Whenever I do street photography and I am photographing strangers I encounter such rare moments when the person I am photographing becomes aware of it and then the look that I get is priceless. So far no one has ever been offended by my pictures. I generally smile at them and they always smile back.

Firstly people feel flattered when someone clicks their picture and secondly when it is a woman clicking they are simply happy. But this one time when I was travelling in Ladakh I had a different experience, there was a landslide so we had to halt for a long time, I removed my camera and started clicking pictures.

There were many interesting frames around so I started taking their pictures. This boy (in the above pic) was sitting in deep contemplation, his face turned away from me and I actually was trying to take a profile pic but as soon I as pressed the shutter button he turned and looked at me. I stood there in that position for a few seconds before I could recover from his look, he had this piercing look as if he could see my soul. I put my camera down and looked directly at him, he kept looking at me, I think he was quite angry that I was clicking his picture. So I smiled at him to ease away the tension but he simply turned away his face and carried on with his contemplation. So whenever I look at this picture I remember his look and get goosebumps. A picture carries so many memories, you actually relive the moment whenever you look at it.

Simply looking at strangers and analyzing what they are thinking is something which I do whenever I am at the station waiting for a train or when I am at a traffic signal.

Best is the fleeting look you give someone and your eyes meet and so many stories are exchanged in that fleeting moment without saying anything.

Sometimes you want to give a stranger a smile especially when someone looks sad or stressed out, I know that smile will make a lot of difference.

Sometimes when I leave home I decide that I will smile at at-least one stranger and it always feels good.

As they say the best things in life cannot be bought by money. So next time just try looking at someone in their eyes and give a smile, you might just make someone’s day a bit brighter.