One of the first things I noticed at the Gateway of India, apart from the immensity of the monument itself, was the number of men in bright white shirts with a camera in their hands and a bag over their shoulders. I knew the place had its share of photographers like any other popular landmark but I was curious why they were all dressed prim and proper, in whites. When a photographer enquired if I wanted a ‘memory’ before the monument, I struck up a conversation with him.⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣60-year-old KL Pandey, had arrived in Mumbai from Ayodhya in 1989. A decade later, after trysts with various other jobs, he had settled down becoming a photographer at the Gateway. “Everybody has a camera these days but only we know how to capture the best frames at 'Gateway of India’”, he said. “The white uniform is to distinguish us - the professionals from the rest, so whoever wants a good photo clicked, can find us. Pandey was part of the photographers association at the Gateway which was now 3 decades old and consisted of 450 photographers.” ⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣For the past 20 years, he has been striding the cobblestones of the complex, framing customers’ memories in front of the Gateway. When I asked him if he has ever taken photographs outside this complex, he pointed to the boats anchored at the Arabian Sea and compared himself to a fisherman. “Wouldn’t someone who rides his boat every day to make a living, want to do something different when he is free?”, he asked me.⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣He swiftly directed me to spots on the cobblestone, like they had some invisible markings, to take my photograph. As we waited for it to be printed, I offered to take a picture of him. He took one quick glance at it on my camera and critiqued the picture saying it would have been better if his hands had been on the other tomb, not covering a part of the monument. “Customer would not want that printed”, he said. Meanwhile the printer slowly churned out the shot of my fingers perfectly clutching one of the tombs, with the complete view of the monument - my ‘memory' of The Gateway Photographer.⁣⁣

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