This was the craziest & coolest thing that happened to me.
Until today, I've always travelled to a city only when I've had multiple shoots from the same place.
But this time, for the first time, someone called me to Chennai only for their shoot.
My complete travel cost was covered by them & this was a huge deal to me.
They say, celebrate all milestones, big & small right?
Suprajha reached out to me to book a shoot for her 2 dogs in December. But as we got talking, she realized that her older dog had been falling sick very often & she didn't want to wait to get the shoot done. She wasn't sure how much time he had left & didn't want to take a chance & play with time.
So we chose a date & finalized the shoot - for Chennai!
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It was August 12th, I had had a pretty tiring week but this shoot was something I was very excitedly looking forward to. I woke up before the sun & got ready to board my flight. I was taking off from Bombay around 7am (only to have our flight get delayed by 45minutes)
I was wiggling in excitement & nervousness the whole flight there & could not get a wink of sleep even though my body was exhausted.
The weather was absolutely beautiful in Bombay (yes I'm one of those annoying people who romanticizes the monsoons. I absolutely love the sound of heavy rain, the feeling of the droplets on your face...) but the moment I stepped out of the Chennai airport, it was like I entered a whole other world.
The scorching heat left me dripping in sweat, a major contrast to the beautiful Bombay weather I had experienced not more than 2 hours before.
With the Ac cranked up high, it took me 45 minutes to reach Suprajha's house.
From the second I entered the home, I was greeted with such warmth, by both the doggos & hoomans, it was beautiful. Rudra, their tripod dog (3 legged dog) was so excited to see me. He was giving me slobbery kisses non-stop.
He has all the energy in the world & even though physically you could see that he was missing a limb, mentally for Rudra, that limb still existed & it didn't stop him from bouncing off the walls & jumping off the bed!
After taking photos of Rudra with the family, Suprajha got Kobe into the picture. Kobe is a 12 year old Dachshund. They said that he's a little "aggressive", but I didn't think so. He was just a little protective about his treats & toys.
He was uncomfortable if my hands were too close to his face & if you were holding a treat he would snap to get it out of your fingers quickly, but he certainly wasn't out to hurt anyone.
One of my favourite parts of all shoots is talking to people & getting to know their story, how they decided to adopt / get a dog, why & how their lives have changed since then. Surprisingly, Suprajha & I turned out to be the same age, we were born & raised in the same city - Hyderabad, both of our are connected when it comes to their education in Hyderabad and her mom makes the best South Indian food, just like my moms!
It was such a homely feel being around them! I left with a heavy heart soon after eating some yummy food made by Suprajha's mom. I rushed to catch my flight only to reach the wrong terminal at the airport, without a boarding pass (because the company website was down), and an overweight bag full of props!
Oh did I also mention? I was sweaty & covered in slobber that I actually wanted to change clothes at my clients house but was running late, so ended up having to change in the airport washroom. It was then that I realized that I couldn't wash up in the sink, so I HAD TO use the jet spray in the toilet stall to freshen up for my journey back to Bombay!
My life is full of unexpected adventures, hahahah!
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