My brother works in the auto industry and he collected these small tractors during his visits to the factories of tractors where they supply bearings. One would think that each company would get these small models specially done for them based on the actual models they have but in reality all of these models are exactly the same with different stickers pasted on them.

This is a little compass I bought from District Centre in Janak Puri during my last visit to Delhi. During my last visit too I bought one exactly like this one but while visiting Nitesh's home, Manu vomited on my bag to whose zipper this compass was attached. I removed it while washing the bag and forgot it there. This year too I attached it to the same zipper of my bag so I won't forget it. This year while going to nangal, we spilled the powdered milk in the bag and I thought I will forget it again. Luckily I didn't.

We are odd, aren't we? Sometimes we would like nothing less than absolute perfection but other times we would go and buy mints that look like they don't have a cast to make them. The shape of these mints is very irregular and instead of being put off by it we actually like it. Why? Nostalgia what else. Shows how big a role emotions plays in deciding what we buy. la belle bille points out that Altoids tins can be used to make small pinhole cameras, Wikipedia says there are a whole lot of other things too.

A fresh start to the week with curiosly strong mints by Altoids after a week of Bombay shots. I guess I have got to a point where photography for me is not too far away from an obsession. I see myself buying things not because I really want them but because I want to photograph them. This pack of mints is also one of those things. I am not too fond of mints but couldn't resist this one because I quite like the small metal box and the branding of it. It is one of those things that stood the test of time is still very much like how it used to be in the begining.

Elephant Caves is a Heritage Site and you can take boats from Gateway of India and can reach the island in about 1 hour. That place has no elecricity, is full of monkeys and full of tourists throwing trash everywhere. What it doesn't have is anything significant preserved in it's full glory, most of the statues have been removed from here. Surely we need to take beter care of our historical monuments.

Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was opened in 1903. This hotel faces the sea and is located right next to the Gateway of India. This kind of a location is not even thinkable even in the wildest dreams today. I guess that is the advantage of starting early. quite like the position of both the Taj Hotels in Bombay, the other one being at the land's end. One thing not meny people know is that this was turned into a hospital in World War 1. A soldeir who got treated here boasting to his friends back home “...and then I was posted in India where I was in Taj Mahal Hotel.”

On the Sunday I took a bus from Hanging Gardens to India Gate but I didn't knew where to get off so ended up at Victoria Terminus now known as CST (Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus). This is Asiatic Society on the way to India Gate. This was established in 1803 by Sir James Mackintosh. In front of it is the famous Fiat taxi to Bombay. It doesn't have the cult status of the London Cab but is pretty close. This place is usually quite crowded on weekdays but on Sunday it was frighteningly quite.

This is Rajabai Tower located in Bombay University right next to the Bombay High Court. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, an English architect it is modelled, quite visibally, on Big Ben. Funded by Premchand Roychand the founder of Bombay Stock Exchange on the condition that it be named after her mother, it was completed 1878. Right in front of this is the famous oval ground where on a Sunday an average of 50 cricket matches are played simultaneously with pitches crossing each other and fielders having a hard time keeping a track of which ball is theirs.

This is Eros cinema situated opposite Churchgate Station in South Bombay where all the trains of Western line terminate. Designed by Sohrabji Bhedwar, it opened in 1938 on reclaimed land. I like buildings like this as I guess most of us do then why do we still make those boring buildings now, why don't we sometimes make buildings that look pretty as this one. I would have loved to watch the movie if I had not seen it already and if I was not there with the idea of taking pictures.

Taken from the end of Marine drive, this is the picture of NCPA building and the Hilton Hotel that used to be The Oberoi till some time ago. After looking at the images of the weekend once again I realised that I do have quite a few that look decent so this whole week you are going to see the pictures of South Bombay. Maybe I will put them in a separate image galery as well.

Finally on the last weekend alone, I managed to get out of house and visit the town to take some pictures but I am not all that plesed with what I have got. This is one of the images I am resonable happy with. Another problem I am having is that all the shots are coming tilted which never happened with the coolpix. I guess I need more practice with this camera.

Shorty after our marriage, Mira and I bought this from Connaught Place in New Delhi. I paid 50 bucks for it to a kid who was asking 150. There were quite a few kids selling the same thing over there and one of them followed me till my car asking me to buy one from him as well for the same price. Turning them away without losing your cool can be quite a chellenge. It is overexposed and that was the idea when I took this shot. Would like your opinion on it.

This is the upcoming sealink between Worli and Bandra. I went to Bandra last weekend and after taking these pictures I didn't stick around there for long as I felt very odd roaming around with a camera in a place littered with loving couples. More on it in Mental Floss.

I was planning that while Mira and Manu are not here I would do a few things that I don't get time for usually like watching movies and exploring Bombay as a photographer. So far I have watched only one movie and not a single decent outing, as I tend to fall sick on the weekends. This shot of a pigeon I took from my living room window is a consolation for staying home. Took me quite a lot of attempts and time to get this shot. Hats off to all the wild life photographers out there and their patience.

This is a tree in the same park where this picure was taken. The clouds were quite interesting that day. The other interesting thing was that it rained in Bombay in the month of November, something very unusal and what a day to rain as it coincided with the final of ICC Champions Trophy 2006 between Australia and West Indies.

