Finding Yaman

One interesting thing I did this month was work on a cover of the Sitarist Vidur Mahajan's Indian Classical album Maitra Yaman. The raaga was Yaman and we were to capture it's essense visually.

It felt great working alongside an artiste who has given so many years of his life for an artform with evergrowing love for it. The best part was I was not intimidated by him but inspired by him.

Vidur is also an entreprenuer and industrialist. His passion is the Sitar. Sitting under the starry winter sky, surrounded by the hills, I sat with him at his little farm house-like place, listening to his story of how he first fell in love with the Sitar. It's a journey he started more than 2o years ago. His passion for playing the Sitar has only grown over the years...

I waited more than three weeks to write this, hoping that I would write more objectively. Without going ga-ga! But it seems I fail miserably at it. I shall just post the snap now :)

Lies People Tell But Do Not Admit

Chances are you have heard these somewhere, somehow, or maybe even said them. Chances are we all know what they mean, actually...

1) "I will call you back"

They usually never call back. Either there is a genuine reason or they might just forget. They WILL call back only if they need something from you! If this person does manage to call back more than 50% of the time, chances are he/she could be one of your lifetime friends ...or just a perpetual parasite.


2) "I will die without you"

This is one of the stupidest lines!! Usually the person telling this believes that this is true. This usually happens in extremely immature relationships with messy endings. I know people who said it and are still alive, recovering from the 'relationship'... And boys, if you are saying this, there is no better way to reinforce that you are emotionally weak. I actually know a sadistic girl who ditched her guy and then later called him asking him why he's still alive!!


3) "Lets just be friends"

This means even the friendship you had is over. Dumbo!! Did you not realise that she's not even interested in you? (We are assuming here that it is guys who get this phrase from girls, usually) Even if u carry on with 'just friendship' it will invariably fizzle out, so chuck it and keep walking. It requires exceptional maturity for any relationship to survive this stage. This is always dangerous territory for anyone. If you made your intentions clear from the beginning then this wouldn't have happened. And how is that? Well, I am not going to tell you, it's fun learning through trial and error! All the best!!


4) "Lets do freiinseep"

Yes, the most infamous Orkut line. It's been mentioned many times in many blogs but it just keeps coming back! At first it appears similar to number 3 but is very different. This is usually the most intellingent line that a desperate desi male is usually capable of writing in his vain attempts to mesmerise anything that looks remotely feminine on Orkut. Uncouth in approach and absolutely clueless about human psychology, these males, ignoring umpteen other males writing the same lines in all the previous scraps, foolishly hope that suddenly someone will be swept off their feet on reading these three magic words and maybe immediately agree to meet up with them at the nearest coffee shop or God knows where. Sad.


5) "I have no time"

It only means the person who said it is not interested enough to 'make time' for whatever you are talking about. So go talk to someone else. Chances are you will find the same person at a movie theater near you having a whale of a time. Remember, even one of the world's richest man Steven Speilberg returns home at about 6pm for dinner with his family everyday unless he is in some other part of the world (OK i don't think I have proof of this as he said it in a talk show). It's all about priority and this is a nice way for people to tell you that you are not one.

Pixie contributed the following gems (Thank you pixie, how could I have overlooked these?!!) :


6) "You are our best resource and we don’t want to lose you"

You will find that after you leave that company, your manager and the project survive very well without you! If a meteorite from outerspace ground you into pure carbon this very minute, it is only your family/loved ones/friends who will miss you. Your famliy and parents might mean a lot to you, but that doesn't mean someone can get away with no. 7!


7) "My parents won’t approve"

That’s the cheesiest of them all. It just means the guy/gal isn’t interested in you enough to decide that it's worth making a commitment. But of course he/she does want to flirt around with you… or in other words USE you and then discard you as soon as the real princess/prince charming arrives! So, Mr/Ms Standby Lover, wake up from your dreamy slumber and get out of the tunnel because the light at the end IS the oncoming train!!

Mysore Lounging

Yaaaawn.... it's been a good Diwali holiday so far. I will truly hate monday the 12th! Mysore was... is cool and blue as usual. Managed to get this new lens for my camera and am loving it! Took a lot of lousy shots for a change while fooling around with the new lens...

In Pune, you will never see the sun setting into someone's backyard!! ;)

clothes line...

Ok, this is NOT a lousy shot :) this happens to be dad's new car...

