Picture Perfect

I remember being a small kid and going for a ton of holidays with my parents. Those days were simple, no mobile phones, no computers and certainly no invasive flashes where people tried to take random photographs. My dad would hand me that old Minolta/Kodak camera, check how many photos could be taken from the roll of film and tell me to be careful while taking the snap.

Looking back at the 10 or so albums which have been filled with photographs, each photograph actually had a story behind it, from the time I sat at the wheel of a bus (was 3 years old) to this beautiful glorious photo where my Grandma and I are enjoying some jam sandwiches sitting on some of brown autumn leaves. 

Taking a photograph had a meaning back then, unlike now where I feel like I have entered a crazy nightclub or am walking down the red carpet at the Oscar's with the number of flashes going off thanks to them damn mobile phones. I have a strict "No photograph " policy, I do not take photographs of the people I go with unless of course we meet up after a long time, like my college buddies who meet up once or twice in a year, that is a memorable time because well its only twice in a year that 5 freaks meet up for some real madness.

Of course the policy extends to no one taking my photo also, my dad loves this policy and he makes sure he takes a couple of photos wherever I go with him, sometimes I feel his only task in life (especially when I go out with my parents) is to troll me. His propensity for taking my photographs is directly proportional to how pissed my reaction is when he asks me if he can take my photo. The more I get pissed, more are the number of photos he takes. 

The other thing I always get lambasted on by my parents is when I decide to take a few snaps, especially during those holidays. Now I prefer taking photos of the scenic beauty around me, no , not the bikini clad women but the natural beauty around us. The sand dunes and the sunset after our desert safari in Dubai, or the beautiful monasteries in Bangkok or the huge Shiv Temple ( I could be wrong with the temple , sorry about that) in Malaysia. Great structures are the thing that I like capturing on my cell, so when we go back to the hotel my parents ask me to show the photos I clicked throughout the day. Then comes the barrage of why do I take such shitty pictures, why is it that the pictures don't have people in them, why is it always the structures etc which come in your photos?. Its like that because that's what a photograph should be, a picture is worth a thousand words and instead of having people in it , it should have something to talk about, sometimes this whole "pose in front of x" seems a ruse to prove to people that you actually have been to this place. 

If you can't accept that I have gone to x/z place, then you better not ask for me to show the holiday pictures. This again is one of the things which I dread. Especially if I ever go to relatives place who has just come back from the trip and they want to show the pictures. If I want to see the pictures I will ask about them, you do not have to show them to me in hope of winning the 10000$ prize on some game show. I don't show my holiday pics to people either, unless of course they ask for it and then they moan about how "people" are missing from the photos. Really?