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The story behind ‘Gyaani’ pic

I took a picture in March 2008 for my collection, as it carried a pretty powerful message. I had, at the time, not imagined that it would end up getting circulated as far and wide, as it eventually did. It’s appeal lines in the punch of it’s message, and the direct no-nonsense delivery of the message. I am referring, ofcourse, to the ‘Gyaani’ Pic shown above ! What follows below is the background on that picture.

It was a regular crisp Indore morning in March of 2008. It was also my first trip to India in nearly two years. Me and my mom had gone to a temple to which we usually go to, atleast once during my India trip. The trip to the temple was going along well and we were minding our own business, when a random visitor to the temple ( i.e. not the priest himself ) who was praying besides us, initiated a general conversation with us. It all seemed nice at the beginning. It was not long before, the conversation turned into a religious one. 

I am usually pretty hesitant to discuss matters of religion first and foremost because I do not consider myself to be a ‘religious’ person. I am especially disinclined to discuss religion with people whom I don’t know because people tend to have fairly strict opinions on right and wrong in religion. As a corollary to this, people are also less inclined to hear anything which may contradict their closely held beliefs. So while I have my own beliefs and I do not go about imposing the same on others, I have similar expectations from others as well. This may perhaps be an unreasonable strategy in certain circumstances as I was about to learn that day !

Initially, the topic of conversation was fairly general, like it’s generally a good idea to come to the temple and pray, and I was like, “Sure, sounds reasonable…” etc. Then, slowly the conversation started taking a turn towards more personally ( and closely ) held beliefs like, ” One should come to exactly _this_ temple, ‘X’ number of times an year, and perform the prayer ‘Y’ and  all of one’s wishes would be fulfilled “, and with the completion of that sentence, my “B$”-detector started ticking almost as excitedly as that Geiger-counter in Chernobyl on that unfortunate and fateful day.

The discussion, in a few minutes became a monologue, due to lack of my interest to pursue a dialogue as it appeared to be a lost cause. Detail after detail was being dished out meticulously, and our initial polite receptiveness appeared to be more and more absurd by the minute. Finally, I decided to abruptly cut off the ad hoc-preacher, after having had more than my fair share of ‘Gyaan’ ( literal translation of which is knowledge, or more accurately, translated to “un-needed or un-solicited knowledge” ). We decided to move to a different part of the temple, prayed one last time and left the temple premises.

I was thoroughly amused by the incident of being approached by a total stranger, in a place of worship where I would expect ( or appreciate ) some privacy ( atleast between you and your God ), and being unsolicitedly preached about the ‘right’ ways of life, of praying and best of all, religion ! The cherry on top was that it was initiated by someone whom we did not even know and who, by appearance, was your average Joe, not even the officially designated preacher ! I was by then, truly in need of a system ‘restart’, i.e. a vent to express my amusement at the experience. 

Being the photo-nerd that I am, I always have at least one camera with me at all times. My mom, was less amused by this incident, but casually mentioned to me about a sign-board at another temple. It seems that there had once been an abundance of ‘knowledgeable’ people at this other temple, so much so that, it had prompted the priests at the temple to put a fantastic quote at a very prominent place, i.e. at the entrance of the temple. Since we had lived very close to that other temple for nearly a decade, my mom remembered the quote verbatim, and it read: 

“

कृपया यहाँ ज्ञान ना baatein  

यहाँ पर सभी ज्ञानी  hai   

“

- or - approximate translation

“

Please do not share your ( unneeded ) knowledge here,

All here are knowledgeable !

“

_That_ was my “A-Ha!” moment which I had been waiting for, after receiving the deluge of ‘Gyaan’ a few minutes earlier. As soon as my mom told me about the quote, I knew that the only way I would find peace would be to take a picture of that quote for my personal collection. And so even though we had other time commitments for the day, we decided to hop over to the other temple, and I was positively delighted to know that after all these years, the quote was still there, and it was positively refreshing ! Best of all, it had been put up at another place of worship, leading me to believe that the priests there had learnt their lesson. More power to them !

If at any point of time, want to have the privilege of viewing this delightful sign yourself, then this map-link shows the approximate location of the temple. ( or if you happen to be in the Sikh Mohalla area of Indore, you can ask around for the Shiv temple behind Mahoo-wala’s Kulfi shop )

So, gentle reader,  there you have it ! The origins of the “Gyaani” picture, it’s location and it’s ultimate source.

Finally, since enough “Gyaan” has already been shared within this post, I shall conclude it here …. :D

The evolution of Photography - Boon Vong Style !

Fantastic narrative with great illustrations.

First dig at Flickr'ing

I had joined Flickr a long time back, but finally decided to upload some pictures there. Hope to have a decent portfolio up and and running there in the near future.

A good photograph

So what defines a ‘good’ photograph ?

• it conveys a powerful message, it communicates well/connects with the viewer.
• it moves, it touches, it inspires.
• some pictures are best viewed with a short narrative / title. In such cases the pictures may be great themselves, but their ‘meaning’ increases significantly with a short description of the artist’s intent. In some cases, a picture simply needs no description !

Learning

What always fascinates me is the fact that no matter what happens, you can always get to learn more about things, articles and people, whom you think you know so well. A couple of examples, from different times.

I have owned a digital camera for nearly 3 years now, and I had read through the manual for it as soon as I can. Before coming to the US, I thought I was so content with my supposed knowledge of my camera, that I thought that it is too old and too familiar, and I shouldn't keep it with me. In hindsight, it was a good decision to get it. Anyways, nearly an year after I had bought the camera, I went to a place called Brasstown Bald, supposed to be the highest point in Georgia. Afternoon changed to evening pretty fast, and before we knew it was night already. Before that day I had tried to take many pictures in night, but somehow they never came out right. Then I saw Lakshmi Anna take a picture of all of us in night mode. I saw how he switched to a different mode, and made sure that the camera had a solid base so that it could remain stabilized. I checked out the night mode icon on his camera and found exactly the same icon on my camera. Then and there I took my first night mode picture, and it was beyond my expectations ! It was such a beautiful discovery ....

Another event happened today. In the past I have often been frustrated when I have had to press a separate button after I have taken a picture, rather than the auto review mode being on by default. Well, guess what, today after 3 years of me having this camera, I randomly bumped into a deep hidden setting which can switch the default auto review mode on ....

As they say, " When the student is ready, the teacher shall come " !