Author: T S Satyan
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 322
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143033530
Description
When you spend eighty summers on one planet with a camera in hand, things happen, events occur, and you have a bunch of experiences and encounters because you were there at the right time at the right place, says T.S. Satyan, award-winning photojournalist and winner of the Padma Shri in 1977. A vivid montage of people and places, Alive and Clicking is about chance meetings and brief encounters, beautifully portrayed in a style reminiscent of a long-lost era.
Spanning eighty years of what is perhaps the most eventful century in history, the book recounts the days Satyan spent with luminaries like Nobel Laureate C.V. Raman and virtuoso film-maker Satyajit Ray; the significant moments he captured in the lives of leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Pope Paul VI; and his enduring friendships with creative masterminds like R.K. Narayan and R.K. Laxman. It also portrays vividly his experiences as a photographer in places as varied as Sikkim, Afghanistan, Arunachal Pradesh and Malaysia, and describes phenomenal events like the massacre of the non-violent satyagrahis by the Portuguese rulers in Goa and the mayhem that followed the assassination of Mujibur Rahman in Bangladesh.
Like a slow, easy ride in a carriage, Alive and Clicking takes us through the dusty paths of Mysore of the 1930s and 40s to the farthest corners of India and countries beyond, recording for posterity an extraordinary life lived in interesting times.
REVIEWS
There is still much of the boy in Satyan-at eighty-one, he retains the same robust curiosity about the world that he did when he was eight.
-From the Foreword by Ramachandra Guha
Contents
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
WHY DID I WRITE?
Growing up in Mysore
The Initiation
The Illustrated Weekly of India
Princely House of Learning
Riding a Dream Horse
Life in Pre-Wired Bangalore
The Raman Effect
Visvesvaraya: The Jewel in the Crown
The Little Mermaid
The Great Anointing
Bloodshed on the Goa Border
One wonderful Month in Delhi
Prime time in Delhi
Waiting for the Dalai Lama
Sirimavo and Her Angels
Walking with Vinoba Bhave
The Decisive Moment
Afghanistan Before the Fall
The Bangladesh Massacre
Gentle Fangs in a Temple
Arunachal Pradesh: The Changing Panorama
Enchanting Sikkim
The connoisseur King
The Yogi and the Violinist
The Maharani At the Hustings
The Malgudi Man
Remembering a Field Marshal
The Man Who saw a thousand Full Moons
Ray of Genius
R K Laxman Returns Home
The Wizard of the Veena
The First Woman Photojournalist Of India
Photographing the Pope
Death in the valley of Flowers
Raghubir Singh: The Dream-Chaser
Reaching Out
Footloose an Fancy-Free
INDEX