Hey how have you all been? 2017 is like running so fast, I am still figuring out how to hold on to it. It was just few days back that we got done with the last wedding season and I had some plans till the next one started but I don’t know where these 4-5 months flew away. I had had a great year till now (touch wood), although it’s the same camera journey if you want me to start again, (chill, I won’t). By great I mean, a much much balanced year. Usually I fear birthdays, that is the time of the year I am found crying and emotionally unstable with negative clouds all over me. But this one, it was a wonderful day altogether! With less people and a much mature me, I had the most pleasant day ever. Coincidentally I had my school best friend in town and loved spending each second with her. It's true, we can't grow out of some friendships, they are meant to be forever. Much pampered in office, I rightfully asked my coworkers to get me a birthday cake and sing me song. Poor guys did that and it was all too sweet. By this age, most of the unwanted junk has been filtered out from my thoughts and social circle. With least expectations and clearer mind, things and people that bothered me earlier, don’t now. I have learnt to accept that you can’t try and change everybody out there, the only one you can is you. You can be a happy soul or you can be the one cursing the world for whatever xyz is happening to you and your life. You can choose to be affected by what others have to say about you or your work or else you can just be strong enough to believe in yourself with a magical shield around you. My relationships have improved a lot, since the day I started keeping my ego aside. I have stopped minding things which I know have happened because of the circumstances and not because the other one intended to do so. I have started communicating my fears and doubts instead of keeping them inside and waiting for the other one to figure it out (which generally never happens). Believe me it has resulted in lesser drama and much more laughs; yeah sometimes when things seem just too perfect that it feels like a bore, I try to drop a bomb here and there. Can’t stand a monotonous life for long.
Talking professionally, I am getting this business game finally. Each day interacting with different people, has no doubt shot up my patience level. Trust me, dealing with clients, negotiating on money especially when they come up with some mutuals (on FACEBOOK whom I must have exchanged a hi with years back or maybe not even that!) requires much more patience than shooting with kids. I don’t understand if they are humiliating me and my work when they say if I work for them, THEN I will get many clients. So basically it’s their social status and not my work that will bring me work? Think upon it! Creating a brand is a lot lot fun. Struggling with keeping your creativity and quality intact and managing your clients demands at the same time is an art. But when you try to be the APPLE and not just another android phone, you have to be strict about quality and not quantity. You might change the regular deliverables with something you have thought on your own. You might change/ increase the rates of your product. At first the market will question you, you have to be ready with your work and not in words. When you use more words then you loose you class there and then. People might see you as unapproachable which is fine, because you are in a process of becoming their dream and not just any phone they can purchase but remember what will keep you at this level is that you stick by your thing that makes you different. Also, to keep up in the game, you have to be one step ahead always. There are millions who won’t take time to make a copy. My family, by gods grace, is not dependent on me, which gives me an edge to experiment freely, without any pressure. I don’t have to hit the mass market, I can be as picky as I can. And I am.
So a lot of gyaan there, let me come to a cooler topic. I think I have none. Oh yes! One thing which I would like to add is when you unknowingly do good to others, that does multiply and come back to you. It’s been months or an year, I don’t remember but I met this girl who was almost on the verge of depression or of lost hope, lets say. I just casually acted a nice person and clicked few pictures without asking for anything in return. For me, I hardly did anything. But may be that time, that moment changed her. She was leaving the city back to her college and before catching her train, she came to gift me a token to the change she underwent after our little meet. Why I remember this all of a sudden is because I just had my second workshop on Photography which she managed to attend. And and and surprised me with this lovely handwritten letter and a book that states in its introduction that it teaches not to survive in the world but to conquer it. The most apt thing, as of now! Thank you, you pretty soul, if you are reading this one.
