red!

Pictures like these, taken early this morning, make me believe that despite everything, some things are still right with the world.

For K.

credit:
lyricist/ singer: Swanand Kirkire
music: Shantanu Moitra.
Film: Hazaron Khawishein Aisi
Dir: Sudhir Mishra

photo: mine of course

 

Shadow Shot Sunday #26 (81)

Hope you all have a hearty Sunday

For more interesting shadow shots from around the world hop on to Harriet’s Blog!

Shadow Shot Sunday #25 (78)

Some shadows, some light.

For more interesting shadows, check out Harriet’s Blog.

PS. I’ve been uploading very low res photos, which looks fine on the web, but is actually unprintable. Just heard that despite the “no stealing” statement, someone was using these photos as their google talk images without permission. Hence the obvious watermark. I’m very sorry to have to put it, but…

Thulavarsham…

…or November Rain.

Rain clouds sweep in from the North West, and soak Kerala once again in this month after the monsoons. Mornings seem bright and sunny, and then slowly the thunder rolls in, the wind picks up, and sun goes hiding.

What was once this…

Goes on to become this… a dark air dripping with jewels

The next morning, you walk on amma’s rain soaked garden…

And unearth a few of them on leaves…

or stuck between cracks of a banana plantain…

Or spread all over it…

Ok, I’m glad I’m still hanging around in Kerala. Bombay, i hear is baking. How cozy it is here, right now

Shadow Shot Sunday #24 (77)

I’m having a ghastly Andy Warhol moment today.

For those who prefer an original…
gnarled shadows on the wall.

For more interesting shadow shots from around the world, check out Harriet’s Blog

Journeys into a maternal world

It’s true that I am under travel restrictions, yet I do make occasional forays into the clinics of radiologists, gynecologists, and their ilk. And by god, there are still some sights to be seen in this world!

This passage in the hospital houses both the gynaecology and paediatrics department. Waiting for the doctor in here is like spending time in a fertility forest. Unborn ones, newborn ones, young ones, old ones, wrapped-in-pink-blanket-ones…they are everywhere. And the cacophony! Yelling, blabbering, laughing, squeaking, crying, fidgeting….phew! Its a conspiracy-laden introductory class to child rearing, i tell you.

As for the adults, they are an entirely different matter. Stomachs of all shapes and sizes bulge out from under silk saris, satin burqas, or lace dupattas. As if a growing belly and breasts ain’t heavy enough already. And what’s with the elephant-chain mangalsutras, the half-kg pendant, sweating red forehead or gloves and socks with the burqa? What is this undying urge to flaunt matrimony or religion on every inch of your body? Get a grip, women!

And then there are the accompaniments. A visit to the gynaec is like a family outing here. The mother-in-law, three sisters, 4 kids, a husband and six bags of i-don’t-know-what come trooping in. All seats get filled, and the oxygen in the air just gets sucked up. Of course some people have to break a casket of perfume over their heads before they set out anywhere. Lady Macbeth, I think you were a bit off the mark about the perfumes of Arabia. It may not have been enough for your little hand, but in a Malabar hospital, Gulf Perfume is a bloody fumigator.

The worst of the lot in this jungle is the Protective Husband. What a species! The wife goes in for a check-up, and he hovers around the door like a bee, stinging any other woman and her bump that needs to go in next. A few minutes later, the doc’s door suddenly opens, and a hand pops out. The Protective Husband puts in a few notes, and the hand disappears. Heelloo! Nobody’s going to gulp in your wife in there. So MOVE from that door. And if your wife is capable of carrying your child for nine months, the least you can do is to trust her with 50 rs before she enters the doctors’ cabin.

As it turns out, I am an exhibit in this maternal zoo myself. With my close cropped hair, a forehead shorn of sindoor or bindi’s , a dupatta-less kurta, I am looked upon as a oddity. From the radiologist to the nurses, each of them has probed me not for fetal growth but for details about my married life, mine and K’s careers, my relations with my mother-in-law, and my father’s job. Surprisingly they often carry on the conversation from where they left off, at our next meeting, almost a month later. This in a hospital where they see at least 200 patients a day! Wow, I simply love my gilded cage existence.

Yeah, bulging belly, bursting bladder, suffocating hospital, three hours to kill before the doctor resumes her consultation after a Cesarean surgery…life’s so full of #%$^%^#@ fun.

Shadow Shot Sunday # 23 (76)

A sepia shadow for this week

For more interesting shadows from around the world, check out Harriet’s Blog.

Sepia or Green?

Choose your pick

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This post is dedicated to Harriet.

On any other occasion, i would have looked at shadows, murmured, ‘nice’, and left it at that. This week, i was genuinely happy to pick up the camera, shoot these photos and share them here. For opening my eyes to beautiful shadows and bringing me (and so many shadow shooters around the world) immense joy, this series of shadows is for Harriet. Thank you so much!

