16 Jun Lockdown Photography Workshops
Adversity showcases strengths.
This lockdown period from March 23rd 2020 to 8th June 2020 was unique in a lot of ways. While the world as we knew it came to a screeching halt, with a deafening stillness and silence all around, it gave me a view of some very interesting aspects of myself and the world around me. Teaching me the truth about how little one actually needed, to me exploring qualities I never knew I had, to learning an entire gamut of new skills – it was an enriching experience.
I really did stop to smell the coffee – coz honestly, what else did I have to do with my time? Evenings were spent gazing up at the clouds with a cup of chai – and a couple of hours each week were spent organising essentials. While I did miss all the helping hands I have at home in part timers, I also found tremendous joy in working with my hands at tasks that did not require too much brainwork.
The evening post cloud gazing with a cup of chai was spent tossing up a meal that was wholesome and soulful – soulful for the simple reason that it was made with all my attention, and also my love! I’ve spent my life being an overachiever – never knowing how to settle and being amazed at people who seemed blissfully content doing nothing.. for the first time in my entire life, I connected with that bliss.The joy of relishing every moment – (don’t get me wrong, i have experienced and enjoyed being in the moment) – without the comfort of knowing what came next was confusing as well as strangely settling at the same time.
One of the things that I introduced during lockdown was a phone photography workshop which I had conducted last year multiple times – and very successfully that too at my studio (Capture Life) and in collaboration as well (Concu Begumpet).Only difference here was that I made it even more detailed (from a 1 hour workshop it turned into a 6 hour workshop) and now you would get to see my face from across a screen. Herein lay a challenge for me – I hide from the camera, and being ok with doing a video conference style workshop wasn’t easy at the start.Then the magic happened – I suddenly realised that geographical distances no longer were barriers, and people from Delhi, Ludhiana, Mumbai, and Australia joined me for these.
7 batches and 75 students is what happened next, and each time I got into a role that requires me to teach, the learning in return was immense.I met some wonderful new people, reconnected with old friends, shared this space with kids from 8- 12 years as well in one batch. And my heart is full – and today I choose to stay with that feeling!
Here’s some of that joy in the form of pictures :
