Click...Click...

I am now looking at a mouse when I read that word Click. But once Click was associated with cameras. Now too, it is still associated with them. Photographs bring back memories that lie deep down making us laugh, smile, and cry. Camera captures the moment as if it is worth. Moments are worth anyway. A photo can convey everything to us only if we are sensitive. Otherwise, we can, we may if at all, appreciate only the shapes, the shades and the shadows, and not the moods and the emotive modes that are embedded.

'Clicking' has some disadvantages too. It affects the sustenance of those precious moments; sometimes by reducing their intensity, and at other times, by stopping them altogether.

Photography is an art. It is also an art to know when to click and when not to.

You remember how Bob Fisher asked - asked is indeed a mild word - FIDE officials to throw photographers out of the room when he played Spassky in 1972 World Chess Championship Title Match. That is a thrilling story in itself but that's for another occasion.

But what happened in 1949 when Shri Puri Sankaracharya met Shri Ramana Maharshi?

Excerpts from Letters from Ramanasramam - Volume.2 by Suri Nagamma, Translated by D.S. Sastri:

At the time of his [Acharya's] coming, Bhagavan [Maharshi] sat cross-legged in his usual Padmasana pose and with his characteristic silence...[Acharya] saluted him. Bhagavan nodded his head in acceptance of the salutations and with great regard requested him by signs to sit on the seat arranged for him. He did not, however, sit there but sit down nearby on a deer-skin and began looking at Bhagavan with a fixed stare. Bhagavan too looked at him with an unwavering and compassionate look. Neither spoke. The audience also kept perfect silence like the still waters of a great lake. For about half an hour, both of them remained absolutely still like that, exemplifying the relation between devotion and compassion. At that time, Bhagavan's face shone like the illumination of a crore of sun gods. Because of the brilliance, the faces of the people who came to witness this scene also blossomed like lotus flowers. A glorious voice saying, "What a splendour on Bhagavan's face!" appeared to ring in the hearts of all the people there. One amongst them spontaneously said, "It will be very good indeed if someone takes a photo now." As though the silence were disturbed by those words, the Acharya got up, respectfully asked for permission to leave...