Photographer: Satyajit Ray

Hey Guys...

This is one of those posts where the plan is something but the result is something else. Well, the entire Nissan account from my office was out for a day off at Nirala Resort, Deulti on the 16th of Nov, 2011. [please Google the words which are bouncing by]. And summarizing the trip, I would say it was fun and my camera sat happily in its little bag the whole time we were there. But I had to take it out on our way back.

Nilanjan, Riyanka, Ritabrata and I were the only ones from South Kolkata. leaving our picnic bus at Rabindra Sadan, we started walking to take the metros. Rito, although, preferred a cab and left. While crossing the Nandan area, the rest of  the three realized that the place was exceptionally crowded. That day was the second to last of the Kolkata Film Festival this year. Naah, none of us went inside to watch any of the 'world movies'. A few more steps and we were in front of the Gaganendra Shilpa Pradarshanshala [Gaganendra Art Exhibition Gallery]. Above its entry gates the banner read "Photographer: Satyajit Ray". You don't get points to guess what we did next :)

To my surprise, using cameras inside the gallery was not prohibited. Although I personally feel that camera should ideally not be used in such exhibitions, but the 'blogger' part of me was happy to be able to click so that he could share those photographs by Mr. Ray which were not seen till now. Below are a few of them. [No jabbering here, just imagine a  slow and quiet walk in the gallery. See you near the exit :)]

 

For a versatile personality like that of Mr. Satyajit Ray, it is not at all surprising that he will be roaming over the entire globe in search for 'something better'. I cant dare comment on what he looked for in anything, but as an avid fan of his creations, I can say that the way he has portrayed human and human conditions in his films, it touches you somewhere or the other or at least makes you compare your own conditions with the scene going on the big screen.

The photographs on the display were taken from a wide range of places. From Vienna to Darjelling. From Rajasthan to Rome. From Calcutta to Paris to America. From Sikkim to London. There was poverty, there was glamour. There was street, there was supermall. There were sketches, there were doodles. Although the world knows him as a film maker, we here, have known Satyajit Ray as a story writer, photographer, lyricist, music director, painter, biographer. He was the complete artist for me.

There were some photographs of the legendary face of Bengali cinema, Uttam Kumar too. Unfortunately, I could not get a presentable shot of him but Nilanjan sure did. By the excitement I could see in him (and also in me) when we were leaving the gallery, I was convinced that the debate-loving, art-critic race of ours still hold an unconditional respect for those icons who have defined the whole culture in their times, in their own ways.

Huh... That's all I have got. 

Till next time,

Cheers :)

Stockholm Diary: Weekend #1 - Hmmm...

Long story short: I was at Sweden, the country. From Mahalaya (Sept 27th, 2011) to Diwali (26th October, 2011). But the catch here is, I was on what they call a 'Business Visa', so I had to do more of 'business' stuff than something we all are more interested in.


Anyway, Hi :)
Honestly, I have decided not to jam pack my posts with huge number of photographs anymore. As a feedback from Shubhadipa, keeping it short helps the readers. I have broken down the whole trip in four weekends and have created separate posts for every weekend. This, here, is for weekend number 1.

When you are in your own city, you are cautious about the places you go, the mode of transportation you take, the kind of people you ask directions for, but when you are in a completely different land, you just don't care. You are simply out there to soak in the city as much as possible. I and Afsar went out on the first Saturday after our arrival and went straight to Gamla Stan, a place topping the list of 'places to see in Stockholm' over the internet.

The place has a German church that is also as old as the neighborhood. Regular masses are still held in it but it is also open for tourists. When we reached this place, the church was closed. Trust me when I say, I tried. I tried a lot to get the whole church in one single shot but it was so ungodly tall, that I had to settle for some suggestive clicks only.

The brick streets, the facades of half the millennium old structures are so well maintained plus the buildings being used for new restaurants and gift shops in a such a nice way,  that  a casual roam is worth the time. After about more than 45 minutes in the old town, we came out to the edge of the water front.

