The case of the identical principal

Class photos are great. You are frozen in time. Immortalised to an extent.

Years later your expression (sometimes a stricken one - sometimes a jolly one) looks out at you. What were you thinking on that day? Who is that boy beside you? And what about Mrs. xxx... what a good teacher she was...

We recently got Asha and Enoch's class photos. Smiles all around. But then we noticed something strange. The headmistress - clad in her maroon sari - is in the exact same pose in both pics. Along with her - another senior teacher in a green punjabi is also exactly the same in Asha and Enoch's class snaps.


A small bit of detective work - and the truth emerges. Ghosts don't leave shadows. The two identical ladies - don't have a 'reflection' of their colourful attire on the floor below the chair. The two worthies were not in the original shots - empty chairs were left for them - and they were later 'photo-shopped' in.

When you think of the mathematics of it all - there is a case to be made for the empty chairs. Our children are part of a school which has 11 sections in each year. Each class has 50 students. 550 are in standard 1 (Enoch's year) and another 550 odd in Asha's 3rd standard. If the principal wants to be in all the shots - she will have to show up in at least 44 different photography sessions. Think of the pain of waiting for tiny tots to line up 44 different times. No wonder she opted to be 'photo-shopped' in.

But.

What does that do to the idea of a photo as a record of an experience?

What next? Kids that were sick that day - should they be photo-shopped in? Kids whose birthday was on the picture taking day - should we have their 'colour dress' exchanged for a uniform? How about kids who weren't smiling having a nice smile pasted on. In fact - why bother with the whole exercise of a class photo at all? Our little ones all have an ID card - just take those mug-shots and put them together in a collage! Maybe we can throw in an exotic back-drop - say the Taj Mahal, or undersea with sharks, or on the moon?

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By the way - Asha is just to the right of the principal in the upper picture. Enoch is sixth from the right of the top row in the lower picture. And yes - they were physically present when the shot was taken - I haven't added them in later.