Today while disposing a lot of our packing trunks from my Army Service days, I came upon a very special trunk. I opened it with a lot of trepidation as to the conditions of the contents. It was marked Captain Ajay Ukidve box No 23 Enlarger. As I was opening it I hoped that mites would not have got to my enlarger which I had made, with my bare hands, out of wood, glue, screws, nut and bolts around 38 years ago. I still have the small planer in my tool cupboard which I had used to give it a good finish. The only thing I bought out right ready made, was the very expensive condenser lens, the enlarging easel and the photo paper trimmer. I used this enlarger extensively through out my service, as I recollect, up to the year 1987 to keep my hobby of photography alive. Thousands of black and white prints later it was dismantled and kept in box number 23 till today. One odd bathroom of our allotted Army Quarters would always be turned into a "Dark Room", our house would then often smell of metol and hydroquinone developers and the pungent smell of Hypo fixers (Sodium Thiosulphate).
In the late 70's one large A4 size black and white enlargement used to cost around 40 odd rupees, and an Agfa Pro Enlarger was priced at around Rs 8000, 6 times more than what I earned as my Army pay. With 2 small kids to look after it would never have been possible to seriously continue with my hobby . I had 2 cameras then, a Halina anstigmat 35mm and a Yashica Reflex 635. The former presented by my father on my 10th birthday and the latter bought second hand during College days before I joined the Indian Military Academy. Thereafter, post 1987 our pay improved a bit and things became more affordable. Today I have 2 Nikon D7100 bodies and about 7 assorted lenses the longest being the Tamron 150-600 birding lens. If you look at the light bulb housing (right on top) of the enlarger, you will see it is made of 2 stainless steel bowls from my wifee's kitchen at that time. She must still be wondering where the hell her utensils got to. I must say she has been a most cooperative person, never saying a word about such things. The Agfa enlarging easel I bought for Rs. 30, and a 14 inch guillotine paper cutter for Rs.25 from Indore. Plus dark Room developing and fixing trays and universal 35mm to 120 mm film developing tanks, along with a red light constituted my dark room.
I opened the box and there was the thing in a disassembled state. As I could see it, white ants and termites had not got to it in the last 27 years or so. As I am not in the habit of looking at rear view mirrors of my life and live only for the today, I was about to give it away along with the trunks to the "kabadi" our local salvage man. There was my wife looking over my shoulders saying no don't. She added: I still remember the look of sheer joy on your face when you made the thing part by part day by day nearly 38 years ago. The amount of love and affection you had put in when you made it, it will be criminal to throw it away. I think let our children and grand kids see it around. It will motivate them to use their hands in this world of instant noodles, selfies, Whatsapp and Face Book and the like. Let them be motivated to experience the joy it brings to make something with your own bare hands, with dedication, patience and perseverance in this everything "instant world". So I assembled my enlarger today and found it still worked to perfection. So here is something motivating , full of joy and happiness from the mists of time......
