Red Scarf - Pencil (2010)

This is my attempt at a middle-eastern woman's image from the TIME magazine. Hope you like it! Please comment if you like it.

Coffee beans, Coorg ("kodagu"), India

    Red and ripe...Ready to roast!
 

Inside a cave (Virginia, USA)

This is a shot from Luray Caverns in Virginia, USA. These caves are homes for the most enchanting views  of stalactite and stalagmite formations. This shot is one of my best captures of the stalactites and their reflection in the pond below (there are no stalagmites in this pic!) The still water of the pond provides the perfect reflection of the structure above.  The visual was as deceiving in reality as in this photo.

If you enjoy poetry, here is the one I wrote sometime back on this visual.

Cheers!

Playing with Fire!

Fire is something that amazes me the most with its mysterious form and appearance. I have thoughts rushing off my head about this magnificent element of nature, but will hold them back this moment due to lack of time and just share this image from a camping trip last year with some friends out at a lake. You can see that the right shutter speed helped me capture the gliding embers in the air which almost look like streaks of light spiraling off the fire and then catching the path of the breeze. A great visual that only a camera can provide you!

Hues Infused (Take Flight with Color)

I was thinking of writing my thoughts on the indiblogger trend topic 'Take Flight with Color' and I could only imagine beginning with a poem to express them. 

Hues Infused

Blue for the calm, red for the heat

Green for the freshness and pink for the meat

Each stroke and hue emotes in a way

Hard to express yet determined to stay

Bristles stroking a canvas of eternity

Emotion of colors infusing the mind

Trying to fill every space of emptiness

With all that sorrow and happiness

I have different perspectives of how I think about colors. Although these persepectives come from the same mind, they yet, in essence, capture two facets or contextually, two diferent hues. To stay in context to the topic I will express my thoughts related to only my aesthetic perspective of colors- what colors mean to me visually and emotionally. 

I think the poem above speaks a lot about my thoughts in this perspective. Every hue around me has its own significance and specifically every shade of that hue represents the naunces within. For someone who dislikes darkness and dealing with it when still awake, black would be a color of torment. However, a thinner stroke or spllatter of dark would make my day- like the dark black eyes of a beauty, the dark shade on her eye lids, her black hair to mention a few. The same holds true for any other hue that I can think of. I love colors and the emotions involved with them and how my mind perceives them. I like waking up daily to the beautiful yellow light trying to pierce through the crimson red curtains on my half-white windows. I also look at those dull half-white walls and think about painting them bright yellow. I like my predomintantly blue and white spread in the wardrobe and thats they way I prefer it, even though my wife wishes to add more color to my everyday life, of course figuratively. My tooth brush is blue too and I wish my eyes were too! Driving the gray car to work makes me feel ordinary on the road and feel safer among the reds, whites and yellows - lesser insurance and fewer eyes of coppers. The blue skies, the black tires and the gray roads diffusing at the horizon because of the mirage is a sight worth seeig on a hot sunny day. The beautiful colors of the foliage that bank the road with strokes of white fence railings fending a brown herd grazing on the greens - a sight I would digress for from my daily route which has some hues but mostly shades of gray. I dont mind spending half my salary to buy a camera to capture this sight thats worth a lot. But what my mind captures of this vision is undoubtedly priceless! 

My taste buds could not indulge any lesser if not for the beautifully seared pink salmon, the fresh green brocoli and sauteed colorful peppers and carrots. Who would ever close their eyes at a meal so deliciously infused with colors? It would be sinful to miss a sight of the beautiful smile from those lovely pink lips of my love who dark black eyes are infused with nothing but that emptiness wanting to be filled any moment. Those colorful dreams smudged, splattered and splashed with bright and dark colors lacking a definition and yet perfectly portray the emotions hidden in your subconscious mind. Like a dream that has no beginning, I will never know when I began my journey with colors but I do know that it will continue to be cherished till my last breath.

