The Last Post

I have mentioned some place before that the last post is played at the end of the day when a homage is paid to colleagues who have dies in battle or long back when battles were fought during the day time, it signaled the end of the business for the day.
Therefore, this is the last post for the day and the year, 2008. Is it a homage for those who died?
Well none died this year for a pleasant change or is it the end of business for the year...well, yes but there is not much of a choice in there, is there.
So, this is a last post and it requires a suitable somber theme.
I asked my wife regarding some suitable themes and she charactersitically came up with the following:
1. lack of tharak

2. oedipus complex

3. woolen socks

4. being called a nikamma

5. eating burnt rotis

6. pressure cooker whistles

7. madagascar

As we used to answer in the final MD papers, we will now discuss these points in some detail. That is because they are topical and relevant, and are quite somber (lack of tharak has to be somber, right!!)
1. lack of tharak:
Tharak or roughly translated as libido is the nature of one human being to be aroused in ways that are hopefully sexual though not necessarily procreative towards another member of the animal, plant or inanimate kingdom. It helps if the libidinal object is of the same species and of opposite sex but this is not always the case. By corollary, lack of tharak comes about where there is an absence of such a feeling because of variety of reasons that can range from overdosage of pro-getstaional hormones to simply a kick on the butt. Mostly, lack of tharak (LOT) is associated with significant psycho-social distress but at times and in certain people such as serial sex offenders, this may be an adaptive and life-preserving advantage. Why my wife talked about LOT, I really dont know, I will have to ask and find out. If it is of some nature that is conducive to public consumption, I will let you all know. Otherwise, the details will go with me to the bottom of the nearest active volcano where I am sure to be interred.
2. Oedipus Complex:
It is a fancy name for the neighbouring kid trying to hang out with his mama more than his daddy does. It really means that there was this king somewhere in Greece who got killed by his son in a case of mistaken identity or was it something else, anyway, there was incest involved which makes it hugely interesting. Google and thou shall find....I always say, or was that an old jungle saying from the Phantom comics?
Why did my wife talk about it...no ideas again. I will have to ask and find out. If it is of some nature that is conducive to public consumption, I will let you all know. Otherwise, the details will go with me to the bottom of the nearest active volcano where I am sure to be interred.
3. Woolen Socks:
Now this one easy, its bloody cold and I feel a frost bite coming on. So I need some woolen socks, but why does my wife talk about it? Holey moley......maybe she actually cares for me or does she intend to put that ultra-poisonous scorpion she got to some good use??
If I survive, i will let you know some more details.
4. Being called a nikamma and eating burnt rotis
We will discuss both of these together because they are so 'intimately' related' (bloody dirty mind..where did that progesterone shot go now?). Anyways, I am called a nikamma because that is what i am, a nikamma. Now nikamma is a fine word, made up of ni+kamm+a. Ni stands for no, kamm means for sex..oops no work (bloody dirty mind..where did that progesterone shot go now?). Kam means work, fine I got that work. And the a makes it kind of easy on the tongue (dirty thoughts again, maybe I need high-dose flouxetine), so you can like a good punjabi say Nikamma...and feel good about it. Since my wife is not Punjabi, she is finding it hard to get her tongue around it (sorry already) the right way (again, again), so she kind of writes it often just to parctice. eating burnt rotis is fine because that is what nikammas eat. Since there is a lack of moral fiber in such people, burnt rotis provide that fiber so that they are not chronically constipated. And I am not, haha.
5. pressure cooker whistles:
I once made a wolf whistle and got beaten, thereafter I decided that pressure cooker whistles would have to do. It is quite alright because I need to carry a gas cylinder with me all the time, and when I see some nice girl, by the time I can light a fire and get the cooker to have enough steam, that lady is already away. SO i am saved. I need one because the FBI tells me that one has been stolen by Palo Aunty, the maid.
6. Madagascar:
Hmmmm, I really dont know.......Well, I have probably written enough to get some passing marks. So Madagascacar....Isnt that a car made by a mad man, runs on gas produced by fermentation of intestinal roughage. That should do well in Punjab.

3 Wrecks

The third one tripped the shutter

The Importance of Good Timing

As in having an idea as to when exactly to press the button and trip the shutter in a mobile phone camera (owing to an inordinate shutter lag), it is important to be able to envisage when exactly to call it quits.
Now, if only life had a 'take picture' button.

