This is how I'm spending my days :|

The Painter

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.
Vincent Van Gogh

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt.
Leonardo Da Vinci

आज फिर चाँद की पेशानी से उठता है धुआँ

आज फिर महकी हुई रात में जलना होगा

Seeking life in stones

शुभ दीपावली

वक्रतुंड महाकाय सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ:
निर्विघ्नम् कुरु मे देव सर्व कार्येषु सर्वदा

Happy B'day

Spot the bird

And when you've spotted it, tell me which species is this?!

कठपुतली

The last gift

well... not a gift exactly but the last thing from a most special friend.

भूख के विरुद्ध भात के लिए

क्रान्ति की जली मशाल
क्रान्ति को उठे कदम
भूख के विरुद्ध भात के लिए
रात के विरुद्ध प्रात के लिए

yummmyy

A refrigerated and scooped papaya -
it was a good day for me
(although not so good for the papaya)

What I like to shoot

After my first post, this is the second post on my picture blog which doesn't have a picture. Although I still have a huge stock of pics and in fact, just got my stocks replenished with a trip down South but for a change, I want to talk about what I like to capture.

I like shooting birds and kids the most - both are very innocent, natural, and spontaneous. More importantly, they don't try to 'pose' for a picture. Interestingly, when kids do try to pose, they become even more cute and beautiful.

I also love capturing the celestial maps - shades of sky, different moods of sun, and different glows of moon. Another beautiful natural play to capture is rains - be it rainfall or play of droplets on leaves and flowers. And that reminds me of two more of my favorites - the flora and the water bodies. Flora - trees, flowers, roots, fruits - with its variability over seasons and millions of shades and shapes make for beautiful pictures. These are perhaps easiest to shoot, as flora mostly remains static and gives ample time to setup and repeat. Water bodies, on the other hand, are more thrill to shoot and demand great sense of angle, time, and settings.

Although I have shot a lot of buildings also but I usually don't like putting them up on the blog - don't know why but never felt much for them. Experimental photography is one more dimension that I like - setting up objects in a manner to create illusion or express something (or for that matter, nothing as well). I have so far tried cut fruits, chocolates, coffee mugs, water balloons, reflections in mirror and water, shadows, and sunlight etc.

But mostly, I love seeking shots where there is a scope of abstraction or stretching the threads of poetic imagination. Some easy catches in this regard are lights, staircase, construction sites, roads, and everything else found everywhere else. As I always say, there is a picture everywhere, waiting to be captured!

Autumn is here!!

Face-off

from a village

stop making those faces...

;) :( :D :P :x :?

and let's :)

तुम

A flower like you,

well-carved, beautiful, shining,

and yet... stone!

A flower like you!!

आ चल डूब के देखें...

Looking ahead with great ecxpectations!

It ain't over until she sings

Egret

Spotted this beauty at IIMA new campus grounds
and 'clicked' ;)

बहिरा हुआ खुदाए

कांकर पाथर जोरि कै, मस्जिद लई बनाय

ता चढ़ मुल्ला बाँग दे, बहिरा हुआ खुदाए

- कबीर

ज़िन्दगी सब पे क्यूँ नहीं आती

सब पे आती है, सबकी बारी से
मौत मुन्सिफ़ है, कम-ओ-बेश नहीं
ज़िन्दगी सब पे क्यूँ नहीं आती

You are a very bad icon Mr. Marlboro Man!

Please don't smoke your life away.

My other car is a Porsche

Tailor Bird

तारे

मैं तमाम तारे उठा-उठा के गरीब लोगों में बाँट दूँ
वो बस एक रात को आस्मां का निज़ाम दे मेरे हाथ में

वन्दे मातरम्

Sweetie!

Yellow Footed Green Pigeon

अकाल और उसके बाद (नागार्जुन)

कई दिनों तक चूल्हा रोया, चक्की रही उदास

कई दिनों तक कानी कुतिया सोई उनके पास
कई दिनों तक लगी भीत पर छिपकलियों की गश्त

कई दिनों तक चूहों की भी हालत रही शिकस्त ।

दाने आए घर के अंदर कई दिनों के बाद

धुआँ उठा आँगन से ऊपर कई दिनों के बाद

चमक उठी घर भर की आँखें कई दिनों के बाद

कौए ने खुजलाई पाँखें कई दिनों के बाद ।

Happy Friendship Day

to all those who are a friend and who were a friend once....

Will you eat me??!!!

Next time you eat meat, just think about those eyes that ask you so innocently -
Will you eat me??

Biking Anyone?!!

The pics are from a shop in Aizawl, Mizoram - a beautiful state in North-East India. The wooden bikes were perfect in every detail of equipment - kick, fuel tank, wheels, ignition... and so on. The model in first picture above was about one foot long and the second one was almost as big as Bobby Bullet. Really a collectors' delight :)

मह्वे यास*

*मह्वे यास - नाउम्मीद इन्तज़ार में रत (in a hopeless wait)

Monsoon Sun

गुब्बारे

Sunbirds

A male Sunbird (above) and a female Sunbird (below) -
another evidence that males of every species are more endowed.

History repeats itself!!!

When I was in Class III, my mama went to Egypt and brought me a gun that looked like the one in this picture. It was a rare thing back then and an instant hit in my school :)

Twenty years later, I went to Korea and couldn't resist buying this gun for my nephew, who is, incidentally, in class III. It's a lot more common toy now... but then, I wanted history to repeat itself!!!

टका

टका हर्त्ता, टका कर्त्ता
टका मोक्ष विधायिका
टका सर्वत्र पूज्यन्ते
बिन टका, टक-टकायते

Let's Dance!!!