Now it can be told: Exposures and an explosion

How a railway employee saved a photographer’s reputation.

The Ariyalur bridge where the Rockfort Express was blown up.

Mid-March 1987: I was packing my bags, as I had to go to Pune to cover a badminton tournament when I got a call from the office informing me about a train accident at Ariyalur near Tiruchi. It was an explosion on the Rockfort Express, plying from Chennai to Tiruchi.

I took my camera bag and rushed to office. A taxi was organised and, at 9.00 a.m., I left with my colleague V. Jayanth. We reckoned that, with a small break for coffee on the return trip, we would be back in office by 10.00 p.m. to submit the report and photos for the first edition.

A young and cooperative driver, who understood our needs and urgency, drove non-stop. We had to halt some distance away and run over half a kilometre on the dry river bed to reach the accident spot. We agreed to meet in 30 minutes; I left alone to capture the scene of the accident.

With the deadline in view, I decided to expose only one roll in B&W as processing more rolls would take time. I climbed a small hillock nearby and got a good overall view of the site. Keeping the newspaper layout in mind, I shot both vertical and horizontal frames; 34 frames out of a possible 36.

Jayanth and I met exactly after 30 minutes. In the meantime our enterprising driver had managed to reach us taking another route, thereby saving another 15 minutes. Just after we got into the car, we noticed a man waving furiously and running towards us. We were a bit irritated at this intrusion, as time was running out, but could not afford to ignore him. A railway employee, he said that he knew where the explosive had been planted and offered to take us there.

We went to the spot and I began taking pictures… but the roll didn’t end! Suspiciously, after making the required safety measures, I opened the camera to check what the problem was and realised that I had committed the most basic, elementary and unprofessional blunder. I had not loaded the film!

I said I had missed something and ran back to shoot the scene again. We returned in time for Jayanth to dictate his story from the nearest public telephone booth. The story made it to the first edition, which was held back to accommodate the photographs.

I returned home past midnight, tired but satisfied with a good day’s work and a silent thanks to the railway employee who saved the day and my reputation.

The writer is former photo editor, The Hindu.