A strange sight

I was driving to Banur when enroute and outside the Chattbir Zoo, I saw a Sambar deer on the road. It was thrashing wildly around, I thought it might have escaped from the zoo or run in from the hills and been run over by a vehicle. As I pulled in closer, I stopped the car and saw that there were no obvious injuries. A couple of other people stopped by too. I was thinking of what to do, I thought maybe the deer was having an epileptic seizure the way it was moving its limbs. Then I thought of getting someone from the zoo, surely they would know what to do. But then all of a sudden, after about 30 seconds of lying around and thrashing around wildy, the deer got to its feet and scooted off like a rabit or rather a deer into the undergrowth and was lost to view. I wonder what it was all about.

Hitler hates Nikon

This has to be the funniest thing ever......

CHILLIANWALLAH- George Meredith

CHILLIANWALLAH



Chillanwallah, Chillanwallah!
Where our brothers fought and bled,
O thy name is natural music
And a dirge above the dead!
Though we have not been defeated,
Though we can't be overcome,
Still, whene'er thou art repeated,
I would fain that grief were dumb.

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
'Tis a name so sad and strange,
Like a breeze through midnight harpstrings
Ringing many a mournful change;
But the wildness and the sorrow
Have a meaning of their own -
Oh, whereof no glad to-morrow
Can relieve the dismal tone!

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
'Tis a village dark and low,
By the bloody Jhelum river
Bridged by the foreboding foe;
And across the wintry water
He is ready to retreat,
When the carnage and the slaughter
Shall have paid for his defeat.

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
'Tis a wild and dreary plain,
Strewn with plots of thickest jungle,
Matted with the gory stain.
There the murder-mouthed artillery,
In the deadly ambuscade,
Wrought the thunder of its treachery
On the skeleton brigade.

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
When the night set in with rain,
Came the savage plundering devils
To their work among the slain;
And the wounded and the dying
In cold blood did share the doom
Of their comrades round them lying,
Stiff in the dead skyless gloom.

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
Thou wilt be a doleful chord,
And a mystic note of mourning
That will need no chiming word;
And that heart will leap with anguish
Who may understand thee best;
But the hopes of all will languish
Till thy memory is at rest.

A serendipitous discovery

It is possible to have half a truck on a full truck and still get somewhere on it. Taken on the road from Banur to Zirakpur, one of these days.

Well, there are at least two discoveries to report. One of which is serendipitous. The first being that I had to run up 5 flights of stairs for no specific reason and the second being that the process of running up the stairs is suddenly easy, and had a mild euphoric action.

For my Bangla friends

One Bengali = poet.
Two Bengalis = a film society.
Three Bengalis = political party.
Four Bengalis = two political parties.
More than four Bengali's = Countrywide agitation to bring Ganguli into Team

Mcleodganj

Mcleodganj
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I like this shot, it captures everything I like about the place. The anonymity, the red robes, the mist that obscures me from the world and the trees that reach out to touch.
Maybe I need to be there soon.

Singh is Kinng...Funny

Singh is Kinng...Funny
Originally uploaded by Bombayite

This is so cool.

The IgNobel Update

It seems that the 2008 IgNobel prizes have been announced and as always there are some great people who have been awarded. You can read all about it somewhere in this article, that bloody link button wont bloody work like the way it bloody should.


yes here is the link finally.

And as always there are some front runners.

1. For my wife: NUTRITION PRIZE. Massimiliano Zampini of the University of Trento, Italy and Charles Spence of Oxford University, UK, for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is.
REFERENCE: "The Role of Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips," Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence, Journal of Sensory Studies, vol. 19, October 2004, pp. 347-63.

2. For the medical rep: MEDICINE PRIZE. Dan Ariely of Duke University (USA), Rebecca L. Waber of MIT (USA), Baba Shiv of Stanford University (USA), and Ziv Carmon of INSEAD (Singapore) for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine..
REFERENCE: "Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy," Rebecca L. Waber; Baba Shiv; Ziv Carmon; Dan Ariely, Journal of the American Medical Association, March 5, 2008; 299: 1016-1017.

3. For broke male lap dancers thinking of a sex-reassignment surgery: ECONOMICS PRIZE. Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating.
REFERENCE: "Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers: Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?" Geoffrey Miller, Joshua M. Tybur, Brent D. Jordan, Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 28, 2007, pp. 375-81.

