Sunday, January 21, 2007

Some Views of Chennai-My Lens-3-people and the Marina Beach

The floozies are back.
My experience of Chennai was mostly through the tinted windows of a taxi and from within the airconditioned environs of the hotel Marina. Went to another Hotel Ambica Empire too and had breakfast at the Le Meridien. Hotels all over the world are same, built and operated similarly, have similar loos and ounce packets of soap and shower caps. Even the uniforms are the same even though the people arent. Some of the bellhops however were pretty impressive.


This one at Ambica Empire had a moustache I would give half of my greying beard for.
The one at Le meridien was a liitle more contemporary and even said thank you when I took his picture.


On the choked roads are a variety of people, I liked the 1000 yeard stare on this guy. This was during a particularly virulent traffic jam.

A woman who asked me for some money, somethings never change. I had none either. So we drove on leaving her to look for other more generous souls.

Women from Chennai are most beautiful though, Anuradha Sriram performed at the banquet in MGM beach resorts. And isnt she absolutley beautiful. I was quite heartbroken to know that she is married. She was however happy to pose for me. And i took this picture. Must say the steadiness of my hands imroves with booze in my system.

Another example of steadiness of hands, 15 seconds exposure hand-held on the shore of the bay of Bengal, racked with pain from a couple of compressed nerve roots in the back, I took this picture as the sound of the waves crashing to the shore and the light of the moon shining on the sea combined with the alcohol to anesthetize my back first and my brain later. Luckily there was a policeman with a very ample baton who took particularly good and effective care that no one reach the water itself. Otherwise ANCIPS 2007 may have reached a more tragic and eventful end than it eventually did.

The Marina Beach is the main landmark?? of the city of Chennai. We went there early in the morning to catch the sunrise. Not surprsingly the car failed to show up to take us there, and after a lot of sham anger outbursts, we finally got one and reached there. It was just as well that we missed the sunrise because there was a huge bank of clouds that made visibility poor. Walking from the road to the beach is an effort, its a huge distance and the sand is soft and very sticky. The beach front was littered with lots of wooden structures. But there was no one around at that moment, it was evidently a lot more crowded in the evenings.

There were a few scattered souls around like this old salt who had a tough time getting p. Compassion isnt one of my strong points, I took his picture instead of helping him up. Shame on me.
Two seashell sellers on the Marina beach. What would it be then, he sells sea shells on the sea shore??? Hardly a tongue twister.
And finally, an intersting shack that sells sea food at better times and to more receptive customers. Is this why the Titanic sank??

The walk back left my already ventilated shoes with a pound of clarified sand that I left behind in the Hotel room. I hope their vacuum cleaners still work.

7 comments:

tatastha said...

I see borderlines in your pics :)

tatastha said...

These are my own feelings evoked by watching these pics.

The meeting point.

I am a barren land, I am a barren land
There are no flowers in my land.
Borderline, they call me borderline
Borderline, barren, I am no man’s land,
I am the boarder between sea and land
I tend to be whomever I m with
I am the pride in man, beauty in woman
Poverty of beggar maid
The shadow in the sea
Constantly invalidated by my own beliefs
I am trying to be what I think other people want me to be.
No Affection and reassurance, compassion
This I get from none, not even from myself
I am a desert where rainfall is rare
I am the waves of the sea
Intense, stormy and unstable
Feelings of emptiness and boredom
A deep hole in my stomach, lack of life
My trust was shattered by many
Splitting in self system, a distance from own myself
Hopelessness, helplessness, worthlessness
I am the meeting point of the earth and sky
I am the meeting point of sea and land
Yet there is no real meeting here
I am a barren land, I am a barren land
There are no flowers in my land.

The Angry Medic said...

Wow. These are some good pics. Tatastha is right--they do tend to invoke feelings in people seeing them.

And great poem, Tatastha. Very descriptive.

skywalker said...

It is quite interesting to read which thoughts these pictures are evoking in peoples mind. Some of the thoughts I get when looking at those pictures are:
The beauty of life
The soul behind a mask
Struggle to survive
Boredom
Acceptance of life
A selfish man
The never lasting beauty of the nature and humans
Worries
“Hold back the sympathy you could show me and give me some money instead”
People with content and people with emptiness
Living at the moment
Prying for a change
Etc…..

All in all those pictures tells me that, in this short time of existence people try to live their life each and every day.

I would say that my views are focused on external factors. Tatastha described very beautifully the internal process, which could run in many people’s mind either consciously or unconsciously.

tatastha said...

Thanks angry medic and sky walker.
Yes these are thought provoking pics. There is a relationship that exists between the photographer, camera, the people, places and the photograhs and the viewers (Us). The things we see exist only in relationship, when analysed microsopically, they too are best viewed as relationships. It is no secret in physics that the closer we analyse some "thing" the less it appears as a thing and the more it appears as a dynamic process (things in relationship) Apparently, relationships become a primary source of our knowledge in the world. When it comes to the internal and external relationship, i do believe more or less we create the external world through our internal processes.I do believe that these pics are reflections of interconnectedness between the photographer and the camera and the external environment.When i come to view it.. it is my interconnectedness with all these i mentioned above.
I believe that shrink immaculate is doing a good job by taking these pics and reflect upon them in a more genuine way and he should be praised for his congruence. Thank you shrinked immaculate. ;)

tea_party said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tea_party said...

Hi Shrinked Immaculate! I stumbled across your blog while I was searching for information on Anuradha Sriram! Thank you for posting the picture! It looks like you had a fantastic trip to South India. Your photographs are beautiful! You have a real talent for photography. Did you go to see Ms. Sriram perform? She is one of my favourites! Please drop me an email and let me know what it was like to meet this great artist!

tea_party@ourbrisbane.com

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