Dadi recently found two 8mm film reels, which I happily agreed to digitize somehow. The first reel had “Republic Day Parade 1961″ scrawled on it – and later cut out – in an unknown handwriting. The address of Kodak Developers at Hornby Road, Fort, Bombay was written in my Dada’s handwriting. So I went into the process of digitization quite clueless as to what I would find.

What I found was quite astonishing – the majority of the film was taken pre-1953 (my grandparent’s wedding) – perhaps around the time my Dada (MP Srivastava) went to Manchester to study. When he was around 24 at that age (my age right now!). In the video we see my Dada’s sister Manorama Sinha, her dashing Army-man husband Narbadesh Sinha, and a whole bunch of their kids (Anita Bua, Prashant Chacha, Perhaps Rekha Bua and Shivesh Chacha), on a holiday to what looks like Logie Estate in Mussorie (so pre-1951 when it was given on rent).My Dada (MP Srivastava) is holding a baby wearing a sleeveless sweater. We can also see General SK Sinha’s father (according to my Dadi, he resembles SK Sinha aka Mane) and mother (name unknown – but Dadi remembers that she used to tie her sari seedhe pallu). There is someone who resembles Dadi’s father (PC Saxena – Inspector General of Police) – which means that that section of the film was post 1953.

Later we see Dada (MP Srivastava) posing with a lady – unknown – in front of some grassy type area. Near the river we see Dada (MP Srivastava), Ramesh Dada (RP Srivastava) and Vimla Dadi (married to Ramesh Dada) joke around in front of large river or sea. Some of the film could have been shot in Kanpur – some of it perhaps in Bombay or Cal – when Dada went/returned from UK by ship.

1. The way i did it – take a lightbox and take photographs of sections of the reel. then manually cut copy paste each frame and save as a separate image. then import the image sequence into a video editing software. painful.

2. the way smart people do it – simply use a projector to project the film and use a dv camera to record it! if u can find a projector that is…

I later read somewhere online that if your reel smells like vinegar (and both my reels do!) – it’s probably in terrible condition and won’t be playable on a projector anyways. So one reel to go…….! phew…