Manouvering around the kitchen

Winter is around the corner
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I must stress that it is not easy. I hope that the next time around, someone doesn't put the sugar in a jar of horlicks.
Tea was never so difficult to get around into the cup, what when there is nothing where it is supposed to be. Hmm, wonder whether I should get my stuff simply from the neighboring dhaba?

Kidnap

I saw this movie Kidnap yesterday and it has to be one of the stupidest, most foolish, cliched and nut case movies ever. In fact I have never felt so morbidly curious about how stupid a movie can be since Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
So there, at last I have it off my chest.

toilet sign

toilet sign
Originally uploaded by ChrisThorn

Empty pocket and a full gut/bladder....not a great combo

HCB

"To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy."

HCB

"To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy."

Look Like an Artist-2

Do I look artistic enough)

Me, Sanjay Kaushal, Pradeep Mahajan and Raghu Rai.
And thats a mighty expensive FabIndia Kurta brought exclusively for my wearing and Raghu Rai's viewing pleasure.

Raghu Rai

Raghu Rai
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

Raghu Rai said that he had come to Chandigarh to uproot photographers from their comfort zones. Well, I don't know how far he succeeded but there certainly was some food for thought. First things first, the workshop was not a workshop in the conventional sense. In fact there was no technical baloney at all. It was all about philosophy and doing what looks great.
Rahu Rai has his own style of pictures and keeping my normal hoity-toity attitude aside I have to admit that his sense of timing is quite immaculate. He uses great equipment and admits that he does. So his lack of pretensions was quite refreshing. We has another session where participants of the workshop projected their own hopelessly pretty sunsets and cliched landscapes and he was quite forthright about saying that most of it sucked.
I went away feeling irritated about the whole coming down to earth experience and then looked at some of my old pictures and realized that while I am frequently good where I have to seek out a picture, I am often overwhelmed whenever I am overwhelmed by possibilities. I think I have to work on that now.
I took this picture and it just quite naturally suggested itself, about the only thing that I have been happy about in a long time.
Raghu Rai had a look at it and I believe was quite amused though he thought that the lettering behind his head was a bit too prominent. Well, I really cant help that even though that is an excuse.

Look like an artist

Is it important to be an artist or look like one, or does one feel and think like one once one starts looking like one. I like to think that I am an artist and the only time that my sartorial vanity kicks in is when I think that I should like an artist.
So I got a couple of Kurtas today (suitably artistic looking) and now I feel like I can take on whatever the photography workshop throws at me tomorrow and the day after.
Very Raghu Raiedly yours
Shrink Imm (abbr as per Index Medicus)

2nd October

Two great things happened today. There is a ban being imposed on smoking in public places in India and there is a ban on plastic bags in Chandigarh. I went to two shops and one of them thankfully has started using paper bags. It is thankful that there are still some meaningful ways in which we can remember Mahatma Gandhi.

Freaky weather

It hasn't stopped raining the past 36 hours. I wonder if we are going to have bad roads for some more time now.
On the other hand, I read this book "Soldier Sahibs" by Charles Allen and I came away with the feeling that history is written by the victors.

Why do we blog?- Because it is there!!!

Yesterday was an interesting day, I talked with my wife. Mostly i am talked to but yesterday I talked with her. And over a cup of coffee, and discussions regarding a certain, important and practical piece of research that I came across; I asked her why she doesnt have a blog.
She asked why i had one! And frankly that is when I thought of it. And I dont know, have no ideas as to why I have a blog. So I googled " Why Do We Blog" and got a total of 133,000,000 responses, which I cannot even start reading.
So my wife tells me that people who blog bare themselves in an artificial medium in front of people you cannot see. Do I bare myself in my blog? I think not, I just type in a few random lines about something interesting or important that may have happened in the day. That is if I have the time and energy to do so.
Is my blog me? Yes, it is. It is as much me as anything else.
Do I mind the artificial medium and people I cannot see, not really. I dont know whether people read all that I write at all or not. And so that does not guide my writing.
Do I crave for real people and baring my soul in front of them. I do not mind real people but baring my soul, I wonder if anyone really does. Except those, who write fiction.
And the Marilyn has nothing to do with this post!!

Anuradha Sriram

Most of the traffic on my blog is directed around, surprisingly enough, a certain Anuradaha Sriram who I was lucky enough to photograph and watch perform in Chennai.
Well, this post is to thank Ms Sriram and tell her if she ever-ever-ever reads this that I think she is a great artiste and that she is one of the most beautiful women I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

A worsening rash

Just cant let go...

