Title: Kaalakke Kannadi; Writer: T S Satyan; Publisher: Prism Books Private Limited, 1865, 32nd Cross, 10th Main, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore 5 6 0 0 7 0 . P h o n e : 0 8 0 - 26713979.
Pages: 341 + 32 illustrations; Price: Rs 240.
TAMARAHALLI Subramanya Satyanarayana Iyer, popularly known as TS Satyan, the veteran photojournalist, died of brain haemorrhage last Saturday. Had he not died then, he would have celebrated 87th birthday this Friday (December 18). Satyan had opted for photo journalism when it was not a popular profession in the country. After serving for a couple of years in a English daily and a weekly he decided to become a freelancer. He took several assignments including those of UNICEF.
TS Satyan belonged to a rare breed of photojournalists who were well versed in both handling the camera and writing. So, his articles and photographs featured prominently in almost all best newspapers and magazines across the globe including the Time and Life magazines.
'Kaalakke Kannadi' (2003) is the collection of his memoirs in Kannada. These articles were based on his column published in 'Sunday Observer'. The articles carried in this book were translated into Kannada by Dr Prabhushankar, Prof HS Krishnaswamy Iyengar, Prof C Naganna, SK Sheshachandrika, KS Achyuthan, Mysore Nagaraja Sharma, Ba Ve Sridhara, Dr NS Raghunath, Srimathi Hariprasad and Jayati Amruthesh.
Satyan had begun his memoirs from his childhood days spent in Mysore and the student days in Banumaiah and Maharaja’s Colleges.
The memoirs run through his career in different places in the country and his tour all over the world. He recounts many incidents in his more than 60 years of professional career. So the book looks like his autobiography rather than just a collection of memoirs. One of those several incidents is very interesting: The Dalai Lama had escaped from Tibet in 1956. Any journalist would love to report such a historic moment of the 20th century.
Life magazine had given Satyan an opportunity to take pictures of the historic moment. He went there with five other staff members of the magazine. There he got an opportunity to closely observe other journalists. The western journalists, in particular, had let lose their imagination about the Dalai Lama's escape and reported as though they were witnesses to every incident they had reported. One reporter wrote that when the Dalai Lama escaped from his monastery it was late in the night and stars were burning bright while the other wrote it was broad daylight.
In reality, when the Dalai Lama escaped it was completely dark because of heavy wind and dust. The Chinese guards who were posted around the monastery to prevent the Dalai Lama from escaping from there could not even open their eyes. The Dalai Lama escaped from his abode in the garb of a poor Tibetan labourer.
None of the Chinese guards could notice him and the China government came to know about his escape only 20 hours later. But the funniest part of the journalistic reporting was something more than this. There was a tough competition among the news agencies in reporting the historic moment. One news agency flashed a picture across the globe claiming that it was the first picture of the Dalai Lama on Indian soil. Many newspapers had carried it with the same claim. But it was not the picture of the Dalai Lama but of his translator.
Satyan's memoirs are enchanting and titillating. This book explains the birth, the making and the growth of a photojournalist.
He did not have a background in photography. He did not even know that the roll was photosensitive and he should open the roll only in the dark, when he started handling the box camera which he and his friend had bought sharing their savings.
His growth was phenomenal — from the bylanes of Mysore to international fame.
m arun@expressbuzz.com Title: Kaalakke Kannadi; Writer: T S Satyan; Publisher: Prism Books Private Limited, 1865, 32nd Cross, 10th Main, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore 5 6 0 0 7 0 . P h o n e : 0 8 0 - 26713979.
Pages: 341 + 32 illustrations; Price: Rs 240.
TAMARAHALLI Subramanya Satyanarayana Iyer, popularly known as TS Satyan, the veteran photojournalist, died of brain haemorrhage last Saturday. Had he not died then, he would have celebrated 87th birthday this Friday (December 18). Satyan had opted for photo journalism when it was not a popular profession in the country. After serving for a couple of years in a English daily and a weekly he decided to become a freelancer. He took several assignments including those of UNICEF.
TS Satyan belonged to a rare breed of photojournalists who were well versed in both handling the camera and writing. So, his articles and photographs featured prominently in almost all best newspapers and magazines across the globe including the Time and Life magazines.
'Kaalakke Kannadi' (2003) is the collection of his memoirs in Kannada. These articles were based on his column published in 'Sunday Observer'. The articles carried in this book were translated into Kannada by Dr Prabhushankar, Prof HS Krishnaswamy Iyengar, Prof C Naganna, SK Sheshachandrika, KS Achyuthan, Mysore Nagaraja Sharma, Ba Ve Sridhara, Dr NS Raghunath, Srimathi Hariprasad and Jayati Amruthesh.
Satyan had begun his memoirs from his childhood days spent in Mysore and the student days in Banumaiah and Maharaja’s Colleges.
The memoirs run through his career in different places in the country and his tour all over the world. He recounts many incidents in his more than 60 years of professional career. So the book looks like his autobiography rather than just a collection of memoirs. One of those several incidents is very interesting: The Dalai Lama had escaped from Tibet in 1956. Any journalist would love to report such a historic moment of the 20th century.
Life magazine had given Satyan an opportunity to take pictures of the historic moment. He went there with five other staff members of the magazine. There he got an opportunity to closely observe other journalists. The western journalists, in particular, had let lose their imagination about the Dalai Lama's escape and reported as though they were witnesses to every incident they had reported. One reporter wrote that when the Dalai Lama escaped from his monastery it was late in the night and stars were burning bright while the other wrote it was broad daylight.
In reality, when the Dalai Lama escaped it was completely dark because of heavy wind and dust. The Chinese guards who were posted around the monastery to prevent the Dalai Lama from escaping from there could not even open their eyes. The Dalai Lama escaped from his abode in the garb of a poor Tibetan labourer.
None of the Chinese guards could notice him and the China government came to know about his escape only 20 hours later. But the funniest part of the journalistic reporting was something more than this. There was a tough competition among the news agencies in reporting the historic moment. One news agency flashed a picture across the globe claiming that it was the first picture of the Dalai Lama on Indian soil. Many newspapers had carried it with the same claim. But it was not the picture of the Dalai Lama but of his translator.
Satyan's memoirs are enchanting and titillating. This book explains the birth, the making and the growth of a photojournalist.
He did not have a background in photography. He did not even know that the roll was photosensitive and he should open the roll only in the dark, when he started handling the box camera which he and his friend had bought sharing their savings.
His growth was phenomenal — from the bylanes of Mysore to international fame.
m arun@expressbuzz.com