                                                  Fall 2011 (New Hampshire)

This blog entry is for Indiblogger's "Take Flight with Color"

http://www.hp.com/in/laserjet

With deep grief, I say: "No meat please!"

Ok, I have decided to stop eating meat. I know, many would remind me of making such resolutions in the past and eventually breaking them. Well, for some reason I feel it is going to be different this time around. For people who do not know me so well, I love eating non-veg- chicken, pork, beef, seafood, anything that crawls, swims, runs and flies and this is a big decision and I would want to make it serious this time! This time around I think I have found enough good reasons to keep up this resolution and here are few of them:
* Eating Animals- This book I have been reading called 'Eating Animals' seems to have a big impact on my decision. The author did a whole lot of research about the origin of our meat products because he wants to ensure that he knows everything about what his new born kid should eat. His explorations were impactful not because I was not aware of the animal farming system of the modern age but just the reinforcement of this fact in my brain. (Digressing slightly, when I speak of reinforcement of known facts having an immediate influence, there was a study done by an MIT group that more people took stairs than the adjacent escalators when a banner speaking about risks of heart attack due to lack of exercise was added over the staircase.) I have seen the PETA videos about humanity issues with animal farming but that did not affect me as much this book did.
* Weight factor - I would not consider myself an obese person but it would be ideal if I lost a few pounds. There is no better way to do this by cutting off my meat intake and replace it with more veggies and pulses. I love veggies as well, so I should not have a problem with this replacement. However, I travel quite a bit for work and tend to eat meat as veggie options are minimum- I would say that was the biggest reason why I started eating meat in the first place (yes, I was vegetarian originally). So, that take me to the next reason...
* Self Control - I have always had low self control and I believe this has had some influence on certain decisions I take. I want to change that and I think my attempt at sticking to the new diet choice will give me an opportunity to make that change about myself.

Well, now those are some good reasons,  I guess, for parting form my beloved meat dishes. I have already hoisted the 'green' flag and it has been flying high for 4 days now....

Signing off with a paraphrase to Yoda's quote: "Meat, or no meat. There is no try".

PS: Going green is my decision and I do not intend to influence anyone else's diet choice. I think everyone has the right to make their own decisions and eat their own food. :)

Clips from the past (2010)- Location: New England area

Vacation to India - A spiteful respite!

Quite a while since I have posted something...well, I could easily blame it on the pre, during and post vacation chores that keeps most of us busy especially when the vacation involves complications of getting a VISA stamp and attending weddings to name a few. 

My last few vacations to India have taken a toll on me, to be frank. It would not be fair to even call them a 'vacation' where you would ideally want a respite from the usual monotony of work life and scattered slogs to get things done before (mostly 2 mins after though) the deadline (just kidding, I love my job like everybody else does!). Why cant I ever sit down in the verandah of my grandma’s with a glass of hot kapi and watch local kids play cricket across the compound. All I ask during my vacation is that relaxing moment where I do not have to think about travelling across towns to meet relatives and be stuffed with all the savories and sweets (not that I would defy them completely!), or where I don’t need to break my head about getting a VISA stamp to return to USA or even don’t have to go on a pilgrimage trip because we do not tend to be ‘devoted’ enough back in the US (that’s what my relatives would claim). Well, I have my reasons for not having to prove my devotedness by going to holy places, but I guess that will be different blog entry.

This is, I believe, is the case with most NRIs and I am sure they will agree with me, mostly even if not completely. The situation for folks who are married becomes even more terrible because now they have to go through the ordeal not just once but twice. I am sure married folks will understand what I mean. They also have to negotiate with their spouse about how much time to spend at their in-laws’ and parents’. In most cases breaking half way with the # of days saves all the arguments and hard-feelings.

Well, I have made a strong resolution to not spend all my vacation on India – I know this might seem selfish but I think it a logical one for I deserve that respite at least once in a year. Guess what, I have a weeks’ vacation left this year but there are chances of it being spent as my parents are visiting us very soon. Sigh!

Anyway, in the next post, I will try to crib less and share some glimpses from my India trip.