This is Old Smuggler scotch whisky, a whisky with a history. I guess it has some history in our house as well. For past I don't know how many years, it is lying in our home, unopened. If this was in a cask instead of a glass bottle, it would have become quite expensive because of aging. I guess there should be “whisky banks”. You take your whisky there that you know will not be consumed for a long time to come and they put it back in cask and every year give you an appreciation in the value of the whisky.

2 oz Tequila
4 oz Orange juice
3/4 oz Grenadine
Stir or shake tequila and orange juice with ice until chilled. Strain into glass half full of ice cubes. Pour in the grenadine and allow it to settle at the bottom of the glass, creating the 'sunrise'. Stir before drinking. Enjoy.

With a tequila shot, you can familiarise yourself with your anatomy as you can feel it brurning each organ on it's way to your stomach (at least I can). Usually one would think that anything with “Gold” attached to the name would be the premium thing but it is the opposite in the case of Tequila. A “Gold” tequila is “joven y abogado” (young and adulterated) which means that caramel, fructose, glycerin and wood flavoring is added to resemble aged tequila

Saturday came with a rude shock, I realised that I can longer say I am a Delhite living in Bombay when my son is going to a school in Bombay. Went to look for some schools for him as the admissions for the sessions that starts in July will be done in the coming two months. I used to cry a lot when I was sent to school, I don't know what Manu will do, he will go to school younger than me.

I noticed that the moon is up in the sky till quite late in the mornings and today decided to take picture of it. This picture was taken at around 7:30 in the morning and the moon was almost on my head so it was a little difficult to frame it while having teh camera on a tripod. The result is not al that grat, I will have to try it again sometime.

On JV Link Road, right next to the Kamal Amrohi studio is a park that I have been planning to visit for the last three years. Last Sunday, on my way to Powai, I decided to check it out. I thought I would take Manu there if it turns out to be a nice place. It is a nice place indeed and gives a very nice view of the Powai, Hiranandani, SEEPZ and the JV Link Road. The contrats in this picture is what Bombay is. In the enlarged version you will se the tall building s of Hiranandani Gardens, some office buildings in SEEPZ and on the right you wll see the huts lining the JV Link Road.

Last weekend I was planning to go to town to take some pictures but was not feeling too well and decided to stay home. In the evening I decided to go to Powai and take some pictures there. This is the panoramic shot of the lake in the evening. On the left, peeping from behind the hill is the Renaissance Hotel and the buildings on the right are Hiranandani Gardens.

On night when the exotic cars showroom on Church Street, Melbourne was closed, I was admiring cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis. A guy came to me and asked “What can you do for a car like this?” I looked at him and said I didn't knew. He then said “I can help you buy this car”. Being harrased by another person from Amway I realised he was from Amway too and the only way to get rid from him was to be really rude “Oh Yeah! If you can help me buy a Ferrari, why are you driving around in a Ford Festiva”

People generally say that I am mean when I tell them that I don't give some of the cars I have, including this one, to Manu to play. I guess people don't realise that there is diference between a toy and a detailed replica like this. Manu will toss and kick this car like he does with all other cast-iron cars he has. I don't know what Manu will say to this when he grows up.

A scale model of Mercedes S190 that I bought from the 2002 Auto Expo in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. It was a little expensive but I still bought it because it doesn't seem possible that I will have a Merc in this lifetime, might as well be happy with a replica. I went to that fair with Mira and we were married for about 3 months and after buying this, I told her “You know you should stop me from blowing money on these kind of things.”

I saw some rides in Jogeshwari and decided to go there to take some pictures. While there I heard some voices on a loudspeaked and decided to check them out. It was some programme organised by Shiv Sena. The important person from Sena was going to be Ravindra Waikar and being completely ignorant of the political parties and their leaders, I clicked pictures of this guy. I guess he is the big guy of Shiv Sena in the local area. The man partially visible on his leaft is Ravindra Waikar, will post his picture soon.

A tower of beer glasses and slat and pepper shakers made by Naurag in Blues, the place where Nitesh, Anurag and I met in Delhi.

I guess an adjustment from being a much sought after cinematographer to someone living in solitude must not have been easy. These are the trophies of silver and golden jubilee of movies my neighbour Mr. Aloke Dasgupta has worked including Amanush, Anand Ashram, Barsaat ki ek raat and Aradhana. Still he has handled things pretty well, he still works for odd Bhojpuri movies where he make some money that helps him get along.

This is the building I was talking about yesterday and Ajay guessed it correctly. This is Statesman House situated at the corner of Barakhamba Road in Connaught Place, New Delhi. Connaught Place is a very nice place to shoot. Never really noticed it for the two years I worked there and about 30 years I lived in Delhi but now I would like to spend a whole day there taking pictures. Maybe some day I will be able to do it.

At least once during my visit to Delhi, me and a couple of my friends get together. Nitesh's office is on Barakhamba Road in Connaught Place and that is where we deiced to meet and went to a restraurant not too far away from there. The building in picture is Gopaldas Tower. There is another very nice building that you will see tommorow.