Photographs in Bala Mandir

Taking a breather after a whirlwind of activities for the Bala Mandir Diamond Jubilee celebrations, I was reading the BM -75 Coffee Table Book. The happiness and satisfaction that I felt while looking at some of the black and white, and some very old photos featured in the book cannot be expressed in words.  It was the effort of the past 11 years that I had invested in collecting, collating and preserving, both physical and soft copies of the photographs.

A part of my work in BM for the past 11 years, has been, at various stages, categorising, scanning, safeguarding all the old photos and documents that were at various places in Bala Mandir.

My interests have always been inclined towards History, and when I got to handle some of the old documents signed by Shri. K. Kamarajar and Smt S Manjubhashini, Founders of Bala Mandir and few old wedding invitations of our Bala Mandir girls, I had goose-bumps! Though during the past few years, I had been sharing archived documents and photos wherever required, it gives me immense pleasure to see many of them featuring in the landmark BM-75 Coffee Table Book. While I was gift wrapping the first copy of the book to be released, I felt an emotional connection with the book itself.

I was also given the task by PN Sir of making 12 standees for the celebrations. He and Maya ma gave me the free reign to pick and choose photos. Along with the collection that I already had, PN sir gave me hundreds of photos from various units from his collections over the years, and I worked on choosing and selecting the photos that would be appropriate for the standees. We planned for two standees for each unit – ten in all and two standees with only logos of 60-65-70-75 years, a total of 12 standees.

I worked non-stop for almost four hours – had to be choosy with photos – ones with good resolutions and non-repetitive ones. The work was given to me on 5^th March morning and with the designer not available from 8 th March and myself busy with a family wedding on 6^th and 7^th, it was literally a race against time. I had to complete the work, get it approved and sent to her by the same day – 5^th March – whew…a herculean task it was.
Finally, I chose ten photos for each standee, and gave the designer – Ms. Malvika – options of 15 photos for each standee – and requested her to complete the designing within a day, so that we could give print orders and receive the standees in two days’ time. Malvika understood our situation, and was very accommodative. She designed the standees to utmost satisfaction – with appropriate photos and headings suggested by PN sir. The layout   by PN sir, and we got them printed and delivered to Bala Mandir on the 8^th of March.

On 9^th, the day before the D-day, PN sir and I planned on positioning the standees – 12 new ones and 4 old ones that we already had – at strategic places in the function hall, and they were placed accordingly.  Needless to say that effort paid off, the standees attracted much attention and favourable comments.

When you see your work for over a decade being displayed and used well, it gives an immense pleasure and satisfaction. I am sure you all would agree with me!