Alive And Clicking

???There is still much of the boy in Satyan??at eighty-one he retains the same robust curiosity about the world that he did when he was eight' ?? from the Foreword by Ramachandra Guha ???. . . when you spend eighty summers on one planet with a camera in hand things happen events occur and you have a bunch of experiences and encounters because you were there at the right time at the right place' says T.S. Satyan award-winning photojournalist and winner of the Padma Shri in 1977. A vivid montage of people and places Alive and Clicking is about chance meetings and brief encounters beautifully portrayed in a style reminiscent of a long-lost era. Spanning eighty years of what is perhaps the most eventful century in history the book recounts the days Satyan spent with luminaries like Nobel Laureate C.V. Raman and virtuoso film-maker Satyajit Ray; the significant moments he captured in the lives of leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Pope Paul VI; and his enduring friendships with creative masterminds like R.K. Narayan and R.K. Laxman. It also portrays vividly his experiences as a photographer in places as varied as Sikkim Afghanistan Arunachal Pradesh and Malaysia and describes phenomenal events like the massacre of the non-violent satyagrahis by the Portuguese rulers in Goa and the mayhem that followed the assassination of Mujibur Rahman in Bangladesh. Like a slow easy ride in a carriage Alive and Clicking takes us through the dusty paths of Mysore of the 1930s and 40s to the farthest corners of India and countries beyond recording for posterity an extraordinary life lived in interesting times.