Finding ‘Eve’, New Year’s Resolutions and more

‘Eve’, as spelled means – ‘evening’, mostly referred to the evening before any particular event or occasion! But here, the word ‘Eve’ is not just about an evening but about a beautiful soul who can cast a spell on anyone she meets!

Almost an entire year ago, I saw her for the first time in a club. I have a keen eye for unique personalities in crowd and also for bohemian beauties, travelers and people who has the ability to talk art as they walk without saying a word.

Well, Eve was dancing in a group of really good-looking people, mostly foreigners! They all seemed to be of the fashion industry. We Indians do have this weird habit of staring, I excuse myself by calling it the art of observation!

She had a huge tattoo of Gautam Buddha on her right arm, brunette hair but a very Indian look. I wished I could go talk to her, ask her for a photoshoot, damn! I wanted to click her. But I shrugged it off claiming my lack of self-confidence and inexperience in photography and a few more branches of apprehension.

Those days I used to go for clubbing very often, trying to fit in, thinking I could lay off my stress by dancing in the unnatural hues of disco lights and very natural scent of alcohol and smoke. I was trying to find myself by losing myself in the crowd, that directionless I was! Slowly, with each passing day I started gaining myself back, realising that this wasn’t the right way to go about it! I saw her in the club every other day but one day I just stopped going.

I came back to life, started dealing with life, facing it eye to eye! Somehow I realised losing myself was the right way to finding myself! I started working more and more, doing shoots for free, assisting people and working for money. Things happened, I started falling in love with myself but I will tell you more about it in the chapter I will post on ‘finding me’. This is about ‘Finding Eve’!

Yes this is about Eve, so I had become confident and ambitious, so on New year’s eve, rather than going out or meeting people to party, I locked myself in a room, took out my diary and made plans –

First plan was to meet people from different backgrounds, reach them out only with the intention of exploring, learning and spreading good vibes, now that can’t be intentional but I was just sending good thoughts to the universe.

Second plan was related to work, I decided to do just four commercial shoots in a month in 2016 and one personal shoot (free of cost) to enhance my own skills and execute my ideas into photo-stories.

Third plan was to enable myself to travel by saving enough money to ensure my own safety while on the road, I know this is a completely wrong attitude for a person who wants to travel and not be a tourist but I believe I need to be at it before claiming to be able.

I somehow managed to do five shoots in January, made 3 new friends who are precious enough to treasure and one of them turned out to be Eve, I came across her through a friend, somehow managed to track her down on facebook and ask her for a photoshoot!

To my great delight, she seemed to be more excited than me but there was a problem, she was leaving India in two days and we had no time to brainstorm the concepts. I didn’t reply to her for almost two hours when she asked me if it was possible for me to do it just the next day, i.e exactly after 14 hours including 8 hours of sleep. In my head, I had said no. I didn’t reply and went out with a friend to eat ‘golgappas’, my everyday routine, too close to my heart to let go of! On my way back, I kept thinking about it, she was going to leave the country, probably she would be never coming back. But more than anything else, I just kept wondering whether I was big enough to say no, the golgappa seller came to my mind, I had observed this really nice thing about him, which is, that he never says ‘no’ to anything, I don’t like it spicy bhaiya! ‘Can you make the pani less spicy?’ Yes Madam! ‘I like the papdi a little sour, can you add a little bit of nimbu to it?’ Yes Madam! ‘Bhaiya, I want you to pack me three plates in 5 mins, is it possible?‘ Yes Madam! Wow! What a wonderful attitude, he never says ‘no’! Why? Because he wants to grow, he wants to build himself a good amount of customers! You say no when it seems impossible, but never when it just seems difficult! – Lesson learnt! I went home, and dropped her the message saying – ‘Let’s do it!’ And I am glad we did it!

No she is not a model professionally, and very much unlike the people I usually work with. But the reason why she is so special for me is because of the transition that has come about in my life. Her name is pronounced as ‘Evi’ but for me she is the eve that came in my life right before the special transition.

Eve, as beautiful as her name, has a very beautiful soul too – born in france, she spent most of her childhood in Brazil, she came to India all by herself when she was just 22; India, being her first destination of her travel goals, lived her for two years when she had plans of exploring this country for mere 5 months. She had come here to find the spirituality in herself, and become a more patient person, to find the beauty and peace in the nature and to explore the history and stories of places and people! Listening to her stories, I just felt envious that she could find all of it in just two years when most of us cannot find it spending our entire lives here.

Along with her Buddha’s tattoo, she has got 7 chakras done on her back, and ‘atma shanti’ written right below her collarbone, a naagin done on her left calf and several other tattooes on her body. Tattooes are not to symbolise anything in every case, but in her case, through her tattooes, one can easily tell about her love for the country and its influential powers.

There were many evidences of her beautiful soul which totally touched my heart, like once, while shooting, we were walking through a jungle and she happened to step on the ants and she instantly screamed and jumped out of their herd, finding it funny, I asked if she was afraid of ants and she turned to them and said ‘Sorry!’ looking towards the ant and then at me saying – ‘No! I just don’t want to kill them!’

Well, she found what she was looking for while she began to travel – freedom! India gave it to her and she flew off to Thailand to spread more love, peace and freedom! Never have I connected with someone so much in such a little amount of time but yes for me she is an angel who has inspired me in ways that she herself isn’t aware of. ‘Atma Shanti – I am no more directionless!’

I have a bad habit of connecting the dots, but this one was worth it! 🙂