I just saw this 75-year old man who came to with complaints of sadness of mood and wanting to give up all worldly possessions. It came out that he had been ok until about 5 years ago when his wife in a fit of passion told him that she had married him out of convenience and compulsion and that she had lived with him with distaste and would continue to do so all her life.
Now its ok to be imparted such info early on in marriage but coming to know this at the fag end of your life is a bit discomfiting to say the least.
Now even though his wife denies having ever said such a thing, he just cant let go......and so and so forth.
So he is miserable and though he says that he thinks as to how unhappy his wife must have been living with a man she did not love, I can see that he feels sorry for himself for having lived with a woman who did not love him and did not let him know until it was too late.
Now, this affair does give rise to a couple of interesting questions. Namely, is it just what he says and nothing else or is it so that he hated his wife so much all along that this gives him the reason to hold on to this....and continue having a reason to vindicate himself for ever more?

ShahJehan Built The Taj Because He Could Afford It!!!!

ShahJehan Built The Taj Because He Could Afford It!!!!
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

Another message for all those who are harassed and embarrassed by their not necessarily loved ones!!

An interesting morning with a snake

An interesting morning followed an interesting night (damn! I cant get that interesting spelling right only with the spell check). I got up still feeling tired and disgusted...actually the disgust came later. Spent an inordinately long time reading the newspaper and not actually understanding anything that went on in it.
I drove down in my car...my clothes not seemingly fitting well. Did not even notice the trees and the fields that somehow cheer me up every morning and then I saw it almost too late. A huge, glistening, black-brown snake slithering across the road. I slammed on the brakes hard to avoid running it over, and almost went out of control. But the snake now slithered across the road unharmed and unscathed. I felt somewhat better...
So I stopped at a dhaba a few miles down the road....feeling hungry now. I ordered two large parathas with butter and a big glass of lassi to wash it down. By the time I finished my breakfast, I was rs 70 poorer and disgusted again. And that is the way I am now!!!

Oscar Wilde

I am a fan of most things Oscar Wilde, but certainly not all. This however, absolutely really takes the cake. The picture of Dorian Gray and Oscar Wilde quotes.

The ultimate persecutory delusion

Persecutory delusion A fixed, false, and inflexible belief that others are engaging in a plot or plan to harm an individual.
Persecutory delusion
That is the definition, and it seems that I am increasingly fitting the bill. How would it feel to be an experimental animal in a vast naturalistic experiment?
A lot like how I feel!!!

I mean.....WTF!!!!
Is this post a part of the experiment????

A Prayer for the Departed

A Prayer for the Departed
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

After a long time, some major changes. Least of all in the job and in the place of employment, but not before a pleasant interlude in the hills of Kangra. Among the hustle and bustle, I hope we do not forget the struggle of a small group of people in exile.

A Quiet Moment

A Quiet Moment
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I am in Cuttack for the week and let me assure whoever is reading...it has not been quiet.

How gross

Well, HDFC uses the national anthem to advertise itself. i think thats gross, with the national anthem paying with the shots of soldiers in Siachen, I wonder why it has to end up with HDFC announcing its presence with a griining girl in a netaji subhash chandra bose dress giving a mock salute. I hope they get some sense....

Love at Taj Mahal

Love at Taj Mahal
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I was walking past the Taj when I saw this couple smooching like crazy, i later realized that they were shooting themselves, but it seemed too good an opportunity to miss, shot from the hip.

Puppy

Puppy
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

thought i d blog this before i delete this...love it. why wont anyone gift me a pro account on flickr???;-))

The Taj Mahal from Agra Fort

The Taj Mahal from Agra Fort
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

The Taj Mahal from Agra Fort, on the banks of the Yamuna river which is now an all purpose-dumping ground for all manners of muck. So much money is generated by the Taj alone, I wonder why they cant spend some on cleaning up the place.

Taj -Alone

Taj -Alone
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

One of my Favorite pictures in a long time.

