*The old school photography* 

 

Until the time that I had my first hair cut , I was sporting long hair . My older sister , when she visited Bhimli , used to make plaits of my long hair . 

I feel amused whenever I see the rare photographs of myself wearing a onesie (బాడీషరాయి) and sporting the plaits .

I said 'rare photographs' because photography was not very common in those days and this old school photography used to be very complicated .In those olden days when digital technology was not known, photography was a two-step magic trick: first, light created a negative on film, where everything appeared reversed. Then the negative was used to make a positive print on photographic paper.

So it was basically: click → wait → develop → print → pray! 😂

No instant preview, no filters, no “delete”—just chemistry, patience, and hoping nobody blinked!

One Nageshwar photo studio was having monopoly in this area in  Bhimli .

As I learnt, this photographer was scared stiff of my father's wrath . Thus every photograph took  a long time to shoot .

If you ever happen to see that one  family photograph of ours wherein my older brother Suryanarayanamurthy Annayya ducked a little to his left , you may wonder as to what made him do so .

The secret is like this .

I was perhaps a months old baby sitting in my mother's lap and my Annayya was sitting at my mother's feet posing for the said photo. 

The photographer took such a long time that by the time he exposed , I

  passed water . My poor Annayya had to duck to his left to avoid getting drenched . As seen in that photo, he could succeed only partly !

The photography session was an interesting event in my Choodakaranam ceremony and my photograph with my younger brother is the highlight !