A translation of "bimbagraahi" - a kannada short story of mine.(Translation by Rachitha)
Who
would have thought that, we would be sitting here reading the love story of a
restless soul! The culprit in the story is not just any love struck heart but a
camera!!
Let’s
jump into the story first, by getting to know the fella behind our camera –
Yeshwanth. He is a cameraman by profession, the growing fetish towards candid
photography during the big fat Indian weddings, has made Yeshwanth a busy man
indeed and he thoroughly enjoys it. Talented that he is, works his magic by
capturing the most precious moments through the eyes of his camera.
Indians
are known for their larger than life weddings. The decorations, the colors, the
stupendous attire the vibrancy that all the celebration brings in, the
satisfaction in the eyes of the parents seeing their kids settling in life, all
this and much more. Yeshwanth, enjoys capturing these precious moments through
his camera, with the thought that during such celebrations everyone just joins
in to revel and bless the happy couple.
The enthusiast that Yeshwanth was, he jumped
at the opportunity that his friend brought along, to click photographers at a
wedding. His excitement got him to come in early to the venue, he did not want
to miss even a single moment, right from decorating the venue, cooking foods
to, setting stage for all rituals. Tagging his companion, the camera along with
him, he starts his photographic journey for the day, little knowing that this
would turn out to be one of the most memorable days of his life. His
photographs are so exotic and mesmerizing, that it resembles the passing clouds
that come to a standstill after falling head over heels in love with earth,
where they burst open to embrace the ever waiting earth in a warm hug, engulfing
the entire environment with the scent of the first rains.
As
he continued capturing the celebration, he sensed something fly past his lens.
He paused momentarily. The camera which was on Auto-Focus goes - click, click,
click!! Without his knowledge, he had captured the face of the most beautiful
girl on earth, an angel, not only on his camera but also in the eyes of his
mind. Draped in a Yellow-Green saree, she resembled the green fields on a warm
sunny day! Her hair neither too long nor too short, attractive the way they are
enough to capture his heart. Her eyebrows looked like a pair of newly made
arrows and her eyes could even put the flash of his camera to shame and her
lips, soft and red shimmering under the sunlight looked like a congregation of myriad
of stars. Yeshwanth was spellbound, he could not think of anybody
or anything living or not that could match her beauty and grace.
Strapped by this very new,
different feeling of first love and using his years of experience, he altered innumerable
angles, colors and features on his camera, he captured plentiful images of her.
Any picture that did no justice to her beauty he deleted immediately!
He then proceeds, to capture
the wedding celebrations. Amidst all the work, he forgot to enquire about the
angel, who had captured his heart and soul. This is the very exact feeling of
restlessness that we all experienced, when we met that handsome guy or the
pretty looking girl, but never got an opportunity to know anything about them!
This restiveness made him look around for her. He started assessing the place,
to comprehend if the girl he saw was a part of this family, putting two and two
together he concluded that, the girl had to be a friend of the brides’. Well,
in most scenarios all the pretty looking, fabulously dressed girls happen to be
bride’s friends!
With a heavy heart and no more details
about the girl, Yeshwanth got ready to leave for his city. He dreaded the
thought of forgetting her, and kept reminding himself that he would not let go
of his first love without putting in any effort to get to know her. Once, back
home, he started putting the photos together, the ones clicked at the wedding.
He separated out her photos from the rest, which sat adorning the walls of his
room. Yeshwanth called up his friend, the one who had gotten him, the
opportunity to photograph this wedding. Yeshwanth, while telling his friend that
the wedding photographs are ready to be picked up, casually tries asks about
the girl and the group she was part of.
Yeshwanth, feels like he is on
cloud nine, the instant he realizes that his friend knows the girl and the
group she hung out with. Yeshwanth decides that this guy is his best friend
from now, he is the guy knows the girl of his dreams. He decides to invite his
friend over for a couple of drinks. It is a known fact that while drinking even
strangers turn into buddies, so this guy being his friend would surely help him
in getting the girl of his dreams! Yeshwanth is counting minutes, seconds and
days till he gets to meet his friend so he can gather all the information he
can about his dream girl, before he plans his next steps to pursue her. Whether
or not he gets to talk to that girl….that time alone will tell! This surely is
a long wait for Yeshwanth… A really long one!