Another one for the In-Law State

This Affair Comes With a Guarantee to Last

This Affair Comes With a Guarantee to Last
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

Well, I took this picture yesterday. I had gone to the rock garden and the absence of telephoto lens apart, the picture taking was fun indeed. I walked past a wall covered with grafitti, littered with shards of broken commodes, wash basins and the like when I saw a juxtaposition that suggested itself. A proclamation of love, certified by the ISI (Indian standards institute... currently also called the BIS or the Bureau of Indian Standards for unknown reasons). And the humor apart, I wondered that is really ever possible... I mean does love last? Or should it at all?
The walls and the parks all over the city seem to suggest that everyone is crazily in love so maybe it does after all.
As I came back home, I started thinking about a book called the Quiet American by Graham Greene (him again, the bane of all thinking men).

Errors

we are all error prone.....some more than others. But this takes the cake.

Development

Development
Originally uploaded by souravdas

I just saw this pic on flickr, taken by my good friend Sourav. It shows a view of new housing developments under construction in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, on the outskirts of Delhi.

In the backdrop is agricultural farmland which will also be urban landscape in the near future. Two years back, the buildings on the right did not exist. Instead, this area too was farmland.

Much the same is happening on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Now it is difficult to see any farmland in the entire drive from Dera Bassi to Zirakpur which is a good 10kms. This was not the case even till about 2-3 years, housing schemes and marriage palaces have mushroomed like well, Mushrooms. With prices in Chandigarh being obscenely high, these housing schemes are the only way that people from the middle class can have any chance of owning a house of any sort. The problem remains one of infrastructure, these buildings have come up in the midst of debris and chaos and have added to that debris and chaos. people in power who have wanted to make money have allowed direct entrances to these buildings from the national highway leading to even more chaos on the highways, no power, no water, no amenities. No farmland....no agriculture...I wonder where we are all going.

A post-Uploads and Downloads

This got left undone, so I a completing it now and with a new picture too. This is from the welcoming committee at the sun temple of Konark. Meanwhile the whirling circle of the blogger image uploader has me dizzy, I wish there was an easier way through this whole rigmarole.

Can u beat that, I have to do the whole thing all over again!! About as bad as having two flat tires at one time.

Got that bugger up finally!!!!
Now you go and face the world.........hahahaha

something for the OLIVE RIDLEYs

MCLEODGANJ (Upper Dharmashala)

MCLEODGANJ (Upper Dharmashala)
Originally uploaded by nationalx6453

looks good!!!

A virus in the CF card

I have read at various places that computer viruses do not infect memory cards....well that is not entirely true. Yesterday, at a friends place I plugged in a CF card that he had got from his friend and found a USB type autorun virus that i blogged about previously under the Nhatquanglan name.
As I connected the CF card to my laptop, the free AVG antivirus lit up and healed the infection too, I wonedr might have happened if the CF card was put into his canon 400D SLR. It seems that if a CF card is used like a pen drive or a flash drive to transfer data (pictures even) from one infected computer, it can be infected with this type of virus. What it does when plugged into a camera is something I dont know and dont want to find out. To all those reading this, do not use your CF cards as pen drives, use them to store pictures in the camera. keep your computer clean with any antivirus...burn pictures on to a CD, use the CD to get pictures printed from the shop (if you dont have your own printer).

Is this a Haiku>>??

The bright black road

The shimmering peoples above

Changing a flat is a pain

The Candle Light March from Tsuglagkahng

The Candle Light March from Tsuglagkahng
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I generally go to Mcleodganj every couple of months or so...I have waxed eloquent about the reasons numerous times in my previous posts. So those interested can refer back to those.
In continuation of the series of visits, I spent a weekend at Mcleodganj that also doubled up as my honeymoon. As it turned out, because of paucity of time more than anything else...i did not have much of a choice in the matter. As it turned out...I was quite happy with the whole experience. The weekend in question also coincided with the start of the protests that again drew world attention to the Tibetan question. And for once, Mcleodganj became a cauldron of angry, self righteous Tibetans from a peaceful hill station teeming with honeymooning and not so honey mooning couples.
There were marches every single day, and candle light marches every evening. It was touching to see groups of people coming together, fighting for a country that many of them have never seen. A hunger strike went on unabated and monks and nuns from surrounding areas made up the numbers. Another tent had children from the Tibetan Transit school.
There was a fairly large media contingent as well, and now after a month...it seems that there is no real effect and no real change in anything.
The Tibetan people seem to be waiting for a world that doesn't care, or for guidance from a god that seems to have counseled patience since the last fifty years.

