We (six of us) had gone on tour of Nepal utilising the time between our placements and convocation. The trip was quite entertaining - the co-travellers by their idiosyncracies more than making up for the cloud cover in Pokhara, rip-offs in Kathmandu and hassles due to the Maoist trouble in its infancy then. Hope to cover the details in http://sankaratravels.blogspot.com some time soon. Limiting myself to the film roll used in that trip, which contained (hopefully) a few good snaps on my SLR camera.
That film roll was quite precious in more ways than one. Our batch was graduating after a rigorous MBA course and we were all in that mood, wherein one begins to look back at things with nostalgia - the campus, the good times and the not-so good times etc. How many of these can a camera capture, one may ask? But the shutterbug that I was, I even took a "junior's" bike for a last look at the campus, and had taken what according to me, were some of the most stunning shots of our lovely campus.
Most of the luggage was packed and sent home. I was cleaning up the few odd things - those things that tug at the strings of your heart to be treated as souvenirs rather than disposables, when my father looked at me and asked where the film roll should go. On the spur of the moment, assuming that it was the black casing, I just threw it into the dustbin - well, given that the entire batch was moving out, the dust bins were all full and stinking.
We were off - bidding goodbye to one-another, the campus, the city etc, and reached Varanasi the next day. Well, it was not exactly to wash off the sins of the 2 years that we went to Varanasi, but as part of a mini-North India trip for the family. Maybe, the holy waters of the Ganges did the trick, or was it the punya bhoomi of Varanasi, it is difficult to fathom. Once we were back at the ashram after a refreshing bath at the Ganges ghats, it came as a thunderbolt - where was the film roll?
Hoping against hope to find it, I rummaged through the luggage, when a tiny impulse was interpreted by the brain as "how can you find what you are looking for, when it is not with you!". After blaming everyone, I was faced with the reality of not being able to view what would have been beautiful photographs (well, you could anyway call it that, because no one would be able to see them!). But on that day, after the bath, things happened differently. I tried ringing up the hostel - but who would pick up at the unearthly hour of 11 in the morning! I, the de facto telephone operator who used to speak to all the girlfriends, fathers, mothers, nana/nanis of my corridor mates, was here ....! Well, I tried my luck at the other side of the hostel - to my surprise, my batchmate picked up the phone, listened and after mumbling something, to my horror, hung up! I tried all hostels one by one, and finally got hold of one of my batchmates who had also come to Nepal with me, to go to my hostel and check the dust bin! Or worse, if garbage was cleared by then, to go to the garbage disposal place/yard inside/outside campus. Would anyone in his senses do it? I had lost all hope and ruminated on the veritable "if only ...." and continued on our trip - from Varanasi to Delhi and then to Bangalore, before finally reaching home a couple of weeks later.
I eagerly went to the cybercafe to check my mail and found to my horror that the guy did not bother to follow my instructions. Well, come to think of it, who would, in their right frame of mind?! I was about to close my mail and leave in a huff, when my mind's eye caught hold of another mail. Well well, what would this be about, I thought! My eyes were stuck on the following words "hi dude, ur film roll is with me so plz let me know wot u want to be dun with it.... cheers vikas". These were like manna from heaven for me. I was delirious with joy. Later on, I came to know that it was Vikas who took the call that I made from Varanasi and had immediately gone to the dust bin outside by room , rummaged through the piles of garbage to find my pot of gold. To my surprise, the other guy too had taken the trouble of going there to the dust bin, but had found it empty and could not make out where it had been taken to, for dumping. The phone call to Vikas and action on his part had been done Just In Time .....
I requested Vikas to courier the roll from Lucknow to Kerala, but by then he had gone to UP and none of the couriers from his home town would deliver to my home town in Kerala. Subsequently, I requested him to courier the same to Bangalore, but he was not keeping well and could not do so. Further to this, I joined my induction program at Delhi and then was to spend 4 months at Bangalore. And it was finally, in mid-Jun that I received the courier containing the film roll - it had taken me close to 4 months to lay my hands on - kind of a treasure trail. And needless to say, I was trembling with excitement and tension - no photographer would have so eagerly gone to any studio to get his prints. The photos did indeed come out great ... especially the last photos of the campus, and my heartfelt thanks to Vikas for what he did more than 4 years back.