Coconut palm shadows on plantain leaves. As usual, all photos from my amma’s garden.

For more fantastic shadows from around the world, hop on to Harriet’s blog.

To stirrings of new life….

…both in and around me

All pictures, fresh off from Amma’s garden, taken this morning.

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SSS time again…after a really long while. Missed seeing a lot of good shadow shots for so many weeks.

Anyways, here i am still in kerala. travel’s completely restricted, and commuting non-existent. I have some nice green views from the window though…

Its been a while since in picked up the camera, but SSS is always is a fun reason to start doing so. Some pictures from my amma’s garden. (i have a feeling that most of my subsequent photos will be coming from the same yard )

a little wriggly made its way into the sun when i was shooting the above pic.

Have a fun week everyone. For some wonderful shadow shots from around the world, hop on to Harriet’s blog.

ps. its great to be back

A Barbaric Yawp!*

*with all due credit to Walt Whitman.

So I’ve got a few things to say.

1. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Whoa! that feels good.

2. To all my friends who have generously given me space in these irritating times, a zillion thanks. thanks for not pelting me with unsolicited advice. thanks for responding only when i asked for it. and thank you for ever for lending a sympathetic ear to my frequent cribbing. you don’t know how much i appreciate this!

3. to all those pregnancy nazi’s hounding me with phone calls, i have this to say: stop your nonsensical stories. all i want is some peace and quiet. i don’t want to spend nights brooding about death-defying labour room antics. spare me the details. IF i need advice, i’ll ask for it. until then, rude as it may sound, i’ll repeat what i once wrote on my hostel room wall: Interference is Unacceptable. so please sod off.

4. under circumstances, i am really well. my laptop’s come alive, the internet is connected (thanks for the prodding, J) and there are still some unread books in the world.

5. i’ve not picked up my camera in over a month. ok, i’m not really that well.

6. its good to be back. hope you all are doing great.

Gaah.

i’m
neither happy nor sad.
neither in nor out.
neither well nor unwell

sometimes i feast,
sometimes i fast
sometimes i puke.

sick?
ill?
natural symptoms?
bullshit.

This could be a good long break.
and right now,
i need a good cuddle, and
a nice long undisturbed sleep.

until then, i’ll see you when i see you.

Shadow Shot Sunday # 20 (66)

Sunday again!

A shadow streak tried reaching out to earthen pot this morning. Chillies are growing in it, btw.

Am off to Kerala tomorrow morning. Just wanted to post this before i get packing. I’ll try and catch all your shadow shots sometime this week.
Till then, hop on to Harriet’s blog to see some fantastic shadows from around the world.

Happy Sunday!

My Ode…

…to Photography (and all my cameras and lenses)  on World Photography Day, Aug 19th

Who else can i evoke for love but Amir Khusro

Apni si rang deenhi re mohse naina milaike…

so K, a D700 then?

Shadow Shot Sunday 19 (65)

Sunday! and shadows

This photo is part of Shadow Sunday Shot, a weekly meme hosted by Hey Harriet. Hop on to her blog for some wonderful shadow shots from around the world. Happy Sunday!

Shadow Shot Sunday #18 (64)

There has been no rain here in Bombay, for the past few days. No sun either. So its back to indoor shadows

Presenting a rolled-up table mat!

These photos are part of Shadow Sunday Shot, a weekly meme hosted by Hey Harriet. Hop on to her blog for some wonderful shadow shots from around the world. Happy Sunday!

Pune = Friends :)

I met a friend in Pune this time, after almost 8 years. Memories of L-5/8 (my hostel room), 300 rs, and coffee. She also gave me this

And this is for J, for loads of memories from Pune

Thote, yumm yumm

Shadow Shot Sunday # 17 (63)

Some shadows from our leisurely walk through Pune University yesterday. The University grounds used to be the residence of the Governor of Bombay, during British times. These pictures are taken from Alice Park, inside the univ grounds. A thickly wooded, lush green space with a cement pond, and Alice’s tomb.

I have no idea who Alice is. Different stories do the rounds every year. Some call her the erstwhile Governor’s mistress, or girlfriend, or mother, daughter, aunt….you get the drift. Ms Alice is also supposed to have died from anything from a heartbreak to tuberculosis.

Let me add that this information is completely unauthenticated. They are simply part of every student’s collective imagination. I couldn’t take a picture of the tomb tho’. Too many couples around…;)

Alice Park

The basket in the foreground in the above picture, is the gardeners’ basket for collecting dead leaves.

And it was weaving a shadow by itself

These photos are part of Shadow Sunday Shot, a weekly meme hosted by Hey Harriet. Hop on to her blog for some wonderful shadow shots from around the world. Happy Sunday!