Vivid vibes

I'm quite a pathetic singer...

2012-01-15T00:08:00.001+05:30

This was from the days I still sported a little braid :D Good times, those!

Excuses

2011-12-12T18:22:00.007+05:30

Being dumped by the love of your life is a terrible experience to go through. Unfortunately, I've been through it twice. But the difference between the first one and second one was the way I dealt with it.

The first unceremonious dumping made me wander around the city aimlessly with my notebook and camera by bus and on two feet. During the second (equally unceremonious, if not less)- I had my bike and would go riding away on a drizzly afternoons on the outer roads of Pune alone, listening to music which I stopped listening to soon after that phase. One fine drizzly afternoon, after having partially recovered from flu, I decided to push my luck and try to somehow be at Senapati Bapat road near Chaturshrungi at 6.15 PM. I left home quite early, thus giving me about an hour to kill. So my plan was this:

To call up my unsuspecting friend staying at Baner asking if I could visit him for some time. This way I could go around the longer route from (Pune's) Chandni Chowk to Baner, visit my friend, kill time and then be at Chaturshrungi at the above mentioned time.

As I left, it started raining. I took shelter under a tree and it stopped raining. Then it started raining again as I started and I took shelter under a tree twenty meters from the first one. The i wore my rain jacket and rode off regardless of the rain. Climbing up chandni chowk was taxing considering i was still weak from three days of flu. As I rode down the hill towards baner, I felt calm. Like I had a plan in my mind and I knew what I was doing whereas in reality, I had no plan. I was just taking a chance and timing myself.

I met my friend at his house but not before crossing gigantic slush patches before his society entrance. I had to walk the cycle here. Oh the horror!

My friend made coffee for me. We spoke and I transferred some of my flu virus to him and he fell sick after that, but that is another story.

And then soon enough, my mind told me it was time to go. After all, I had to reach Chaturshrungi by 6.15 PM.

I rode out towards senapati bapat road with a sudden rush and a sense of something just about to happen...

6:15 PM and I had just reached the University signal. I was late. What if I missed it? What if something happened which I didn't take into consideration?

But I persisted.

I rode up to Chaturshrungi.

I rode beyond Chaturshrungi

And sure enough, I saw him.

Mission accomplished? Well, not really. I said hi, we walked home, ate burgers on the way and went home.

But things just went downhill from there.

In a fit of sweet hysteria, I admitted that I had feelings for him, but you see- he saw through me better than i saw through myself. I was a fool.

Things were better later as the situation between us grew into an initially awkward, but later comfortable friendship.

But keeping stuff at the back of your mind is not the best thing to do. And the human mind is made up of all kinds of memories.

And it went further downhill as memories kept creeping up at the wrong time and wrong place.

I don't know whom to blame for this, and I don't want to. But my only hope is that years from now, if we ever remember this, we can laugh at it.

How will he ever die?

2011-06-10T15:04:00.004+05:30

At the age of 14, I got the opportunity to meet this great old man. Someone who i'd just read of in the papers and seen on the news. Someone who i knew was the most famous painter and liked to paint women from the movies.

I saw him walk barefoot on the grass of the little hillock at Surajkund. Apparently, I heard - he was always barefoot.

He was to paint on a wall. A small crowd had gathered to watch him at work.

What I saw was a bony old man with a white beard, white hair and a beret covering it walking slowly with a smile on his face. As if he was about to play a prank on his unsuspecting audience.

With one look at the wall, he picked up a huge brush which was kept near the bottles of paint neatly arranged on a table, ready for him to use. With one stroke he drew a semi circle on the wall and a stick figure within it which resembled a veiled woman. Or so I thought.

The man with him enthusiastically started clapping signifying the end of the process of painting that wall. He egged us on to applaud for him and we happily obliged.

Another youngish man came forward to clean the paint off the old man's trousers who then sat with a few other important looking people sipping tea.

He seemed unfazed by them and was quite happy to oblige the crowd with autographs and handshakes. I still have his autograph. And somewhere stashed away, a photograph with him.

His smile never lessened. He didn't talk much, but was happy to be there, I think.

He had played his prank.

One of the most visionary artists from our land, whose work needs no introduction, played the prank that his genius mind conjured up. We might take years to understand and decipher his complex thoughts and visuals.

But that one day MF Hussain influence me to try to understand visual arts. I am just one amongst many whose lives he touched. So how will he ever die?

Have you ever seen... Epicfail

2011-04-27T00:26:00.004+05:30

A couple of years ago, I posted this particular post. For me, the words were carved in stone. No one would ever see these spectacular sights!

But just recently, exactly two years later, John Abraham appeared in an advertisement riding a bicycle through a forest looking all happy.

I was impressed! But just as I was about to applaud his efforts, he stopped and lifted the edge of his t shirt sleeves (muscles ripping and all...), looked right in the camera (gaze meant to melt the heart of all the Ladies and a few men, and make them go 'awwwww...') and showed how tanned he gets and how he needs a fairness cream made specifically for men to keep their tough skin fair all the time.

a few months ago, I read these terms used on twitter and I loved them. Just describes perfectly what I felt at that time: Epicfail and Facepalm.

Mr. Abraham... please cover yourself in all the leather jackets and protective pads and helmets, and go ride a Motorbike instead.

Midnight adventures

2011-04-15T11:47:00.002+05:30

The delectable five minute Mulberry cake in a cup!, a photo by DraconianRain on Flickr.

Presenting: The delectable five minute Mulberry cake in a cup!

Many years ago... (fifteen, to be precise) I lived in srinagar for a couple of years. Beautiful place, weather and flowers and fruits. Then there was spring... the season of mulberries. I would carry a bag to collect mulberries growing on trees. Those trees seemed to be just randomly sprinkled all over the place.
Mulberries are nice little things to eat. Especially the dark sweet ones. I had just learned how to bake cakes, and I decided to try making a mulberry cake. It turned out delicious and grey in colour.
I never made another mulberry cake till yesterday when I baked the 5 minute cake in a cup version of the same. It was delicious and blue-grey in colour!

DR

2011-04-15T00:30:00.001+05:30

DR, a photo by shutterbugpooja on Flickr.

yes, it looks quite cute. That was before I cut off my braid. I don't have it anymore
Clicked by Pooja. Don't know when and where, but it's cute, nonetheless

In other news...

2011-04-07T14:21:00.003+05:30

A few things happened in the last few days. I bought a new bike, India won the cricket world cup 2011, and I got featured in a this nice online Independent magazine called Start.

Anna Hazare begun his fast unto death demanding greater public role in the Anti-Corruption Bill and Dhoni Shaved his hair. Well lots more, but this much is enough for now.

hula hooping

2011-02-27T21:36:00.004+05:30

how do you get inspiration to hula hoop?

It might be because you are visiting your cousin who is an avid hula hooper and has a nice bright hula hoop at her house. On one empty lazy afternoon, you decide to try to learn how to hula hoop.

Or it might be because you want to impress someone.

To lose weight.

Just for fun.

Whatever your reason might be, I took up the challenge to learn how to hula hoop. My cousin is an avid hula hooper and has a nice bright hula hoop, I want to impress someone, lose weight and I happen to think its pure fun.

Many years ago, I had a dismantle-able hula hoop which was rather small for my height. I could hula hoop around my legs for many minutes. Though I'm not completely out of touch, I cannot manage hula hooping at waist level yet.

Being homeless.

2011-02-20T17:01:00.006+05:30

I turned eighteen years old, having never lived in one place for more than two years. Even less, in one house. Those were barracks, small rooms, apartments or bungalows but never homes I could call my own. Even though I lived there, I was in a perpetual state of preparedness to leave. My parents had their rightful homes to go back to at Mumbai and Pune. I never got a chance to stay there for more than three weeks at a stretch. Those were still houses to visit during vacations. Not homes.

After school, I stated studying architecture in Pune staying with my grandparents, where I knew that although that was rightfully my own house, it was never my home. I lived in Surya and Vasanti's house for a few months in Auroville. It was called House sitting, not home sitting. And for a good reason – Its supposed to be a house for me, not a home.

As I left Pondicherry, when everyone was going back to their respective hometowns, I was not. I was just returning to Pune. Everyone has a home they call their own. A home to go back to after a hard days work. A town they grew up in. A town they call their own. I never had that. Probably never will. Wherever I go from here, will not be my home either.

Last night at my uncle's place, I stayed up for a long time, thinking about this. And when I finally did... I slept rather well.

I am truly- a homeless woman.

Time flies.

2011-02-16T20:12:00.007+05:30

And loss becomes easier to cope up with. Lately, I have come to realise That time does heal if you let it.

That fateful St. Valentines day five years back changed my life forever. But its only after he passed away could I understand what my father really meant to me. He left me with a sound mind, a strong will and a spirit I never knew I had. He was instilling it in me gradually while I was blissfully unaware of his ways.

I was a daddy's girl. And men who have that kind of a relationship with their daughters raise them up to become Independent, strong and spirited women. I cannot say the same for Mammas and their boys, but that is another subject.

When I saw him alive for the last time, the thought that we might never see each again did cross my mind. But it was not supposed to be him, it was me. Even as I bid him farewell forever, I knew he had had no regrets ever and he lived fully the kind of life would always have liked to.

And now five years later, I can write about it without feeling bitter or despondent. Maybe just slightly nostalgic.

And after two long years of not using my watch, I got it fixed today. I instinctively wore it on my right wrist as I always had. I smiled and realised that all the pain and betrayal had gone. I was back to being what I was instead of being what I was becoming for my erstwhile flame.

Time heals.

Once upon a time...

2011-02-07T00:44:00.003+05:30

Once upon a time...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

When I was seven years old, my father took me with him to test ride a premier padmini. A breezy light greenish blue. It was a unique colour.
But we bought a white one eventually. It was our first car, and then came the first road trip - Jabalpur to Suratgarh in 4 days. Through the dry, dusty landscapes of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
We sold it off in Srinagar five years later.

The 5 minute banana cake in a cup!

2011-02-03T22:07:00.008+05:30

Not my birthday yet! - Ttv
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Ingredients:

1 mashed banana

1/2 cup maida

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 nicely whisked egg

1/3rd cup butter

1/4th cup milk (might need less, its just for the right consistency )

Mix all the ingredients together in one direction only!!!

pour the milk slowly till you get the right consistency of the cake batter.

Pour it in the cup making sure its only half filled.

Set your microwave on approx 700 W, and bake the cake in the cup for 2 minutes and 30 seconds only. Anything more than that will make it rock hard :P

The cake will rise after a minute. it might seem to spill out of the cup, but that will not happen. it'll settle well.

Let it cool in the cup. You can remove it later, or eat it out of the cup itself. Ideally, you can eat it with ice cream for a quick dessert.

If you don't like bananas, make it a chocolate or vanilla cake by adding 1/4th cup cocoa powder or some vanilla essence. Or make a carrot cake by adding grated carrots in it :P

work in progress...

2010-11-29T01:15:00.003+05:30

busy setting up the exhibition
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

My flickr friend Aky Cookie took my interview for his blog recently. It was a funny session, and I think the outcome is quite so.
I was very earnest about it. have a quick read here
In other news, i'm still processing and uploading my snaps from Ahmedabad and Baroda. Also, P@P invited me to give a smilar presentation as the one I gave at Bangalore recently. I think I'm getting better at public speaking! Its on 4th December, and if you are in Pune then, do drop by at the New Art Gallery, Apte road at 2 PM. I realise its siesta time for everyone, but I have some hope of seeing a decent audience.
I accidentally attended a book launch at Landmark Pune this friday. I wanted to spent some time exploring the graphic novel section there yet again, but unfortunately that section was blocked off by chairs arranged for the event with people already having occupied them. So I had to wait for the authors and editor to officially launch the book, read a bit from it and interact with the audience. Not that I minded. I had some time to kill. The book is an anthology of short stories written by urban authors, both young and old.
I wan't too impressed by whatever i heard being read out, but got so intrigued, that I bought the book. I could have read it then and there, but it wasn't too expensive, you see. And I was hoping there would be something in there that i'd like. Indian fiction has disappointed me till now.
Maybe I'm just prejudiced...

my version of the Black Keys song: 'Tighten up' Shot one fine november morning.

2010-11-24T12:07:00.004+05:30

Performed by me and my little guitar!