Then why this article now, one may ask. Well, I was cleaning my mailbox after all this while, and chanced upon this mail from Vikas, quoted above.
That film roll was quite precious in more ways than one. Our batch was graduating after a rigorous MBA course and we were all in that mood, wherein one begins to look back at things with nostalgia - the campus, the good times and the not-so good times etc. How many of these can a camera capture, one may ask? But the shutterbug that I was, I even took a "junior's" bike for a last look at the campus, and had taken what according to me, were some of the most stunning shots of our lovely campus.
Most of the luggage was packed and sent home. I was cleaning up the few odd things - those things that tug at the strings of your heart to be treated as souvenirs rather than disposables, when my father looked at me and asked where the film roll should go. On the spur of the moment, assuming that it was the black casing, I just threw it into the dustbin - well, given that the entire batch was moving out, the dust bins were all full and stinking.
We were off - bidding goodbye to one-another, the campus, the city etc, and reached Varanasi the next day. Well, it was not exactly to wash off the sins of the 2 years that we went to Varanasi, but as part of a mini-North India trip for the family. Maybe, the holy waters of the Ganges did the trick, or was it the punya bhoomi of Varanasi, it is difficult to fathom. Once we were back at the ashram after a refreshing bath at the Ganges ghats, it came as a thunderbolt - where was the film roll?
Hoping against hope to find it, I rummaged through the luggage, when a tiny impulse was interpreted by the brain as "how can you find what you are looking for, when it is not with you!". After blaming everyone, I was faced with the reality of not being able to view what would have been beautiful photographs (well, you could anyway call it that, because no one would be able to see them!). But on that day, after the bath, things happened differently. I tried ringing up the hostel - but who would pick up at the unearthly hour of 11 in the morning! I, the de facto telephone operator who used to speak to all the girlfriends, fathers, mothers, nana/nanis of my corridor mates, was here ....! Well, I tried my luck at the other side of the hostel - to my surprise, my batchmate picked up the phone, listened and after mumbling something, to my horror, hung up! I tried all hostels one by one, and finally got hold of one of my batchmates who had also come to Nepal with me, to go to my hostel and check the dust bin! Or worse, if garbage was cleared by then, to go to the garbage disposal place/yard inside/outside campus. Would anyone in his senses do it? I had lost all hope and ruminated on the veritable "if only ...." and continued on our trip - from Varanasi to Delhi and then to Bangalore, before finally reaching home a couple of weeks later.
I eagerly went to the cybercafe to check my mail and found to my horror that the guy did not bother to follow my instructions. Well, come to think of it, who would, in their right frame of mind?! I was about to close my mail and leave in a huff, when my mind's eye caught hold of another mail. Well well, what would this be about, I thought! My eyes were stuck on the following words "hi dude, ur film roll is with me so plz let me know wot u want to be dun with it.... cheers vikas". These were like manna from heaven for me. I was delirious with joy. Later on, I came to know that it was Vikas who took the call that I made from Varanasi and had immediately gone to the dust bin outside by room , rummaged through the piles of garbage to find my pot of gold. To my surprise, the other guy too had taken the trouble of going there to the dust bin, but had found it empty and could not make out where it had been taken to, for dumping. The phone call to Vikas and action on his part had been done Just In Time .....
I requested Vikas to courier the roll from Lucknow to Kerala, but by then he had gone to UP and none of the couriers from his home town would deliver to my home town in Kerala. Subsequently, I requested him to courier the same to Bangalore, but he was not keeping well and could not do so. Further to this, I joined my induction program at Delhi and then was to spend 4 months at Bangalore. And it was finally, in mid-Jun that I received the courier containing the film roll - it had taken me close to 4 months to lay my hands on - kind of a treasure trail. And needless to say, I was trembling with excitement and tension - no photographer would have so eagerly gone to any studio to get his prints. The photos did indeed come out great ... especially the last photos of the campus, and my heartfelt thanks to Vikas for what he did more than 4 years back.
Then why this article now, one may ask. Well, I was cleaning my mailbox after all this while, and chanced upon this mail from Vikas, quoted above.
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