On a walkway over the water, its blueness in the sun and the signature European pattern of the buildings by it, were presenting a nutritious salad for my camera. Few of my friends have suspected that I have increased the saturation of this picture to make it dazzle than it actually might have. Guys, I have not.

On the ferry, from Gamla Stan we got to know that the Vasa Museum is a place where an old warship is put on display. That ship sank in its early days and remained in the floor of the Baltic sea for 300 long years. Recently it has been recovered and has been put on display with 95% of its structure intact. We both were planning to get inside the museum, but we didn't. But yes, as a thin consolation, I got this horizontal baby from the ferry.

There were two seniors from my office who, at the very beginning of my stay showed me the ways and the ways of the city. One Thursday evening after work, we all went out to find a Chinese eatery. We didn't get the place, but I got a setting sun from the seaside.

Although this was a totally loose shot with absolutely no attention to the details, but the sunset, as I have always believed, is something no one needs to take extra care to make beautiful. Its an entirely self help entity.


A trademark feature of we sofos (a short, I heard somewhere, for software engineers) is we like to spend our weekends compensating the correct amount of sleep we were deprived of the whole week. The first Sunday had no difference (a sofo is a sofo, INdia or OUTdia). Had a brunch when i first opened my eyes that day then again tried to get to some sleep. But when I finally 'woke' up and looked outside the huge glass window, I saw this.

Yes, I know. Sunset again. But could not help. The tall building you see (yes... that one) is the Kista Science Tower. The two most important thing about this tower are: 1. It is the tallest structure in the whole Stockholm (the height includes that antenna) and 2. It was visible from my hotel apartment with just the curtains out of the way. Another trivia about this tower can be: Even though I was  only  about a 1000m away from it the whole time, I didn't get inside the tower.


The following Monday was the Saptami and the entire rest of the week was packed with the celebrations of Durga Puja in India, with me not in being a part of it.


Well... see you in the weekend following this one (below).

Stockholm Diary: Weekend #2 - Kaknastornet

The next weekend was with Vipin.

But before I get on with the pictures, I would like to mention something that I actually felt. When we are in the country, we create differences on so many grounds. Religion, language, region, political views (read petty support), ancestry and things like these. One such strong ground is Food. Here, we call food as Bengali, Punjabi, South Indian, Rajasthani etc. But, when, on the second Saturday of my stay, I went to Vipin's place, I saw people busy in the kitchen. The dishes which were getting ready were Rasam, Sambhar, Vadaa, Papad, Rice and also some ready made pickle. When I saw these things on the table, I just saw it as food, Indian food. Although I had left my hotel after my own sweet lunch but there I was more than happy to have a fantastic second innings. (Thanks Karthik!).

We were actually planning to visit the Kaknas Tower (yes, Kaknastornet). It was formerly the tallest building in Stockholm till 2005 and a place which offers a complete 360 degree view of the entire city. But we somehow dropped the idea for that day. Had some window shopping and.... well... nothing much.

But, on Sunday, we made it. Thanks to Google and www.sl.se, I was half way successful in finding our way to the tower. But for the rest of the half, we needed help. Bamm!! in came Stefanie. Lost, we were outside the Karlaplan tunnel and were looking for some helpful direction. Stefanie, must be a real patriot from heart, did all she could. [although, this has already been my facebook update, I would still repeat]. She used her own memory first, then her iphone to get some info, then called up a friend (in the meantime, she let her bus go without boarding it as "it was okay, coz she was not in a hurry"), then finally called up a city helpline number, took the directions and wrote it down in my little writing pad herself. As I said in FB already, we sure have a lot to learn from such strangers.I am sure many of us would be glad to make sure a tourist gets the correct directions but I am also sure that many more wont care that much.

Anyway, following the directions, we were finally below the Kaknas Tower. They charged us 45 SEK to use the elevator once. At the 32nd floor, it felt good.

