27th January 2012

Driving past India Gate

I have always wanted to take pictures of the India Gate at night but whenever I was there in the night, I didn't have a camera with me, when I had a camera, I didn't have a tripod. Finally I went there on Republic Day with both - a camera and a tripod. It was too crowded but I am not complaining. I wanted to take pictures of the president house as well and even managed to climb on a platform made for republic day but there were too many people moving up and down and the platform was always shaking so all the images have a blur. I am thinking of going back there before they take down the lights.

26th January 2012

The patriotic obligation

Happy Republic Day. While you enjoy your holiday, let me give you something to think about, even on the 63rd republic day, why do we go to India Gate to pay our respect to dead soldiers? Soldiers who died fighting for the British monarchy in lands far away from India. Although I have utmost respect for them but to celebrate the day when we became a republic won't it be better if we pay our respect to the people who died to give us the freedom we have, the people who died to protect the freedom we have, in wars since 1948?

25th January 2012

Rice noodles

Being a vegetarian has its advantages and disadvantages. Apart from the usual, one advantage I saw was during my stay in Australia. In most restaurants my choices were limited so while my friends were trying to understand what dishes are served, I was ready to pace my order. I faced the disadvantage as well in Melbourne when I was visiting a Thai friend's home with other friends from our class. His mom had cooked great Thai food for us but unfortunately there was nothing veg. She was surprised beyond belief that I was not only a vegetarian but a vegetarian who doesn't even eat chicken, fish and eggs. It was very kind of her to cook rice vermicelli with some veggies or I would be sitting there sipping water and eating chips.

19th January 2012

Compass

Apart from taking time to figure out which direction is which, I am bad with directions generally. If I have to go somewhere, I can take directions from someone and just be there. When someone is giving me directions, after a couple of turns, everything gets muddled up. In most cases, I have to stop a few times, ask people for directions. The good thing is that now I can tell in a fraction of a second if the person giving me directions knows the directions himself or not.

The other alternative can be a GPS. The problem with GPS phones is they are painfully slow and update your location long after you have missed your turn. They can also give you directions where the roads are no longer open.

16th January 2012

Suspect is heading north-west

"Suspect is heading north-west. He is armed and considered extremely dangerous." This is the kind of statement on police radio is Hollywood action movies and it has always made me think "Man! Are they good with their directions or what" I mean a cop is running constantly changing directions and while doing that he is able to figure out where is north and where is south. As far as I am concerned, I have to pause, think "The sun rise from there which means that is east, that is west and that would make it... north." This is a calculation I have to mentally do when I am standing in my own yard. If I am outside somewhere, it is practically impossible for me to figure it out...unless I have a compass.

13th January 2012

Aren’t I the most handsome of the lot?

"I most certainly am." Smiling puppets with bobbing heads at a stall in Dilli Haat during the Dastkaar mela.

10th January 2012

Full house

“Wow! yours is one large group. What are you doing here in Dilli haat.”

“We left home to visit the Auto Expo but it was way too crowded for comfort so we decided to come here instead.”

5th January 2012

Looking for directions

I most certainly am.

3rd January 2012

On a cold winter day...

...nothing better to warm you up than a little exercise. Manu is getting ready to go for cycling with me in morning. Actually he goes on his bike and I go for a walk. We do this on holidays and I hope Manu will realize the virtues of an active life before he sees the effects of physical inactivity.

2nd January 2012

Waiting to shine

This is how most things start, with a promise, with a potential to do shine. This is a yellow dahlia waiting to bloom. I hope the year 2012 is also like this flower, waiting to shine.

1st January 2012

Happy New Year

It is the first post of the year so it has to be an image taken this year only. Fresh out of the camera this is an image of a dahlia from my garden. Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR. Although it is a good think to live each day as if it the last day of your life, don't for a minute believe the people who tell you the world will end this year.

