sajith | "Ready Uncle"

Found her frolicking alone in a park in Thippasandra. Her mother and friends were working on the lawn, listening to the radio. I asked for permission to photograph her in sign language and broken pieces of Tamizh. (Damn, I could do with a little bit of Kannada. But in the incubated environment of Bangalore, you won't need that very often - more on that later, maybe. If I ever feel like going about on a culture rant.)

On the sight of the camera, she suddenly became shy.

***

Sidharth, cousins' kid. Both parents are my cousins. Look at his smile - slightly menacing, eh? I can tell that he wanted to split open the camera and look inside.

His mother served me a glassful of tea. I sipped half of it, then placed it on the table. He grabbed the glass and emptied it. When she served another glass, I finished it at once, and asked him, "now?"

The next thing I saw was the glass flying to the floor.

Dear Sidharth, I hope you'll match your name someday.

***

The little poet. While I was away and not watching, she turned nine and started writing about rain, mist, her sister, teachers, the sun, whatever.

Oh, she's just doing her homework in this picture.

Ah, she was four just yesterday. Five years ago, she climbed on my back while I was watching TV, lying on the sofa. Minutes later, I heard soft snoring.

***

On the lakeside.

maxaud was waiting on the bike, ready to leave, and I was trying my next great composition on those cattle resting in water. Suddenly these guys jumped into the frame.

"Uncle uncle, oru photo"

"Umm, ugh, mmm-mmm."

"Please uncle, please!"

"Hmm, ok"

(Fiddling on the camera)

"Ok, ready?"

"Ha ha. Ready Uncle! Ready Uncle! Ha ha ha!"

And thus I became Ready Uncle.

Ready Uncle can't stop kicking himself for his shaky hands (even with a 1/60s shutter speed!) and his bloody impatience. He was standing on sloppy ground, but that doesn't relieve the pain.

Didn't have a good digital copy, so passed it under the office MFD's scanner head, tried some post processing. Everything added to the general ugliness.

The kids looked great though. Talk about ruined opportunities. Damn.