...colorful surajkund mela

Multi-tasking doesn't work for me all the time. This weekend I went to Surajkund with few other folks, actually two of them. First one 'One unknown face, unknown name' who happened to be a flickr contact and eventually ended up making me wait for almost 32 minutes on the road, telling me will-be-there-in-10-minutes. So much so that after exactly waiting for 32 minutes, I suddenly started the engine and off I went, without intimating him. Sounds mean? Well okay, if you think it is not mean to make someone wait on the roads for 32 minutes, then I am mean and I would always be so. Not to forget the blasting he got from me for making me wait for so long. I would never do that again - agree to pick someone I don't know. Once bitten and twice shy. I value time. Leaving the punctuality bit aside, he has a pretty impressive portfolio when it comes to photography specially on portraits and a decent person to talk to. (Apologies mister..am not as bad as I sound!)

The second one - 'known to me for a few months, seen pictures of him, spoken to him on phone but never met' - was thankfully on time at the place we mutually decided and on second thoughts 'one definitely interesting company to be with' who would crib about not having big lenses, of not giving space to click pictures, and actually blaming you for stealing his frames !!! I hope he doesn't get offended if he gets to know the description of him that I just gave...which am sure he would but that's okay. He is a friend now. Knows how I am. And has already tagged me as being overtly critical. So I can get away with that.

So that now brings me to 'Surajkund' - This mela had been on my mind for last 4-5 years, first 3 years just for funsake to go and check out stuff and then the last year for clicking pictures. This time there was no turning back. I had to go even if it meant going alone. I actually was ready to go alone but for the two dear friends above who decided to give me company at the nTH hour.

It took us almost 2 hours to reach the place...reason? None of us knew the way. Thanks to the directions given by someone who is NOT from Delhi, we managed to reach. Pretty crowded place it is but all but colorful. Oh man, it is just so very colorful from people to stalls to food to fabrics to lights to crafts to cultural show - all COLORFUL. Guess we indulged in photography for almost 4-5 hours...observing, imagining a frame in mind and then SHOOT. Ate Raam Ladoo and Jalebi and met up with 'Shash' there who was so helpful and considerate when it came to giving you space to click picture, lending you lens when you needed one and getting you jalebi when you wre on fire coz of the spicy chutney of ram ladoo. He is a great photographer and someone I really admire for his recent works...one of which is currently on display in an exhibition in Washington.

Click-click - am coming to that...I am okay with what I have got in some of the frames though I could have done much better with some more patience and intelligence at each shoot/click. A lot of my pictures are blurred. Some were random clicks without realizing what the settings were and then the fact that it was bright daylight, giving us not much option but to click on high shutter speed and lessened ISO. I realize there is so bloody much to learn and I feel very good when people critique my pictures. It adds to your learnings - i wish I was technically sound..what the heck, I could have if I had tried spending some time reading and asking people. I hope to increase my level of intelligence soon - its not always click and learn...when you have chance to click a good picture and what you get is a bad one because of lack of intelligence, you are god damn F*****! We hate it, don't we?

So much for photography today...you can see my indulgence - and if that ain't enough, am gonna post some pictures here on this stream...right after this post.

Until then...I remain...editing-ly yours...Mon, the photographer for few days until am exhuasted of my kitty of colorful surajkund pictures. If I get colorblinded, I have friends to take care. ;-) and I hope they hear this!

Next level...

Why si it that when you write anything which is little different from the usual crap and deeper than the usual thoughts, people think you are in a disturbed state of mind? All that I write here may not always be something that's happening to me...it may just be a thought that I have in mind due to things that I would have heard or spoken to someone.

Anyway, I have to tell you that yesterday evening it almost took me 3.5 hours to reach back home from Gurgaon..it was raining and as usual, the roads were jammed. I was on phone most of the times and it is surprising that while talking to a friend, I did not realize when the mg road that I was driving concluded on a red light that was taking me to chirag delhi. Needless to say more, I lost my way. And this usually happens when it is raining and I have poor visibility to the surroundings. :)

Today I decided to work from home - I don't have the patience to drive again today...my foot is still hurting from yesterday.

Guess what, one of my pictures in facebook..was liked by a good photographer and he actually wants to buy it so that he can frame it and put it up in one of his walls...well, that sure sounds fantastic to me...boosts my ego...and well, I also gotta tell you that I have ordered about 25 prints, of all different sizes for some on my favourite pictures that I have clicked. The ones that are good enough in the printed form shall then be framed and hung on my walls...have been waiting to do this for months now...finally decided it is time.

It is interesting how photography grew in me in these years and today it becomes my most favourite pass time...I definitely think of taking it to the next level and thanks to all my friends out there in the group who help me enhance my work...when I say next level, I mean getting technically sound..i care no more about the aethetics, framing, angles etc...over time, I will hone my skills better there. What I need to get into right now is the technical aspect of photography. Not sure if I am ready for a course yet...but it has been going on in my mind for sometime...won't do any harm...a course that I can do over weekends and that's not really very long...infact a friend Jo did tell me about the photosensitive course which is for 4 weekends and costs only about 8k...but before that I think I should learn the basics.

Yesterday was speaking to friend about this and hence all of it here....:) bear with me please...and yeah, its a thursday - just a day before the weekend begins...so guys..enjoy, work hard and then party harder...

Gift of a lifetime...

...Like I said before, I still don't know how to react to surprises - good or bad.

But this one filled me with so much of ....don't know what. I get a message 'Check your gmail'. I check it and I have a mail from Flickr which says you have been gifted.

Someone GIFTED me a Flickr Pro account!!! It was such a beautiful gesture in so many years now that it feels me with pleasure that I can never explain. Thanks buddy for your beautiful gesture and the underlying encouragement - I will cherish it forever. And I will live upto your expectations.