Mysore has plenty of coconut trees everywhere...

Wonder what's up with blogger, the image uploading is getting very messy. I had to upload these images so many times to see them...

It's time to make lunch (yeah, am helping mom) , have lunch and then a nap.... YAWN!

Back to Mulshi 2007

...the field was bordered with yellow flowers...

It had been a long time since I went anywhere and I was beginning to feel pretty suffocated with the restless routine. So I, my friend V, and his little Swift, headed to the hills. And only to discover yet another mesmerising avatar of the Sahyadris. The just-after-the-monsoon Sahyadris. The grass had just mellowed from the psychedelic, ecstatic green it had in the monsoons to what it is now. The blue Mulshi Lake and the blue skies looked out of the world. I am so glad Mulshi is not a popular tourist destination. I am so glad it is still untouched.

The waterfall is now more of a babbling brook. The green grass around it was a beautiful reminder of what was. Flowers blooming everywhere, as if an obsessive compulsive gardener had run amock, planting them all over the place!! :) My friend V was coming here for the first time.

We climbed the rock faces that used to be the water fall and headed up a stream which was one of its sources. The brook wound it's way by a rice field guarded only by yellow and orange flowers. Even though it was this beautiful, the sun, as it rose higher in the sky beat down upon us, reminding us that this place would soon be ruled by one color: golden yellow...
I know I will be back here, among the fields of gold... just like last year

Flowers were everywhere...


My friend posing... I haven't asked his permission, so no faces...

You can see the Mulshi dam as a straight line...

I had shot this place just last year...

Rice fields on the way...

Hmm...

My friend's Swift negotiated the curves effortlessly... he simple loved this snap and it is now his wallpaper :)

Steve Jobs' Gyan

It's amazing how I end up finding these when I need them the most. Here are some things that Steve Jobs said that I really need to remember...

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Elmo Update

To all of you out there who are wondering what the coolest dude in town is upto, here is the much awaited update: He just had his bath! Yes, Elmo was feeling a litle dusty and he wanted a bath. So here he is, post bath, just out with a towel (OK, it's a kerchief but that's adequate for him isn't it?) and enjoying the morning breeze! Or does it look like a lungi?

Roadies

Been attending a short film making workshop and this was the homework after the first class... we were asked to make a single-shot, aproximately 1 minute movie. Stumbling with a shaky camera and with very patient, helpful friends, shot this one... and had a lot of fun! :)

Till Recycling Does them Apart

Before Sunrise

Jesse: I have an admittedly insane idea. If I don't ask you this... It's gonna haunt me the rest of my life.

Celine: What?

Jesse: I wanna keep talking to you. I don't know what your situation is, but... but I feel like we have some kind of.... uuuh... connection, right?

Celine: Yeah, me too...

Jesse: Well, great! So here's the deal, you should get off the train with me in Vienna and come check out the town.

Celine: What?! *smiling*

Jesse: Come on! It'll be fun!

Celine: What would we do?

Jesse: I don't know... um.. all I know is that I have an Austrian airlines flight to catch tomorrow morning at 9.30, and I don't really have the money for a hotel, so I was just gonna walk around and it would be a lot more fun if you came with me... and if I turn out to be some kind of psycho, you know, you just get onto the next train!

Celine: :) *thinking**hesitating*

Jesse: Alright, alright! Think about it like this... Ummmm... jump ahead, 10-20 years, OK? And you're married... only, your marriage doesn't have that same energy that it used to have, you know... you start to blame your husband...

Celine: *now looking with interest*

Jesse: You start to think about all those guys you have met in your life and what might have happened if you picked up one of them... right? Now, I'm one of those guys! It's me!

"...I'm one of those guys! It's me!"

Now think of this as time travel... from then to now... to find out what you are missing out... see what this really could be... it's a gigantic favor to both you and your future husband to find out that you are not missing out on anything... I'm just as big a loser as he is, totally unmotivated, totall boring and... you made the right choice and you are really happy...

Celine: *laughs, avoiding eye contact, thinking*..... Let me get my bag!

And so they venture into the streets of Vienna... talking... their chemistry is instantaneous and never feels out of place... This is a movie that is hard not to fall in love with. I still watch it whenever possible... having lost count of the number of times I did so...

Before Sunset is it's sequel. It's a beautiful continuation of this amazing story.... with intelligent conversations that you would never get bored of... A very unique and intelligent movie, a must for hardcore romantics and movie buffs!

