Sunday, April 3, 2016

When Dad Asked Me Why Photography?

Last night seemed very long. The entire night I kept looking at my wall clock for it to strike seven. I had to go and talk to dad. Dinner table had turned onto a battle ground of words. He kept asking me why I wanted to spoil my life by doing something that had no value. Basically my parents, especially my dad, wanted to believe that there cannot be any other stable career beyond a degree in law. So high time! I had to make him understand that I am not meant to be a part of that boring law college and I don’t understand anything about that subject. 

So as soon as it was seven, I told myself, “keep your calm, everything will be fine.”  I opened the door slightly to check what everyone else at home was doing. Mom was in the kitchen as usual preparing Poha and sandwiches for the breakfast. Dad was in the balcony reading the newspaper, absolutely in no hurry to reach his office and Rahul seemed like texting his girlfriend (I am good at reading faces) lying in the couch.  So this was the perfect time. Whole night I had rehearsed the entire scene.  I went up to my dad and took the newspaper from his hand and started counting the number of colored images in those 20 pages. There were about close to 60 images including a new car that was to be launched this week, a necklace piece from the collection of our city’s renowned jeweler, some home appliances which were available on discount, a picture of our city’s amusement park, a new real estate property that was coming up in the suburbs, some images of the ongoing cricket tournament and some pictures of our politicians and people from the corporate.

I think he got a slight hint of what I was doing. But I had to do more. He didn’t seem convinced. I picked up the Airport Magazine lying next to Rahul. Dad had brought it home when he was travelling to see grandma last month. So I repeated myself. There were again some 45 images of different places and some commercials.  Now, I told him “look dad, everything around you has photography in some form or the other. In today’s time, nothing sells without photography. Everything around us needs to be advertised and advertisements without photography is absolutely incomplete. Our print media heavily banks upon photography. With each passing day, the demand for the photographers has only been going up. So how can we say that it is not a stable profession? There is always a scope for good photographers in the industry. And above all Photography is my passion and I love everything about it. I do not wish to hurt you. But those thick text books don’t get inside me. I only understand things that I see with my own eyes and not what is written somewhere. Please allow me to enroll myself in a photography school.”  He stood up and walked off.

It’s been two months now since I took admission in a photography school. Dad is still upset with me. But I am quite determined. I will convince him soon. I will follow what my heart says and not what a textbook says.                                                                                

(..to be continued)


Author: Anuja Agarwal


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