CHENNAI: Thomas T Abraham is the president of the Photographic Society of Madras (PSM). He believes in god but does not understand why god should be he or she. Here’s god from his point of view...
What is spirituality to you?
Spirituality is what lies beyond ‘I, my and mine’, beyond Maslow’s motivational hierarchy.
What is your idea of god?
If at all, in National Geographic, rather than on the news channels! Goodness is god. ‘Good’ and ‘god’, the difference is only a digit, just one ‘o’.
What if god was a man or a woman?
Does sex matter for god? Socio-economic divides are more cruel and defining than the gender divide. Let’s ask instead, what if god was a starving kid orphaned in a sectarian violence?
If there was a challenge you would like to give god, what would it be?
Can you restore earth and its atmosphere to their factory settings?
What wish would you ask god?
Banish poverty and impose a 10% annual reduction in human greed.
If god was human, how would he/she look like?
He will remain invisible to avoid traffic jams, stampedes and the bad press. Also, mystery is integral to the mystique.
How do you visualise god through photography?
A faint human silhouette in the centre of (Steven Spielberg’s) ET-style blinding lights in the foreground, against a blue, NASA-style capture of the universe, with streaks of light emphasising the unfathomable distances — the humbling mystery of divinity.