User:NaRood/Naresh Roodur

Naresh Roodur is one of a new breed of upcoming photographers and budding documentary film-makers, trained by Jameel Peerally, who have to be reckoned with in Mauritius.

Family

Naresh comes from a relatively large family household with his parents and four brothers. He was unfortunate to lose his father who died of stomach cancer and was raised by his mother, who is for him “an inspirational figure, a strong woman, a great mother who was real strict”. His mother taught him to be autonomous and to keep on fighting as she has had to fight all her life. Perhaps this is why Naresh says that “I'm the kind of person who wants to find out things the hard way and over the years this hasn't changed!”

Education

“Education wasn't my thing” His early years at school went well. He completed his CPE at the Willoughby Govt School in Mahebourg and was admitted to the Royal College of Port Louis. But he admits that “education wasn't my thing”. He never liked Mathematics or Accountancy at the RCPL though he could live with Economics. But he was more of a literature student, and so he decided to leave the RCPL and move to the MGI where he was able to study literature. “I know many students would say they hate learning, but they'll still do it; well I didn't - except for big exams like the SC and the HSC, where on the eve of the exam, I'd actually take up a book and go through it very quickly.” He never regretted that move because he made many friends at the MGI. “I've been to the best college in the country. The two years I spent at the MGI were kind of the best days of my life”, he says. But as is often the case with many a teenager, once Naresh completed his HSC examinations, it became clear with hindsight that academic studies were not really for him. “I never actually knew what to do. After HSC, I kind of had a long holiday!” He tried to do a degree course - first a BA in French at the University of Mauritius, then Political Science which he also abandoned. He then tried Human Resources at the MEF MCCI (Mauritius Employers' Federation/Mauritius Chamber of Commerce Institute) before giving it up to go to the Charles Telfair Institute. “That one was spot on! The people, the way we would interact with each other, I would go on to say the 'culture' at CTI... well, it felt like home, still does”, he says with conviction.

Interests

By now, he had turned twenty-one and not a camera in sight. “Somehow I managed to live for 21 years without a camera - something which is unimaginable now!” Indeed, from that time onwards, he took to photography which became his obsession in a way that formal academic studies never were. But he also loved to watch a lot of movies and later when the opportunity came to make short video films he imagined himself becoming one day the Mauritian Martin Scorsese. And he also developed a liking for music. The music of Nirvana - Kurt Cobain, The Doors, Jim Morrison, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink FLoyd, Bob Marley and so on strongly influenced him and he wanted to become a musician and bought himself a guitar. He also had a short spell trying his hand at the difficult craft of poetry writing.

Photography

“At ‘IN FOCUS 1’, I ran into Jameel Peerally” But neither music nor poetry worked for him. He realised that if there was anything that he could do well, that was photography. “I would take a friend of mine around Mahebourg, looking for nice shots. It was a deal, we took a camera, and that's where it all started. I would never leave the house without the camera, it was crazy! We had photo sessions on the road and in shopping malls without any real knowledge of photography. That's how I ran into Jameel Peerally. My friend and I were hanging out at Phoenix Les Halles where there was a photo exhibition – IN FOCUS 1 – by the first batch of Jameel’s students. Meeting Jameel Peerally was a turning point in Naresh Roodur’s life. Together with his friend Antish Gukhool, they talked to Jameel, and enquired about his photography courses. “We immediately booked to attend his classes! Photography classes – the only time I would actually listen to what the teacher was saying and never fall asleep!” Naresh says. Within only a matter of 3-4 months,“I found myself in 'IN FOCUS 2', my very first photographic exhibition”. After a year, Naresh has had a go at street photography, photojournalism, landscape, wildlife, fashion, etc. And “along with photography, I got the chance of working on short corporate films with Jameel”. Working with Jameel has encouraged Naresh also to try doing short social documentary films. Thus, he was at Caudan on 12 March to film Joel Toussaint’s brave and solitary protest when the latter lowered the National Flag as a sign of solidarity with the Chagossians who lost their homelands when we acceded to Independence on 12 March 1968. Naresh was also at the St Louis Cathedral in Port Louis with his friend Antish Gukhool to produce a short video of a hunger striker who was protesting at the way the BPO Infinity workers were treated by their employer. These films were then shown on Facebook, allowing hundreds of people to see them.

http://www.defimedia.info/articles/2543/1/An-upcoming-photographer-and-documentary-film-maker/Page1.html