Water water everywhere….
5.30pm. The last byte had been shot and it was time to head back. There was an 8 hour journey ahead of them and everyone was tired. Murugan suggested that they head to the river. The waters would refresh them. Team yatra set out for Bhavanipuzha!
Anuroop the producer, Varun the cameraman, Kiran the assistant cameraman, Mahesh the driver, Praveen the anchor, all charged into the waters as if they were seeing a river for the first time in their lives. Poor Deepa was left all alone! L Murugan was there, not exactly giving her any company but watching over. Just in case the locals, in their trance like state [thanks to marijuana and spirit that was readily available] bumped into the short tempered Deepa!
The guys had disappeared to the other side of the tree enjoying their new found freedom.
So she sat there. Zoomed her camera onto some flowers. She had recently developed this fascination to zoom onto things, living, non-living, important, the not so important. It wasn’t any great, anybody could zoom like that and take photographs, but somehow the flowers looked nice, zoomed to the center, the leaves all blurred behind. Of course she wanted to get into the river, swim around, and splash the water. But did she have any choice?
Dipping her feet into the water, she watched the dead leaves and roots and flowers make past her fingers, past the rocks, the reflections and then disappearing into the vastness that lay beyond! It did engage her for the next 10 minutes. Amidst all the beauty, she had to find some way to kill time, so the next action plan was calling up her lover. But as much a he may have wanted to listen to her (which he faithfully did every other time), the matter of fact was that he was busy! So she stared at the tree. Now how did its branches find its way around each other in such a complicated way? It was as if some software had programmed it to grow that way and this way and that way and this way….
Ah! There is Kiran, with a towel wrapped around his waist. He had just come around to check the level of boredom that Deepa was going through! In the midst of teasing Deepa he saw - THE BRANCH. He could count on Deepa for a photograph. He tried getting onto it from the stream but he could not. So he got onto the tree from God only knows where! Deepa took a photograph from the bank, but he was such a tiny speck, so she moved closer, and closer, and closer…! The frame lured her into the water, and before she even knew, she was soaked to the waist! Kiran got back onto the bank, but Deepa could not. She wanted to get onto the branch. It was not for a photograph but for the mere feeling that she did it!
Stubborn to the core!
She passed her accessories and camera to Murugan, returned to the stream. No she could not make it. The branch was way above her head, and there was the waist high water! Kiran sensing her miserly state of mind pitched in his help. He offered to lift her! Now that was such a big insult! If she wanted to get on it, she was doing it herself, not with anyone’s help. So she wooed away Kiran and stood there thinking what to do next. She got out of the water. Found one of the tangled branches lying close to the bank and got on it. Halfway through the dangling, she had a swarm of ants on her body! Another step and she lost her balance! But she was determined. She made it to the cradle and sat down! Oh she felt as if she was on top of the world! Well at least she was on top of the stream…!
Kiran insisted on taking some photographs. She was out of the frame, and she was in the frame, and she was being bitten by a 1000 ants, so it was a mess! She heard Anuroop’s voice somewhere from above her- NOW, HOW THE HELL DID HE GET THERE! [Oh there was a branch leading all the way up!] ‘Give me the camera Deepa; I can give you a photograph you would cherish!’ So Deepa in spite of all the inconvenience sat there. Oh! But she had the camera now [now how did it land up with her???] There was no way she was going out, giving the camera, and then coming back and then doing the pose!
Faithful as always, came by Kiran, swished the camera and handed it to Anuroop. Anuroop fumbled, and for a moment she even felt that he would drop the camera!
So she sat there, an artificial smile plastered on her face, biting her lips, cursing the tiny flecks that were eating onto her flesh. There was one flash, and there was one more flash, and then there was nothing, only Anuroop staring intensely into the lens. And she thought- its of no use, the flash makes the leaves look like it had been polished, the water as if it was a sheet and the face like it’s been powdered. She didn’t care about what had been captured in the lens of the camera! There were ants all over and she wanted to jump into the stream right away. Then she thought about having no clothes to change into, being wet in front of so many men would not be a wise idea after all. She was still in the THINKING mode when Anuroop called out again. ‘Deepa sit right there, we will shoot a byte here.’ She cursed Anuroop with all her might!
‘Bhavanipuzha, kochuvallam, punarjani ennee munnu nadikal otthucherunnathu evideyaanu.…. ethra manoharamaaya sthalamaanithennu ningalkku thanne kaanaan kazhiyum ……….blah..blah…blah…!’
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| image coutesy Anuroop |
Dripping wet!
And it was all over. She slid down, brushing the ants away, the water taking them through a slow death. So many lives gulped all at once! She didn’t even bother to check the snap. There were 8 hours in front of her. There was Attappadi and there was Thiruvalla. The pair of jeans she had on was dripping wet!
Skimming through the photographs one of these days, she noticed it. And she remembered what Anuroop had told her- yes it was special! So she added it to the ‘el personal’ [she should have named it ‘close to my heart’] collection on Facebook. There were comments, and there were likes. She was called a fearless model, Anuroop was called a good photographer, the photograph was called a nice snap, the tree was likened to nature’s cradle…So it became all the more special, and she could not help writing about it…..!
The ants ….grrrrrrrrr……….!
The banyan tree…………… J
The wanderlust…………….. J
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