 

I don't have any idea if it is the north or south or what. I was just up there and was clicking. This one up here is the packed of all the photographs and if I leave out the 'ports and cruise ships' degrees of the 360, this was closest to civilization. The next one...

had this fantastic open area. It probably isn't a place that is used for any particular sport, but who cares as long as there is an open place and kids playful enough to make some use of it. By the way, I know you have already noticed, the colours of the season on a few trees in the first picture. Beautiful, aren't they?

The last one here is (probably) towards the Baltic sea. [I had some data to produce regarding the direction only after the third weekend though].

This scene was more than just for a shot. It was to be seen. The trees, the water and finally the horizon. Does get you. Unfortunately, the Nordic autumn wind in the 32nd floor isn't something very good for a gloveless pair of hands. Upon encircling the complete balcony twice, we finally decided to get down and return back to our bases. Had another Monday coming  but the me in me had started to plan something already for the third weekend...

Stockholm Diary: Weekend #3 - Skargard

... But even if I had the idea of what I wanted to do on the third weekend, I didn't get the gap to put the idea in front of anyone. The week was crazy at work. And to add to the task, my previous project affairs were still being demanding. And by the time it was the magic day called Friday, the pressure cooker had started to blow its whistle.

At my hotel reception I inquired on how to get to the Stockholm Archipelago. (they call it Stockholms skärgård) From the reception, I got the website from where I could get more info. About an hour  long web browsing after that, I had decided to go out alone in the city on this little adventure [in case of failure, I had a plan B ready - Streets!].

Thankfully, the transportation system there is well integrated and is well understood by anyone, not just by the city dwellers. Two metros trains then a not-so-short walk, then a bus instead of an expected tram finally made me reach the port from where I had to catch the boat for my 3 hour long exploration. Thankfully, my penultimaterun towards the ticket counter and then the ultimate one towards the white, well maintained, 80 year old steam boat was good enough not make me loose on my adventure.

The place is called Nybroplan and it gives a nice view of the array of buildings and the water.

From the ticket counter I started running and finally stopped on the roof of our steamboat (from where I got the above picture). At 12pm we started. I was hoping for a sunny day, but it wasn't. Even though it was overcast, it at least didn't rain. The boat had lower and upper decks for people to sit and enjoy the view from the windows, but I wanted to get it without any glass colour tint on my shots.

It was a guided tour (in English) and was totally an enriching one for someone like me who was at zero potential as far as history and geography of the city is concerned. The history of the archipelago during the dark ages, early settlements, of merchants are quite treat to swallow.

Our tour concerned only a part of the inner archipelago. Houses like these were spread all over the scattered islands. Many of you have already seen it in my facebook album and... well... we all know what we start to think when we see a house like this (that too with the colours of the surrounding trees at their best)...

On the semi saline semi fresh Baltic waters, I clicked not much but only a zillion photographs. I guess, the couple sitting in front of me on the roof, had started to be judgmental about me clicking simply everything. But, I had my own things to pack inside the little memory card, so I could only ignore them... Upon reaching Vaxholm, the most populated place on the archipelago, the sun showed up from somewhere and the water again turned blue-er than before.

This is some kind of a fortress at Vaxholm that was never actually used by the Swedish to base their attacks on their enemies. Among the 10-15 photographs I had taken of this structure, this one was a little better than the rest. Our boat stopped here for 5 minutes before it started off for its journey back.

All the time (90 minutes of our up-the-sea tour) I was planning to take a shot of which I had a very particular picture in my mind. But didn't get it. Our boat took a little different way back and I found something that was close to my mental picture.

An island and the sea. Imagine a day coming to an end and you sitting on the last rock before the sea on this island. Gives me a very realistic feel of loneliness. I don't know if I have it in me to pull up anything like that, even for a day.

The most irritating thing that the 'big photographer' in me was observing was the changing mood of the sun. For a very short time it was 'the perfect light'. Rest... it was gray... or worse... gray with some strong shadow (I didn't dig into details on how is it possible!). But finally, the 'big photographer',stopped complaining and tried to make some lemonade with the lemons he had [relax guys... this is a metaphor!]

