Travelling is an unique term. You can use it for reasons more than just one..travelling across emotions, people.. and places. Perhaps the most important travel is travelling across phases in life. Each phase teaches you something new, and has a surprise for you in the next phase… To refer to Tagore, the next phase plays with me. It gives me a wrapped box, promising me a gift and asks me to guess… and in my imaginations and guess’s, I rule no possibility out.
Last few months.. it was a lovely turmoil. Let me define this phase as the time from my breakup with my ex till say December end. Travelling in the original sense , has made me travel through this phase. Was working for the Kolkata Bloggers Meet, at Infocom 2011.. and after that I was so free, ..and the best thing I do when I feel alone is travel. 🙂 Need to mention, in the year 2009, I travelled 13 new places in 12 months 😀 So I decided to work, beg borrow steal money and travel 😀
What better place can be during Holi? Yes, its Shantiniketan… They call it Basanta utsav. I had wholesome fun, met new people.. coloured many unknown people who treated me as their own. It felt good 🙂
It was also the time, I delved into some serious photography and started reading books, but couldnot experiment much , for I was still a compact user then 🙂 But the photos of Basanta Utsav were the first photos of Anirban Saha Photography. Yes, inspired by Sayon, I opened a facebook fan page for my photography. My initial aim was about 70 likes till december end.. But somehow it started evolving big..
I was actually planning for a Delhi trip to meet Saumaly, Powell da and Roshan.. and spent some time, and yes, look for some part time job, settle there for few months and come back to Kol/Dgp only to give semester exam. On 4th April, Supratik told he was going to perform in Delhi… and my instant reaction was : I wanna go with you 😛 It was a matter of moments, I decided to be in delhi that very day… or asap! 😛 Didnot get tickets, travelled all the way to Delhi in general class Kalka mail, wholesome dirty.. nevertheless lovely people 🙂 Watched Supratik perform with Nad yoga, even anchored for one event in Gurgaon, loved it… heyy I watched Bickram Ghosh perform too 😀 After Supratik left, I wanted some time with myself. Met Meghadi, did madness with Saumaly.. met few more friends, made new friends but guess what? I needed time with myself.. So I made my way to Agra.. got looted of my cash, but guess what? I made newer friends in agra.. they turned out to be very good human beings, and we are quite buddies 😛 The experience was nice.. the night, the truck, the potato gunny bags, the mad women, the police, the slaps… oh, jumping on delhi streets at 3 am 😛 It was so cool… I spend almost 2 days at Jama Masjid, knowing its pirs and loved it! You can check Jama Masjid experience here.
In all the rush, I forgot to mention I went to Bishnupur, Adra and some other place with Hrishikesh in March.. It too was a nice experience.. In June I kept travelling to near by villages, knowing people, photographing them… sometimes singing with them.. and yes talk a lot but listen more. Couldnot be a free bird, got into ISI with Supratik and Sreyasi.. worked there… and my sony camera was not working properly. So I thought better to bunk travelling and programming a bit… slowly slowly it was the small work at IIT.. well the work was not small, I made my role small, well… smaller…and then officially left it 😛 But somehow Kharagpur also forms one of the places I visited this way.. didnt travel much, didnt meet many people.. Oh ha… met Debashish Roy. I went to his home, and fell asleep 😛 I kept waking up in between, had something to eat and then fall back to sleep again 😛 All work ended in September when I had measles. Then was the pujas, had awesome fun. Hardly stayed at home… and for the first time boozed so frequently 😛 But what was important is the fact : I moved forward, keeping everything even college life behind.. natural isnt it? Made new friends… and I call them my ink’d actorism friends. They are super cool… happy go lucky kinda people. Made some real good buddies there and we have fun, we hang out.. I started fagging (only with them) Now it has been quite a few days we have met, need to plan something 😛