Before and After

You have to be there to see the transformation of the Sahyadris...

The Prelude to a Siesta

It was a hot summer afternoon. After a heavy lunch consisting of mountains of rice, along with delicious curries, pickles, and curd, the serotonin was too much to handle. Sleep was inevitable. The cool ceramic tiled floor and a colorful straw mat suddenly looked very inviting. The ceiling fan above sent soothing gusts making the curtain across the balcony entrance wave gracefully, creating intermittent brightness and semi-darkness... this was same the day I took this snap

Watch Crazy

You buy two watches on impulse just because you feel your current watch is kinda OK but looks out of fashion, and then you get a third one gifted to you. Shaantam paapam! Sinful accumulation of worldly possessions! Nice. Now for an extra arm...

Cold Fire

Post Lunch

Page 3 Elmo

Well, Elmo has many reasons to be happy these days including appearing in the media posing with some pretty actress for the Daytime Emmy Awards according to the Yahoo! News. And the other day he was in an elevated state of fluff (does he have a mind? ;-) )

Fiery Finale

There are one or two days in the entire year when the sunset is the kind you might see a few times in a lifetime. Thought I was through with boring sunset picture-postcard snaps until this day, when the sky seemed to be set on fire.

This was the view in our hall...

BEWARE (boring) TECHNICALITIES!: By the time I could set the tripod the sunset was just a dull red glow in the horizon, not much color that the human eye sould see. But giving the camera a 30 second exposure soaked up all the red hues there were in the sky and gave me this unexpectedly (unnaturally?) red sky. And this one is a HDR too... the room interior was too dark to be visible in which the sky details are clear...

Sky Scapes

This is the time of the year when the Pune sky comes up with some of its best cloud displays. The sky turns into an ever changing canvas of endless hues!

Sunday evening gave this. What I thought would look pretty average ended up quite decent!

Saturday afternoon: the black cloud looming large on the right is the thunderstorm....

Mysore almost always manages to come up with something spectacular. This time I got to see this rarely seen display. This phenomenon happens at the top portion of Cumulonimbus clouds.

I am unable to find that site which had information on this kind of phenomena...

Postcards from Mysore

Srirangapatna, famous for being the capital of Tipu Sultan's kingdom which stood valiantly against the British Raj, is not that well known for it's rustic charm and natural beauty. The river Cauvery's tributaries flow through this idyllic town and has reverside temples unchanged, just as they were since historic times. One of my favourite places in the world is this place called Gosai Ghat. Sitting on those steps on the banks of Cauvery as the cool waters flow by, under the shade of mango tree, beside the ancient temple, is an experience I would seriously recommend!

This time I tried some HDR imaging. And I got this image.

And of course, I had promised Mysorean that I would give him a better panorama of this spot.
Here it is, Mysorean!

Postcards from Bengalooru

Auto drivers in Bangalore... er, Bengalooru, are becoming very well known for their ruthless fleecing of customers. Still, an autoride is always fun as you zip through Bengalooru traffic. Especially if you know you are going to MG Road or Brigade Road! :-) One autodriver told me that the government allows them to increase the metering charges only about once every 2 years! So, in the meanwhile they are only allowed to mug the customers! There are also plans of completely removing autos from bangalore roads once the metro, according to one driver that I talked to. Well, they do came across as the predators but they are not that high up in the 'food chain'.

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There is this island of greenery just off MG Road that a lot of us do not seem to know about. The green and yellow lines are MG Road and Brigade respectively in this snapshot from Wikimapia. The park is marked in red.

Someone on Wikimapia has labeled this park as a 'useless park'. But if you see the number of couples putting this place to good use, you'll think otherwise! ;-) Now, before you let your imagination run wild about what I was upto there: I was just having a photoshoot there with a friend. So there...

Here is how green the trees are there:

Snapshot from Wikimapia:

Regis Givazo

The accordion somehow made famous by Raj Kapoor in Mera Nam Joker is almost unheard of in present-day India. I have always been a fan of the accordion for the pleasantness of its sound. The movie Amelie had a generous dose of background score consisting of a lively accordion. If you heard Rahman's song for the movie Guru, Ei Hairathein (Ok, my Hindi spellings are not good), it starts with an accordion (or at least I think so) leisurely playing a melody, immediately bringing to my mind images of some quiet European city with cobble-stoned streets and street cafes! The morning sun casting a silver light on the cobble stones and.... and now let me get back to what I was going to say...

