Box of Kodachrome slides reveals Heathrow photo of mother before Kolkata trip

When my sister handed me a box of old Kodachrome slides last summer, I set up my iPad as a makeshift lightbox and found, among the transparencies, a striking image of my mother and me on the tarmac at Heathrow, about to board an Air India plane to Kolkata. My father had extensively documented our lives with photographs; until then most family images had been black-and-white prints and conventional snaps.

He came to Glasgow from India in 1958 and later met my mother, who was a nurse at the same hospital. On that trip my mother was meeting her in-laws for the first time and I was meeting grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. I love the slide for its small, telling details: my mother, always stylish, looks as if she could be an extra from Mad Men, staring dreamily into the distance — perhaps bored of waiting for my father to compose his shot.

Duffle-coated me is locked in a glare-off with another small child, a reminder of my life as an only child before my sister arrived. To the right there is a glimpse of another family in a Dalmatian-spotted coat clutching an oversized teddy, and the vintage Air India livery, with its maharaja and bright orange logo, gives the scene a festive air.

As I worked through slide after slide I felt my childhood shift from monochrome to Technicolor, and with my new interest in photography I could finally appreciate the skill behind the pictures.

Key Topics

Culture, Kodachrome Slides, Heathrow Airport, Kolkata, Glasgow, Air India