Ravi Tandukar

Tokyo in 2018 looks different from ten years ago. Somehow the mood seems solemn and quieter, people even more gentler, perhaps scared? Of what? You can still see young children, newborns in the malls, but the population is declining, threatening the entire bred. Mostly people look tired. So do the houses around Tokyo, worn out, grey and seem like waiting to die. This brings sadness. Because the Japanese are  the only remaining truly civilised nation in its entirety in the planet. It is one of those you have to be there to believe kinda things. I cannot imagine the culture shock they would get when they go to places like New York or Sydney, where arrogance and self centeredness have unfortunately become national character traits.

You have to take into account a lot has happened in the last ten years. Colossal Tsunami and nuclear disasters, massive earthquakes, economic upheavals and its slowing down, existential threats from wars and shrinking population, lack of workers have all shaken foundations of Japanese will power and perseverance. Yet they manage to smile at you in every interaction. Imagine a nation going through and has gone through such tremendous forces of nature, bombs and disasters and still managing to thrive amidst the neighbours calling for their blood.

Japan is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, top five surely. Even China cannot match the beauty, sophistication and grandness of its ancient architecture. The nature you see when driving out of Tokyo is breathtaking. Its not just the nature in isolation, because the country is densely populated, the mountains and valleys are dotted with beautiful picturesque villages full of local culture, taste and ancient temples. And the first thing you notice when you are about to land in Tokyo are the green paddy fields and power lines and towers. This in the most industrialised nation on earth. Ancient towns of Narita, Karuizawa, Kyoto that I visited are testament to how beautifully they lived and still do.

On my way back to home from Sydney airport, my cabbie was a Chinese. I was explaining to him about how polite the Japanese are, and he could not resist mentioning what they have done to Chinese in the past. I cannot see anything the current Japanese have to do with the evil deeds of their forefathers. Not pardoning of the horrendous crimes they committed, but I think the current Japan deserve forgiveness, it does not seem fair that the current and future generations have to keep on bearing the guilt.

Stuck in a puke inspiring traffic back from work, trying to control the bladder explosion, it occurred to me why people are so mean, terse and short fused in the big cities. I got the answer, right there, in the middle of the road, waiting to turn right into Burwood from Parramatta road.

Work, a corporate jungle, a pressure cooker of pretentious existence, I think, is never going to get naturalised by humans. No matter how much make believing you do. If you are lucky you will have good boss and colleagues, or else put up with the tools, ugly politics, undermining, ungratefulness, bitching and plain stupidity while the mortgage is laughing down at you. Your mind is numb when you crash back on the car seat after five if you are lucky, go start your long commute back home. Earlier that morning, you started sitting down on the same seat. Then you hit the same road, same traffic, same road rage, toll, accidents on the way, you might even have given someone a birdie because he was two seconds late in the light, or it could have been other way round, on your worst day you might have accidentally been nicked by a cop for touching your phone, or hit someone in front of you because you dozed off…its like you are putting your brain and your life through a merry go round, for years and years. Sometimes I wonder how do people go on? On the way home you are still fiddling with your phone, car music, putting up with puke inspiring RJs, repetition of news, same old hosts and their meaningless, utterly boring chatter. Or it could be a mind numbing train ride in others’ cases, different content, but net effect to your mind is the same. You think you are free, but you feel trapped. Think? Feel? Why so different? What’s going on here?

Then home. You are lucky if you have a good spouse or family. Otherwise, a new frontier of war zone. Same standoffs, same buttons pushed, food, chores, then glued to screens. Cycle continues. Your soul never saw a fresh day, never aware of surrounding, never noticed the season, nature, others.

There is only so much people can take. Years of this soul abuse has hardened our minds, thoughts, what we want, what and how we think. This running around the wheel has killed off the man in the mouse.

It takes only the most trivial of jolt, someone cutting you off on the road, someone accidentally pushing you in the crowd, someone unable to understand what you said..to spark the fuse.

