An Anecdote on my experience in a Photo-Studio

 

            Ten years ago, I went to a Photo-Studio along with my husband for the purpose of taking a passport size photo. The manager asked me to await a while. I waited there for almost half an hour. Then he directed me to a room. The photographer was a teenage girl. She was grave and glanced at me without zeal. I witnessed that girl walking from that room to the reception umpteen number of times that too at a snail’s pace which ultimately revealed her disinterested attitude. She asked me to be seated. While I enquired her, she responded that she had got to dash off immediately. I came to know that her co-worker who must have been there by that time had not yet turned up. All of a sudden, a girl entered as fast as the streaming rain. The Photographer started scolding that girl for her belated arrival. It must have been a sudden rush of blood to the head that prompted them to have such an unceasing argument. The photographer started enlisting a series of instructions without even looking at my face. I followed her advice blindly. She instructed to me, “Don’t turn your head. Turn your face”. A sea of agitated thoughts and frustrated feelings engulfed my mind on hearing that statement. It was quite natural that I desired to get my photo in a satisfactory condition. So I did not lose my temper. In the words of George Meredith, I was ‘as obedient as a Puppet’. I heard the ‘click’ sound within an eye-wink which made me realize that the photo was taken. I left the room and went to the manager’s desk. In a fit of fury, I asked him “How is it possible for anyone to turn his or her Countenance without shaking head?” We left the place before he tried to pacify me. When I recounted that incident to the members of my family, everyone burst into laughter. I could not help but recall the adage ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’. The whole week before I got back my photo, I was as restless as a cat on hot bricks because I had assumed that I might perhaps have to face the similar bitter experience as confronted by Stephen Leacock, the reputed English writer. Contradictory to my pre-conceived notion, I received my photo as an exact replica of my visage. Literally, my joy knew no bounds.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                -Dr.V.Anuradha