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Unforgettable Photos

I have taken thousands of photos but some have left their imprint on me and the incidents associated with them are unforgettable.

I was with the ex Prime Minister of India, Sri. Rajiv Gandhi, at Sri Perumbudur when he succumbed to a suicide bomber's attack. The distance between my life and death was about 15 feet.

I was actually in the 4 or 5th car after Rajivji in the convey.  I got down and rushed towards him and heard a blast and mistook it for a cracker sound. They were bursting a lot of crackers to welcome him when he arrived  at the place.

After the cracker sound I could only hear wailing and moarning sound of pain.  Every one was on the ground.  Then we all realised some thing had gone wrong. No one thought that Rajivji could have died. Even the police IG did not think so. Then we could see his shoe and we identified him from that.  

Actually in this picture you can see IG standing next to Rajiv and searching for him. His shoes were the first things we could identify and then the impact of the incident hit us.

Only the next day the theory of belt bomb and things came up.  At that time we thought that it was a land mine and we were all scared walking in that area thinking some more mines might blast.  

But our disciplined training strengthened our reflexes and we did our job.

When I heard the explosion and saw people running helter-skelter I just picked up my camera and started clicking. They were the only photos available of the incident at that time.

I was working for Junior Vikatan, a Tamil magazine at that time.

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