And my journey begins with the City of Joy...

Where else can you dare to kick-start your photography tour but Kolkata- The mecca of street photography, one of the very few places where you can capture the sheer beauty of diversity on the streets, be it the dying colonial architecture or that perfect concoction of nature, religion & spirituality or the special restless intellectual breed of most un-"common" man lost in serious discussion or those innumerable uniquities- Trams, Yellow Ambi Cab, Hand rickshaw, Howrah bridge, food heritage among others…

There is so much to celebrate in this city, its warmth and character is reflected in its people as well, though I'm not sure if it's more true other way round. Whatever it is, you have to feel the myriad influences of this city to experience joy! As the cliché goes, the city grows on you. You have to experience it to know the exact feeling, words are insufficient: The early morning smell of burning coal to fire those clay chulhas or the divine aroma of assorted spices from street stalls to cook those scrumptious meal for office babus is simply irresistible.

I had the pleasure of spending 15 days around this beautiful city of joy completely dedicated to experience the soul of Kol. Although, I started with the goal of capturing the street beauty with my lens, I ended up with a different set of experience altogether- spiritual and gastronomical.

Very soon I wish to come back to capture the absolutely irresistible beauty with my lens, for now I can simply plead my taste-buds to stop those sumptuous culinary cravings!

SBD

PS: Yes, this is my first trip around Kolkata. I have visited Bengal (or Paschim Bangla as it is called now) annually but never got a chance to see this city. My ancestral place is a 2 hour drive in a small city called Naihati having its own soulful charm, similar yet distinct from Kolkata.

PAINTINGS WITH LENSES, LIGHTS & WORDS!

In Frame: My basic artistic arsenal for next few months that will help me mesmerize the WORLD's depth & focus and support my journey of PAINTINGS WITH LENSES, LIGHTS & WORDS

A genius who goes by the name of Ansel Adams once said "Cameras don't take pictures, photographers do. The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!" True to its core, cameras are just like any other artist's tool, simply supporting the artistic acumen while making it convenient and easy to capture that WOW magical moment. We should always remember photography is an art of capturing IMAGINATION with light and lenses. This is where the term IMAGE is derived from afterall! The art of photography has little to do with the things you see & everything to do with the way you see them. Don't fool yourself by thinking a Nikon or Canon will help you bridge the artistic vacuum of composing that perfect image. When you see the works of Picasso or Van Gogh, you never appreciate the canvas, the brush or the oil paint used; it's always about the expression. It is neither the range of f/stop nor the sensor, but your wild imagination that makes u a genius in the world of photography!

So here is my beginning of a dedicated journey to find the extraordinary in ordinary circumstances. I wish to use this platform to exhibit my creation to the world by capturing that perfect moment, projecting that creative spike and clicking that unique perspective. I'm set to devote my next few months to street and soul photography of India. Lot of exciting things are lined up with my backpack trip, a major share of which will be contributed to this website and blog. Stay Tuned!

Let thr be light people!

SBD

PS: My modest photography kit consists of:
1. Camera: Nikon D3100
2. Lens: Tamron AF 70-300mm (X 1.5 Times for half frame camera) F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro, Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D and Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6G VR Zoom Lens
3. Tripod: Vanguard MAK 233 Tripod Aluminium
4. Macro Photography Toolkit: Close-up Lens Set- Set of 5 (+1,+2,+4,+10,Magnifier); Non-electrical extension tube set of 3 different length (9,16,30); Single Lens Reversal Tube
5. Other Accessories: Tamron UV Filter, Polarizing Filter, Tamron & Nikon lens hood, Lens Cleaning Kit, 8gb Memory card, Hand Grip Strap, Pop-up Flash Diffuser, LED External light and Nikon Top-loader bag with rain cover

Get creative: Find your art, live your life!

I'm not sure if this is my bong instinct or just the psychological impact of past 30 days intense encounter with my creative cells! I simply can't resist the urge of highlighting the beauty of being a creative ninja. I'm living it all & set to experience the next level of creative mojo in the coming week.

