WE didn't care where our pictures went after they were published. For 23 years or so, my pictures lay in a box without being opened even once. In those days, my colleagues were taking pictures just as I. So I felt that most of the pictures were similar and had value only for the press.
After 50 years, I came to know that my pictures were rare because pictures taken by others had been either destroyed or lost. Besides, other photographers didn't process their own pictures. They left them to the darkroom workers. Processing was so bad. That is how my pictures became more precious because we processed our own pictures.
It just happened that someone who was writing about photography was looking through the Press Information Bureau list of registered photographers of that time. My name was last on the list. He was surprised to find a woman's name there and started searching for me. He found me through a camera repairer. He saw my pictures and was surprised. He said, "You have a treasure." He arranged an exhibition in Delhi. From that day, all the papers came to know about me and started coming to me. So I was sort of discovered after 24 years.
