Here I Go!

Hello All!

I am Uday Shankar Hajra. Artist. Photographer. Dilettante par excellance. Lover of good cinema, music and books. Tetotaller, non-smoker, non-religious, spiritual, tea and coffee addict and a lotus-eater if there was one!



I love a good conversation but generally cannot get along with people. Especially the uptight sort and these days they come a dime a dozen. I don't believe in secret ballots. if you ask me, and I like your face, chances are that I'll tell you the party or candidate I've voted for. I like it that way. I like the people of Sikkim, who fly the flag of the party they support from their roof-tops! that is how it should be in a perfect society.

In a couple of years time I'll be 50. Too late to start anthing? These days people start at 20 and wind up by 30....ok 40. But that's about it. No kidding, but people do stare at you if you tell them you were born in 1960! That far back?

These days everything comes with 'use by..' dates. Corporates hire people in their early 20s and turn them into vice-presidents or deputy general mangers before they complete 30. My father-in-law worked in a MNC, a true MNC that really does business all over the world ( not like the home-grown MNCs we have that work in India, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Maldives and maybe, just maybe, Vietnam!) for 40 years and was made DGM when he had 2 years to retire!

When we were in our 20s, life meant college, politics, endless dirty tea in dirty cups, Antonioni, Godard, Bergman, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, cigerrates ( no booze) and sleep. Sleep, yes! We slept like logs. Some of my pals never woke up before 12 noon!These days people sleep so little( the citi never sleeps!). It's as if if you sleep you miss out on a whole lot of things.
bye for now, uday