Then after slurping your bites, you crash down on a seat again, your detox, blind net surfing, facebook, your virtual smile, virtual friends, You tube, animal videos, surf some fashion, blow your mind even more, online family, Netflix, then after many hours of drifting till around mid night, you drag yourself up, still wanting some more of the Internet drip, so addictive, your therapy. Your mind is full of things, stuffs, ebay, amazon, gumtree, clutter, you have been ‘eyeing’ something, waiting for the sale or price drop. Crappy sleep, then someone drives past the drive way early morning, mixed with the sound of noisy birds chirping, waking you up, drag yourself to start your routine. It continues, life of a modern human. Rat left the race long ago, man has replaced him earnestly.

I got my answer.

“Finding a right camera bag is a journey in itself man. Your gears change, you will need a new bag..”, a salesman at Ted’s Camera, a leading camera shop in middle of Sydney city center told me. I am a believer in what he said, because I just completed a leg of that journey. With emergence of passion in photography, my searches for the accessories are leading me to uncharted territories, and its fun. Finally 3 weeks after purchasing a set of a Full frame mirror less body and a couple of lenses to go with it I found the kind of bag that was right for my gears. But not before I went on shop hopping around Sydney that took me from camera shops to electronic retailers, Sony pop up shops added with some hours spent online hunting, reading reviews on Amazon and so forth.

So why is it so difficult to find a mere camera bag that fits well? It is very hard to fit in your expensive camera and lenses securely in an ill fitting bag without risking damage. It could be the position of the base or the lenses, the pressure each of those might put on each other inside, and if they wobble, they could get damaged. So, finding something that holds everything together in a compact secure way without damaging each other is the holy grail, and I found out, it is not easy.

Sony was disappointing overall in this respect, except for their hard working, very friendly sales guys and girls. I ordered a small bag from their online shop, thinking I would give the manufacturer a try, only to cancel my order after they said it would be three months for delivery. The Sony guys deserve respect in giving it a full try searching their store exhaustively everytime I asked them. I needed something that would hold the camera securely, without wobbling it when carried, and gives me some space for a spare lens, I currently have two. So here it is, a Mirrorless mover 25i by Thinktank Photo:

It can hold my camera body with my bigger lens attached, holding the lens feom below using the padding. It also securely holds my smaller prime on the side. Because the bag is not too tall, the lid presses on the goods securely without crushing them. Highly recommended. Link: https://www.thinktankphoto.com/products/mirrorless-mover-25i

I had bought a Lowepro 160 from Ted’s before, on one of the stops on the grail, but did not work out. Ended up keeping the bag anyway for other gear at home.

This evening after managing to put my six month old to sleep after a couple of hours of trying I finally had some time to jump on my computer and search for some Full frame lenses that I am eager to get in addition to the prime that I have, my first and only one so far. Things were humming smoothly, my wife with her favorite show on Netflix, me finally being able to read reviews on Amazon – trying to decide whether to get a Sony native 28-70 f/3.5-5.6 or a more expensive one by Sony Vario-Tessar 24-70 f/4, sporadic rain outside, no noisy children playing. Then I coughed, loudly. I might have caught some cold because I am still taking fully cold shower still, and the weather has turned chilly the past few days. My cough startled my child so bad, he jerked his little body and woke up crying hysterically. In this kind of situation he brings out his loudest cries, tears and all. I have heard some say it exercises his lungs, well i don’t know. I will feel his voice going hoarse from crying though. My wife tried in vain to calm him down and rushed to prepare some milk to console him. He gets startled if the noise is sudden, it could be cars outside, a plane, doors slamming and cough. If it is a slow build up, he seems to okay. After a bit of milk and shoo shooing, my little one finally had enough of the tantrum and went back to sleep soundly in my chest. I put him on his mat and he was okay. While patting his back and shoo shooing, my mind drifted to the children in the war zones and refugee camps in the Middle East – Syria,Yemen,Gaza, where bombs are falling down from the skies. How shocked and terrified those little faces would be, how frantic their cries would be, how would the parents run for cover clutching those little souls. We talk about peace and humanity, but drop bombs on children and wonder why there are so many ‘terrorists’ around. Given all the media fed prejudices and phobias, I wonder if we have become so insensitive we won’t hear even if those terrified children were crying right into our ears.