27th December 2011

Red Moon

The last lunar eclipse of the year happened on our wedding anniversary on the 10th of this month. When I saw the moon for the first time that night I didn't knew it was a full moon. I called Mira, Nitesh and Ila from inside "look, the moon looks like it is done in Photoshop." Everyone else was also wondering why the dark portion of the moon was looking so fake. It was only after some time that we realized that it was an eclipse. All the pictures I took have this pink/red tint.

9th December 2011

Sula champagne

In the end you regret things you didn't do more than the ones you did. There is a long list of thing to regret labeled "Things I could have done while I was in Bombay" and a wine tour of Sula in Nasik.

6th December 2011

Oye Bubbly

What is the easiest way to define what Champagne is? Wine with soda?

5th December 2011

Make a wish and blow the candles

On 3rd December Manuraj turned seven. Here he is blowing the candles on the cake. This year it was a WALL-E cake.

24th November 2011

Diwali light

Aane ke hi saath jagat mein kehlaya jaane wala. Swagat ke hi saath vida ki hoti dekhi tayaari.

This is a line from Madhushaba by Dr. Hariwansh Rai Bachhan and it translates to - The moment someone comes to this world, he is known as someone who will one day leave. At the welcome, I saw the prepararions of farewell. There is no better place to see this than an Indian wedding. The wedding is still in progress when the tent house people start pulling down the tents and the decorations and by the time the wedding ceremony is complete, they are setting up that very same material at another wedding planned to the next day.

We are also always 2-3 hours behind the schedule in a wedding ceremony and a lot of people have already had their dinner even before the bride and the groom reach the venue.

22nd November 2011

Two's company

Its the wedding season. In the next 8 days, I will be attendin 3 weddings. As a child I used to get quite excited but now I find a wedding invitation quite stressful, specially is spaced like this.

19th November 2011

Tiny white flowers

These flowers are from a tree in the neighbourhood. They start to bloom in the night and fall in the morning.

15th November 2011

Revolver

Same pistol as yesterday. This doesn't work but I have to say this look pretty decent. As I mentioned yesterday, I bought about half a dozen of cracker pistols for Manu on Diwali but all of them combined couldn't last till Diwali. I never bought these many pistols in my entire childhood and I am sure the thought of buying two in case I break one didn't ever occured to my dad. Only one was bought because we could be sure that it WILL work and not just for a few minutes but will last me a couple of Diwalis at least. I wish I could have the same confidence in the things I am buying now.

14th November 2011

Happy Diwali from China

Laxmi is worshipped on Diwali and somewhere in China, a small factory owner is sitting in his office is doing just that - counting the rupee notes.

Back here in Noida and Delhi, I am visiting A poor quality Chinese cracker pistols stalls in markets and sending a small installment of Godess Laxmi's bessing to China by paying for these pistols. During Diwali, I spend about 500 bucks on these pistols and all in vain as they just refuse to work. Knowing how price sensitive the Indian market is, China is pushing the cheapest of stuff here. I don't have a problem with it, if there is a market for it, sure go ahead and sell it, however I do have a problem with the fact that all the shopkeepers are aiming at the lowest common denominator and it is almost impossible to buy good quality pistols even if one tries.

4th November 2011

Dance of fire

It is interesting to watch a picture like this. This is "ground chakkar". When lit, it rotates on the ground at a very high speed, throwing a stream of fire. When you see it, they all to seem to be moving in a straight line, however in a shot like this, you can see the actual path.

3rd November 2011

Quickgun Murugan

Yesterday I mentioned getting some good shots on Diwali, this is one of them. This is also the first time that I posted a picture on Facebook before posting it here. These pistols are quite cheap which is why they work out to be quite expensive. More on this tomorrow.

1st November 2011

Circle of light

A repetition of last year. In my previous post I mentioned how it becomes difficult to keep taking different and good shots of the same place/thing/event. Diwali shots this year has not been very different from last year, however there are some shots that are different and good as well. Now I am wondering why I am posting this picture instead of those ones.