LIFE ENRICHMENT - 3: LEARNING LIFE THROUGH LENS

LEARNING LIFE THROUGH LENS

BY P S SUNDAR

I happen to have photographed a photographer himself!

Dethan Punalur is a celebrated photographer of Coonoor who has won many awards for his captivating snaps on nature.  He has staged 31 exhibitions by now.  His creativity is not through manipulation of lens but looking at nature with a 'different eye', a 'third eye'!   People come across these subjects in their day-to-day life but seldom do they see them the way Dethan does as I had captured in this photograph of this photographer and the article published in The New Indian Express on Oct 8, 2009:

And, his snaps on monkeys are a treat for eyes and mind as I have grouped here:

Of these, regarding the left middle photo, my exclusive article, "Monkey's grief Eternised" published in The New Indian Express on Oct 26, 2012 (see below) documents a mother monkey grieving over her dead baby, a photograph that speaks volume and has won 'National Geographic' recognition.  Regarding the right middle photo, my article, "Monkey Manners: Adults scold the brats" published in The New Indian Express on Nov 19, 2012, (see below) describes the father-son-grooming in monkeys!!

Of the rest, the left top shows monkey counting 'one..two..three'...right top shows monkey examining the expiry date before drinking the juice!..left bottom is monkey's prayer to The Cross while right bottom is running race..I have documented this monkey behaviour in my article in Dec 2012-Feb 2013 issue of Contemporary Tea Time (see below) 

  

And this study on monkey behaviour is incomplete without this article of mine published in The New Indian Express on Sep 14, 2013:

Dethan's photographic study on Coonoor could easily become a document on landscape history as years roll by as I have recorded in this article published in The New Indian Express on March 20, 2013:

And, there is a book authored (no, photographed!!) by Dethan as I have enumerated in these articles published in The New Indian Express on June 13, 2012:

On Christmas day (Dec 25, 2013), Dethan shared with me a unique photo showing a symmetrical line-up of monkeys with two babies, frightened but alert, at left and right end while five adults were calmly sitting in between them

“They had a hunger-less satisfied countenance which made me feel that after a sumptuous Christmas lunch, they all had assembled for a family group photograph!   And so like a sincere photographer, I clicked as they gave me this unique pose!   Soon thereafter, however, they made their way back to the forests as thick mist started obstructing visibility”, Dethan detailed.

This is the family Group Photo after Christmas lunch!

And this New Year (2014), Dethan shared with me as Greetings a photo he had taken.  The message is, while all along monkeys had been travelling by jumping from place to place, this is a photo to show their organised way of climbing through a ladder!   "Probably, for the monkeys, this is the modern technology", Dethan said. Herewith this photo:

Just as the Nilgiris is famous for monkeys, it is famous for hotels as well!  So, what happens when a monkey visits a hotel served by another monkey?  This is how it will be with the waiter monkey asking the guest monkey politely, "Anything more, Sir?"..notes Dethan in this photo he shared with me on Feb 21, 2014:

On Vijayadasami day (Oct 3, 2014), Dethan sent me this photo showing monkeys' engagement with rice..Dethan wrote, "In Kerala, today is Vidhyaramabam with 'Hari' and 'Shri' but here, it is 'Ari' (rice) and Sthree (female)!

On Nov 4, 2014, Dethan sent me this photo which is another study of monkeys linking with human behaviour.  Here, one monkey is tickling the other to make him laugh as Dethan put it, "Laughter is the best medicine".. when you don't laugh by yourself, tickling does the trick!