Turning 24 was a pain in ass when it triggered my parents as they started bringing the marriage topic every time possible. I know I am the right age and not running away from the ‘M’ word :P but even thinking of discussing your love interests with your mom and dad is so so, I don’t know! It’s weird. Getting into that mood and saying, maa, aapse kuch baat karni hai is tougher that giving a job interview. Anyway, time will tell, what my heart is pounding for, till then no M talks. My last blog entry was so much of a disaster that it managed to create a family dispute, I am so conscious about this one. I hope I haven’t hurt anybody. I will take a leave with these words, (again from a book, gifted to me by my cutest friend, Vipul, miss him a lot):
“We must try to make the end of the journey better than the beginning, as long as we are journeying; but when we come to the end, we must be happy and content.” - Epicurus
Signing Off
(Still believes in The Secret)
Pakhi
PS: Oops, I forgot mentioning about my 10 days trekking trip to the mountains, carrying our 8kg loads all day and living in tents without any connection to the world. That is another story on life lessons. Sometime later, maybe. PPS: This picture from Pune, where I went for a weekend since the love of my life, Ankita has shifted there and left me all alone in gym and in the city.
Talking professionally, I am getting this business game finally. Each day interacting with different people, has no doubt shot up my patience level. Trust me, dealing with clients, negotiating on money especially when they come up with some mutuals (on FACEBOOK whom I must have exchanged a hi with years back or maybe not even that!) requires much more patience than shooting with kids. I don’t understand if they are humiliating me and my work when they say if I work for them, THEN I will get many clients. So basically it’s their social status and not my work that will bring me work? Think upon it! Creating a brand is a lot lot fun. Struggling with keeping your creativity and quality intact and managing your clients demands at the same time is an art. But when you try to be the APPLE and not just another android phone, you have to be strict about quality and not quantity. You might change the regular deliverables with something you have thought on your own. You might change/ increase the rates of your product. At first the market will question you, you have to be ready with your work and not in words. When you use more words then you loose you class there and then. People might see you as unapproachable which is fine, because you are in a process of becoming their dream and not just any phone they can purchase but remember what will keep you at this level is that you stick by your thing that makes you different. Also, to keep up in the game, you have to be one step ahead always. There are millions who won’t take time to make a copy. My family, by gods grace, is not dependent on me, which gives me an edge to experiment freely, without any pressure. I don’t have to hit the mass market, I can be as picky as I can. And I am.
So a lot of gyaan there, let me come to a cooler topic. I think I have none. Oh yes! One thing which I would like to add is when you unknowingly do good to others, that does multiply and come back to you. It’s been months or an year, I don’t remember but I met this girl who was almost on the verge of depression or of lost hope, lets say. I just casually acted a nice person and clicked few pictures without asking for anything in return. For me, I hardly did anything. But may be that time, that moment changed her. She was leaving the city back to her college and before catching her train, she came to gift me a token to the change she underwent after our little meet. Why I remember this all of a sudden is because I just had my second workshop on Photography which she managed to attend. And and and surprised me with this lovely handwritten letter and a book that states in its introduction that it teaches not to survive in the world but to conquer it. The most apt thing, as of now! Thank you, you pretty soul, if you are reading this one.
Turning 24 was a pain in ass when it triggered my parents as they started bringing the marriage topic every time possible. I know I am the right age and not running away from the ‘M’ word :P but even thinking of discussing your love interests with your mom and dad is so so, I don’t know! It’s weird. Getting into that mood and saying, maa, aapse kuch baat karni hai is tougher that giving a job interview. Anyway, time will tell, what my heart is pounding for, till then no M talks. My last blog entry was so much of a disaster that it managed to create a family dispute, I am so conscious about this one. I hope I haven’t hurt anybody. I will take a leave with these words, (again from a book, gifted to me by my cutest friend, Vipul, miss him a lot):
“We must try to make the end of the journey better than the beginning, as long as we are journeying; but when we come to the end, we must be happy and content.” - Epicurus
Signing Off
(Still believes in The Secret)
Pakhi
PS: Oops, I forgot mentioning about my 10 days trekking trip to the mountains, carrying our 8kg loads all day and living in tents without any connection to the world. That is another story on life lessons. Sometime later, maybe. PPS: This picture from Pune, where I went for a weekend since the love of my life, Ankita has shifted there and left me all alone in gym and in the city.
