By Tony FernandesIt’s been since in the mid-1960’s when I got my first camera. Until the late 1980’s I was simply fascinated with Kodachrome transparency film. Though I had to wait for nearly 2 weeks to receive the film made into slides, it definitely was worth the wait.
The enjoyment was many-fold. First, the fulfillment was in joy of viewing the transparencies on a battery-operated slide-viewer, and later, after sorting them out and arranging them in sequence. Then there was the added benefit of viewing them with family and friends on weekends, using a projector. Still, later, if preferred, you had yet another choice of making prints from the slides of your choice.
Before acquiring a back-lit slide-viewer, I must have spent quite a number of hours holding up slides to the light through the window with a magnifying glass.
Although the days of shooting slides may have long gone past, the brilliant colours and details still remain if stored with care. After alternating between slide film and print film in the beginning, I did carry two cameras at times, one with each type of film.
Eventually, even though I gradually decided to phase out shooting slides by mid-1990’s, my interest in viewing old ones did not ebb. Since then, once in a while, I would retrieve them, sort out the good exposures from the bad, and make prints from the ones I liked the most.
Today I hold dear and reminisce about the sheer joy of transparencies of another era.
This picture is converted from an original slide, lying dormant for so many years among the other pictures of that era. So, in order to bring it back to life on the computer I thought I would use my old Asahi Pentax close-up lenses with a 1970's model Hansa bellows slide-copier coupled to a Nikon D401X Digital Camera. And voila! I thought now we are getting somewhere, although the result is not super, I guess it is somewhat acceptable, considering the numbers of years that have passed being stored in its immediately identifiable trademark yellow box with a transparent lid.
The picture's shown here has certain attributes worth noting. They are, without a doubt, the obvious: the clean Margao streets, the good old Caminhao is still seen then plying around in the distance, Volkswagen Beetles are seen in front of the imposing building that bears a sign that reads: THE GOA STATE COOPERATIVE BANK, on close inspection.
Generally, in the overall picture very few people seem to be out on the streets. No hustle and bustle. Everything appears calm, simple, rustic and in no hurry as is evident in the leisurely walk of the 2 guys in the foreground: a short-trousered Goan perhaps befriending someone in a lungi for the first time. The lone cyclist also seems to have his way – he is riding right in the centre of the road, which is not possible today. A well dressed man seems to be perhaps walking towards his office. Business is going on as usual.
The picture certainly conveys an overall calm and leisurely life of a laid-back picturesque town. No, I did not expect want it to be laid back or remain that way forever. But it has changed too drastically, and gone from good to worse.
Compare that picture to the disorder, mismanagement and unruliness of today, and the only picture we can draw is one full of chaos and confusion.
Tony Fernandes
Author of: GOA - Memories of my Homeland
Poems & Stories, Illustrations and Photographs
www.tonferns.blogspot.com
