Shoot at sight.

Many of my 'brilliant' ideas strike in the 15 minutes before I fall asleep. Then, of course, I cannot fall asleep. Which makes these 15 minutes pretty much like any other 15 minutes I guess...Anyway, it's probably that semi-sleep state which induces such profundity (no wonder I spout brilliant philosophy at the office!). My dreams and related nonsense will shortly be published in a 3 volume series - but that's a whole different story. Cross references to the time spent listening to me talk of my dreams may be found in some of my friends' biographies under the section "Most painful/boring/wasteful 3 hours of my life".
But this is not really what I wanted to talk about.
I wanted to talk about change. Oh, yes I know enough and more has been said by people far cleverer than I, but to me, change is a very personal thing. I may not give two shits if the Lee showroom which was here is now there. But I do care when the beautiful trees I remember lining the Secunderabad main road are cut down to build a flyover. I do care when 50 year-old shops are torn down to make a wider road (this I am not against and even think necessary - but the look of the old shops will be missed). From an amateur chronicler's point of view, I care when I think of all the things I can see today which my children may not be able to see someday.

So, my brilliant-beyond-brilliant idea was to drive thru this lovely sheher of mine, and capture it on film. Random footage, basically. Of people, roads, unfinished development work, empty spaces, greenery. The last two, Im worried, might be rare sights in 10 years. Not an especially novel idea, I know. But, like I said, it's novel to me personally. And that's good enough.
So I made some grand plans on the Saturday. With Amma going to Australia in 2 days, I had limited time with the cam. By the time she comes back, it'll be too hot to run around in the daytime filming. So it had to be this Sat and Sun.
Plan A (best laid) - start off at around 11 am. Begin at Tank bund - the divider between Hyd and Sec. Chart a route and cover as much as we can.

Of course, things didn't go exactly as planned. We tried starting at 1.30 ish. But a few spanners casually tossed by delightful circumstance brought the proceedings to a grinding halt.

Well, some proceedings, at least. Best laid eh? Absolutely! Heh heh..I pun.

Anyway, we figure out the camera and start at about 4 ish. This actually turned out to be brilliant, cos the lighting was excellent, it wasnt too hot, we were in a lovely mood...all of which might have been ruined if we'd started earlier. Besides, the battery eventually lasted just as long as the light.
Two and a half hours and 70 km later, we had 43 minutes of what might look strange to the untrained eye. To the trained eye, it's probably absolute rubbish.
But who cares? This is for me. For us. For whoever wants to take a look 10 years later at the city of our youth. For whoever wants to thumb through time, in a very small way. Capture something as eternal, yet ephemeral, as time.

Film is such a wonderful thing.