Well need to mention 3 minor events that actually had major impact in my life. First was the time with Deeptish. Need to tell all about this guy.. this is is the youngest among all my friends, and is in a self-discovery phase and I love his questions. Sometimes stupid, he challenges dogmatic rules… and is a food for my thought ! Affection for him comes naturally, he being the youngest and extremely talented. Whats most important is – he is open to learning and decent discussion. I came to know his elder brother Saurish, his mom and dad.. they are superb people to come across. I became more caring and more thoughtful being with Deeptish. The next event was admission of Arpit. Now Arpit is another kid, Ankits’ younger sibling. Ankit was in Bangalore when Arpit was having his WBJEE counselling. Ankit told me to take all the decisions and I was so confused. For the first time, I came to know what situations an elder has to face 😛 It was scary being so responsible. I never felt that before, taking decisions for myself or for any committee that I run is different from taking decision for a younger guy who calls me dada! I actually felt responsible, as responsible as a real elder brother, with Ankit giving me all responsibilities… Well shall discuss the third event a bit late. 🙂
Well I got my DSLR somehow on 18th October 2011. Couldnot afford another lens or even uv protector.. and started travelling across lanes of Kolkata again 😛 Found an old school friend – Dipanjan, to be interested in photography… met him, met his friends… Arre!!! I forgot to mention, I opened a facebook group – “amateur photographers unit pan india” and thats running quite well 🙂 In between I had some madness about learning JS, and then was bogged down by TCS’s aspire material 😛 Well this November I went to Chandannagar to meet Prashashti and her bhai during Jagaddhatri Puja, loved the experience. Shall be soon in her home again 😛 …and then went to Mayapur/Nabadwip with Sandipan da.
This year has been so good. This year started with me getting recruited to TCS on 4th Jan 2011… then I went to different places, my didi got married this year on 16th Jan 2011. ..and it was wholesome fun. I started keeping a low profile in my college, lol.. but worked for eweek… found fresh faces. But this time we couldnt win the championship. This year was so much with people. Oh… hmmm… I joined music classes this year.. I now officially learn Rabindrasangeet from Dakshinee… 😀 If 2009 was about acclaims, and travel.. if 2010 was full of sorrow for me… 2011 is about people. I met incredible people, being with them in personal or professional ties was superb. Made some real awesome friends online… Oh ha… perhaps for the first time, I felt jealous this year 😛 but thats another story 😛 The third minor event that happened was 2 old friends, who once stopped talking to me after I broke up with my ex, coming back to me, apologising and reliving the days again. I love them more now, and I trust in God more, more than ever…and yes, my photography page has more than 1560 likes to it, without bhayanak marketting 😛
And guess what?? Travelling on my cards again. If everything goes well I shall leave for North Bengal today.. to Malbazaar and Jalpaiguri. …then to Chandannagar, Durgapur in December.. to Gangasagar mela in mid december, and there is also a faint chance of me going to Sikkim and related states this December end.
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Edit: I went to North Bengal, Mumbai-Pune-Solapur after this blogpost 🙂
Shot in Bhutan (River Diana) and in Mumbai respectively.
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To end the note in my way, I need to thank few people… Thank you Aninya, Annesha, Anindya, Deboleena, Harshit, Sayon, Koustav, Hrishikesh, Tanumeeta, Ankit, Arpit, Sreyasi, Supratik, Deeptish, Rudy, Saurish (for all the chess matches), Somajita di, Neha, Debashish, Saumaly, Pratik Shiavagunde, Prosenjeet, Prashashti, Jijo, Suchisman, Dipannita di, Swaroop, Saikat da, Shekhar Sir, Sudipto Sir (I always feel like thanking him 😀 ), Kaleem, Roshan, Nilabha,Rana, Dipanjan, papai, suvanwit, Alpana, Anshul.. each shoot with KWS was fun, a big hug to KWS… my friends from Dakshinee.. and to end the note with, thanks Avishek Mishra and Soumee. God bless all. Peace.
Photograph : Anirban Saha Photography.
Quite an year it was, wasn’t it??
But i enjoyed it 😉