Unexpected gifts

2010-11-05T17:27:00.004+05:30

Unexpected gifts are truly worth cherishing. Dr Vivek M from Bangalore, sent me five rolls of 120 film. I've never felt happier! I'm going to enjoy taking every photo from my old medium format cameras now!

My experiments with intuitive and improvised cooking -V - the making of the Kashimiri 'Kahwa'

2010-09-30T17:05:00.010+05:30

sometimes, I drink some tea in the afternoon. I have a stock of some mildly flavoured tea bags so the effort is minimised to heating up water and adding sugar and dipping the tea bag into the hot water.
Today afternoon, I was watching a movie on TV at teatime, and was contemplating having some tea. I glanced up at the kitchen cabinet and saw almonds which reminded me of Kashmir and the kashmiri Kahwa. I have lived in Srinagar for a couple of years during my childhood and remember the first time I drank that wonderful flavoured tea. I really love good aromas of food and drink, and what can be better than freshly brewed Kahwa with the aroma of Cinnamon? And the mild flavour of cardamom and saffron along with blanched bits of almonds and pistachios in the brown-green liquid!
So instead of drifting, I made some kahwa for the slow, lazy afternoon.
Here's how its made

for a pot of tea:
Ingredients:

1. Green tea leaves. I think the Kashmiris use some specific type of tea, but I don't know which.

2.cinnamon powder (dalchini)- maybe 1/3rd teaspoon or a little less (or 1 stick of cinnamon bark)

3. saffron - 3 to 4 pinches (I didn't find where it was hidden in the kitchen, so I didn't use it)

4. cloves - 4

5. Cardamom - 2 - mildly crushed with peels

6. Few almonds - maybe 6-8

7. Few pistachios - maybe 6-8 again

8. water... 4 cups

9. sugar as required. maybe 3-4 teaspoons.

To make the tea, boil water along with the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and sugar. take the water off the fire and add tea and leave it standing for 5-10 mins. Strain the tea and add saffron
Heat over a low flame and add chopped pistachios and almonds.
And you have fragrant and delicious Kahva!

The new one!

2010-09-19T00:50:00.001+05:30

The new one!
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Yes! I finally bought a new macbook Pro 13". Wo bhi Karz me dub ke!
I hope I can repay my creditor on time!

my experiments with intuitive and improvised cooking IV - 'Makai kadhi'' (Corn curry)

2010-09-15T13:38:00.010+05:30

We've been eating some really heavy traditional food and sweets lately. So Today I decided to make something a bit different for lunch.

I looked around the house and found two corn cobs and decided to make some sort of corn curry.

So I found this nice recipe for corn kadhi, but its not like the kadhi we make with dahi.

Ingredients:

Corn from 2 cobs

1 cup onion

1 cup grated coconut

3 cups milk (also depends on how thick you want it to be)

4 teaspoons khuskhus (poppy seeds)

a few cloves (maybe 4-5)

4 green chillies... more if you like your curry hot!

Dalchini (cinnamon) 2 sticks or 1 tea spoon.

2-3 small cardamoms

1 1/2 table spoons oil

2 tea spoon lemon juice

6 garlic cloves

2 teaspoons grated ginger

chopped dhania (coriander leaves). depends on how green you want the curry to look, but i used almost half a cup.

So here's what I did:

Step 1:

Boiled the corn cobs till cooked and separated the corn grain from the chaff. That is a lot of corn!

Step 2:

Take the chopped onion, grated coconut, green chillies, ginger, garlic, poppy seeds and coriander and grind it to make a paste.

This is how the paste looks like.

Step 3:

Heat some oil in a vessel and fry the above made paste in it.

Add the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Then add the lemon juice and stir well. And finally add the cooked corn and milk and mix well

Add salt.

You might want to add some more water or milk.

While cooking, the whole house is filled with the subtle aroma of cinnamon.

It looks equally appetizing and tastes really good!

How is it possible...

2010-09-08T15:38:00.003+05:30

that everyone I know likes the movies 'before sunrise' and 'before sunset', but me?

Backup shackup

2010-09-04T20:02:00.002+05:30

After the 4 gig flash drive, the logical progression was to go for something bigger - a 1 TB western digital external hard disk drive! after spending so much money on it, I would like to think that my data is finally safely backed up (even if it really isn't)

My first trip to Zuna bazaar...

2010-08-29T17:19:00.001+05:30

I visited Pune's old flea market today with Pooja and Persis. It was quite exciting. I bought lovely red shoes! They were right there... somewhere amidst the sea of brown and black shoes, screaming my name. I picked up one and tried it, and it fit perfectly... I didn't have a 'Cinderella and the glass slipper' moment, but close to it. As Persis said... it made me smile...

So I have red shoes.

I rule technology... not the other way around!

2010-08-29T01:00:00.007+05:30

Two and a half years ago, I lost my old flash drive when we conducted a workshop on Pune and its planning at CDSA. Someone must have flicked it. I bought it in 2006, when I visited my uncle in Dubai, and I was the only one amongst my friends to have a cool 2 gig flash drive. It made things so much easier. I could carry a lot of my work to college, share music and data, and sometimes viruses. I couldn't imagine life without it. Every thing was so convenient!

And then... poof! just like that it vanished... and along with it, the convenience of portable data. I realised how much I had taken the flash drive for granted and how technology was ruling my life.

A few days later, I vowed never to buy a flash drive till it became absolutely necessary to own one.

Over the last two and a half years, I managed well even without any. I saw the price of these things dropping, the memory capacity increasing and flash drives becoming a common item available at my neighbourhood stationary shop from their erstwhile special place in electronics shop.

Now, after two and a half years or flash drive less existance, I had decided that these things were finally stripped off their elite status and were now common cheap stationary items, and I could get me one of those to make data sharing just that little easier for me.

So today evening I went to a little neighbourhood stationary shop, and bought a tiny blue 4 gig flashdrive.

Of course, the second time you buy a pendrive after losing one two and a half years ago, you use it more responsibly and decide that you'll not let it control your life.

I haven't yet put any data on it. There isn't any need to, not yet...

my experiments with intuitive and improvised cooking - IIIThe baking of the Chocolate brownies!

2010-08-28T11:40:00.005+05:30

Yesterday, as Avani and I were discussing about overpriced dramatic deserts in restaurants, we came to the subject of sizzling brownies with ice cream. And I suddenly though of making some. I have always enjoyed baking cakes, but I'd never tried baking a brownie cake before.

Brownies always remind me of the last vacation I took with my parents, all of us together. back in 2005 in Pathankot. The three of us visited Dalhousie and Khajjiar and ate amazing chocolate brownies. We had a great time there.

So brownies are equivalent to good memories. And baking is the ultimate therapy!

My cousin Avani is here for her vacations, and she loves baking too. So we decided to bake a chocolate brownie cake in the evening. Fortunately, my mother and grandmother had gone out, giving us a free hand to bake the cake the way we wanted to without any special instructions.

All the ingredients needed were all at home. That made life so much easier.

So Let me share what we did:

Ingredients:

Cocoa 1/2 cup

Melted butter 2/3 cup

hot water 1/2 cup

eggs 2

sugar 1 1/2 cups (I know... )

baking soda 1/2 teaspoon

flour 1 1/4 cups

walnuts 1/3 cup

grated chocolate 1/2 cup (maybe less :P)

salt a pinch

So here's what we did with this stuff:

We first mixed the dry cocoa and baking soda, then melted the butter and poured half of it and mixed it.
Then we added the hot water and mixed it.

Then we added the beaten eggs and sugar and mixed it.

"mmmm..." that tasted awesome...

Then we added the butter and mixed it...

even more "mmmmmm... "

Then we added the flour and mixed it

and the nuts and the chocolate... and we stirred and it was an awesome looking and delicious tasting batter...

Then we took a baking dish (we found only a heart shaped one... ), greased it, and poured the batter in it and balked it till it was done totally. Then we cut it up into pieces! we had our brownies ready! delicious!

And then we phoned the ice cream shop near my place and ordered vanilla ice cream and had chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream!

That was the ice-cream on the cake! What a Friday evening! :D

RED RED RED!

2010-08-24T00:02:00.002+05:30

Ok... I'm obsessed... I actually bought this colour!

Looks 'hawt'

The nail paint... not the camera :P

The insides of a canon EFS 18-55 lens

2010-08-11T14:25:00.001+05:30

the 18-55
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

And how it looks from inside. Its my flickr friend - Deepak Kul's lens. It's motor broke down, so the camera repair guy tried to salvage the lens. He removed the motor so it could be used as a macro lens, once reversed. All that needed to be done was to change the aperture manually to a smaller one instead of the large default.
So I opened the lens, and saw how it was from inside, changed it's aperture manually and put it all back together and clicked some!
Ah... Fun!

I needs the new bicycles...

2010-08-04T19:37:00.002+05:30

So my regular mode of transport has been causing me some problems lately. And unfortunately, the guys who service it haven't been able to pin point the problem... So I am in a bit of a mess. I mean, my lumala is. Things are coming off. All the plastic bits, the pedal crank makes loud sounds. The gears don't shift properly. But I must persist with this. At least till I get some money to get a new cycle. sigh...

Realisation strikes yet again at the wrong time...

2010-08-01T12:07:00.004+05:30

That there is a thin line separating being proactive and being creepy.

I think I crossed that line yesterday.

from being borderline proactive, to being borderline creepy, I can look back and say, I've done it all!

Yet, I take little comfort in knowing that I'll laugh at this 10 years later.

my story in COMIX.INDIA volume 2 - girl power!

2010-07-30T16:14:00.001+05:30

my story in COMIX.INDIA volume 2 - girl power!
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

finally published! Hopefully the first of many more to come! :D

The drawback of being proactive

2010-07-15T10:06:00.003+05:30

Two years ago at the flower market at Mehrauli two men on a motorcycle dropped a polythene bag with a tiffin box in it. A young boy picked it up to return it to them. The two men refused to take it and sped away, leaving the boy with the bag, which exploded while in his hand, killing him instantly.

And what was the boy's fault?

-Being proactive.

Being proactive got him killed.

In the age we live in, how can we be proactive without hurting, not anyone else, but ourself.

In our everyday life, a simple gesture, a small comment, a mild reaction or a little good deed is so easily misunderstood. Everyone's on the edge of their seats as if something is about to happen. And at the slightest provocation, we leap out of our skin to be something we were not meant to be.

Lately, I have been getting hurt being proactive. So should I forget myself and be as indifferent to myself and everything?

As always, it's not a choice i'm being allowed to make. Everyone else seems to want to make it for me.

The keeper of secrets

2010-06-27T22:37:00.004+05:30

I can keep secrets to myself very well. Any secret that comes to me stays with me, and the chain ends there. Secrets are fun to keep... but after a while I am burdened and I want to tell someone else but I can't... Because I'm not meant to. They aren't meant to be divulged.

Secrets can make or break anyone. Secrets can win someone a war. Secrets can keep relationships from falling apart. Secrets make the keeper eternally powerful. Secrets can keep a lot of people happy...

But most secrets I know are about myself. Isn't life disappointing?

Yoga with the kids...

2010-06-27T11:38:00.006+05:30

My yoga teacher asked me to join in for a kids yoga class yesterday. I thought it would be fun to work out with kids aged 6 onwards. They have so much energy just waiting to be dispelled! This yoga session is specially for them being extremely fast, taxing and complex!

As we sat to pray before we started yoga, almost everyone started getting restless. At that age, no one likes to sit in one place in one position for too long! But even the prayer was much more fun with this batch. Kids have no social inhibitions... no stigmas and no consciousness. They don't hold back. they just do everything to the fullest and their efforts are unrestrained... And when you are with so many kids like that, you become free from within. With unrestrained efforts... no inhibitions. you are just one with the strong energy vibrations surrounding you.

And its fun to watch children doing all those yogasans and making it look just too easy. This batch was noisy and funny... where everyone encouraged each other to do what they are told to, there was an air of exigency and excitement. And before I knew it- an hour had passed, and the rigorous regime has culminated with 20 fast cycles of halasan and paschimotanasan back to back, and it was finally time for shavasana for recovery... where no one could close their eyes, or lie still. Not even me! I rolled to the side and got up with the others and went down. We all got onto our bicycles and had a small conversation about them and the accidents we have had... I think I made some friends!

Kids are so carefree... so happy. They can forget about their worries and troubles so easily. They ask questions unabashedly, innocently. They don't hide their thoughts. That art is acquired much later in life. Their friendship and companionship is unconditional, unbiased. I realised I was so happy being with them and being like them, that I decided that very instant to attend this class every Saturday evening!

