Tales of the unexpected

Tom heads off to capture the brilliant colours of India, but things didn’t go quite as planned…

- Tom Mackie

As our driver weaved in and out of heavy traffic, narrowly missing several head-on collisions, I asked myself just why I’d come to New Delhi. This was a normal day for the locals, but I was out of my comfort zone. I was in India as a guest of paint-manufacturing giants AkzoNobel, to mentor my (fellow crash-test dummy) passenger Sanjay Patil, who had won the company’s photography competition.

When we arrived in Agra, we spent the afternoon recceing locations for sunset. I knew of a classic spot across the river, from where we could get the Taj Mahal reflecting in the water. As we were walking into a garden, a man asked if I needed a guide and I politely replied no thank you. He picked up on my accent and asked if I was from the UK. Then, upon noticing all my camera equipment, he asked if I was a pro photographer. His next question blew me away…

A small world after all