Thoughts and Memories

Life takes you places that you could not have imagined. Life makes you experience moments that you will cherish for the rest of your life...
As I sit in front of my laptop, writing this blog, I am filled with a few thoughts about how my life has taken a turn and have got a few memories to cherish on this momentous day...
I was a carefree guy, little did I expect that a guy who had a past in studies as I did, would one day think of travelling to the US. On Dec 6th 2008 , I was sort of lost in the Cincinnati airport, hoping someone would assist me to get around the airport and to my destination which was my hotel. It was a great feeling and a moment I will cherish where I first experienced all that a foreign land had to offer - cold, amazing infrastructure and of-course my first foot into the US of A. I had all the fun that a bachelor has to have... photography, car driving, snow, visit to New Jersey and a Glimpse of the NY skyline and Statue of Liberty, etc...
The year 2009 had a lot of Mixed memories, Had fun in US for a few months, had a depressed feeling in the middle of the year at work where I put on lot of weight. Then had an amazing later half of the year, where I started playing sport again ( to reduce my weight was the inspiration), had an even amazing time with my photography, had got opportunity to do some amazing work as well....I should be happy of-course of the year gone by... Dec 6th 2009 was a day which I will never forget in my life... My parents had started the tough job of finding my soon to be wife and Dec 6th 2009 was the day I was heading to see the first girl. I had strange feeling then on this whole process... Little did I know on that day, that the first girl I met would be my wife today...Well it all happened too soon after that... I am married now... and am writing a blog on the same day Dec 6th 2010...
Today Dec 6th 2010, I am married to the girl I saw on Dec 6th 2009 and am back in the US, visiting and exploring places in the US along with my wife... Have got some amazing moments to cherish along with her in my life now. There is no more of that carefree bachelor life that I had then...
The responsibilities have increased, the roles have increased... A lot has changed...
I am now a husband to my wife, a son in law, I am also being called jiju, wow, never thought of that...
It is an odd feeling sometimes to be called jiju...
I have also for the second time post my engineering life have I done something mechanical... I am fixing furniture at home... doing research about car engines and oil...
With all this happening around, my zest for life has only increased... I have upgraded my camera, my photography has not stopped, I've become of an adventure and travel person. Now that I have company... Seeing new places... not anymore lost in a new place...
As for looks are concerned, From a boyish look to a more mature look has taken after all only 2 years...

Life is taking exiting turns

I think after a brief stay of 3 months in the US, I am already feeling home sick.
I am missing my home and my parents, my brother and my city a lot. With very less population and crowd around here in the US, the activity around is missing.
The work is getting monotonous and boring, but the good news is that me and my wife are seeing a lot of new places and photography I tell you has its way of changing the mood of a person...
I had till now done very less photography in the US apart from the regular record shots of places being visited, but the recent visits to places have given me the interest and excitement to get back and keep clicking...
Here is one of my shots of a person so involved and excited at being at the Taj Mahal, Agra and was clicking a shot.
Below is the snap of the excitement in the person's face at being clicked with the Taj Mahal in the background.
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Excited and involved in photography. 

The excited lady being clicked by the above photographer.

Back on the scene

Hi it has been a very long time since I have blogged.
Life has changed a lot since I last blogged. Lots of changes in my life and hence the delay.
My blog was very angry that I could not devote more time to it, but what to do there were a few more important things to take care...
I was able to see some amazing new places in the last few months, some breath taking scenes in one of the most astonishing of places in India. Got some amazing snaps.
Could not believe my eyes when I saw those snaps and told to myself if I could really click such snaps or is it just the place. Well I realized that it is just the place and not much has changed in my photography.
Travelled to a new country and to a new city. Met an old friend and settled in a new life far away from home.
Exploring new places, now with my wife always there for company...
Now I am sure to blog more often and also keep sharing things in my mind...

In the midst of a desert...

Paradise in Kashmir - 1

I had been to Kashmir in early March for a short holiday and was really mesmerised by the beauty of Kashmir. It is truly Paradise on Earth...
There is hell lot of things to share here about Kashmir, but would try to make more room for my snaps and less for writing...
Kashmir as you all know is known at the moment for:
1. Lots and Lots of security forces.
2. Terrorism.
3. Snow capped Hills.
4. Dal Lake.
Well there was heavy secirity cover all over the place and the snow capped hills were amazing, but the thing that surprised me the most is the Dal Lake, the people and the amazingly vast human resources that is available in this state...
Me and my family had been to Srinagar, GulMarg and Pahelgaon. 3 places all different in thier own way.
Srinagar is the capital of Kashmir and is best known for Dal Lake. Wow!! what an amzing lake it is...
25 Kms in circumference and believe me it is huge...
The thing about Dal Lake are the House boats, the romantic setting and the flashback of some old film songs shot here...

The snow capped hills

In view here are some snaps that represent The Dal Lake. We have the Snow capped hills, a boat (Shikara) ride with amazing view in front, Some brid life at the Lake, Mobile department store, boatman and a few from the market place in the Dal Lake. Transport to the market place from one shop to another is by the Boat...

The stay at the House boats was truly amazing. Speactacular view right in front, luxury within and a very relazxing setting...

