I had my camera bag stolen from my car about two weeks back. It had quite a bit of equipment in it. Please don't ask me the details - I will probably punch you in the face. As a result,I have started carrying very little equipment on a daily basis because I am scared. I feel that I might have my equipment stolen again. Now there are two schools of thought as far as that is concerned. One, which consists mostly of my friends, says - lightning never strikes the same place twice. The other school(or rather an institution), which is my head has the following theory: "The thief has my car marked and has my number noted down... he followed me that day and has been keeping an eye on me ever since.He is waiting for a chance to strike again!!!" Result? The second school of thought is winning hands down.
The bottom line is - I have kind of slowed down. What has happened is that it has made me turn minimalist(I like the sound of that word!) and re-examine the kind of equipment I use and how I use it. The mantra - "don't take a picture... make a picture!" has been resonating in my head. The following pictures are a result of trying to follow that mantra. The first two are that of my wife, Gul and the third photograph features Behzaad Khan, who plays an extremely important part in my show Arjun. And yeah, the awesome selfie that I posted a few days back on my Facebook page is also a result of the same.
There is also an emerging third school of thought which says whatever happens, happens for the best. So the thief who took my camera has actually done me a favour and forced me to come close to what I have been trying to achieve and I should actually be happy that I had my camera stolen. All the people who belonged to the third school are no longer on my friend list. One of them also woke up to discover that the windscreen of his car had mysteriously cracked during the night.
Needless to say that at the moment, I am not a heavy believer in karma and it gives me immense joy to think about the person who stole my camera in a head to head with a heavy-ish kind of vehicle.