Hi Karl, I hope this is not irrelevant, if it is please excuse me (and delete this post). There is an article in today's times of India, Bangalore edition about Ms.Homai Vyarawalla i thought would add to the history of your car's previous owner and her illustrious life.
She captured Nehru, and is still going strong at 97 Says Black & White Make The Best Photos TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Bangalore: Sitting in her wheelchair, paying hardly any attention to the latest cameras in the hands of photographers or bothered by its lights flashing on her face,little would you think that this was the lady who made Mahatma Gandhi say, “She will leave only after making me go blind with her flashes.”
Homai Vyarawalla, 97, the first woman journalist of the country, was in town for the exhibition of her photographs at the National Gallery of Modern Arts. Outside the gallery, she sat with the press and reminisced about her good old days with the camera.
“That was a totally different world. Moral values were different. My colleagues were gentlemen and there was no bias against women in the field. There were instances when we had to stay overnight in one tent. There was no competition, it was just cooperation. I used to bicycle from Safdarjung Airport to Connaught Place in Delhi at midnight,” she said in her strong, articulate voice.
Homai was into the profession when India was going through its most turbulent times. Associated with many leaders, she narrated her experiences: “Gandhiji was averse to camera flashlights, and I did not know that. When he was going for a prayer meeting, there were no streetlights and I started clicking photos. He shouted: ‘She will not leave me till she blinds me with that flash’.”
Later, during his funeral procession, she climbed up a storm water pipe along with six of her colleagues to get the photo from a different angle, when Nehru and Lord Mountbatten were next to his body.
Photos, she says, is about being in the right place at the right time. And one of her best photos was clicked like that. “Vijayalakshmi Pandit was coming to meet her brother. Nehru was waiting for the plane to land. After she came out, Nehru went forward and hugged her. The man standing in front of me moved just in time, giving me an opportunity to click,” she said.
When one of the reporters raised a question about the relationship between Nehru and Lady Mountbatten, she replied sharply. “It was none of our business. It was not my idea of a photojournalist to pry into other people’s lives. Many people had some skeletons in their cupboard. This was their way of diverting attention from it. Let them live the way they want to.”She still feels that black and white photographs say the best stories. “Photography is black and white, tones and shadows.” When in the field, she had an added advantage when compared to her male colleagues. She usually got the subject looking into her camera, with curiosity, at the only woman in the male crowd. In a Punjabi dress (salwar kameez) or a saree worn in the Parsi style, she always stood out in the crowd.
It was with a deep sense of integrity that she worked every day. Ask her why she quit journalism and she would say, “I got into it as I wanted to do something different. Years later, photojournalists started sitting in their offices and sending darkroom boys. They were not that educated and did not have discipline. Once an ambassador said, ‘Someone please throw these bloody photographers out’. I did not want to work without respect. I was even instrumental in instituting a dress code (coats) for photojournalists entering Rashtrapathi Bhavan.”
At this statement, somebody in the crowd murmured, “If she was in the profession today, she would have whacked many with the camera tripod!” Homai heard, and burst into laughter.
LIFE AND TIMES OF HOMAI VYARAWALLA
Born in 1913 to a Parsi family in Navsari, Gujarat Graduate of St Xavier’s College and JJ School of Arts, Mumbai Learnt photography from her friend, who became her husband in 1941 Moved to Delhi in 1942, where she managed family and professional life with ease Employed with British Information Services and freelanced in evenings Quit journalism in 1970 Lived with son, who was a professor at Bits-Pilani After son’s untimely death, living alone in Baroda
CRAZY CAREER
Travelled in an army truck in Sikkim Took photographs from a crane above Bhakhra dam Travelled through the jungles of Manipur Drove through Kumbh Mela in a fire engine, ringing the bell While taking a photograph from a height, crashlanded in front of Mohammed Ali Jinnah Fell into the water body around Taj Mahal while taking photos of Earl Warren Day started as early as 4.30am, and ended by 2am
Homai Vyarawalla at the National Gallery Of Modern Art in Bangalore on Thursday