Dussehra–With My First Love

Cameras, that is! What did you think! Ever since I was a boy, I was fascinated with cameras.

I remember when I first held a camera, I was just into my teens, it was a black and white fixed lens camera (it only took black and white film) . It belonged to my elder brother, who had bought it from his pocket money. But since he was studying out of town, the camera fell into my hand. I got hooked on to it immediately. I realized that for the first time in my life I had a hobby. I had begun to enjoy it tremendously and was very sad when I had to let it go because my dad did not have enough money to develop the film or to buy one. But I was a completely different person as long as I had it.
I knew then that, if ever I had a hobby; photography would be the one and nothing else.
When I went to college, my pocket money was enough for me to buy a new camera for myself. I bought a Konica HotShot flat camera. This camera took a rather strange 110 film cartridge. It had dual lens, one for wide angle and another for telephoto. I used it throughout my 5 years in college (bachelor and masters) until it stopped working. It was my most precious possession in my college days.
Once out of college, I got busy with my job and family and I had very little time to pursue my photography. In 1999, I went to UK on an assignment through my company. While in the UK I found I had a lot of time at my disposal, so I decided to rekindle my first love affair. That’s when I bought my first SLR – this was year 2000. The Camera was EOS-300. I hadn’t touched a camera for 6 years and suddenly finding a huge SLR in my hand was overwhelming. I figured quickly that I had to learn a lot, things I never paid attention to earlier. I still have that camera and is still in a great condition. Later I upgraded to Canon EOS-30 in 2002 - a beautiful piece of equipment.
From then on, I was always in touch with my hobby off and on. Up until 2007 however, it hadn’t yet turned into my passion. In 2007 I bought my first DSLR, the Olympus Evolt E-330 and that’s when my hobby turned into a passion.

Now coming back to Dussehra. Let me give you a background of what Dussehra is – Its a Hindu festival celebrated on the tenth day of the Hindu autumn lunar month. The day marks the victory of Goddess Durga over such demons as Mahishasur. It is a day when devotees worship Goddess Shakti. Shakti represents strength, ability and courage. This day also celebrates the victory of Lord Rama over the demon king Ravana. More Info here.

It marks the beginning of harvest season. And every household in rural India perform prayer (pooja) to sanctify their tools and items used in harvesting. In urban India people perform pooja to sanctify the tools that they use in everyday life such as vehicles and instruments of daily use.

This year, for the first time, I performed pooja of my photography instruments. It brought out the celebratory mood I am always in whenever I am with my first love i.e. my camera!! :-)

Hope my photography improves a bit!

Here are some of the pics

	All my stuff in one place :-)
	The top view..
	My Second Love  :-) My Hyosung GT 650R

Thanks and God Bless…

Love

-Puru