Kodak Memories

There was an article in the papers recently about Kodak stopping the sale of colour films in India.
I was reminded of a notice issued by Kodak in 1994, informing that the processing of their slide film Ektacrome is being stopped in India. They were accepting films only till a particular date. That was the time when slides were cheap and prints were expensive. You would watch slides with the help of a projector on a big screen. I had clicked slides of my younger daughter of her first few months. On finishing, the roll went to the Kodak office. I gave them the roll and was informed that the roll will be processed in Australia and it would take a month.

After a month I was informed that it will take more time. I started losing patience and hope. Two months later, one fine day I received a post card informing me that the slides had arrived. On reaching the Kodak office on Janpath, I was handed over an envelope containing a plastic slide box instead of the usual cardboard box, slides mounted in plastic mounts instead of the usual cardboard mounts, and a card apologizing for the delay, and on the top it said WITH BEST COMPLIMENTS FROM KODAK. These slides were very important to me as they were the only photographic record of the first six months of my daughter. This gesture of Kodak made me their admirer and client forever. As long as I used colour film, I only used Kodak. Only in April 2006, when I bought my first digital camera and bid farewell to film cameras, my association with Kodak film finished. Although if I ever need prints, it’s still Kodak and will be Kodak till they stop processing in India.