This photo was taken during our final days of engineering...The guys from the left are, Sudhagar, Vinod, Me(at the back), Karthik, Devarajan, Venky(the far right) and Arun(in front of me)...It was taken in my room...actually my room is the coolest room in the entire mansion..so most times, it used to full to capacity...that day, Devaraj had brought his camera from the hostel(he and Karthik stayed in the hostel, others all were day scholars)...A novel idea came up to my mind...I suggested that all hold a candle in hand and would pose for the photo...let all the ligts in the room be switched off and hence, it would be like those Manirathnam movies,(especially that shot in Agninakshathiram, when Amla's face would be shown in closeup with a faint light on her face- when Prabhu comes in when the girls smoke...remember????)...everyone was so enthralled by the idea...afterall it was equated with Manirathinam, and the support was instantaneous...Devaraj was adamant that the roll in the camera was about to over and there might not be enough rolls left to shoot...there might be maximum 1 film left...but who listens???...He was made to buy the candles too...this was all after we had our lunch and he was made to go to shop(some 1/2 KM away), buy some candles ..who would want to pose with broken candles in our rooms for a momentous shot like this...better we all have full length, new candles...in the meanwhile, all camera angles were checked, positions verified, illumination calculated and trial runs conducted with broken candles...the place to hold the candles, so that all faces get maximum illumination....everything checked and a poor chap from the adjacent room was asked and infact trained to shoot the ultimate shot...he was warned, adviced, cajouled, threatened, and all pressure applied on him to bear in mind the novelty of the idea and the likes...Devaraj comes with candles..infact he had brought two more than planned(jus in case they broke while coming back!!!!)...
Now comes the most important part...the clicking...everyone went into their positions..according to the plan already decided...so, here we all go, settle down, smile and get ready....the guy clicks the camera....
Boom goes the <<<<FLASH>>>>>.....where the hell the flash came from????Did anyone think about the flash???apparently no one had thought of it...and you see the result...with all of us visible with the candles....the best idea for photograph of my life....for all to see...a bright day light...
Somethings jus don't go the way we want them to go......it is true even now!!!!