, awesomely content.
Almost five years back, it all started with an accidental photo of milk overflowing. Shuffling across several borrowed cameras from supportive friends and family, learning exactly what each technical number meant, to freelancing and travelling over the years, the moment is finally here—It’s time to celebrate the adventures of a Bangalore boy and his experiences with a camera. The photos are selected works from my past few years of travelling across Hampi, Goa, Delhi, Meerut, Kerala, and through the streets of my home, Bengaluru. The exhibition also showcases nature, architecture, abstracts, and portraits.
I try. 