Life

Life ceases to exist unless I make a good photograph that speaks my heart; dab some colors on a canvas that awaited my company, and spend some time with those whom I love – life is nothing more, nothing less. My service to the world is through art; to the family is through my heart, and to myself, through the moments I spend with myself defining my Self.

I was born as the second son of Pulikkal Subran and Vilasini in the year 1969. At that time Chettichal, the remote Thrissurian village where I was born, was a pure village in the real sense, with all the features and richness of a remote countryside untouched by civilization.

Maybe I was destined to be alone while growing up. I grew up as an introvert. Spoke little; brooded always. Plants and flowers, bees and butterflies, birds and branches of sandalwood, dreams, and I – all grew up together. Seldom we spoke, but always heard the others’ voices in disguise. The silence was our language. Intimacy was our grammar. At a time when emotions were the quotations of our self, we all grew up into an inflorescence of a wild orchid that swayed in the caress of our innocent attachment. That feeling was great and so it remained.

In 1986 I joined Government Medical College, Thrissur. Seven years from this was the most important phase of my evolution. I learned the simple truth that friends are the greatest teachers and that they are the greatest invaders of the self, too!   Possessiveness changed to willingness; the introvert pupated and the language of silence imbibed new vocabulary. Light music gave way to classical compositions and watercolors to oils and acrylics. Themes evolved from landscapes to surrealism, to abstraction and postmodernism.

I married Sandhya in 1996. Our son Nilaav (meaning Moonlight) who came to us very late, in the year 2010, is my energy, bliss, and expectation.

I bought my first SLR Camera in 1998. Photography has captured the major share of my expressive activities since then. And, it still continues. I draw a lot, paint occasionally and write when I am compelled on occasions like this. Indian and Western classical music is always there as a silky backdrop.

I founded, along with my close friends Pradeep Menon and Sasi Palakkal, the Butterfly Art Foundation in 2004. BAF had a pioneering role in serious photographic exhibitions in Kerala with four international exhibitions and a dozen national exhibitions of contemporary photography. We redesigned the organization into The Better Art Foundation in 2014 with an intention of broadening its activities with a special focus to build ‘PHOTOMUSE – The Museum of Photography’ in Kerala.

My life is very simple!
Because it was never complicated by a professional thinker!
Maybe the way Nature expressed itself to me was such that it appeared misleadingly innocent and deceptively transparent.
Yet, my life remains simple and beautiful.