You can get your dose of creative brilliance too. Inspiration is everywhere, you just have to be receptive. I'm all set to embark on my journey of PAINTINGS WITH LENSES, LIGHTS & WORDS by dedicating my energy and efforts for next few months to street and soul photography of India, exploring diverse set of expressions with my imaginations, emotions, thoughts and desires. Lot of exciting things are lined up with my backpack trip, a major share of which will be contributed to my website (www.shubhobrotodas.com) and to this blog. Stay Tuned !!

But how did it all start? It was certainly not an eureka moment for me although most creative sparks are. As a photography enthusiast, I always had the urge to exhibit my creation to the world someday, or rather that perfect day when I had captured enough WoW moments and proudly possess all pro equipments. Spoiler alert: You are just wasting your time by delaying gratification. You have to start somewhere at some point of time if you truly wish to capture those perfect moments, projecting your creative spike or unique perspective. Your best will always come tomorrow while you are busy perfecting your present.

So finally it was my moment- Loads of free time to design a website (while recovering from low platelet count), availability of cheap domain, excess dump of diverse jpeg files from my HDD archive and curiosity to learn Photoshop & lightroom led to the creation of this ultimate artistic platform! I wish to take this to an all new level in next 3 months. I feel like I have arrived and ready to rock the world with my art of PAINTINGS WITH LENSES, LIGHTS & WORDS.

The beauty of creativity lies in its magnificent aura that touches all aspects of life- mental, physical and spiritual! So go find your creative spike in music, art or crafts and give your life a whole new dimension. A creative layer is an essential ingredient to spice up the delicious dish of life. Bon Appétit!

Get your creative juices flowing, find your art, live your life!

SBD

PS: Forgive my learning curve, readers! This is my first blog so please bear with my naive thought structure & storyline. I honestly don't know when this impulse to write got the better of me but it has certainly set the stage for the next level of scribbling (SBD-style)

Curse of being into Photography!

Photography as we all know attempts to render a three dimensional world in a two dimensional medium but do we lose out something during the process apart from a dimension? It sounds funny and quite ironical to the fact that my very beginning blog is about the curse of my art! But let's face it, we do get carried away sometimes. I'm not talking about photojournalism here.

How as a photographer (which gets worse as we move from entry>amateur>enthusiast>pro) we tend to get involved too much into details: both artistic and technical; that we usually forget to enjoy, appreciate or even register the present reality as it is: true serene beauty, the scenic aura, wild emotions etc. Our purpose of focusing on that perfect shot, that perfect move, that magical moment which expresses stunning composition; gets better of us and makes us a slave to our gadget rather than supporting us to capture the memory for future reference. There is a thin line between appreciating the PRESENT moment with our natural eyes VERSUS capturing the shot to get FUTURE admiration & adulation. Is it worth it?

Honestly, I don't know the answer but I wish I could perfect the art of balancing my perspective both on and off camera!

SBD

Let thr be Light!

High Stakes, Alpha Plan and FEW frea'kin Months!

"Always remember, money isn't everything - but also remember to make a lot of it before talking such foolish nonsense."  --By Earl Wilson

Do what you love at 25! Who doesn't want to simply pause for a moment and take a break from the speed corporate life to do some soul searching?  But simply wishing won't take you any step closer to identify the “state of mind” that will give pure and perpetual happiness for this lifetime!

Ever wished that time would slow down so that you could catch up with it? Or that the world would stop spinning for a while so that you could get off for a while and do the things that you always desired to do? Perhaps find that deeper fulfillment in life that you always wished for?

Everything was going on so well for me: A well-settled job with decent compensation, derived snob value from high profile consulting job, a position of seniority (under the experienced mentorship), an opportunity to relocate and work out of NYC client site, a stable and steady growth track to a perfect corporate career with C-level networking opportunity (in conventional sense) and a brilliant B-school app with reference from all top-shots with whom I had an opportunity to work or make friends with. See this in the perspective of India where there is an excess supply of talent viz-a-viz demand for white-collar folks, to that, add a non-technical graduation degree and one can consider themselves an object of envy at the age 25. I proudly earned all of it!

And I left it all. I decided to take a break on my 25^th b’day and lead a mac-less, blackberry-deprived life in order to find my true passion.

