Misoprostol and the War Memorial

It was kind of late evening, the match on the IPL was so boring that anything would be better than having to go through another hour of that muck and I was feeling kind of alone. So I decided to go out and have a bit of a walk and take in some fresh air. So I got into my car, and drove out trying to find a place where I could take a walk. I suppose the carbon footprint of the drive is bigger than the walk but that is another matter. As I drove past the War Memorial opposite the Secretariat, I thought I might as well take a look at the memorial. I had never been there before. As I parked the car and got out, something crunched under my foot. There was enough light to see that it was a carton of medicine. As I picked it up, I could read that it had once contained Misoprostol. I tried to remember what it is used for when I recollected that it is a drug used for inducing first trimester abortions. I threw the carton away and took a couple of rounds in the park and saw the war memorial. So many men have died, and I could feel that maybe some of them were out there visiting the place. There were a few people around, couples, and groups of boys with songs playing on their mobile phones.
I wondered why someone decided to take a misoprostol tablet at the war memorial rather than any other place. Maybe, it was a war too that led to the ingestion of the tablet. I walked on the soft track made up of cinders and it was kind of nice and soft under my feet. kind of springy.
I reached back home and took of my shoes and saw that the distal half of my left foot had turned black. I thought maybe I had developed an acute diabetic foot or something when I realized that it was the ash that had seeped through a hole in the sole of my shoe. And I love those shoes, I wonder where I will get a replacement.

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.

The Door That Corbusier Painted

The Door That Corbusier Painted
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I was almost going to get married today but then I remembered that its Bakr-Id when dumb animals get sacrificed/killed and the Government of India was kind enough to declare a holiday. So I went out and got this picture instead.
I think its perfect.

Rose Festival

I took part in the photography competition organised by Chandigarh tourism on the occasion of the Rose festival. And well, I won a runners-up prize. A thousand bucks cant be all that bad!!!

The prize-winner.

“For an instant, love can transform the world.”

The ones that are on the exhibition.....

“He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.”

“Life is a rose; beware of the thorns.”

“Vanity keeps persons in favor with themselves who are out of favor with all others”

Snowland photo exhibition-"CHINA'S TIBET????"

Today I had the chance to go to an exhibition of photographs titled "Snowland-In the eyes of a 100 photographers" in the Fine Art Gallery of the Panjab University, Chandigarh. For company, I had a couple of photographer friends, Sanjay Kaushal and Mr Kumbhkarni. Both have had truck loads of exhibitions and are very knowledgable and fun to be with. The exhibition is an amalgamation of photographs taken by over 100 photographersfrom all over the world in and around Tibet. A poster outside helpfully starts with, "China's Tibet......." and goes on to describe a lot of stuff of very geographic nature. So after 60 years of ruling Tibet, China still has to say, China's Tibet.....is there any other Tibet around?? Maybe the Dalai Lama is doing something right!!! But, the photographs are brilliant and that is no small measure due to the sheer grandeur of the place. Unfortunately the quality of prints isnt too good and the sizes are small. But it was a very pleasant one hour spent in watching some wonderful pictures and passing comments on the merits and demerits of a particular picture. All photographers, me included are very vain, egoistical, and lonely and are very rarely satisfied with themselves or others. This was no exception.
The art gallery has a pretty cool architecture too, and its all naturally lighted up. And the lines that the walls make are pretty pleasing to the eye.
While getting out, I looked through the visitor's book and on a page someone had written, "China's Tibet????"

Mr Kumbkarni looks out into the water........

An aerial shot of Lhasa....the Potala is in the middle.

Another visitor..walks through, I waited for this shot.

Another doorway.....I liked the juxtaposition of green on the pink sandstone was nice

A lizard abstract on the chickenmesh wire...

The doorway.

Outside the gallery..the Gandhi Bhawan