21 days lock down in India and Macro Photography.

Somnath Nandi

:As I said earlier, I work in a tea garden. The work style here is different. At 7am, I have to go to the office. Come to the Quarter for half an hour to tiffin

between 9 am and 10 am. Come to the Quarter for lunch for two hours, between 1 pm and 3 pm. After two hours of bathing and resting I went back to the office. From the office to the quarters, it is around 9 pm. Some days it is 12 o'clock at night to return. In other gardens, staff don't have to stay that long. The number of staff in our garden is very few. I have to handle the whole office.

Anyway, without holidays I wouldn't go for pictures. And holiday in the tea garden is short. We have a weekend in

the garden on Sundays. And I'm busier that day. I have to buy fish, vegetables, herbs and other things all week long. Cooking is another great hobby of mine. So, taking pictures is no more. Even pictures of ‘Gangasagar Mela’ and ‘kolkata flower show’ were not edited. So, I look forward to holidays other than Sundays.

Lock down has been announced for Corona Virus (Covid-19) all over India for 21 consecutive days from 24^th March. But our garden has been locked out since 5^th March 2020. Management has left the garden on

04/03/2020 night. On the one hand, the fear of losing my job (if the garden doesn't open) on the other hand is a chance to take pictures. I couldn't think what to do.

Meanwhile my friend Dr. Parthapratim has been asking me to create a blog for a long time. Although he has a website built with a web designer but he is not very fond of it. This vacation I made him a blog. I made two blogs for me ten / twelve years ago. I thought about how to create another blog. I started working immediately. I created "Debashis Guha's Photography". This is the blog.

Blog is created. This time I have to take pictures for the blog.  Finally, I contacted my photography partner Somnath Nandi. His health was not very good. However, on March 8, he informed, “I have to go to the office for special work, tomorrow there will be a spring festival in Dhupguri, whether it can be programmed here. I'll call in the night.” And at night I got news that Somnath was no longer alive.

The next morning, I went to Somnath's house, i.e. 09/3/2020 (spring festival day). Seeing the house, I

could not understand anything. His mother was doing her usual homework. I didn't know what to do.

I did not enter their house and went straight to the opposite house. It was there that his mother did not know that Somnath was no more. I found out that his wife was in Jalpaiguri and Somnath's body was kept at the hospital there. I called his wife. I couldn't think what to say. She was very socked. Repeatedly asked me to go to Jalpaiguri Hospital.

I went straight to Jalpaiguri and returned home at night by burning Somnath's dead body. Nothing seemed good to me. The interest in taking pictures was

diminished. So, I was staying at home. I cook occasionally. No job looks good anymore. Several days passed this way.

On 22/03/2020, the Prime Minister announced the ‘Janata Curfew’. And the ‘lockdown’ started around the country from 24/03/2020. Even when I went to the market, I stopped.

How long will I cook? Where can I find vegetables, fish, meat? My wife was occasionally arguing with me because I messed up the gas table a lot and used a lot of dishes.  Finally, I took the camera again. I took the camera but what will I take? Finally, around the quarter I took some Macro pictures. Here are some pictures of them.