Manifestation

26th January 2011

Happy Republic Day

One after this coin was minted, India would gain its independence and roughly 2 years and a half later India would become a republic. So what was the big deal? By definition a republic is a country not headed by a monarch. The word "republic" is derived from the Latin phrase res publica, which can be translated as "a public affair". In simpler words, what it means in our context is that while the head of government is Britain is Queen Elizabeth who has no control over how the country is run; our head of the state is Prathibha Patil who has no control over how the country is run.

Today is Australia Day as well. Australia is a country where the head of the state not only has any control over how it is run, it has no clue either about what is happening there either since she doesn't live in Australia, yes it is a part of the commonwealth and the head of the state is none other than Quuen Elizabeth. Happy Australia Day to my Aussie friends.

24th January 2011

The right perspective

Thing rarely look like what they are if seen either too closely or from too far. I guess that is why getting the right perspective is so important.

23rd January 2011

Chrysanthemum

Two friends met and one said to the other "Nice rose you have?" The second guy said "It is not a rose, it is a chrysanthemum."

"Really, how do you spell a chrysanthemum"
"Chry... no Cry.. no chryse... no I guess you are right, it is a Rose."

21st January 2011

Coin stack

Unfortunately, Mona ki Tony se shaadi ho gayi and the result is monotony. Sorry about the stupid and poor joke but I feel there is monotony in my shots, there are quite a few coins shots I have with me. There needs to be something else and I need to find out what that will be.

20th January 2011

It could go anywhere but...

this painted stork ended up making a nest in Delhi Zoo. Must be a sadist and he did this to tease the other birds and animales in cages.

Jokes apart, Delhi is host to migratory birds and this is one of them. I photographed them during my trip to Delhi zoo and at that time I didn't knew what it was. A few days later on a birdwatching trip my informed friends - Sanjeev and Rajesh told me that it must have been a painted stork when I described it.

17th January 2011

Fittingly Expensive

We are like peacocks. We like to show off our colourful feathers, which in our case can be anything that others don't have, a bigger house, a trophy wife, a shinier phone or a car. In the aspiration to buy something which other won't have, things like performance and practicality are often ignored and the smart marketers know it all too well, that is why the difference between the performances of the cars doesn't often scale with the cost and the best example of this is Volkswagen Beetle. Volkswagen Beetle was succeeded by the Golf. Now the New Beetle is based on Golf and Polo and yet it costs as much as four times the cost of Polo in India. Beetle is an iconic car and the statement it makes is as profound as it gets. Maybe that is why you would be willing to pay Rs20 Lacks for it?

11th January 2011

Opportunities lost

“Top of the world!” was the instant feeling I had when I read a mail from Volkswagen inviting me to take pictures of the Beetle. However as I let the feeling sink in, I also started slowly descending to earth. I am not doing any earth-shattering, ground-breaking unique work. Hell, I am not even a professional photographer. I am invited because I am a photoblogger and if I am invited, a lot of others would have been invited too. In a few mail exchanges it became clear that it is a marketing initiative of Volkswagen for which they have invited some photobloggers to get some mileage out of their blogs and while it is good enough to spread word about the car, no marketing initiative is difinitive enough that something else can't be programmed around that like a contest or something.

How important was my participation? Well, Volkswagen didn't want to pay for my ticket to Bombay, and my itch to click the new beetle was not strong enough to pay for it meyself.

All that said and done, I am still disappointed to miss that opportunity. I am waiting for a similar event to be organised in Delhi... and another invitation.

3rd January 2011

Looking for Directions

When I look at this blog, I feel that in the past few months it has lost direction. Earlier I had shortlisted images and text to go with it. There were series of images that sort of made one big piece but lately things have been random. The same can be said about my life. It is about time to get a few things in place and have a plan and though I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, I will make one.

1st January 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR

May you always have Ganesha's blessings in the coming year. Happy New Year from Picturejockey.