He is tall. He is dark. He is handsome. Your typical Mills and Boons brooding hero. Only that he isn’t looking for the happily ever after. In fact, he runs in the opposite direction if he meets someone loaded with the ‘happily ever after’. Meet Yuvraj Parasuraman who is a gypsy at heart. He looks at the world through the lens of his camera. He has been bitten hard by wanderlust and he isn’t complaining. He roams the world, clicking everything that he finds and he says he still has miles to go before he sleeps and I met him in Dharamsala, commonly known as His Holiness Dalai Lama’s abode.
Yuvraj Parasuraman is a self-confessed travel addict. This photographer has roamed the world, seen places and yet he says at 34 ‘his journey has just begun’. I met Yuvraj for the first time in a charcoal drawing workshop in Dharamkot, a quiet suburb of Dharamsala. My daughter and I were sitting in the class of about 10 people when I noticed this tall, dark man working away on his drawing. There was something about him that caught my attention. Perhaps he was too focussed on creating the light in his drawing. When the instructor Rohit Kishan called for a break, he went out and stood gazing at the hilly forest of deodars. Though he was approachable and we were chit chatting in an instant, it took time for this introvert to open up. However, when he narrated his story, the conversation was as intriguing as the man himself.
Creating light
‘Why would a photographer enrol in a charcoal sketching class?’ I asked him. ‘I wanted to learn more about light and charcoal sketching is the best way to understand light. The way you create an entire image with just charcoal and light is fascinating!’
‘When did you decide to become a photographer?’
‘I was 15 years old when I tuned into Fashion TV for the first time. My parents were busy elsewhere. I was watching the making of the Pirelli Calendar 2004 and had an eye on the door because I knew my mom could walk in anytime. I was mesmerized by not just the bevy of beautiful women in that frame but also the way they were playing with the light, colours and the movements. I think it was love at first sight! I was fascinated by the way photography could capture all of life’s interesting stories!’
‘So, when did the travel bug bite you?’
‘After studying visual communication in Madras Christian College, I started working in advertising where I would assist renowned photographers. Though the pay was good and the work was interesting, I felt restless because I wanted to travel.’
‘But aren’t there outdoor shoots in advertising?’
‘There are but those are few and far between. Besides you hardly get to see the places when you go for these shoots. You just focus on the shoots, stay in the hotel and then come back. That was not what I was looking for.’
Travel Bug Bites
‘You say you love travelling. When did you first experience the magic of travel?’
‘When I was working in the field of advertising, I used to take these holidays and backpack to different places. The first place I went to was the Sun Festival in Goa. I was just eighteen years old at that time. One day in Goa, I was having my cup of tea on beach and watching the ocean. During that time, I realized that my life in the city is too boring and maybe I should do something else. I started going there every year and slowly Goa became my home.’
‘So, have you settled in Goa?’
‘No, I don’t settle anywhere. I keep travelling. Every year, I stay a month or two in Goa. I don’t really have a base anywhere.’ Not even his parent’s place in Chennai? ‘I visit Chennai off and on because my parents, brother and my friends live there. I don’t stay in Chennai for more than a month though my parents want me to stay in Chennai and take up a more settled kind of job. Since the last ten years, they have been trying to come up with a plan to get me married but I know for sure that it’s not happening. I keep telling them that I am not interested but when they really force me, I run away from Chennai too!’
Run for life
‘So, do you not want to get married at all ever?’
Yuvraj smiles. ‘No, it is not like that. I was contemplating the idea of marriage some years ago. I was in a relationship with a Chinese girl who was working on the same ship. Whenever, our ship used to dock in a country, we used to go out. Over a period of four months, I had developed a fondness for her and was even toying with the idea of marrying her and going to China. I got transferred to another ship but we used to keep meeting. Sometimes, we would go to lunch in Miami or just have a casual date. I used to call her from my ship. Once during the marriage planning phase, I happened to casually ask her if she would be okay if I was to go for a solo trip for a month once a year after marriage because I have to travel solo at least once a year. That is who I am! But she refused point blank. She told me that I couldn’t go on a solo trip because she would be with me all the time! That did it! I slowly distanced myself from her and perhaps she also understood!’
Cruising the world
For most of his professional life, Yuvraj has been working in cruise ships that travel all over the world and fuel his ‘banjarapan’. ‘I was an art dealer who used to work for a company called the Park West Gallery. This museum in Michigan was started by a former NASA scientist (mechanical engineer) Albert Scaglione in 1969. The idea was to collect works of all contemporary artists from across the world. He founded this company and started collecting art works from his friends. He collected all kinds of works of not just great artists but also the upcoming ones and masters. He started doing auctions on cruise ships for these works. Now, we have a museum in Michigan and three other galleries, in Hawaii, New York, Las Vegas.’
Ship race
‘Interesting! From backpacking to cruise ships. How different is the experience?’
‘It is fantastic! I love roaming the world and I have a job where I wake up in a new city or country almost every day. Cruise life is completely different. It’s not like a backpacker’s life. It is more of a contract wherein you work in one or two or three cruise ships. Once I worked in three cruise ships in a period of just six months. My company can post me to any of their cruise lines. So, someday, I may be on a Carnival Cruise Line, the other day I would be on Royal Caribbean or any other such cruise lines. I have been all over the Caribbean but mostly I have spent just a few hours or a day in cities or countries. The ship docks in a city. We spend the day; we go out and have lunch or drinks and come back. We live on a cruise ship for about six to eight months. Once in Columbia, we went out with some guests and friends to have a good time since there weren’t any interesting restaurants near the place where we had docked. We found a place which was quite far off which was amazing. After some hours, I realized that we needed to get back to the ship else we may miss it! Some of my friends were busy enjoying themselves and did not want to go. However, after a lot of cajoling and convincing (everyone was high on drinks), we got into a taxi. As luck would have it, the taxi driver did not speak English, he spoke Spanish. So, when we tried to tell him to speed up the car, he couldn’t understand. I used the Google translator to help him understand (I always use a google translator). We finally reached the port. On a ship, different protocols are followed for guests and crew members. While no one says anything to the guests, we (the crew members) were warned for being late. The ship waits for no one, not even the guests. If the guests miss their ships and then they have to fly back to their home country.’
To be continued
All photographs by Yuvraj Parasuraman
Copyright reserved
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