This Wednesday, I attended this accordion concert by Regis Givazo hosted by the Poona music club. "Regis who?", was my response too. He is supposedly a world famous (Yes! and WE don't know!) accordionist who is originally from Madagascar. Regis teams up with Mirandon a percussionist/drummer, and together they create magic! He sang with his rich Malagasy (language of Madagascar) voice while his accordion provided the rhythm and bass along with a
complex interplay of notes that simply mesmerised us! His style had a very ethnic touch to it but at the same time incorporated a strong European flavour. Having been in Paris for about 10 years, he had beautifully assimilated various sounds.

I did not know that an accordion is such a versatile instrument, or is it the greatness of the artiste? I would think the latter would be closer to truth. You can listen to his tracks at this National Geographic World Music link . Do try the song Aia Rose at this link.

Now that I hear the tracks on the little CPU speakers in my grey cubicle, it does not sound like it's a big deal. When you are in front of the artist while he is passionately playing his instrument into the amplified hi-fi sound system, each sound crisp and clear with energy, it's a different experience altogether!

That evening I went home and had the perfect hangover :-)

Dolled Up

While visiting my friend's place, this little key-chain doll caught my eye. Some 'inanimate' objects seem to have so much life in them! Right beside the doll is the Laughing Buddha...

The Arrow and the Song

The Arrow and the Song

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Arunima: umm, read it long time back when I was going to give my boards. We were 149 in the batch and knew all of us won't be together. With much love, we had scribbled on each other's scrap book, these lines from this fellow. Ah! those were the days when friendship meant the world.*

Claytonia Vices: Ya, friendship did mean the world then... it still means a lot, but I guess we don't use the word 'forever' as frequently (or carelessly?) as we used to. I guess we understand the impermanence of things better... I think I should blog on this... or would you like to do the honours, Arunima? :-)

Arunima: please go ahead. Iwould love to leave my footprints on your page.*

Claytonia Vices: Footprints? Hmmm... thank God you are not very heavy! ;-)

Arunima: :-)

(I am scared to open my mouth. you will blog that also. so just a smiley.)*

*Posted with permission of course! :-)

Doing the Dew

The ad was dumb. So was the punch line. The Sprite ad's spoof on it damaged whatever little was left. But one day while travelling by bus, feeling extreme thirst and nausea, I tried it. it felt good. Now it's my soft drink of choice.

Now, why am I writing all this just for a drink? The other day I went to the hill top to have a photosession with my friend and he had brought a Dew bottle filled with water along with his bag. So I thought the green bottle and red bag in the evening sunlight made a good combination... In summary all this that I wrote is just a bahana to post these snaps! ;-)

I am simply loving the 'quality time' I am spending with my K100D! I have posted hi-res versions of these snaps..

Moonset at Sunrise

The picture is so ordinary but the moon looks beautiful...


By the time I reached the top of the hill, the sun was up, it's warm rays leaving a faint orange glow on the trees... these trees are green only during the rains and remain leafless for the rest of the year...

Watched the NH-4 below, winding throught the misty Sahyadris of Pune. It connects Bangalore and Mumbai via Pune.


By then the moon was much closer to the horizon...


Taking the brisk morning walks and climbing this hill almost everyday has been very rewarding apart from the beautiful sights. On the hill-top the morning air is pure and cool. Each time you take a deep breath it seems to fill each cell of your being with energy...

New Desktop

Meet Elmo!
He sits on top of my desk, so...

Oh, right now he's thinking out of the box! ;-)

The Kid

She's loves to sit on the swing. She can make 'tea' from the kitchen set and warns you that the stove is too hot to touch. Never throws tantrums. She's got a little book collection. She showed her storybook of the firemen and their dalmation. It was nice to see her squealing in excitement while looking at the colourful images in the book as if she had seen it for the first time! Everything's fine except her vocabulary, which seems to be out of the ordinary. She knows that something can smell 'pungent'. I'll let you know if she starts her own blog! :-)

Down by the Seaside

The beach as seem from wikimapia:




The trees circled in red above can be seen in this badly stiched panorama:







This 4-foot long fish beached itself one morning...

The rocky side of the beach....




Yes, am finally done with the pics from this trip! :-)