And my latest crazy is:

2010-06-25T18:32:00.003+05:30

The bright blue big gym ball thats the latest addition to my room! The one I sit, swirl, twirl, twist, bend and bounce on... All that while working! What a way to sit on your butt, yet have fun!

SSB Pinhole camera version 2

2010-04-27T11:42:00.003+05:30

Presenting the new and improved Sweet Shot Box (SSB) pinhole camera.

my experiments with intuitive and improvised cooking - II

2010-04-14T16:17:00.023+05:30

The making of the seasonal Panha and easy raw mango pickle :)

For the last few days, every time I looked out of the window, I saw lovely green raw mangoes dangling from a mango tree. Todays I finally decided to pluck out a few and make panha. Panha or 'aam panna' is a seasonal drink prepared with the pulp of raw mangoes.

So here's what I did:

1. Looked out of my window every day to see green mangoes

2. Plucked a few

3. Washed them and soaked them in water for 15 mins

4. Kept one raw mango aside for some quick fix pickle.

5. Put them in a pressure cooker.

6. Pressure cooked the raw mangoes

7. Let the raw mangoes cool down.

8. chopped the one raw mango kept aside

9. Added some salt and a bit of sugar and some chilly powder and mixed well.

10. Heated a bit of oil and gave it a tadka of mustard seeds and turmeric powder.

11. Kept the pickle aside.

12. Separated the peels and the seeds from the cooked mango pulp. and mix it with water it was cooked in.

13. Added jaggery (gud/gur/gul) for sweetness

14. Mixed it all up... and let the jaggery melt. Then mixed it again after a while.

15. Took some of this concentrate and mixed it with cold water. Garnished it with a tulsi leaf, and it tasted wonderful!

Enjoy :)

2010-03-01T16:41:00.002+05:30

After months of uncertainty, I finally managed to put in place of my old one, a new computer...

Phew...

एका हत्ती आणि गाढवाची गोष्टा

2010-02-06T15:02:00.005+05:30

पेरूचा झाडावर हत्ती बसलेला.
एक गाढव झाडावर चाडत.
हत्ती: कशाला आलास?
गाढव: सफरचंद खायला.
हत्ती: गाढव! हे पेरू चे झाड आहे...
गाढव: मी सफरचंद खिष्यात आनलाय ना...!

sakal published an article on my homemade lenses

2010-01-17T12:59:00.001+05:30

sakal published an article on my homemade lenses
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Finally some recognition! Sakal published an article on my lens building hobby!

That was it...

2009-09-26T17:02:00.003+05:30

That was it…

Her forehead was dripping with sweat. Shirt was already wet with it. As she looked up the other side to see him wiping his face with his sleeve similarly sweat drenched, she picked up the shuttlecock that lay near her feet. Slowly… judging… his speed, strength and remaining stamina. She shifted to the right court and blew on the right palm, holding the racquet, then on the shuttle… right leg slightly bent at the knee and behind the left one. Swung her racqueted right arm while simultaneously releasing the shuttle from her left hand fingers, the racquet making contact with the shuttle with a clean sound, but misjudged.

Even as she was coming to terms with misjudged flight, He was ready for anything. As he leapt high his knees bent, body straightened and then arched backwards with his outstretched arm reaching out for the shuttle. Wrist finishing off the near perfect smash… She cringed at the sight of the shuttle shooting straight at her, but managed to get her left foot to move forward. Not wanting to lose her vantage position, she let her right leg stretched as far as possible behind her, with her head down yet looking at the shuttle… The racquet head in the outstretched right hand managed to make contact with the shuttle before it smashed to the ground. One touch was enough to get the shuttle very close to the net on the right. As she recovered, she saw him through the corner of her eye… deftly … lest she lost sight of the shuttle. Anticipation brought him closer to the service line and with a free movement of the wrist; he flicked the shuttle towards the baseline. Never letting his sight away from the shuttle, he stood his ground, legs apart, slightly bent, waiting for a weak return…

Her early recovery held her at a small advantage. She deftly took two long steps back… her back arched as she took a glance at his ready form… on the left court. She... from her left court and strong grip on the racquet made a firm contact with the shuttle and flicked… enough for the momentum to stop till it dropped just beyond the net before the service line… And she thought she had him in a spot… forgetting he held an advantage of being closer to the service line. His eyes gleamed as he stretched out to hit a flat swift return. But he misjudged her reflexes. She was off in a flash towards the right court with a full stretch and hit straight and flat towards his right court.

His eyes almost popped out as he smashed the shuttle back…

She felt the sweat on her neck, forehead, back and stomach and had a flashing glimpse of his face gleaming with triumph. But she had to go for it. As she took a great stride and bent her left leg forward, right leg stretched straight behind her, her body stretched forward, almost doubling up, stomach touching the thigh, arm stretched and head down. Her racquet managed to reach the shuttle. The power of the previous shot rebounding the shuttle back.

But she watched in despair as it hit the hem of the net... and fell back in her court... she held her sweat drenched hair and forehead...
He smiled... hopped towards the shuttle and picked it up and said... 'chal... Love all'

That was it...

she had just lost the toss...

Ode to a sunny day

2009-09-22T14:12:00.001+05:30

Savannah morning
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

The best thing I have heard in many many months.
From his solo project - BackStratBlues, Warren Mendonsa has some super new compositions.
I went into a state of transcendent listening to 'An ode to a sunny day'. 10 minutes of sheer bliss.
http://www.myspace.com/blackstratblues

Hey, I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything's right

2009-09-18T20:53:00.002+05:30

Hey, I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything's right
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

These fresh sparkling white shoes arrived today!
a month and half ago, we had to renew our subscription for 'India Today'. at this point I have to explain that I love reading... from books to magazines to interesting web articles to comics... anything...
So, I selected the best offer - a 5 year subscription, with a free pair of shoes! All i had to do was rush to the nearest adidas dealer, check my shoe size, fill up and send the form... and wait 8-10 weeks...
And viola! I have new shoes!!
I'll inaugurate these at badminton tomorrow... my old ones have almost worn themselves out! ;)

Vague conversations - one fine September evening with friends in Pune...

2009-09-08T23:39:00.001+05:30

Disclaimer: Although I admit that this conversation is not entirely fictional, it is highly exaggerated. The characters mentioned in the conversation are all real, and in fact I know them well… In fact, I am one of them. And most importantly, the events and conversation described in the following are not to be taken seriously… until proved otherwise…

Happy reading…

Cast of Characters:

Ankur (protagonist)

Aditya (protagonist)

Vikarant (friend)

Sameer (super enthusiastic friend)

Sourabh (well… friend…)

Meghana (the customary dumb girl)

Location:

Kollage café, off law college road

Situation:

Café moderately crowded. Slowly the group gathers, general pleasantries in the form of abuses doing the rounds as usual…

Sameer (almost barking at Ankur) : where’s your partner?

Ankur simply nods.

Aditya arrives last, straight faced… sits next to Ankur. He is congratulated as he passed some of his CA exam

As usual, what Vikrant wants is not available that day, so he settles for French toast, Meghana orders toast and omelette and Ankur asks for egg curry and roti… Sourabh ate elsewhere some awesome Lebanese food, and doesn’t want anything. Sameer asks for coffee

Food arrives.

Start eating… Ankur and Aditya sharing the food … talking continues…

Topics shift from Sourabh’s site to Vikrant’s Solapur visit. We wonder if Gangu is going to join us, but none us seem sure.

For a brief second, everyone is silent… everyone is looking at the food… suddenly:

Sameer (Lifting his head and looking at Aditya): Did you tell at home?

Aditya (Looking bleak…): Yes… Dad told me to do whatever I want to do…

Sameer (with a gleam in his eye): really?

Aditya (extremely animated): Over the dinner table… everything was peaceful… suddenly my dad asked me about it… and I Looked at my mom who knew (Looking towards an imaginary mom with eyes wide open, towards where Sourabh was sitting…) and she said that she told dad about it… And I said that it was true. So he told me to do whatever I wanted to do, and go to hell if I wanted to… so he’s not at all happy… but at least he knows…

Sameer (turning towards Ankur): And what about you…? Did you tell at your place?

Ankur (with a little sly smile) : they have an idea… My brother accidentally discovered it while I was conversing with him… Later during dinner… my dad asked if it was true… and I told him it wasn’t and he told me that I am not admitting now and must remember that…

Sameer (with a semi shocked expression): so now what are you going to tell your family? And when?

Ankur (Nodding slightly): dad’s birthday is approaching… plus I plan hand over the finished office to him that day, so he might be pleased enough to listen to me…

Vikarant and Meghana continue eating and listening adeptly to the conversation…

Sameer (inquisitively, almost at the edge of his seat): the date? Have you decided?

Ankur: mid October probably…

Sameer (jerking his head): that’s great!

Vikrant: (Looking at Aditya almost as if waking up from slumber): Doesn’t Aabha support you at it?

Aditya (desperately): she does… a lot… but it’s not like her support matters… since she went away…

Sourabh (weird expression, looking at no body in particular): Ankur, you should introduce Aditya to your family on your dad’s birthday…

Meghana (bad timing as usual): Congrats you two…

Ankur: well at least it’s more or less out now… We should start our preparations…

Aditya (looking at Ankur): When should we go to Pali…?

Ankur (sly smile, nodding…): Lesee…

At this point, the café is no longer crowded… its almost time to go home. The last few cups of coffee and lemon juice arrive and the bill is paid… The conversation shifts from topic to topic… about Sourabh’s current site, to his experiments with recycling plastic bags to Vikarant’s fiancé who is as much a vegetarian as he is a Non vegetarian… and to cycles and which cycle to take for long trips: geared or un-geared, road bike, mountain bike or a hybrid…

At this point, let me explain that Ankur and Aditya are cycling comrades who are planning a bike trip from Pune to Kanyakumari, and their respective families are very much against it… I realised that for any one not knowing this, this conversation might sound poles apart from what we understand it as. Ankur and Aditya are NOT homosexuals and even though they both are struggling to find love from members of the opposite sex, they are gaily planning out the long cycling trip in the hopes of finding their true selves and true loves…

May they succeed in all their endeavours…

Let me show you a trick... I'll make everyone disappear

2009-08-13T19:32:00.001+05:30

OOOOOH! BUNNY BUNNY!

2009-08-03T12:42:00.001+05:30

Originally uploaded by Aline Jasper

This is a cute bunny indeed!
by Aline Jasper via Flickr!

Ay vocal pe dhellay daal… dhellay

2009-07-31T11:49:00.004+05:30

“[Ladies and gentlemen… Khadki junction blues… ]”

[clap clap]

“Aye Gokul CLAP NA!“

“Haa…” [clap clap] “Woof!”

“Ay vocal pe dhellay daal… dhellay”

“EeEe… uuuhHhho… [Falsetto] Eenaaff eenaff eenaff” …

“Can you uh… raise my bass please on the monitor I can [murmur]”…

“shall we go…?”

“Chalo… I’m ready”

“Ok… I think we’re ready to go…”

“So lets play now”… “lets play”

[sachin tendulkar voice] “go get it… “

Funky Guitar riff…

An awesome start to a Khadki junction blues song aptly names as Headrush Pink Rojez soundcheck!

PS: I’m a fan!

One of the many gems from Pune, this Funk rock and fusion band... check out their album - Bopodi Love affair... and songs like Contemplate, Gentle rain, Sausy finger chips (jain) and Journey to funkeshwar!

completely trippy!

The spoils of the wall

2009-07-19T19:33:00.003+05:30

More than a year ago, I ambitiously printed a 40"x30" photo of Menavali ghat, Wai, that I had clicked a few months before that.
Last month, got it mounted.
Yesterday, I fixed up the hooks to it.
Today, I was supposed to go out of town... so I left it for later.
Then... the phone rang...
my bus got canceled, so they put us in another bus which meant I was home for another 3 hours. So I marked the correct distance on the wall, drilled holes in it (with a manual driller, mind you.) Plugged it with screws and VOILA...
Now, its on the wall!
Today was the day where i was to finish the ill fated task that I had set out to do last year...
Now to finish packing...

flipped view of things

2009-07-09T08:57:00.008+05:30

I play badminton but they say, it runs the knees. I cycle but they say, that too ruins the knees.
so, I have been going for yoga sessions for a month and a half now. Its pretty intensive. And every time, I come back home with my muscles nicely stretched and relaxed, and my bones in their correct place.
Today, i flipped when I was told to do the Shirshasan, and quite literally too.
As I rested on my neck and arms, and tried touching my back to the wall, I felt all my blood freeze. What the hell was I doing here? Wasn't I better off cycling and playing badminton? Would my neck bones crack while I tried to rest my body weight on my neck and head? would I fall off sideways and break a few bones once I lifted my legs towards to wall? Heck... would I even be able to completely lift my legs in the air on to the wall?
Jump one, halfway... jump two - right leg touched the wall behind...
Jump 3- I was up, legs and back straight against the wall, all my incredible burden resting on my frenzied little head losing all sense of orientation and direction. I thought that it was supposed to feel good with all the blood rushing to the brain... provided there’s enough of it… the brain I mean.

Since my legs were up and free, I was almost floating, save my neck muscles that were still feeling the stress.

I came down feeling my neck and shoulders and arms and fingers and my feet disappearing… I felt doped for a second… in a good way.

You may fly with your feet raised high above the ground… but always keep your head firmly planted on the ground.

Guaranteed to give you an phenomenal high… even if for just a second!

the 35mm Hexomniscope project - I

2009-06-30T11:54:00.004+05:30

It all started last year, when I discovered Photojojo - a new online photography newsletter, and subscribed to it. Filled up with fun snippets about photography, DIY and photographers and etc, I discovered - more than a year later – An article about pinhole photography.

That led me to a website where they showcased all sorts of bizarre pinhole cameras, which in turn led me to the HEXOMNISCOPE!

From their website:

"The long awaited very rare limited quantity all metal Hexomnisope pinhole camera which has 6 pinholes and 6 individually operated shutters around its circumference to make 6 overlapping 60 degree images onto 120 film. Shutters can be turned on and off independently, but have a single release. 4 complete images of 6 pinholes each can be made on a roll of 120 film. Pinhole diameter is 0.0055 inch for an f stop of f180. All handmade. A very sophisticated design by Matt Abelson. Made to perfection! You will be amazed at the craftsmanship of this absolutely wonderful new camera. It is approximately 5 inches high and 5 inches in diameter. Weighs almost 3 pounds. 120 film winds around inside cylinder. The Hexomniscope is only available from the Pinhole Resource. Comes with an instruction CD giving clear instructions for use and exposure guide. Designed and made by Abelson Scope Works."

So I want one, but priced at a little over $1500, and as my story usually goes, I don’t have the necessary spare parts to buy it … So following my usual story and script, I think of making it to my own silly specifications.

The hexomniscope is developed for 120 format film. I've used that format only once, so decided to make a 35mm film paper version for the same.

The f stop of a pinhole is calculated by determining the size of the hole and the focal length (distance from the pinhole to the film). So a camera with a 0.5 mm diameter pinhole, and a 50 mm focal length would have an f-stop of 50/0.5, or f/100. Others are even higher, up to f/360. It all depends on the size of the hole.

From that and this - http://www.mrpinhole.com/calcpinh.php; I get :

IF and only IF:

focal length = 40 mm

pinhole dia = 0.25 mm,

THEN and only THEN:

f stop is f/160

if ISO = 100, 35 mm film

image dia = 76.8 mm

angle of view = 40

Similarly:

focal length = 25 mm

pinhole dia = 0.25 mm,

f stop is f/100

if ISO = 100, 35 mm film

image dia = 48 mm

angle of view = 70

Damn pinhole!

My hexomniscope will look a little different, since its for 35 mm film. It will be shorter. Around 5 cms in height.

The only other time I have tried pinhole is with my dSLR and a pinhole disc in place of the lens. Works wonders! Now hoping this works wonders too…

punk is not ded

2009-06-25T23:01:00.002+05:30

punk is not ded
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

yet another new idea! to draw my own graphic novel... sounds fun, eh... maybe revive that whole Pop art stuff with the protagonist as a guitar scratching, sarcastic atheist architect who goes around vowing to destroy every single ugly, high energy consuming building in town... how cool?
Not much I suppose...

The very essence of 'Indianness...'

2009-06-04T12:21:00.002+05:30

As one thing leads to another…
Yesterday afternoon at home, I felt like channel surfing. And as my fingers flickered over the now unfamiliar remote control… I stopped to watch the Music channels. The two most popular ones – M tv and Channel [V]… Its really been a while since I heard some nice new music on these music channels.
M tv hardly plays music these days, it seems… Their obsession with Roadies knows no bounds…
So I switched over to Channel [V]. And during the break, I saw an amazing advertisement. It was a public service message.

It showed Indian, and their stuff- sofas, TVs, fake flower bouquets, tables, chairs, computers, Car seats, credit cards and almost everything else … all covered in plastic…
Then this little Indian guy goes to a little Indian Mobile shop staring at stuff there, and the big Indian shopkeeper barks at him asking what he wanted… and he asks for a typically Indian mobile cover…
At the end of the advertisement, there’s a message – ‘Be Indian, use protection’
… How cool?!

The advertisement was in no way exaggerating. The other day, I spilled some water on my keyboard, so disconnected it and let it dry. Later, I reconnected it and googled for some more info on what could be done.
I was browsing through an American forum where everyone was discussing what they did when they dropped Coffee or beer on the keyboard. (Do they ever drink water?) They mentioned waterproof keyboards and new keyboards. As I read along… some guy wrote: ‘If you just keep the plastic that the keyboard comes in - on it, it’s the cheapest waterproofing you have!’ … And the first thing that came to my mind was – This guy must be Indian!’
And… he was!

the revival of the Brownie Hawkeye project

2009-05-25T19:56:00.014+05:30

This time, photo scans with sprocket holes intact. The very reason why i revived this project was because I could finally get decently scanned images with the sprockets intact. And since the brownie is a medium format point and shoot, it exposes the part of 35mm film around the sprockets too. Unlike SLRs. This makes the picture most magical...

the results are never sharp in this project. And that is due to the following reasons.
1. The fixed shutter speed of the brownie (which is pretty slow)
2. the meniscus lens aberrations towards the edges, and I somehow never manage to load the 35mm film centrally through my homemade 35mm film adapter...

The results are as follows:

All this scanning was possible because of a unique tubular contraption that keeps negatives in place and enables me to take pictures of the same through my digital camera. Obtaining the digital positive is the final stage of the process.

This is another shuttlebox attachment for my 400D with one end holding the negative and the other end open to fix on the lens. Ideally, this tube is to be held with the negative exposed to a bright source of white light, and the open end on the lens. The length of the tube will depend upon the minimum focus length of the lens in use.

Big Fak-Ap

2009-05-01T18:44:00.002+05:30

I read on the front page of the The Indian Express, that Obama admin called the Pakistan- Afghanistan situation the Af-Pak policy. Experts called it the Pak-Af strategy. Now, with Pak hurtling towards anarchy, critics are dubbing it a potential Fak-Ap...
I loved the fact, that this made the front page of many newspapers around the world!

The Election Commission has a sense of humour

2009-04-23T13:30:00.003+05:30

I voted today, and had them mark my middle finger with indelible ink.
Not just me, it was for everyone ...

The Election Commission has officially allowed me to show my finger to the ones who deserve it.

PS: I read that the reason for this unique practice is that some places in Maharashtra had nagar panchayat and gram panchayat elections recently and voters there had their left forefingers marked...

Tauba yeh recession, tauba be-rozgaar...Tera political attyachaar

2009-04-14T15:48:00.005+05:30

Jaspal Bhatti ji- the creator of memorable satirical shows on the plight of the common man like - ulta pulta and flip flop show- that were aired on Door Darshan during the early 1990s, has done it again…

He launched his ‘Recession party’ in Mumbai recently. Just to describe the financial situation of their recession hit party, they held their meet in a small dance rehearsal hall in Andheri offering only chai and vada- pav to the media present there.

Party manifesto

1. We will not divide people on the lines of cast, creed and religion. Of course we will divide the society but between wise and fools.
2. We will reserve 50% seats for fools in the parliament if voted to power.
3. We will provide a stable Government by negotiating our alliance with any party irrespective of their ideology because we ourselves have no ideology of our own except for money making.
4. We will create more slums in and around Mumbai to strengthen our vote bank and win more Oscars.
5. We will arrange more development funds for Mumbai so that boats could be provided in the rainy season. Every year Mumbai reels under water as a result of faulty sewerage system.
6. We don’t promise to maintain greenery in the ever increasing concrete jungle. We may not be able to save mangroves and other green trees but we definitely will provide every citizen green optical glasses free of cost so that everything looks green to them.
7. For increasing sense of security among public more funds would be provided on the personal security of MPs and ministers.
8. The improvement of personal financial health of our ministers will be given priority over everything.

Their party symbol is Chameleon (known for changing colours.)

Taking his Prime ministerial ambitions more seriously, Jaspal Bhatti in his letter to the Chief Electoral officer has already sought clarification whether the election commission would allow satire in their campaigning and don’t book them for violating the election code of conduct.

And making clear this very intention amidst the strong competition, he says: ‘I’ll be the PM and all of you can be Dipti PMs’.

And I say to Mr. Bhatti... Congratulations on yet another achievement... hum aapke saath hai...!!

Have you ever seen...

2009-04-04T00:30:00.004+05:30

A white elephant?
A a bat standing upright on a branch?
A student awake in a history class?
A zebra crossing?
Steffie Graph playing tennis in high heels?
An Eskimo in shorts?
John Abraham riding a cycle?
The pink headed Duck?

...seen Baichung Bhutia dancing on a TV reality show?!?!
That... I did today...

refreshed playlist

2009-03-27T17:01:00.011+05:30

Change is inevitable. Sure..!
I can feel the change ... And its all because of the Lumala.
My playlist has changed. My mp3 player is wearing itself off in my old jeans pocket playing more of punk, grunge, retro, popular rock. Fast, energetic songs. Afterall, 16 km of rides daily demand some music power too.
Some of my bike favourites:
Courtney Love - Sunset strip
Selected Nirvana- Tourrettes, Serve the servants
Jet- 3 fun favs - Are you gonna be my girl, Cold hard Bitch and Rollover DJ. Best bike songs!
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye- Title song - what awesome wacky lyrics! and the beat!!
Pearl Jam- MFC and Do the evolution
Smash Mouth - All star! ;) this one's a total bike song!
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 album version (strictly while cruising around), and the acoustic version
TAAQ- Hot Day! (oh yea! summer is here... and TAAQ = brilliant!)
Khadki Junction blues- Chaturshrungi wavelength (total downhill cruise mode music!)
The Kinks - A well respected man (full on retro rock n roll!)
The Offspring- Original Prankster! Its a total wicked biking song! Punk!! builds up the tempo
Wild miss Zippy - 'Cage of gold' and 'Hard year's end' absolute funky songs!
WOLFMOTHER- Dimension, Joker and the thief... (ride fast and scream types!)

And so on... I might load some fast fatboy slim songs on it to...

I can't really forget the blues... so here are some selected blues-

Soulmate- I am, Blues is my soulmate
Warren Mendonsa - The cat and the fiddle! total charge up!
Chris Duarte- Letter to my girlfriend
Howlin' wolf - Built for comfort! (just like my bike seat! Soooooo comfy!), Howlin' for my darlin'(!)
Joe Bonamassa- your funeral and my trial! (Love this guy!), Bad Girls (sooo love this song!), Dixie peach (very much like one song from KK's Pal... or is it the other way around?!?)
The Eric Jerardi Band- Always something... one hell of a song, this one...

Now I'm gonna add some more to the list soon. Funky tracks... fast paced... songs full of attitude for biking (cycling) ... two years back when i got my funky sony 'vial' mp3 player... i thought 1 gig was enough memory... how wrong i was! :(

So... I'm doing 16 kms everyday. To work and back... Karve nagar to Bavdhan... with the chandni chowk climb... I can feel my stamina improve considerably... So i say thank you for the MUSIC... for giving it to me!!

wooohoooohooooo! my long ride on the Lumala!

2009-03-22T13:26:00.001+05:30

wooohoooohooooo!
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

So I got the bike... I rode it from the shop in Kasba Peth to my house in Karve nagar across the river... that was 5 kms... and so much fun...
Then the next day morning, Ankur, Sourabh, Gangu, Sameer and I went on a ride towards Pirangut. These guys had planned to go towards Temghar, but it was the first time in many years for me... and I'm still getting used to a geared cycle. So I thought I'll go till Chandni Chowk (Pune's chandni Chowk) and return...
We started half an hour late, thanks to me... and off we were. I didn't have a problem till this climb, which was about a kilometer and half off chandani chowk on Paud road. I couldn't ride up CC because it was too steep for me... so i walked. Then the road was a cakewalk till a small patch of climb. Where i dragged along... Ankur was very kind and kept encouraging me to go further. The others went ahead.
So we finally reached Manas lake. It was almost 8 AM. and near about 10 kilometers from home... so I decided to ride back alone from there... reached CCD CC at 8.30, Had a coffee, chilled out and rode downhill to Bavdhan to my office (yes... its a working weekend... )
Now... another terrible climb pn the cycle till CC, then a smooth glide home. I loved my first ever longish ride on a cycle!
Approx 20 Km in a day... not bad for a first of many more longer rides to come... Wooohooohooohoo!

what do you mean 'bike'???

2009-03-20T12:38:00.001+05:30

The road to Temghar Dam
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Once upon a time, in a magical land full of smog and pollution, there was a little city surrounded by hills on all three sides, the highest point within the city being the Vetaal tekdi. On this vetal tekdi a group of youngsters met and started a little organisation to save the hills and environment of Pune from the rapacious mongrels in our society who thrive on mindless development and helplessness of ordinary citizens in extraordinary situations. The organisation gained momentum in the years that followed. They gained respect of the ordinary citizens- children, youth and the elders, the countless other NGOs and environmentalists who together were actively propagating a more environmentally friendly development and lifestyle for the residents of Pune. They encouraged walking, climbing hills, planting trees, cycling and standing up against unnecessary deforestation in the name of unnecessary development. It was these young activists who made everyone hear the plea of nature of the city and the surroundings.
As years grew by, they diversified into conducting nature trails, and treks, along with their regular activities. The group matured, and started running as a full fledged organisation… their treks were much sought after, and some of the popular ones had to be conducted more often that they initially thought they would. The word spread to certain Mumbaikars

And then one fine premature summer morning, the organisation circulated their events update with a unique concept. Many inboxes were opened and the mail read… and re read with disbelief…
They had come up with an entirely new programme that time!
It was a 3 day bike trek to the sea forts of the Konkan region. And many were thrilled! As many were eager to participate…
They would be covering six forts, two caves and several scenic beaches on the way, along with the best of the Konkani food…
Lodging at Dapoli, route map and information brochure, a leader with safety equipment and food were included in the package…
What was not included was extra food and soft drinks, break down costs and petrol costs…
That’s where it was re read… not including petrol (?!?!) costs.

It was a motorcycle trip not a bicycle trip…
And I stared in disbelief…

I stopped gloating on flickr... so i gloat here

2009-03-12T18:11:00.000+05:30

1. a portrait of ray, 2. rhinos, 3. early morning fog, 4. and then these guys decided to jump around, 5. and then... the other night at Pondicherry beach..., 6. the pondicherry beach again, 7. the return of that stupid mad season..., 8. raindrops on a spiderweb,

9. guerrilla photography, 10. what an egg..., 11. Untitled, 12. monsoon, 13. the brownie!, 14. neighbour's cat, 15. Untitled, 16. star trails over southern Pune skies,

17. B O K E H, 18. lassie, 19. aye eye sir!, 20. Edge Detail and DoF, 21. Untitled, 22. Hand, 23. up, 24. Untitled,

25. reflection, 26. NODE, 27. Against the sun, 28. local call..., 29. PJ, 30. pretty little yellow flowers, 31. contused, 32. Twilight Swing!,

33. Hope you had a ..., 34. The Full moon through deodars, 35. Poornima and pine dreams, 36. F.R.I., 37. of RIVETS and LOCKS and METAL and the GREAT INDIAN RAILWAYS GOODS TRAIN, 38. Human race suffers from "narcissistic Personality disorder", 39. we, 40. Leftist,

41. I dream in Technicolour, 42. Push me, or pull me out., 43. Crimson, 44. Tell me whats in your mind..., 45. My most favourite beach!, 46. i LOST my PINK PLECTRUM, 47. when CRAZYME sings... i PLAY, 48. MARBLES,

49. THIS can HURT, if you CROSS over, 50. Vaidehi..., 51. STAY... And help me to END the day, 52. FAST, but NOT so FURIOUS, 53. Of Lunar DREAMS and ECLIPSES, 54. i LOST my LOVE today, 55. PERFECTO!

55 on explore!!!
(not that it matters much anyway... )

the subliminal consequence of yielding to disbelief and accepting the inevitable ...

2009-03-09T20:05:00.000+05:30

Is like a mild feeling of euphoria amidst a mix of the damp forest aroma and salty sea breeze, sitting on a creaking windmill all night from dusk to dawn.

OR...

Bitersweet blues

2009-03-05T00:58:00.000+05:30

Just exploring the simple sevenths progression on my acoustic
the part I did just today:

e|-------------------------------------------------------------|
B|--------------------------2-2-2-2-2--------------------------|
G|----1-1-1-1-1-1----------------------------------------------|
D|--------------------------2-2-2-2-2-2b3-2-0------------------|
A|----2-2-2-2-2-2-0h12-----------------------2-----------------|
E|0-3----------------------------------------------------------|

e|-------------------------------------------------------------|
B|--------------------------2-2-2-2-2--------------------------|
G|----1-1-1-1-1-1----------------------------------------------|
D|--------------------------2-2-2-2-2-2b3-2-0------------------|
A|----2-2-2-2-2-2-0h1-2-----------------------2----------------|
E|-------------------------------------------------------------|

e|----2-2-2-2-2----------------------0h3-3\5-3-0---------------|
B|----0-0-0-0-0------------2-2-2-2-2---------------------------|
G|----2-2-2-2-2---0h2h3----------------------------------------|
D|----1-1-1-1-1------------2-2-2-2-2---------------------------|
A|----2-2-2-2-2------------------------------------------------|
E|-------------------------------------------------------------|

I'm not a all good at solos, but will make a start some day...

my experiments with intuitive and improvised cooking - I

2009-02-24T01:49:00.000+05:30

This blog is after all about experimentation. And improvisation… so this is a blog entry that deserves to be here: my trials and improvisations with food… cooked.

I have never really had to think about cooking this seriously. Neither am I really thrilled about it. But mothers on vacation are the absolute inventors of necessities. I don’t like to eat out all the time, so I decided to go against all odds, and decided to fend for myself for a full 10 days.

The condition suited me fine. There was no one else really to be experimenting on with food, other than an occasional customary lunch for the best friend… the best friend that incidentally, is one of the better and intuitive cooks I have known.

For these few days, my reading matter has a latest addition. Print outs of Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipies that my mum has been collecting, and the little book of Indian cooking presented to me by the best friend who, I believe I mentioned earlier is a wonderful cook.

Till date, whatever little I have done on my own has been a bit disastrous. Not the final result… that’s not all that bad. It’s just the massive trail of destruction and devastation that I leave all across the kitchen, and in the process I get many things wrong. And I totally cook by the book. Well, at least I used to…

Now, I can say that I’m getting better, my speed’s increasing. And I’m quite enjoying myself… Now I know why Philipp considered cooking the ultimate stress buster.

So here I go… my experiments (rather successful) with intuitive and improvised cooking. The last few days saw two wonderful improvisations:

Pepper chicken.

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken

Roughly ground pepper

Salt

A tomato – chopped

Turmeric powder

A few cloves

Some butter

Cumin seeds

Onion – chopped

Ginger paste

Garlic finely chopped or paste

Vegetables of your choice (mine being capsicum)

Maybe some saunf powder. I love it in anything.

Preparation:

Mix pepper powder, salt and turmeric powder and apply it over the boneless chicken pieces, just enough to cover them all, keep for half an hour.

Heat a wee bit butter in a pan, and add some cloves to it and the chopped onion and cook till they turn golden brown ( I wonder who coined that term? The onions never do that!) Add the chopped tomatoes, ginger and garlic and the marinated chicken that has been now turned yellow and waiting to get cooked. Add some water – maybe half a cup, and some nice helping of the saunf powder! Mmm … let the aroma spread…

Cook till the chicken is truly cooked, and add more water if wanted. Add salt.

Just a few minuted before the chicken is totally cooked, add the capsicum. I like it to be a little raw and crisp, hence add during the last few minutes over the fire, otherwise it gets all soggy and limp, and not as much fun…

Viola… you have a lovely aroma spreading all around the house… smelling of Cloves and saunf… its tastes awesome too. And I have a happy best friend…

Cooking for just one person – self- is a little perplexing. How much is too much? Is it worth all the effort? What exactly do I make for myself? That was the dilemma I was in when I started wondering what to make for dinner for myself tonight.

I wanted to have soup, then I decided I wanted to make Dal shorba… I had no idea how shorba was made. So I checked out the set of printouts… I needed moong dal for it, but I was out of moong dal, so decided to chuck it and make an improvised version of the dal shorba with Masoor ki dal!

Meghana’s Improvised Masoor ki dal ka tasty shorba

Ingredients:

Take some masoor dal 50 – 100 grams will serve two people with two mid sized helpings.

Chop a small onion. ‘Small’ being an onion of roughly the diameter of about 5 cms.

Some grated ginger

some chopped garlic

one chopped green chilly that’s about 10 cm in length.

A wee bit butter again

Cumin seeds

Turmeric

And salt.

Preparation:

Take the dal, ginger, garlic, chilly, onion, turmeric and salt and add a lot of water to it, and cook it till the dal is cooked. Make sure theres enough water so that some remains till the dal is cooked to verrrry soft! Strain this dal. And keep it aside till you heat the wee bit butter and ad some cumin seeds in it till they crackle. Add the cooked and strained mixture of dal, onion, ginger, garlic and turmeric to the butter and cumin, and some water, till you get the consistency you desire… it will not really be a colloidal liquid, and the water dal and the water will not homogenise properly… but hey… its shorba after all, not dal….

So bring to a boil, add some more salt, and hey presto! You have wonderful tasting Meghana’s improvised dal shorba made out of masoor dal…

I loved it, and had it with 2 slices of kadak toast… what a pity I didn't click pictures of these two recipes...

Wow… maybe I’m soon going to become the next best thing since sanjeev Kapoor after all … Hah! And I’ve only just begun…

fireball past midnight

2009-01-28T21:23:00.000+05:30

I have a habit of taking a walk on my terrace at night before i go to bed. so at 12.15 AM 28th January 2009, I was walking on the terrace when I saw a bright fireball in the sky! It was HUGE! bigger than the 5 I had seen on 14th December 2007 as a part of the Geminid meteor showers!
It was greenish blue with a little bit of red, and lit up the terrace twice as much as a full moon would!
Today the day started off with not a very positive note, but as it went by, it was quite nice... and at the end of it, I was pretty okay. I clicked a pic of Vivek in office holding his 'A Portrait of Ray' LP cover in front of his face... I am hoping it will come out well... leseee ...
Thats the thing with film... I have to wait till I finish the roll. If I'm using digital, I can click 36 pictures in the space of 2 hrs, but if i'm using a roll, lord knows I take days to finish it!

my love thing

2009-01-14T23:07:00.001+05:30

love thing
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

I was just browsing through my notebook today afternoon. And I found my 'Love thing.'
My 'Love thing' is a little piece of black paper with a heart shaped cutout for bokeh shapes through camera lenses. This term 'Love thing' - was coined by my flickr contact Sneha (beatnikbug) when she saw me making this shape for another flickr contact Vinod, during e P@P exphibition on the 27th of Dec '08. She said - 'Whats that...? oh... it's your "love thing"'

'Yes,' I said ...'Its my "Love thing... '

One Fine Late winter night singing with momah!

2008-12-10T23:01:00.000+05:30

My mother loves to sing. and she sings much better than I do.
Tonight, I was casually strumming my guitar, when my mother came by and started singing 'Maa' from taare zameen par. And I suddenly stopped playing. She asked me if i was playing the same song... so I resumed playing and asked her to sing. Both of us didn't know the lyrics completely, but we sang for our respective mothers. we finished, smiled at each other and our amazing timing, and she walked away. All this happened in the space of three minutes. And I'm still wondering where those few moments came from. It was easier as a kid to express my affection for her. I'm not as little now, and its difficult to express it in words, or deeds. So I will always wish for more such subtle moments with mum.
and just to end with a lighter note, I was tuning my guitar as she walked out of the room,... and she remarked - 'there... you started playing your favourite tune again' ...
(i said ...'wha...?')

the other girl blues

2008-12-03T20:31:00.000+05:30

I called my friend last night

He just pretended to listen’

Still searching for her number

The girl he’s been missing

He told me how they met,

And why he found her hot

I thought shes all there can be,

And I’m obviously not

Oooooh…. The way that she smiles,

The way that she talks

Through her luscious pink lips

And her pretty little walk

I say honey… Please stop

Don’t even bother…

‘cause no girl wants to hear about

any other…

An experiment of a different kind

2008-11-12T22:30:00.000+05:30

Wednesday, 12|11|08
Mid week crisis hits hard. Terrible bout of depression. Things just not happening my way. Hence decided to try something else. And I thought of switching off my mobile for a week. Seven calender days. It will help me to know how much people (don't) want to talk to me. I think the sooner I realise this the better. Another upside of this is that I'll get rid of all the unwanted promotional calls and texts. I'll get a lot of time to think too...
So first day today...

disappointment looms large ...

2008-10-22T22:21:00.001+05:30

with due apologies to the bird, the first birdshot through my homemade lens.
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

ok, its not as good as it could have been, but where the heck are people when i want to show them the shots I think are worth showing?

words fail me... so i draw

2008-10-16T23:38:00.001+05:30

the comparison
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

the long shot, the last night...

2008-09-27T15:17:00.000+05:30

they studio guy didn't scan it. for him, it was a shot gone wrong. so i scanned it myself. at office. I loved the scan no matter how poor it was. the hour long trails were heavenly. the trees like dark crayon renderings of a juvinile prodigy's drawing. i lay on the white tiled terrace of Mitra guest house. the place i stayed before. almost completing the circle... almost... but it isn't. Just like the trails. incomplete. i was there... roles reversed... but still alone throughout. I was thinking of the times before. What had i achieved? what would i achieve and what should i?
what was i going to do once that night was over? once i was back... i don't want to be back. I want to remain in a dream all my life. like i was before. but the dream lasts only till disturbed. and i woke up to the cacophony amidst my quiet surroundings and i realised that maybe my dream isn't meant to be there... and at that moment. And i closed my tired eyes and slept peacefully...

the return of that stupid mad season...

2008-09-15T23:29:00.001+05:30

the return of that stupid mad season...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Mad Season - Matchbox 20

Yes... the mad holiday season...

time out? or time up? ... I wish I knew...

2008-09-12T23:11:00.000+05:30

little off, but getting there...

2008-09-08T22:02:00.001+05:30

little off, but getting there...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

I can almost hear the rain again...

2008-09-07T12:56:00.001+05:30

I can almost hear the rain again...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

The grey turns the air mellow again
Daylight seems not so yellow again
Filtering sunbeams from the sky
The eager clouds seem to bellow at me again.

The droplets seem chaste again,
I can almost feel their taste again,
Falling on the muddy road,
It seems to taint them with haste again.

I can almost hear the rain again
Its all going down the drain again
Laying low in little puddles,
It seems to stagnate in vain again.

I can almost hear the rain again

Minolta HI MATIC AF2 M camera

2008-09-04T23:39:00.001+05:30

Minolta HI MATIC AF2 M camera
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Got this one from my Boss. He said it didn't work... I said it'll work. So he asked me to check it out...
Drove at peak times on Karve Road today. Drove after many many months! what an experience... rain, countless ganesh mandals and all...

Inspiration comes from weird quarters ...

2008-09-03T23:06:00.000+05:30

I saw the movie Rock On. And now I'm all inspired by Arjun Rampal's character...
Yes ladies and gentlemen... I've decided that I'm growing my hair... till they come up to my (non existent due to excess flab) waist! hopefully I'll lose some excess weight and all till then! ;)
Just like I had 14 years ago... !
PS: Yea... maybe I'll start playing my guitar a bit more than I do now a days...

of afternoon conversations and Puneri conversationalists...

2008-08-28T09:04:00.000+05:30

We have some really great lunchtime conversations in my workplace. And that’s purely because of some great Puneri conversationalists. It’s really interesting to discover their traits and strange behaviour patterns. Traditional Punekars are to Maharashtra what the English are to Europe. Apart from the obvious disparity in the scale of these former mentioned areas, of course. Not only are they prim and proper all the time, Punekars are very sarcastic and haughty as well. They are a nice lot, albeit their strange traits and ways of talking. You have to know them and be like them to accept them.

Old school Punekars are gracious hosts, as long as you speak what they want to listen to and talk only when spoken to, and do not consume any of their precious resources. But you have to be a cheeky old school Puneri guest to be able to keep excellent relations with them, which might vary from mild insolence to sheer disregard.

Walk into a shop and you’ll be attended to immediately, as soon as you finish looking around and spot what you want to buy and manage to captivate the attention of the respective salesman / woman. Their motto: “shopkeepers are kings… consumers can wait...” Your presence is a mere hurdle to their business. They can do much better without you. The goods are top quality, and if you cannot be patient, you are free to go to any of the other non-maharashtrian traders. They may pamper you, treat you like Gods, and behave like you mean the world to them, but I’ll eat my words if you find anything that’s even remotely better than what you find in traditional Puneri shops.

Any true Punekar, irrespective of his/her age, maturity and general intelligence will always say that Pune isn’t what it used to be earlier even if at certain times, its spoken with a certain amount of remorse and nostalgia.

Once you become a Punekar, no other place suits you. The water, the weather, food, the greenery, et all… outside Pune becomes just unbearable. Punekars may be like the British, but they can beat any Spanish and Italian when it comes to siesta times. Everything shuts down between one to 4 in the afternoons, due to the most gorgeous weather save a few days in mid May… although, the Punekars will swear to the fact that it’s as cold here in winter as it is in Kashmir, even if the temperature falls a degree below normal. To understand this, ask a Mumbaikar… He will agree with the Punekar for once…

Traffic… now that’s one issue that I can dedicate a whole essay to. I’ll refrain from doing so, but there are some particularly unique issues cropping up here too. For instance, pedestrians are the most unwanted accessories on Pune roads. And foot-paths are for small time vendors and weekly/daily vegetable markets, which are to be accessed using bikes, which are to be parked right in front of the concerned vendor… interesting.

What do I say about cyclists…? The mechanised traffic shares a love hate relationship with the poor geezers on bicycles. They love to hate them… About the cyclists great sense of traffic rules, righteousness and comic timing (they do make one laugh sometimes) - the less said, the better…

There is a wonderful public transport system running in the city of Pune. So wonderfully engrossed it is in public duty, that making profit is none of its business. Punekars will only attempt stepping onto any one of its buses, only if they are just the way they are in their half baked ideas of European public transport systems and the TV visions of the Delhi Metro. I don’t blame them… Punekars are the ones who acquire a two wheeler as soon as they pass out of 10^th standard, and start attending college because that’s just the way it is. There’s no the Punekars can dream of pressurising the PMC to improve public transport. They would rather pressurise the PMC to revoke its silly rule that makes helmets compulsory because it’s difficult to see around and hear traffic even though it’s ok to listen talk on the phone or to music while riding.

Punekars score in interesting debates and presentation of hypothetical ideas, as you might have realised.

A very typical trait of Punekars is criticising the very city and people that they are a part of. The holier than though attitude allows them ignorance enough to overlook their personal shortcomings. You have to like them… they are only human…

I am showing many signs of turning into one myself, (as you might have noticed by now) having being in the company of Punekars for the last six years…

I can go on and on about Punekars, it’s really never ending. But what I started off with was that two of my Puneri colleagues were talking about a certain type of khakra that was available in a certain shop.

Ketaki asked Sneha (typically Puneri names) when the current packet of khakra in her house might finish off…? And Sneha replied saying that Ketaki will be duly informed whenever that might happen.

In simpler words, Ketaki, in her tactful Puneri cheek, wanted Sneha to get a packet of Khakra for her, and Sneha, equally Puneri and cheeky, duly replied…

We all speak Marathi, but it’s obvious that we don’t speak the same language.

the last few days ...

2008-08-25T23:06:00.000+05:30

08.08.18

I have nothing to write these days. There’s just nothing happening. Sometimes even an advice sounds so valuable before I sleep over it. Then it sounds worthless. Something I could never so or be. Things are always so two faced. When I’m bored, all that sounds so important and fine, and suddenly, it starts sounding all fake and silly. I should always give myself some more time before I do or say certain things. Being impulsive will ruin me, as I have discovered in the past. I don’t mind being useless. In fact, there have to be useless people in the world for the world to appreciate useful people. Imagine if each and every one was a winner… winning would be mediocre. And we losers would be winners. Sure, we losers make sense sometimes.

I met Atul after a long time yesterday at Harshad’s place. I laugh imagining how we all were six years back when we first met. I was a kid just out of school! His new little guitar is damn amazing. That’s his travelling guitar. He made it in the US. And since he was there for just a few weeks, I thought maybe the guitar is the reason he went there. That’s what he did at Aroville. He spent his time playing his guitar and making one. That’s the best thing one can do there actually. Now, I want a little guitar myself! Maybe I can make one. But I don’t have the resources to do so. Good quality wood, some metal, and etc… And while I’m dreaming, I want a bass too. But anyway… some day I will. Here’s another one of my ideas left incomplete.

But that little guitar is very cute to play. And it has a very non-reverberating bass sound. And it’s little. And so cute. I want one!!!

Now I’m as green as his guitar… I always want more than I need. But that’s human nature. Not me. I don’t have a nice guitar strap. I need one so I can stand and play my guitar. I can make one. Sounds like a great idea, I jest need to check how I can make one at home.

My guitar string tensile structure idea is still somewhere in my mind’s closed closets, the key to which I have lost somewhere. I need to read more about tensile structures and all. I still remember my brilliant bridge, the one that I designed during the bamboo workshop in second year. It really was well made. If only the clutch wire had arrived before and if only I had had the necessary spare parts, it would have been lighter, nicer and much more effective. But I learnt a lot. Maybe some day if I get a chance to, I could design such a bridge for some little span. That would be nice.

Making a guitar is a very nice idea. Let me at least start researching on it. See if I can get some nice raw materials and some tools. I need to start spending some of my money on better things. So I spend more money on commuting

08.08.19

When I desperately wish for something and I get it, I usually end up making the most phenomenal blunder I can ever make, and give away whatever I have earned. On a silver platter. Even if I get something I deserve, it’s always lost so easily by my own divine deeds. I feel amazed. I work hard on self pitying, blackmailing the supreme force and get my hearts wish … and I blow up all the earned hard work in 5 minutes . How stupid can I possibly get!

08.08.20.

Sourabh said that the phase that I’m going through is good to galvanise me into the person that I aspire to be. According to him, the guilty feeling is good.

But how can something that makes me feel terrible make me do things later? How can I possibly believe this is going to help mould me? What do I want to be moulded into?

I’ve been losing sleep over all this. I’m wondering what to do to make this feeling go away. There’s a momentary relief when I’m doing things, but it comes back, and I feel like this again. My brain is overheating. Whatever little is remaining.

I set about making myself completely useless today. I did nothing constructive. Diem perdidi… what can be more disgraceful than that?

I just want to make my life a holiday. Everyday should be one. But alas… it’s not to be… I’m not making it into one.

08.08.21

Gangu arranged for a little presentation that I’ll be giving at college on photography. It is a small session open for all as a part of first year basic design and 3^rd an 4^th year elective on photography. It’s going to be really interesting. Let’s hope I make sense to them of what I’m doing. I wonder what I should show them in terms of composition, and content. I have to start sorting photographs from today itself. I don’t want it to become an exercise in just displaying my pictures, but for them to understand about various ways of compositions and moments. About colours, spaces, textures and tones, shadows, movements, planes and masses … perspectives and focus, point and views and depths of field.

08.08.25

Sometimes, ideas just come from somewhere. Just like yesterday. Another afternoon power-cut forced me to switch off the computer in order to lessen the load on the UPS. And I sat down to see all that my mother discovered today. She loves to empty out drawers and take out all the unwanted stuff from there, and make way for more unwanted stuff that I love to accumulate. Yesterday, she found some old biconvex magnifying lenses. And a small lens from my former fish eye door viewer. The one which I was used for my initial lens baby experiments, and which was later relegated to that little box in one of the messy drawers once I found that it was the wrong lens. As a kid I always troubled my mother when I had nothing to do. So she would give me the junk in on of the messy drawers to buy her some peaceful time. We have, over time kept our respective habits intact.