IPL

After ICL, Its IPL. And I am watching a match on TV right now. It seems cricket has finally become a business in more ways than one.
Most of the matches have been very one sided so far so nothing great in that respect so far, more irritating than that is the type of advertising on TV during these matches. Having the beginning and the ends of the overs lopped off is common stuff, but there is a new virus in town. Its the Vodafone and the Godrej ads being shown during the overs. It some sort of an animation that takes up some off the screen and more than that is the music that cuts off whatever the commentators are saying right when they have something interesting to say. I mean, the advertisers and the TV wallahs cant always have such a low opinion of the intelligence of the viewers. I hope they mend their ways soon. Its not always money that counts.

McLeodganj

McLeodganj
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I have been meaning to write some posts about the Tibetan struggle going around and which I witnessed albeit for a short while in beautiful-beautiful Mcleodganj. I am going to get down to it one of these days...so much to say.....

The Tibetan flag with the mighty Dhauladars in the background.

Summer's Here....

After some rather vaguely strange weather (see picture), with all the rain that threatened to wipe of the wheat crop from the cheeks of the fair Punjab fields and put a literal wet blanket on Baisakhi....it got bright and sunny. In fact a bit too bright and sunny.
Its summer time..and that doesnt mean getting a tan. It means trying to stay indoors and trying harder not to lose cool when everything else does.

A Long Sabbatical

After a rather long hiatus/sabbatical in which lots of people had the opportunity to get educated about the hindi equivalents of orgasm, I am back, and thankfully (whew) not for long. What with marriage (finally/holy shit!!), a trip to McLeodganj (Free Tibet!!!!) and Lahore (Long live ...umm...well all Lahore??) under my belt, blogging is pretty much outta question.
Pyaar ke side effects is a silly movie I once saw long ago and I have one more side effect to add, after shaadi the biggest side effect is not having the time to wipe ur ass in the morning.

Man.....I GTG.

orgasm

Trying to translate a scale into hindi.

some tough words...

orgasm n कामोन्माद

orgasm n चरम-आनन्द

orgasm n रति-निष्पत्ति

how is anyone going to know that??

Gandhi Bhawan

Gandhi Bhawan
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

Its only occasionally that you do something that gives you real pleasure. it happens to me really seldom...its like when I gave a beer when I really want to have a beer. or when I take a picture that makes me really happy. Like this one here. This for me is plain high.....not many agree with me but i cant help feeling a certain rush with this around. Its like creating something that is beautiful and truly beautiful because its so very simple. like this, all straight lines...no pretensions but for some reason it works. I took part in the Rose garden foto competition and have probably been laughed out. but still .....who cares, I am happy!!I made this image.

My homage to Pierre Jeanneret....

how shitty can i get?

truly????

Fun stuff

A foggy winter morning

A foggy winter morning
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

Winter has been late, snow fall is late too and my trips to the hills are always followed and not preceeded by snow. And I need some snowy pics to complete my Mcleodganj chronicle but for a change feel tired and truly out of the time to do anything like that. So I make do with interesting stuff nearby, like below the underbridge at Zirakpur, I was getting late for work, sure, but I saw the fog and the bridge disappearing into the cloud in a distance, I had my D40 and a 50 mm 1.8 nikkor. I got this picture too, small mercies do exist after all.

Ataxia

Ataxia
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

Ataxia From Greek α- (used as a negative prefix) + -τάξις (order), meaning "lack of order". It is a neurological sign and symptom consisting of gross in coordination of muscle movements. Ataxia is an aspecific clinical manifestation implying dysfunction of parts of the nervous system that coordinate movement, such as the cerebellum.

I was in Mcleodganj a couple of days back for a weekend trip and beyond the usual irritations, the weather was fine, the back was holding up and life seemed good. Even photography did not seem important, life did for a change. And it did not look fantastic. Not all of it anyway.
I was sitting in the bright sunshine one afternoon at the tshuglagkhang or the main temple, and watching the bands that the shadows on the railings made on the floor. The 1000 prostrations lady carried on as usual, gave me a glare to make sure that I do not photograph her and Mcleodganj looked again the place where everything seems right with the world.
Then this guy walked by, beat up, rundown, staggering gait and beyond the obvious ataxia lay a story, heroic maybe, a walk across the Himalayas maybe. Or was it just too much booze?
The next time he walked across, I knew he would be back to make some more circumambulations.
And the next time, i was ready and i took his picture.