“Just as for out there, the lockdown caused for the cancellation of a lot of plans. For me, the lockdown fell right at the moment when I got a break for 1 or 2 months from routine life after a very long time. I was mentally preparing myself for a month-long period of travel and photography. Being a photography enthusiast, I had a whole schedule planned about places I had to visit to click make some photographs and spend time with my hobby for a while. There was also a list of competitions I wanted to participate in.

But the plan had to be completely demolished as this holiday was to be spent inside with absolutely no travelling allowed. Frustration followed as I may never get this kind of break to pursue my passion. After this break, routines will restart and this kind of time will not come back.

It felt like travelling all the way to a friend’s house only to find his door locked. I couldn’t take it! Should I just accept the frustration? Maybe not. As it would happen, one day, I just took some time out to water plants in my balcony. I found some light coming through a small gap in the roof. It created some interesting patterns in the water I was sprinkling to the plants. An idea struck me instantly right there. I got my camera out and clicked a picture of the patterns. But, something was missing in the picture. I needed someone to be standing there. After a lot of through, I got out an old toy I had, put it there and clicked again! I was fascinated by the result and there it began – my tryst with toy photography.

I tried using smoke. I tried using powder. I tried different miniatures. I tried different locations. I didn’t need to go out to pursue my passion. I just needed to look around at the resources I already had at my disposal.

We often tend to do this. We find excuses. We blame the things we don’t have for not doing. We could have done a better job with what we had. I should have tried new things. I participated in many competitions just as I wanted, with what I had started. I got positive feedback from many people. I started sharing these on social media and I discovered a whole community of people who were trying this. I learned a lot of new things from them.

Now one of my toy clicks is featured in a London based magazine and in a 2021 calendar both yet to be published. I represented team India in Toy Pic Olympics conducted by @toypic_community on Instagram and my team won second place too. All of this happened within this one lockdown period.”

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