Let’s say if I had continued with my corporate career: I would have probably worked for another couple of years from big apple, secured admission in one of the ivy league college, get millions (INR) in loans from bank to pay for my MBA just for the sake of doing it and getting over with and then working and networking my ass off during my MBA to secure that ultra-premium profile with Blackstone’s, Goldman’s or McKinsey’s of the world. And the journey would have continued, now with more bank balance, higher responsibilities and expectations and enormous financial and emotional attachments. In other words, I would have been trapped in a corporate web for a lifetime.

So, I decided to slow down, take a step back & search for an idea, find a purpose that will ignite and fuel my dreams. It was not an overnight realization. To find a perfect balance between life of passion, one needs to be flexible enough to sacrifice the lavish corporate lifestyle. It can rarely be achieved while being engaged in job & taking home hefty amount of money, making yourself too comfortable living a lifestyle driven by the rewards of showcasing the spirit of competitiveness.  By leading the so-called corporate rate race in the short-term, one tends to get blinded of their true passion until it is too late. You tend to move into a safety zone made up of risk-averse cocoon.

But then the complication I faced was at what point do you take the call: Is their any specific age or $ cut-off point to do what you love?

I simply don’t know the answer: For me, I'm just giving myself few months to realize what I really want to do in life. I wish to take a break & get out of the system, think through freely of things I truly love to do without the restricted boundaries of career, society & corporate. Currently, I’m not bound by anything; I can easily break-free from the monotonous lifestyle of drifting from one weekend to another. The desire to self-fund my dreams and “live-through” and find my "What Makes ME Happy" state has led to my decision. I wish to Explore, Travel, Meditate!

At the early stages of life, we have the flexibility to do what we love to, what we truly want to do. But the irony of life @ young age is most of us are too busy planning out the next phase to live better than the present and are left with no time to think through what we really want from our lives! We live life on a very fast track and get carried away with the herd mentality of our peer group until our age or our health gets the better of us. It's ok even if we just try and don't know what we want to do from our life. At least, the exploration process helps us to figure out early during our life about what we don't want to do which is equally important.

The choice is ours- either we let our life take us where it wants, or we take control of our life and actively drive where we want to go.

Infected by “What Makes YOU Happy" syndrome!

Having a purpose in life and cultivating self-discipline to achieve such purpose is the most essential ingredient to a great life of perpetual happiness

© Shubho Broto Das

PS: What stopped me so far was the typical middle class mindset of being averse to failure, simply because I had never really seen real failure. Now I’m in a position that even if I fail I can always go back to B-school and re-enter corporate life but at least without any regret and an invaluable experience!!! Also, my burnout and runaway analysis shows enough buffer savings to survive for 3 years at 0 income with a moderate lifestyle and travel expenditure. Having a substantial savings at 25 with a 100% debt free footloose life (irrespective of my parents money) is certainly an advantage. I have the flexibility to choose the path of righteousness/passion/happiness/purpose and self-fund my dream with a 'guilt-free' mind!

In pursuit of lifestyle...

Here is my sweet pause to an adventure called Essex! Beginning of my Life's 2nd quartile could have been quite different if it was not for my thrilling experience in last 104 weeks / 728 Days. It was an absolute pleasure to have been exposed to the real priceless gems at Essex. With the firm's fantastic capability to attract talents onboard, special credit must go to the founder's ripsnorting passion and commitment! I'm writing this on the day I completed my 25 years on this earth. This is short summary of my reflections on my professional experience at Essex & a brief message to all my colleagues, friends & mentors.

It was an overwhelming experience of 26 months of journey from Market research to Innovate & business development to Analytics delivery & operations to Consulting / Profit Enhancement. I have finally decided to take a break and explore my life and it's creative side.

It has been an amazing experience working with the Essex family- brilliant people, challenging work environment and great opportunities (specifically with ML).  Overall a great adventure, couldn't have asked for more. I thoroughly enjoyed my tenure and deeply appreciate the opportunity to work/interact with few of the smartest folks of the country. 

Here is to adventures of life, a quote from one of my favorite novel!

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms. ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods