each one has a different way of looking at things.

each one has a different way of looking at things.
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

I saw it, and thought... something. Just a few random thoughts. But profound, now that I think back. certain interpretations are unavoidable, but I like looking at somethings that let me imagine what I want. I don't want to be told anything, I want to interpret according to me. according my constant ramblings. Not empty but filled with nonsense that will let me join the dots without any numbers.
A straight thought does not amount to much. It typecasts me.
A skew dismantling my mind into millions of pieces and putting it all together in drastically varying patterns comforts me.

I dream in Technicolour

I dream in Technicolour
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

The interpretation of my Technicolour dreams

I never dreamt in such profundity as I have started to dream. I don’t dream when I sleep, but I dream, wide awake, fully conscious of my surroundings, just one thought, one feeling, one dream.

I feel tranquil, peaceful and content. I feel a sense of harmony. I dream blue.
I dream of moments… so close to coming true, a touch, almost real. A feeling, almost true. I dream blue.

I dream of those times we should have,
I dream of all conversations that never happen, I dream of the love, we never shared.
I dream for a feel, of your soul, for you baritone falling especially for me,
I dream of you.

IT never happened before, and never, with such vigour. Erstwhile, your absence made me overlook your presence in my life. But now, your absence triggers off a superfluous charging of brain cells, beyond my control. You will never say what’s in your mind, and never will I, and we will converse and stop, where my dreams will take over, and hopefully yours too…

I dream blue…

Macro lens attachment procedure.

Lack of funds and half a brain forced me to make my own macro attachment instead of buying one.
Here's what you need:

1. Magnifying lenses : 2. nos. 50mm dia and 1 no. 60mm dia. (preferably with metallic rims)
2. Electrical/cloth tape. I uses cloth tape
3. A UV filter (according to your lens dia)
3. A cutter
4. Some thermocol pieces
5. Feviquick or some permanent adhesive.
6. Music (very crucial), Snacks (equally important), and some patience.

Procedure:

I bought the concerned magnifying glasses, took of their plastic holds, and taped the smaller ones together to form a cylinder
Then, put it on the large lens, and packed the gap with thermocol.make sure no dust goes in-between the lenses.
pack off the entire thing with tape. Sealed!

turn the lens the other way, and the part where u see the thermocol, you can cover that part with black paper. The reason follows later.
I cut a black paper ring of that diameter and pasted it to the white part of the lens seen.

The next thing is to tape up the entire contraption on the exposed rim of the bigger lens. This is so that the whole thing can snugly fit the filter. it should look neat!
Once that is done, try just fixing this to the filter plainly.



Imp note: I used a 60mm lens, due to the fact that my 18-55 is 58mm dia. Hence... u need to choose a different lens according to your camera lens dia.





So, Once it fits perfectly, just glue and tape that to the filter permanently and make it homogeneous. Viola! u have a macro attachment!














Some results:
If u don't zoom in completely:

You will see the vignetting.
Hence the black paper... not that it might matter much.












Zoomed in completely:









I used this combination of lenses after a lot of trial and error, and found this to be the best. I can go very close to the object and still focus. The DoF is awesome and shallow! And it cost me about Rs. 500 (including food, transport etc)

If any suggestions or improvements, please feel free to contact me at:
Draconianrain@gmail.com

And after all these efforts, I got to know that the Macro kit is dirt cheap... just a little more than what it cost me to make this...
This is bulky and ugly... so don't use this... get your own Macro kits, everyone!

Sharpening needed...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Politics
Overpopulation
Hypocrisy
Corruption
Communal-ism
Quotas
Pollution
Underworld
Crimes
Rapes
Exploitation
Poverty
HIV
Extremism
Riots
Taxes
Terrorism
Individualism
Bollywood
Commercialization
Globalisation
Stock market
Dowry
Female Foeticide
Light skin syndrome
MTV
Cricket
Flyovers
Casts
Punjabi Kitsch
Ekta Kapoor
Miss world(s)
Cola
Remakes
God-men
God-women
Blind faith
Ignorance
Malls and Multiplexes
Small cars
Eve teasing
Curbed sex education
Drugs
MNCs
Remixes
Booze
Indian Idol
----------------------We've come a long way...
I could never be more depressed...
But why do I think of all these things? Like most of the country, I can be happy too, and rejoice today.
After all... Ignorance is bliss... And we are blissfully Ignorant.

I finally got it!! A brand new Canon 400D! Yay!
It was my mom's graduation gift for me!!!
This will go down in history as the day I finally owned a Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera!!!

INCOMPLETE... Dead or alive

INCOMPLETE...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

How does one cope with the passing away of a loved one? This question has been hounding me for a long time. Why do we sometimes revel in the ache? Almost as we enjoy it. We want it. It’s because pain is good. We pity on our own self, and take vulgar pleasure from it. The twinge that I fell so deep within me, is so necessary now, that I will not be able to live if devoid of it. Why are we never satisfied? Why do we keep wanting more. Loss is inevitable, then why do we hope against hope?
Anguish is something very individual. My way of expressing it differs from others, but does that make me less compassionate? I lost many people I loved so intensely, one still exists, but distanced. I feel extremely sad about the one who exists. I fondly remember ones who don’t. The have moved on, leaving us behind, and so must I.
To someone who didn’t exist for me a while back, why do I feel such pain? Why do I feel so incomplete? He is there, behind a glass wall, I can see him, talk to him, I feel an extreme affection for him, but I am refrained from expressing it. Such is my dilemma. The dead have gone and left me with good memories, and the living are distancing themselves, causing an excruciating agony, that is growing, and not healing with time.
I am incomplete, and will remain so, till I convene with those who have left me for good. But then I will still remain incomplete since the living will keep haunting me, when I am dead.

RETRO LAMBRETTA!

RETRO LAMBRETTA!
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

One look at my grandfather’s old lambretta and you would know why he doesn’t believe in locking it… at our stilt parking, or on any roadside parking, etc… He is confident no one would dare to touch it… many a times; he has left (not intentionally) a few important documents and things in the storage compartment of his scooter, unlocked… and till date, nothing has disappeared from there.
The scrap merchants have their eye on such things… but the thing that works to my grandfather’s advantage is that it’s much too heavy. The money for the scrap from this scooter is not worth all the effort to haul it all the way to the scrap yard.
Well, one fine summer afternoon, my grandfather unknowingly parked in a no parking zone, and had his lambretta lifted by the police. Now, the police have guts… Can’t really blame them… they have the manpower, and they need money. So, since he did not bother too much about the safety of his lambretta, being in the very capable hands of the police, he went to rescue his scooter, not the same day but the next day…
The police were relieved to see the owner of the old lambretta claiming it as his own and taking it away after paying the requisite fine… The reason: The last time they whisked away two such old lambrettas from no parking zones, the owners of the relevant scooters never came to claim up and collect the bikes, let alone pay fine… and those two scooters still remain where they are… with the police… not worth the effort to sell off to scrap, and not worth using…

I HAVE STAR TRAILS!

I HAVE STAR TRAILS!
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

It was due for a long time... finally i did it!

The first Star trail shot I tried!
75 mins exposure on 26th May 0200Hrs!
AWESOME for a first timer like me...
Thanks Shutterbug Pooja for letting me experiment with her Nikon FM2! You are the best!
This going to get better for sure... !
MEGHANA'S RECIPE FOR STAR TRAIL SUCCESS AS FOLLOWS:

Ingredients:
1 Manual Film SLR
1 ISO 100 film
1 Tripod (don't worry if you don't have one. Like me, you can improvise)
1 MP3 player
1 Alarm clock ( a mobile will do)

Prepration:
Load and set up the camera on the tripod, (lens facing skywards, and a few hours after moonset or before moonrise is good!)
f /11 Exposure time: anywhere between 5 minutes to 5 hours. (If 5 hours, then you need to be really away from civilization...)
Set up your alarm, put on your headphones and ENJOY!

NOTE: No matter how well you plan, how well you set up your camera, LUCK is something beyond our control! (an airplane crossed sometime during exposure in this shot... )

Sounds of India!

Venue: ILC hall, Verite, Auroville.
Date: 6th Sept 2006
Time: 5.30 PM. Broadcast on Auroville Radio.
The first performance I gave in Auroville.

Harshad: Keyboard
Abhi: tabla
Meghana: Guitar

https://soundcloud.com/anahgem/sounds-of-india-part-2

my GUITAR speaks to ME

my GUITAR speaks to ME
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

My guitar talks to me,
My friend, he says,
I will desert you never.
Be with you forever,
Honestly…

My guitar sings to me,
Of a blissful subsist, so sweet,
The reverberation lingers,
On the tips of my fingers,
And so, I feel utterly free…

My guitar gives to me,
A subdue but expressive resonance,
A profound and soulful pulsation,
A near surreal sensation,
And a welcome diversion from reality.

My guitar travels with me,
He doesn’t grieve,
Doesn’t mope doesn’t cry,
Loves me so to move by,
And my grief is just a distant memory.

Such is he, the love of my life,
The music he makes, the passion in which I lie
The divine slender strings, The luxurious form,
The touch, so delicate, so mellow and warm.
Such is my love… And he speaks to me…
-----------------------------------------------DR (05/06/07)

COME... lets GO...

COME... lets GO...
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

A sudden though left me wondering, and I penned down a few words...

COME ... lets GO...
Lets go to a place where we can be,
As lucid as water, as vivid as sun,
As soaring as the trees, and equally free…

Lets go to a place where we can hear,
The bird natter, the sea-waves chatter,
The zephyr in my ear, so very clear…!

Lets go to a place where we can see,
The sun ascend, the moon glimmer
The stars so zealous, all for me…

Lets go to a place where we can sense,
The sunlight so tepid, the rain drop so chaste,
Sheer bliss and a love so intense…

Lets go to a place where we can speak,
About each other, the humanity,
To make our vista brilliant, not bleak…
--------------------------------------------DR(29.5.07)

I went to the Moon one day...

Lunar Dreams 02.05.07 8 PM
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain.

I wrote this 5-6 yrs back. I had nothing better to do and since I dreamed of the moon everyday, I wrote a poem about why I should come back to Good 'ol earth!!

I went to the moon one day,
And I saw a little Alien trying to scare me away.

I went near it to talk,
But I seemed to give it a big shock.

The alien took out its Pogo stick,
And went away without any hick…


So, I went hopping mad to mars,
Where I saw a busy street with lots of cars.

All filled up with little Martians,
Dressed up in clothes of the latest fashions.

But without any designer tags,
They all looked like old, work out rags…


That drove me crazy to Saturn!
I was impressed with its lunar patterns.

But it made my head go round and round and round,
Until I fell on to the ground.

I sat up and looked up at the sky…
Oh! Why did it seem so blank and dry?


I was swept off my feet to Earth,
It is after all the place of my birth.

I left it in search of Humanity,
Love and honesty.

People came up to me to speak,
And for my advice to seek.

They welcomed me with open arms,
And protected me from all harms.

I am sorry I left this green planet,
I shouldn’t have been caught in this vicious net.

‘Cause I have just discovered,
There is so much love and humanity here ...still uncovered

------------------------------------------------------------------Meghana Kulkarni

I wrote this one for Harshad while we were in Auroville:

For Harshad (Haytad!!)

The games we play and the games you let me play,

Are at times irksome to you,

But exhilarating and playful to me,

I am a simple, naïve and hollow being,

And the kindly, but astute soul, are thee.

You know, but pretend ignorant,

Letting me feel vanity for the moment,

Even now you know,

But since so kind you are,

Quietly for the good, you let it go.

I am harmless, you think,

A cat without claws, how right you are,

But never show what’s in your mind,

You let my juvenile achievements pass,

That’s how you are, compassionate and kind.

I trouble you with my childlike mediocrities,

And feel superior,

To you, in some ways,

But you let me be stupid and happy,

Living blissfully, in a hazy daze...

It’s a lost cause to admit that I lose,

To you, a superior life than me,

You know that, but cannot comprehend,

How you abide my ways,

And live with all sanity I lost, but still defend.

This is another amateur prank,

I hope you will forget it,

And remember me as funny and poor,

Stupid and naive, but someone who wanted to learn from you,

And to be wise and sound and sure.

Keep forgiving me for being what I am,

The games I play and all that you do not like,

For everything I said that did injure,

Today, I have the strength and the courage to regret,

And to say this, all my lost courage I conjure…