According to a tradition, after a Dham Yatra one must give up one thing that the person used to like. What should I give up? With the loss of my camera, why should I not stop photography to which I had been madly attached to for many years even after losing cameras many a times? After all why should not I give up this? What’s worth? With thousands of photographs in albums and now flicker, I hardly ever look into them. I don’t think anyone else does that. After all I have not become that big a celebrity whose photographs are sought after by many.

The wish and eagerness to get photographed is pretty old. It started perhaps when I came to Birlapur with my grandfather for schooling. Even he loved to be photographed. It got satisfied to professional ones or through the courtesy of friends for many years before I went to UK in 1966 and bought my box camera Yasica from Geneva.

During IIT days my friend GL Makhija took a number of my photographs and in the early days of Hind Motors, it was OP Khanna who got many of my photographs. During my Jaipur visit and the first visit to Agra it was one Chander Prakash who had photographed me.

But then started my official visits to Japan in 1982 and I kept on buying cameras though mostly auto focus ones and kept on clicking. It remained quite a costly hobby with development of films and printing costing a lot.

It was Anand who got me introduced to the digital camera first. It took away the hassle of development and printing. It became an essential item when Anand got me in to the writing my blogs. Last one that I lost had a capacity to hold some 1000 frames. I felt bad when I lost it in the bus that brought us from Thirumala to Tirupati on December 1, 2009. I thought I shall be able to trace back with the help of the officers and guide of Tamil Nadu Tourism who had arranged the visit and the grace of Balaji. But perhaps I am hoping against the hope and I must forget about that. Then why should not I stop photography all together? Perhaps I can manage without it now at this age of 70+.

Let the photography be one thing that I shun after the completion of Char Dhams in the process of gradually detaching myself from the worldly things.