I was born and brought up in north-eastern India – a region that was largely isolated from the rest of the country for most of the previous century. It’s unabashedly blessed by the surrounding unspoilt and verdant hills and also steeped in unique cultural diversity. It was only after landing into a bustling megapolis; and often putting up valiant but failed attempts to latch onto the bandwagon; did I realize the significance of what was no longer with me. I missed my family, friends and mostly – the air of adventure. While I managed to fit into the city life, I also eventually started relishing the seamless getaways and vistas that Bengaluru had access to. I’m truly and quite grateful that I’m here. As for my day job, I’m a vice president with a major investment bank and oversee functions ranging from software and data engineering to NLP, machine learning and analytics.
Regrettably, it took much longer for the photography skills in me to take shape. I hail from a time and family where access to internet, need to travel and ownership of a camera were preceded over by other survival essentials. Consequently, it took a while for me to turn technically competent enough to qualify for a camera. For the initial 8 to 9 years of my travels, I strutted around armed with either a hapless single digit megapixel phone camera or a nondescript point-and-shoot. I cringed at the fact that my exploits were so unremarkable that even my family would frown upon them. The moment of inflection and reckoning came in 2017 when I bought my first advanced DSLR. It’s been close to three years now and my fascination with the craft has only deepened every day – taking me across most continents and destinations not even on Google Maps. Photography has provided me the balance and perspective that were unbeknownst to me previously – allowing me to grow both as a professional and human being. I evolved from a ‘tourist who photographed’ to a ‘curator of memories’. I specifically focus on landscape and architecture photography since I’m a tad too shy to shoot other living beings. Hampi, Peruvian Andes and the Raja Ampat islands remain my dream expeditions.