So even before I could start yesterday afternoon, she handed the lenses over to me, and I was wondering what could be made out of them. Sunday afternoons are lazy, and I soon slept it off and woke up quite forgetting the lenses. Then post the grand spectacle of the Olympic ceremony and dinner, I was back with those lenses… I realised soon enough, that that one of the lens would make a wonderful fixed zoom lens which can focus on objectives in different visual planes. Now all I need is something to hold it. The lens would function if I moved it closer and further away from the sensor for focus, and so I needed to make it flexible. Don't think i can complete it soon though...

the brick wants to be...

2008-08-15T02:24:00.001+05:30

the brick wants to be...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

I passed by a hideous building today. It was one of those isolated new luxury apartments that was supposed to promote contemporary and healthy hillside living... the less said the better. And Devina told me that a year back while that building was being done up you could see bricks on the walls. Given the shoddy workmanship and shoddier quality of brick in Pune, it would come as no surprise if the above happened...

of weird dreams and pink socks and rains enough to flood my imagination crazy!

2008-08-12T22:14:00.000+05:30

I have been having weird dreams. Yesterday night I dreamed that in the movie Dark night, Bruce Wayne has problems modulating his voice and suddenly starts speaking in his 'Batman' baritone in between the conversation. And he has to excuse himself and leave the room. Funny,... isn't it? I can remember his expression as he realises that he cannot control his voice, and turns around to clear his throat and turn back to find that he still has problems.
If only they made me make a batman movie...
I also dreamt that it rained so much that the streets and all are flooded, and so is my stilt parking, and I have to swim to get out. Well... I'm not complaining...
I had once teased Sneha to death the day I saw she wore pink socks. That until I walked into office wearing light pink socks yesterday. Sneha noticed this as soon and I entered and that was the moment I realised I was wearing pink socks... Yea... thats what happens when I leave my shopping to mom. I end up with light pink socks. But hey I'm a busy girl... (!)
Finally its been raining somewhat like what I want it to rain. I've been day dreaming more than usual. And my usual is a lot... But I can't help it. its just the most beautiful weather!

I was reading Calvin and Hobbes today, when i came across these 3 strips... Bill Watterson is a smart geezer... and he draws damn well. In fact, I don't think there can be a cartoonist that brilliant again!

013:365

2008-08-07T23:18:00.001+05:30

013:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

hmmm... what do i write... except i'm going to miss Shruti. Now i'll see her next year. I'm happy we all met her today before she left for the US. One years time is a lot. and things change. And she has made us all promise we won't get married while she's in the US. She wants to be there for all our weddings. All i can say to her is - Don't worry Shruti... it's not going to happen soon ;)

012:365

2008-08-07T00:04:00.001+05:30

012:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

the day starts not so nicely, but i get my film developed. The first one through the yashica GSN Electro 35. Its pretty amazing. and I liked the results. Now going to shoot more. Then office was lazy. Still no hard rain. I'm almost dying for it now. 3-6 hours of power cuts at the area where i work, inverter batteries not charging well. too much work. The mood not as i wish it should be ... monsoons should be much more fun. not halfhearted like they are now... well... hoping (yet again) for better times ahead...

011:365

2008-08-05T23:28:00.001+05:30

011:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

all i can do is think of the days and the people...

010:365

2008-08-04T22:49:00.001+05:30

010:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

and the realisation hits... hits hard. tell me what I did? and I'd never do it again. But tell me.
the bad phase continues... and it doesn't rain enough. Heard of Miroslav Tichý for the first time... wonder how i didn't know anything about him till now!

008 & 009:365

2008-08-03T23:00:00.001+05:30

009:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

I sensed the end. Another chapter closing, and I’ve decided to leave the book for now. No last glances, no farewells, no tears. It just faded out. Not for me, though. For me, it was just starting. But as usual, its not me who decides such stuff. Its never me who wants to fall into it. It’s never me who gets out of it. I am made to do these things. Somebody else decides. And most of the times, its over before it even starts. Not new, it isn’t. But I’m not getting immune. And I’ll let time heal it again. Until the next time… I wish there would be some chapter that doesn’t ever finish, but I think I’m being too optimistic when I wish.
It was a nice Saturday and Sunday I had. Saturday was a site visit with Anjali and Samantha. Those two are nice to hang around with. Lunch was at home, and dinner out with friends.
Sunday morning woke up late. It is a lazy day today. It’s in the air… Nandu uncle invited Revati and me for lunch. Medini Aunty cooked fish for us. It was a wonderful afternoon, and I was glad to be with Revati on Friendships day.
All this mellowness in the air... need some hard rain to cool off.

007:365

2008-08-02T00:34:00.001+05:30

080801

007:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

After five hopeless days…
Pretty cool eh?
Well, even if it isn’t to you… it is to me…
I ACTUALLY did it. Revived Shekhar Sir’s old GSN camera! That’s what he gave it to me for… All that it needed was a 6 v battery of the 4LR44 kinds. And those are hard to find here. I had an idea of actually fabricating one with four 1.5 v batteries of the LR44 kinds. But I felt it was stupid. So when another friend suggested I try it out, I said, what the heck…after 5 days of failure, what’s the big deal with facing another one…
So a few minutes later, I had 4 1.5 v LR44 batteries with me. Hunted the old drawers for a spring. That’s where I keep all the old junk that I feel I will use some day or the other but end up storing for ages altogether.
So I had the batteries, the spring, some thick handmade paper and tape, and a nut (no… not me). I just taped all the four LR44 batteries together, and wrapped the thick handmade paper around it so that it would fit in the camera. The nut held the spring in place and that came next on top of the 4 batteries. This whole unit functioned as the 6 v battery. Hows that!?! I’ve been breaking my head over this battery for the last 5 days, and now finally! I have brought it back to life. Now to load the rangefinder with some film! And tell Sir about his camera!
So if you have any gadgetry that works with a 6 v battery, and you can't find the 4LR44 type battery, just make it with four LR44 batteries the way I did.
The cam & LR 44 batteries - cost me 60 bucks (just the batteries, not the cam)

The nut, spring and the four batteries with paper.

the positive terminal of the battery.

The battery homogenised and now more or less the same saize as the 5.4 volt (not manufactured anymore) that it replaces.

The mess...

006:365

2008-07-31T22:20:00.001+05:30

006:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

The hunt for the 6 v battery enters the fourth day. I found that Yashica makes 6 v battery adapters for their batteries. And I don’t know where I’ll get it from. It’s quite frustrating. I must learn to stay calmer.
I screamed at a person driving from beyond his side road while I was crossing the road. Why should I waste my moments of insanity on him? I’d rather channelise it to better use. But how? There are so many questions I don’t have the answer to.
I forgot Pooja’s B’day this month. I wouldn’t want to forget anyone else’s this year. I already forgot Revati’s a few years back, and she makes me regret it till today. As if I don’t feel bad for it already.
The 20 min walk for the bus makes me sweaty all over. It’s pathetic to smell by the end of the day. Why can’t I stay fresh like all those femmes in those commercials? Why do they look like they’ve just had a bath and caked themselves with 3 layers of make up to make them look as if they haven’t put on any make up at all? Why do others find great clothes from a certain store, while I can’t find a single decent one when I take out my annual shopping expedition there? Why do others never manage to get bad traffic like I do when I drive ever so rarely? Why do the movies I want to see have to be on in screens at only 11 AM and 11 PM on weekdays, while the others have already seen it in the first week? Why don’t I ever get the right kind of landscape shots at the same place others get spellbinding shots at? Why does no one ever notice when I do something and others get noticed for doing something similar or much less in a tick! Why do I always get stuck at the self enforced useless projects and feel sad while others are happier not doing it, and not feeling bad for something they didn’t do. Damn… Why do certain things happen to me and no one else in this world? Why are things never so bad that keep getting worst?
Just a few of life’s little sublime comic tragedies. Its like I’m the greatest source of slapstick entertainment for the supreme force that controls this universe. A comic relief in this stupidly tense world… Oh well… at least I’m not completely useless.
Ankur sent me a message yesterday that we were meeting Anil tomorrow at 8.15 AM at vaishali. And since he didn’t specify breakfast, I read it as 8.15 PM instead. Had I not messaged Pooja confirming the meet, I would have been standing outside Vaishali for a long long time today evening. A few people have a lot of time these days. And thats just my dumb luck that Last whole year, I was the one with a lot of time, and now, a lot of people, but me, do...
Over the last few days, it seems that the whole world and even my own mind is conspiring against me to make my friends forget me slowly… wow… that’s a fantastically horrifying thought. As if I wasn’t depressed enough already… losing touch with fellow humans is very difficult. I make it sound so easy. A lot of people I know have actually stopped calling me up because of the inadequate response I gave to them due to the ‘lack of time.’ Yea, I can be pretty stupid sometimes… most of the times… maybe all the time… I better stop. I’ll end up insulting myself even more if I go on. All this insanity gets to me…
And just before the end of the day… when I thought things were taking a turn for the worst, my mom hands me over my 100 MOO mini calling cards! Along with the card holder I ordered… They are cute. Well, at least someone appreciates me… even if I paid money for it… ;)

005:365

2008-07-30T19:47:00.001+05:30

005:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

I was reading Calvin and Hobbes after lunch at work. Calvin says: ‘I find life is a lot easier the lower I keep everyone’s expectations.’ That done, how do I lower my expectations from my life and people I know? And maybe even those I don’t know?
I expect phone calls, friends to come and meet me, special people doing special things for me, money, fame, action, romance, comedy... so much that the actual experience is an anti-climax. A ‘big dud at the box office’ as they call it. Heck… I just summarised my life!
Funny people are not that funny anymore… happy people are not happy anymore. Good people are not good any more… to me. Yea I know why… That’s the thing: people are as funny, happy or good, it’s just that I expect them to be funnier, happier and nicer.
Why should I possibly expect something, when I don’t want anyone to expect anything from me? It makes nobody, but me, unhappy. When was the last time I was truthfully happy? Makes me think now…
Sadness is essential. It makes me appreciate the happy times even more. So I’m glad that I’m sad… but it’s high time I was happy… really, truly, actually happy. Good thing… but how?
Autocad behaves funny these days some arbitrary commands keep being applied to the drawings I am working on. They don’t even make sense. Seems like some AUTOCAD Beta version. Weird. It seems to be some sort of virus, worm or something. Yech!

6 V battery search enters into the third day… I’m just not taking enough efforts. I should be hunting for it like crazy if I want it so badly… maybe I don’t want it so bad. But I want to see if that old camera sill ok. I’m lazy.
I saw a pretty little ladybug today. I clicked her picture, and she seemed to say: ‘don’t bug me, lady!’ I also clicked a picture of a little white spider after it had succeeded in trapping and killing a fly twice its size. Thank you for the publicity, said the spider. Monsoons are magic with my little macro attachment for my camera.
Come to think of it, it’s a very violent action. Violence exists everywhere… just leave It to humans to take the fun out of it.
And today was the day I learnt how to ruin a decently proportionate sketch…

004:365

2008-07-29T23:10:00.001+05:30

004:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Went walking in the rain and learnt a lesson : no use taking a shower in the morning as I get wet anyway... Thanks, today, to a speedy rickshaw. There was rainwater all over me... but the bus came so late that it dried off before i got on the bus.
The hunt for the 6 v battery continues... Need to tell my electrician to help me out with it. Hes my family electrician (believe what i say!)
I actually shopped at Laxmi road... out of necessity actually. I can always avoid shopping, but tell me to click pics there, And I'll be more than ready. but sometimes, even the most hated tasks have to be done. Necessary evil.
Remembered what Navisa - my new Love guru told me... Unknowingly, I am sort of following her advice... But must I really? Am I still expecting too much?

003:365

2008-07-28T23:00:00.001+05:30

003:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

A lot of people are very kind to me these days. Those who know I like to use (not always to the best effect) old cameras. And I have yet another camera...
So one late Sunday night I decide to research some batteries. For a Yashica electra 35 camera. A rare rangefinder, and that’s essentially an aperture priority camera. The 5.6 v batteries, I found out, have long since become extinct, so I decided to search for some solution to revive it online. And I find that these cameras can handle 6 v charge without much trouble. That’s a relief… but these batteries are pretty hard to find too. I haven’t found any in any camera shop a yet. Maybe today I’ll go and search for it in a few more electrical shops. I can’t let such a camera go waste just because some battery is not being manufactured now. That’s one thing... secondly, if I can’t manage to do this, I’ll suffer a bout of depression. So I have to try my hardest to make it work. I just hope the internal circuitry hasn’t gone bad… that would spell disaster. Imagine… A 35 mm lens, aperture priority rangefinder rendered unusable… I need to do something. Apart from a good laugh at work today... I was inspired to try out a new thing... Thanks to the great Navisa... my new love - adviser!

