A big HI after a big break,
After the Prinsep Ghat, there has not really been any Mr.P type of outing. Some of you have been asking me if Mr.P is upto something or not (believe me, when this is asked, it feels great!) and the answer has always been a sad 'no' because of the recent heat and humidity at Kolkata. But on June 18th, the entire team at my office decided to take a break on a cruise on the Ganga (and needless to say Mr.P had sniffed his material already).
Its very rare that I bring my camera to my office. I took it on that day and the first thing I shot was the little sculpture on my desk.
This two inches tall artwork was brought from Mayapur last year. I have kept this in front of the moniter on my desk and I call this photo GANESHA DOT JEE O DEE.
At about three thirty pm, the team left the office in two buses and reached the entrance of a riverside park called Millennium Park. Everybody was busy in taking photographs of their peers and bosses. But Mr.P was being tactically stubborn in being himself. He did took some of the photographs of my team mates also but he was more into the surroundings.
This OLD HALL was always there on the Strand Road (a street bordering the Ganga on its eastern bank at Kolkata) but I saw it yesterday only. The most attractive thing about the building are probably the palm trees in front of it.
At about five thirty pm, we were on the deck of the little cruise ship (called MV Paramhamsa). Some of us grabbed the chairs and some went out to explore some more of the luxury vessel. Mr.P stopped at the captain's cabin.
He knew that I am still to grow up a little more to catch the ideal maturity of my current age and he knew that I sometime prefer to spend some time in movie fantasies. Mr.P smiled at me when he saw this place and he let me name this photo then and there: JACK'S WHEEL.
But after some more minutes on the deck, everyone around me noticed the sky together. We were in the middle of Ganga and this was the sight in the sky.
Me, being a little hydrophobic, had my smiles transferred inside the sling bag I was carrying but Mr.P was being Mr.P. Looking at the magnitude of the cloud, he only thought of comparing it with that bridge. He calls this photo as UMBRELLA OF THE CLOUD.
After sometime, the sun went down and the sky became tougher to predict due to the darkness. I got my smiles out. People were now busy with the starters of the dinner (so was I) but Mr.P would not let the camera go inside its pouch (and hence refrain me from using both hands on the starters). At the late twilight he got this.
Those four 'things' are the floodlight stands of the Eden Garden (hopefully I need not tell you what is that!). This photograph somehow is able to capture the new and the not-so-new images of the same city together. Mr.P calls this photo STILL STILL.
Now Mr.P took a little chair and sat down. Strangely, I found the deck to be unusually empty. Then I discovered the place where every party lover was.
I went to the floor, but then i realized that I am not the only one with a camera (I might have ended up revealing the truth about my dancing skills in somebody else's camera), so, I came out after a few minutes. Being there was amazing. Mr.P calls this collage LIGHTS, BEATS AND MOVES.
After a sweaty bhangra-cum-salsa-cum-hip-hop session on the floor, few of us decided to catch some fresh Gangetic breeze. We went down at the ship's dining hall (which open up to the lower deck). After some air, we came in and sat on the high chairs of the empty mini-bar. It was Deepak who saw this on the thin curved drink-tending marble platform.
I casually asked if it resembles anything under that beam of light. Anugrah answered: "LOOKS LIKE LIFE to me." Mr.P knew that taking at least one photo of this simple arrangement will be worth if it can provoke a little spark of thought.
Before dinner, Mr.P tried numerous times to take a fair photo of the Howrah bridge, but the light was not enough for producing a convincing photographs. With a dozen of junk snaps, I went for dinner. But after dinner, Mr.P thought of taking few more attempts.
This was the best of about thirty of its uglier brothers. Please forgive Mr.P's untrained hands and lack of technical knowledge for not presenting you with the actual and a more magnificent view of this landmark. I call this photograph NIGHT PRIDE. (hope you don't mind my feelings for the city, which sometimes ends up reflecting a little biased me)
The next one goes a little personal for me. I (not Mr.P) took this one before leaving the ship. Its for that person to whom I could not say a proper goodbye on that very day but who was honest and sweet enough to not to hide the truth from me (a truth that only a few lucky ones get to hear).
This is for her: "I am sorry for being the idiot I am. These are FOR YOU"
Ahhmm... Well, that was more or less what my evening was like. I got down at Park Circus from the team bus and got home in a cab and started working on the day's catch.
Its incredible how so many of you have been writing about your views on this blog and its even more satisfying to see some of you following this particular page on the internet. Please keep loving this Mr.P like this. I promise on his behalf to keep him alive.
Till then,
Cheers :)
