| How I became
a photojournalist: |
| As I have always loved
to travel even though it was a few kms, hated being in
one place for long, and always loved to meet people it
was with the blessings of the lord and immense luck that
I made a friend on the flight to Shirdi. |
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| This was the first
flight organized from Mumbai, on Gujarat Airways, whose
advertising was being handled by me. |
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This friend Smita
Deshmukh introduced me to friends Rajan Chougule, Photographer
, Fawzan Hussain (Photographer from India Today) and Kedar
Nene (Photographer). |
| These friends had
organized a trip to Kashmir, as they wanted to experience
first hand the conditions at Kargil, Srinagar etc. on
15 August 1999, and they kindly extended a warm invitation
to me. It was an experience of a lifetime, and I treasure
every moment and am really indebted to them for their
invitation. |
| I had first gone to
Kashmir when I was 4 years old, and it was always a cherished
dream to one day visit that heaven again. This trip fulfilled
that dream in more ways than one. Rajan went to Kargil;
|
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Kedar to Kupwara;
and Fawzan and myself stayed back in Srinagar, and met
the former terrorists at Anantnag. This coupled with
living in the houseboats and gorging on typical Kashmiri
food was indeed one of the best periods of my life if
not the best.
After this heavenly experience
I got my feet back on the ground in sunny Mumbai, and
wrote about it and the article with about 5 photographs
appeared in The West Side Plus, on September 18th 1999,
a section of the Times of India. I just carried on after
that and kept writing for the Times of India group taking
photographs on my own. |
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