002:365

2008-07-27T22:54:00.001+05:30

002:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Woke up late, had Srihari visit us in the morning from mysore with his new car and the news of his engagement due soon enough. Went to Poorva's place for lunch and had my usual discussion/debate/argument with Porva's dad and Shekhar mama about economics and trends of spending and investment of todays youth as compared to the older generation...
Chauffeured Avani back home from mom's place, and it began to rain. Harshad called and we decided to meet. And what better place to go during the rain than the tekdi... rain or no rain... I'll take my little cam out. Forgot to take my 18-55 with me, so had to make do with my little red and black lensbaby. didn't click many pics though. But it was a nice little stroll around the tekdi with Harshad and Rohit. it's always nice talking to them and planning the next trip to Auroville... which incidentally will be in the third week of September... so... after a beautiful evening on the tekdi in the most amazing weather... I have a rather uneventful and peaceful little dinner at home and sleep... quite a Sunday, i think... and like Ramit pointed out... 'exciting'... and i come to think of it... I didn't find it very exciting... but maybe I'm just expecting too much... but i don't even know what to expect...
Since i cease to make sense... I stop here for the day. Tomorrow is a new day and a new week full of work, and a lot of expectations for some long overdue excitement... I hope...

001:365

2008-07-27T00:40:00.001+05:30

001:365
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

been on my mind for some time now... Thought I'll do it. One whole year in pictures and something to look back upon and laugh. I guess I'm just too bored...
Last night my guardian angel came to me in my dream and asked what I wanted from life... I said I wanted a life instead...
so here I am trying to make one...

PS: Don't think I could get farther than 15 days, but a little encouragement can work wonders...

kids doing the 'palki' routine

2008-07-19T00:47:00.001+05:30

kids doing the 'palki' routine
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

The moment I loaded the fifth roll in the brownie, I was beginning to sense something. Something which said: ‘yea bitch! Now, you got it right!’ I shot with it apprehensively. Didn’t know what the result might be, considering all that I did before that and the disappointment about the usual stuff – results not being the way I expected and all. I thought I clicked a lot with it, more than usual I thought. I finally managed to finish the roll in a few days. It rested in my bag for the next few. And then yesterday, I finally managed to get it developed. I saw the negatives, and was beginning to sense something… something that said: ‘yea bitch! That’s more like it…’ So this morning, on my way to work, I dropped off the roll to the studio next to the bus stop. That female was sensing something too I felt… something that said: ‘ oh… here’s the bitch wanting some weird prints again… why can’t she shoot from a normal camera instead?’ She took the roll, and I told her I’ll collect the prints in the evening, and she said that I could get those in an hour, but I told her that I couldn’t because I would catch the bus to go to work now, so it was only possible for me to collect it in the evening, and as a reply, she just gave me a nod in the head which could be translated into something like ‘ok, silly…’ I couldn’t really stop thinking of the results, and the bus wouldn’t come… so 40 minutes of wait for my bus, and countless repeats of ‘sunset strip’ on my MP3 player later, I finally decided to swallow some pride and go back to the studio next to the bus stop. I went inside with a sheepish grin and asked if they were done printing, and that girl had a straight face when she told me that they managed only 11 prints out of that roll. I wasn’t expecting more than 12 anyway… so I asked her to show me those, and her face seemed to say ‘ wait bitch… what’s the hurry?’ So, I waited, while she billed me, and finally opened the envelope to see wonderful images right in front of me… super… I kept those in my bag, and walked out, caught my bus and went to office…
So… 2 colour and 2 black and white negatives, countless working hours and bouts of frustration later… I managed to click decent pictures from the Kodak brownie hawkeye box TLR… the original Point and shoot!
I’m feeling pretty happy now. Now to do something more with it…

16

2008-07-13T01:51:00.001+05:30

16
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

I don’t want clarity, I don’t want perfection
I don’t want thought behind each creation.

I don’t want every frame to be a work of art
Words replacing what pictures should do from the start.

I don’t want technique and skill
I don’t want to go for the kill

I don’t want colours so bright
I don’t want a chiaroscuric black and white

I don’t want happy, I don’t want snappy
I want my lenses to be crappy

I don’t want money neither fame,
I don’t want to be part of the ‘get better’ game

I don’t want to be a professional
I don’t want to be inspirational

But I want to be neither good nor bad,
I want to feel it all, go wild, be mad

You fly away my friend,
I’ll never get there and I’ll never comprehend
How you do it, because I can’t, but pretend…
These silly lines speak for the picture above… completely irrelevant…

I listen, but I don’t learn,
I try to go with the others, but I turn
I live, and hence I continue to burn…

I concede,
I finally accept defeat

and I'm at peace.

Kodak brownie hawkeye project

2008-07-03T21:16:00.000+05:30

got some prints today. That studio guy refused to print the whole length and sprockets for reasons best known to himself... I'll have my day some day!
Till then, I got some pics printed taken through the Brownie hawkeye!
SO... the camera works ... now i need to learn to use it better! So here I start my Kodak brownie Hawkeye project!

Monday morning blues: Tuesday edition

2008-06-29T00:01:00.001+05:30

Monday morning blues: Tuesday edition
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

"I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?" - Jean Kerr

well... yea right...

Brownie... the pencil sharpener?

2008-06-27T22:16:00.000+05:30

I had already clicked a photo of our office gang post lunch outside mainland China even before the security guard could stop me... That was through my brownie, so he may not have realised I was taking a picture... Devina said "tell him its a pencil sharpener instead, see how we fooled you"... well, that was the conclusion of a mad, but super and welcome lunch treat with the office gang! Just came at the right time.

I'm thankful for this day, and thankful to my boss for cheering us all up!

As for the brownie, I have now two black and whites and one colour negatives to be developed. I'm eagerly awaiting results.
and for once.... I'm not working over the weekend!
Wow!

27th June 2008

dark, portentous

2008-06-27T09:38:00.001+05:30

Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

that feeling creeps up again...

bad hair days

2008-06-25T23:34:00.000+05:30

list of pending things piling up, too much work, no time for anything else... missing the bus regularly, ignored by everyone, no ideas in my head, no time to spend with my best friend, getting drenched in the rain too often due to unforeseen circumstances, no more picture opportunities, weekends spent just finishing pending tasks, friends in auroville... where i should have been...

life could not be sadder ...

Damn... Too many bad hair days lately... what else can go wrong? its a case of 'Aa bail mujhe maar... '

February nostalgia in June

2008-06-18T21:35:00.001+05:30

It’s breezy again. Just like February, sans blue skies. The nostalgia returns. But it’s not a particular memory – a place, a person an event. It’s the days gone by. It’s all the people I know; I like and left behind over the years. Its all the places I visited, all the events that make me evolve constantly. All those little chattels of mine, the drawings and comics I made. Mindless hot afternoons spent playing outside till the sun went down. Sometimes fighting over insignificant matters, feeling left out by friends, having to prove being worthy of the group being a newcomer. And later, making someone else prove loyalty.

Leaving places, and secretly crying about it. Letting go best friends in anticipation of new ones, while they do too. Walking about in the mid summer afternoon looh towards cooler terrain, with marvellous clear blue skies and sparkling clouds. The little world that enclosed me there, the hills, the trees, the flowers, everything enticed me. The dark woods on slopes where newfound imaginary monsters and ghosts could reside. The little glass room to sleep in watching stars in summers. In the day time trying to converse through sign language from there to my neighbour in her glass room. Playing games with others in the evening. Autumn times with red chinar tree leaves all over. The nights turning cooler and the days shorter. Sometimes it rained, sometimes there were clouds. Me and my friends would walk back home from dinner at someone’s place. There was a qabaristaan on the way. We seemed to sense ghosts there. We found a garage rolling shutter open slowly before us, and we ran for our lives, the two of us, only to forget that incident once back home.

There I saw the snow fall for the first time! I woke up on a fine November morning to find my dad by my bed breaking the news… how I ran outside to see it! We made the conventional snowmen and the not so conventional snow-women. We broke ice frozen on the water puddles by the sometimes slushy rain. Warming near frozen feet by the bukhari looking at the black coal turn a fiery orange and ultimately, ash white. The snow would render the night with such a surreal luminosity, so subdued and cool, with the added effect of smoke arising out of every house disappearing somewhere in the sky. The times after snowfall were the coldest, when the breeze blew over snow, and even the most brilliant streak of sunlight couldn’t warm me. The snow glared at me instead, and made my eyes hurt. I would walk back from my friend’s house in the middle of a blizzard, making the 5 minute walk seem like eternity. I was alone on the streets, in that restrained evening light. The cold cutting in my eyes, pink chubby cheeks and my nose turned pale. I always wished for ice cream then… school was shut in winters, and studies were the last activity on my mind. I took the camera and my friends out and clicked their pictures sometimes. School started in February, and I was in never in any mood to study. Especially for exams. I never bothered much, though. By the end of term in March, winters receded and spring arrived, with an array of wild flowers that I could never forget. Pretty purple and red poppies, little yellow flowers of so many kinds, hues of orange, blue and pink sprinkled over pretty little meadows, on the roadside, and all along hills and rows of houses. I remember a particular trek up a little hill. I have never experienced such nirvana again. It was so pleasant. So colourful with blue skies, wildflowers, hues and shades of green and blues, and the clear morning air.

I remember mulberries and my trial at making a mulberry cake. It turned out a stunning grey, and tasted wonderful. We would go plucking cherries from a cherry tree, but had to walk uphill to the other colony for that. But we had to have the sweet-sour cherries…

Summers arrived with rain and storms. I can vividly remember a huge tree falling just a few feet away from where I was. I was riding my bicycle. I didn’t panic… I was just awed by the sight of the fallen tree, and my friend pulled me away from there, making me leave by dear bicycle there. We went to a nearby shopping complex, and waited for the storm to pass by in the courtyard. I retrieved my bicycle in a few minutes after the storm passed … or was it an eternity…? I can’t seem to remember. I told my mother in a matter of fact way about it, and she seemed to think I was far away from the tree. That was soon forgotten. I realise now, that things would have been very different had I not been so lucky that day.

Riding the cycle was a favourite pastime. On empty roads where no one would see me, I would stand on the pedals and leave my hand off the handle and just go… the slopes helped. I have had my share of accidents, but what’s life without them. I still have injury marks on me as a reminder of all the amusing things I’ve done. Two birthdays I celebrated there were the best. My birthday arrives during the summer vacations, so my friends were always missing. But here, summer vacations were 10 days in july. So all my friends were there for my birthday. It rained every time, and one being a leap year, it arrived on a Saturday both the times! I slipped in water playing kho kho at school on both occasions. I accompanied my dad for walks in the morning sometimes. He was so brisk that I had to run to catch up with him. Uphill!

By the end of that summer, I had started to paint watercolour landscapes. I still have one in my grandparents room. Framed and displayed proudly… That summer was really upbeat, but slow. It was a summer of contemplation, and a noticeable change in me. It was inevitable I think.

And then the next autumn, it was time for me to leave again. I set out to all the places I loved, and said goodbye. I was sure I wasn’t going to return for a few years. And now, its been 12 years since I left. That’s half my life… And I look back at all that. The places I loved, all those little chattels of mine, the paintings I made. Mindless lonely walks amidst blizzards, loving the surreal night light, snow... Sometimes fighting over insignificant matters, feeling left out by friends, having to prove being worthy of the group being a newcomer. And later, making someone else prove loyalty.

Leaving the places, and secretly crying about it. Letting go best friends in anticipation of new ones, while they do too. Walking about in the cool September air with blue skies, sparkling clouds and brilliant greens, towards an uncertainty beyond comprehension of my little mind. I wasn’t sure of what to expect from he new places. My world had just grown bigger, and these little things were too little.

And things were never the same again.

2008-06-03T10:25:00.000+05:30

This photo was taken by Laura ... I miss my auroville office gang so much!
clockwise from top right: Megha, Udaya, Philipp, Mary, Navisa, Dhilshath, Laura, and yours truly!