Just cannot thank you enough.

It is a gift of a lifetime.

Canon 400D

....and finally, another one down in my wishlist - my latestht possession - a canon 400D with an additional 50 mm lens!!!! Yippppeeeeee.

I love it. Wait until I show you some results - still waiting for that first click. :-)

...And a time to do what you like...

...You can make out that I have finally got the much sought after 'time' to be here! Someone sent me a message yesterday..'No pictures?' and I thought 'Aise kaise'...one should never cease to find time to do what they like doing...days will start and days will end without us realizing they are gone...and in the middle of that 'pardonable ignorance', the least we can do is find time to be ourselves, do things that make us happy, and do things that we actually like doing..which in turn give us the much needed satisfaction. I try to live by this. (Arrre waah, ye tou bahut achcha sa kuch likh diya maine...a pat on my back...)

With this philosphical note on a friday morning...sharing with you some that I also posted on flickr today morning. The better ones are for my collection...here are some preview shots..did a series on white gladulas...and also one in the railway station, which i mentioned before...:D So my dear buddy, no pictures nahi KAAFI pictures hain...Happy Friday Folks.

My Colors...

..Tough but decided that I will be away from the camera for the whole of next week. A crazily hectic week ahead and I have not idea how will I manage multitasking...from shifting to meeting deadlines to going fro a training to reaching out to Milsy's school folks for her school dress to the orientation session that is planned. With Manish gone for the whole of this week, things are going to be all the more painful. I wonder if I the decision to shift all by myself is a good idea at all. We will see...but am kind of zittery at the moment. Okay, and now some pictures in color...bear with them la...:D

Yesterday, today and tomorrow - that's the name of the design of this ring designed by Cartier....this one is a duplicate though.

Maniac Saturday!

...two posts in one day, whole lot of packing, cleaning, irritation...and amidst that - photography! Whoever gave me this bug - I just love it. It is just so very satisfying to my soul...and guess what, today I figured out a feature I had been longing for a long time..and I did not know my Canon had it...needless to say I got a little overboard in trying to explore the feature....here are my experiments with getting too close to objects! :D some of them are baseless but just for the sake of experimenting I clicked and I liked. :-) Will share some color pictures tomorrow morning...

Just Like That...

AMIDST MAKE-BELIEVE WORLD AND RELATIONSHIPS,

SHOW ME THE MEANING OF BEING REAL.

Lost in thought - Aawargi

...for the first time, I liked the pictures I clicked for Aawargi...we did not have time because we were rushing to watch Jodha..but even then...I am happy with these....she looks beautiful in these three..though the sun was too bright for her to open her eyes...but I could not wait until the right place...with kids and so much else around.....check them out....and the software I used is Photofilter (thank you buddy for this..it helps!)

...there is an itch - to click something really fantastic..and its growing bigger day by day. Today while coming back from work.....I saw the fireball - it looked maginificient...I have decided to take my camera to work tomorrow so that when I am returning tomorrow from work...i shall go an extra mile and do some clickety click. Need something to keep me going on...and for the sombre mood that I am in - this just seems like the perfect thing to do. Someone complained today that I have not been doing serious writing. I say chaps..I need to get serious to do some serious writing...am working on nurturing my machine...wait till it is fed full - it will come back into action. Until then, bear with these short stints of my day to day life.

पाकीजा - a movie I watched yesterday evening...have seen it before twice..liked it the third time too..and specially this....'पानी और तमन्नाओं की तासीर एक सी होती है, ये बहते रहना चाहते हैं'...

...और मैं भी.....

The Zoo...

...Delhi Zoo - been there, done that...not really - in so many years now, today finally got the time to take Mili to the Delhi Zoo. Oh man - I almost went berserk amidst the chaos there. Realized how little of these places do we visit - public places. Forgotten to behave in a crowd as big as that. Not sure if Mili liked what she saw...but if you ask me, I think I really liked what I saw...check this out...

Mili - going pink in the heat of the day....and sleepy...verrrryyy....lolz.
Okay...this one was an exception because Mili was amazed to see them...so thought of capturing and keeping for records for her.

I actually waited for her to do this...a lot of times when she did...the bubbles did not form as much....but like they say, patience pays...it did.

The little boy on the left was a part of this nice looking family...but somehow saw him drifting all the time, until it was so evident and playing on my mind that i decided to click.

Check out the flickr page for some more pictures.

Picture-Mania

Oh man - last 3 days have gone by in pictures and more of pictures. I think JLO and I should open up a photo studio of the sorts - we would have edited near about 200 pictures and then uploading them here and there. My blog, suddenly, is a photo album in completeness.

Even hours after those busy sessions of editing, whenever I am in front of my laptop, the first click is Picasa - god it is addictive. Anyway, no picture editing for some days now, except 5-6 which I have to do for the ones that I clicked fro my brother. My flickr site has picture of all except my family - and that's an unjustice. Infact, I will remove all those pictures that are there right now - that site was for those pictures which I thought I liked and were worth uploading....as of now, it seems like a family and friends album to me. :-)

Okay, and now to a peak into health, wealth and weather. Man, that bhmtaal trip costed me my lungs. Ever since we are back - I have been coughing away to glory. Manish too has caught cold and all other models and their counterparts. Thankfully the kiddos are fine. Wealth - blew up quite a few. An addition to my collection being Weekend by burberry - been eyeing it for a year now. Smells good. Next should be bvlgiri this month (coz my gift vouchers are still left) and then next year Orange - clinique, maybe. :-)

Weather - don't ask - I hate this dilli ki sardi - it is such a dry cold but thanks to the Sun, which I never get to see from my apartment, the grass looks better from the balcony. I know people are fighting cold without seeing sun for days. I keep track of all those in my proximity. :-) Winters, please please go away.