My favourite place for going ‘click-click’ is the Mumbai’s International Airport, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. I find countless opportunities to take photos.

We see people waiting for their loved ones to come out of Gate B or C. They keep their eyes fixed on the gate; they do not speak a word. When Fran Lebowitz said ‘The opposite of talking isn’t listening; the opposite of talking is waiting,’ he must have been watching people waiting at the airport for someone to arrive.

I do not like waiting and so also my grandson. We become restless. It is difficult to keep young persons at one place, they keep moving. With him, I explored the ground floor – P6 level – I do not know if it is ground floor. It is difficult to make out given the design of the Mumbai airport. My daughter clicked this photograph. The sight of an old man and his grandson walking together is such a cute sight. Sepia colour catches the age and mood.

And we discovered a spot where a stream of sunlight comes through the roof. The grandson stood there and smiled happily when he realised that I was clicking his photo. As we age this innocence in the smile is lost. That loss is irreversible. The ageing process takes away many invaluable facets of our personality.

Early morning light is different. I’m It comes at an angle, and gets reflected on the roads. I enjoy my early morning walks because there are no distractions. A scene like this makes me stop in the tracks. Spots that we visit look so different at different times of the day when the sunlight beautifies it. Photography taught me to live in the present.

I was enjoying this monsoon weather sitting at a table in large gallery on one of the upper floors of a multi-storied building. I was fiddling with the camera of my mobile when she walked in. Click, click. A human figure makes such a big difference to the photograph.

Henri Cartier-Bresson said, ‘It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera. They are made with the Eye, Heart and Head.’  Oh, how true!

PS: I publish my monthly Photographic Journal on this website. Please explore.

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” All matter copyrighted.