Knowing my weakness for black and white, he turned to the apparently 'undesirable' objects around him and created a shot. This is, as you know, from the roof of the boat. But trust me, it is not easy to just let yourself loose in this black and white memories. Three hours of freezing wind had my still gloveless hands frozen this time. I was unable to pull up the zipper of my jacket as I was not able to know if my fingers are successful in holding the zipper or not. My sense of touch had his resignation for quite some time.

When I could finally convince myself that the day had enough clicks, I went down to the lower deck and warmed my hands (and nose and ears and throat). As we reached the land and bid goodbye to the wonderful crew of the boat, a thing started to go through my mind and it made itself very prominent when I was walking towards the tram stand to catch my train from T-Central...

It was... today's plan-B. Thankfully, I had another weekend to use... my last one out there...

Stockholm Diary: Weekend #4 - Streets

... Few habits seldom die.

Almost all of you know that when I am in Kolkata, I barely find anything more amusing than capturing the streets. Given the correct company and place, I am up for it anytime. But here was the problem. in Stockholm, 'a correct company' was running short.  There are a few people I know who share my frequency, but they were not there with me. And for many more, clicking the streets may be nothing but a flat and boring way to 'kill' time. So, not risking anybody else 's plans, I sat myself out on the last Sunday. [the Saturday was, as they call it,  for total hibernation for me. Sofo. But then a few scoldings from a friend charged me up to follow my instincts].

Sunday... and Gamla Stan again. But this time, I was there for a different sight from the history.

I stood on this sidewalk for more than three minutes to be able to get a people-free street . But couldn't. Even the streets of this place, as I came to know on the very first weekend only, have not changed since they were first built about 400 years back. (I know... Diagon Alley... yes!).

But unlike the first weekend, this time, I was early enough to be able to get inside the church. The morning mass had probably just finished and seeing people only coming outside the gate, I felt a little puzzled. But finally went inside anyway. Afterall, I was a tourist and was allowed to make even the basic mistakes...

...and forgiven. I have no idea how the clarity of the colours on the glass with the sunlight behind it got captured in my novice camera, but once it did, it cheered my mood up and cutting through the stream of people coming out, I finally went inside the main hall of the church.

Once inside, the odd feeling went away. There were a good number of believers, non believers and tourists. I had only read about the pipe organs and have heard the sound in Dracula movies. For the first time I saw one (and it was great to see it in the most non-Dracula place) kept in the overhang of the first floor inside the hall.

Unfortunately, for some reason, my shots were not being steady. Everything inside was golden, the stands, the chandeliers, the frames, the candles, the people...

... yes... I know. She looks even prettier standing like that. No, it was not one of my sneak shots. I had formally taken the permission and also even had told her to look away from the camera for a 'better' shot. I honestly I dont know what else is exactly making this picture worth posting even with that slight shake.

Ahhmm... after Gamla Stan, I just let my habits take over. Went straight to T-Central and parked myself in the corner of the stairs just outside the tunnel gates (the one leading down to the open chess-board type area.). And out of many (many) things I saw (but could not click)... this one is my favorite.

There was a boy in mid air jumping up from one stair to another, a man walking straight at me with his pet dog, an elderly woman staring at a big poster, a lady posing in front of her friends for a photograph. But I find this one speaking to me the loudest. In facebook, I have called this one: distance.

And... distance is what mattered the most to me on those 30 days.

Away from people... away from places... in a totally different land. Although, now-a-days a foreign trip is nothing to be very surprised of (that too only for 30 days), but as far as I came to know myself, this trip made me believe that a typically poisonous... thing... has made a permanent place in me in last few years. They spell it l-o-v-e. I realized how much I love the unbalanced, unpolished, unmaintained, dirty, overcrowded place of mine. But at the same time, the treatment I got from the 'videsh' in those 30 days, I will never forget that.  Never. The ease, the smile, the respect, the trust, the walk with music, the smell of the bakeries, the cleanliness, the people...aahh!! Uncomparable...

As they would say in Swedish: Tack Stockholm!

Till "next time",

Cheers :)