This is the different views in front of the our House boat...
The Dal Lake is truly an amazing place... it is soooo huge and yet the administration over there has let out only a small place for the house boats whereas the rest of the lake is protected and maintained very very clean...
It is truly a shame that people down here in Bangalore struggle to maintain one small lake (Ulsoor lake) clean for a long period of time and keep giving excuses. They should for once visit Kashmir and learn a few things...
We had been to many other places withing the Sninagar city and one place is the temple on top of the Hill overlooking the Dal lake. This is a Shiva temple and there is a huge Linga in there. The very first rays of the Sun falls on this Linga and then lights the rest of the city of Srinagar...

The view from up there is such that on one side you can see the old part of the city with the River Jhelum on that side and the Dal lake and the newer part of the city on the other side. This is the best place to have a look at the vastness of the city of Srinagar...
Of the other places in Srinagar, we had been to the place known famously for its terrorist attack a few years back namely the Lal Chowk. This place is bustling with energy and has too many secirity people, which makes the peopel feel really secure...



Truly the visit to Srinagar was amazing... I will write a bit more about that trip in the next blog... which is a trip to Gulmarg and Pahelgaon...

When the taps went dry...

This last couple of days for us and probably last 4 days for the people in bangalore has been very tough.
No water for the whole city, when did we hear that last time??? Well that is what the situation was in Bangalore the last couple of days. The taps and the tanks went dry and absolutely no water in the whole city.
There was heavy rainfall for a couple of days and it broke open some thing which was affecting the water supply, hence they(Govt department) had to shut down water supply to whole of bangalore till the breach was repaired. It got repaired by late friday evening, but per the govt statement it takes 12 hours to reach the tanks in Bangalore... Well the wait is still on.
The water has not yet returned and we are still waiting for it...
In our case, living in an area which never had any water issues for the past 25 years of staying in this locality, had to for the first time wait the whole day for the tanker to get water to our building... also had to fill up as much water as was possible as the news was that we would not have water for another day...
Even worse for us was there is a pre-marriage puja and function at our place and lots of guests are invited. But I am sure we will cope with this and remember such occasions till our memory lasts...

This time around the water supply to one whole city was cut off due to some repair work, the next time it may be due to no water available for us to use... That day may not be too far...
Ive learnt the value of water the hard way, I hope our future generations do not face it as a reality...
Save water.... it is precious as gold....

Very Proud of myself

I am a very proud individual today... Proud of myself...
I being a citizen of this wonderful country, the largest democracy in the world, exercised my right to vote for the first time in my life.
It had long evaded and escaped from me as I was either not there in bangalore to vote or the last time around these EC people had removed the names of our whole family from the voters list...
I was so excited the last time to vote...
This long 9 year wait to exercise my right and be a part of selecting the people who run the administration is a satisfying moment...
This time around the excitement was so much that I took my bike and rushed to the polling booth with running fever and not having enough strength to walk for long, but Yes I could finally cast my first vote...
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Here is the very proud moment captured.

I took this snap with the camera held in one hand and some how getting the right auto focus to get the mark on the right index nail coming in focus...Wow!!!!!!!!!!!. Also on view is my STUD ring and a portion of my wonderful maroon lappy.
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I have started this wonderful journey of being part of the worlds largest democracy in the true sence...
Have you guys cast your votes when the Opportunity has come???
Do it and you will feel very proud and happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sachin makes India Happy

Sachin scored an amazing first double century in ODI cricket. What a remarkable innings.
No one has achieved this and I think it was an apt moment for Sachin, who has probably all the records in ODI cricket to score a double for the first time and set a target for others to follow.
After Sayed Anwar's amazing feat 13 years ago, not many would have thought that it could be a 200 some day and it would not have been expected from Sachin. But here he is, immortal as they say, standing at the very top of everything in cricket.
If anyone thought that one person can make people of this country happy, it has to be Sachin...
If anyone thought any one person can get people to celebrate together in this vast and diverse country, it has to be Sachin.
Even the Railway budget by Mamata Banarjee had to take a back seat as all the papers had only Sachin on the headlines...
Wow... Still have to see the innings, but the thought of him having scored the double century has got me so so excited that am waiting for the highlights shows...

Jewellery shopping is tough

I found this out recently while shopping for a simple thing as a gold ring...
But with great company, you can have great fun tooo...

Thoughts on Wildlife conservation

It is that time of the year again when there is a lot of talk on tiger numbers as the yearly census has just started...There has been a lot of campaigns by film stars and famous personalities asking us to think and do our bit to save our tigers...
But the big question is it really working??? We might again see that the tiger numbers have gone down from the 1411 figure that was estimated last year and there will be a lot of news channels making news and also making profits out of their special shows,etc..., but clearly after having such shows and campaigns every year, there is nothing happening to indicate that the tiger numbers are improving, is it???
Clearly there is something wrong... We need reforms in this country, reforms in the Wildlife prtection laws and reforms that will punish the people who commit wildlife crime severly and fast...
I think it is only when these reforms are in place and the action against criminals is taken at a very fast pace, will we one day save the tiger and every other wild animal in our country...
It is a real shame that the leaders of this country can debate hard and fight over all the unnecessary topics but ignore the basic stuff about nature and wildlife...
I mean really, for the people at the helm making decesions need to understand the importance of nature and wildlife conservation they need to go back in time and recollect a bit of lessons on history and a bit on how important a role the tiger which is at the top of the food chain is to the survival and balance of the other animals and wildlife. I am sure all the educated people and politicians would have learnt this at school, then how can you forget that lesson... History or even if they recollect thier childhood times, they would realize the difference when we used to talk of 40000-60000 tigers in the wild around the 1940s to 1411 tigers last year.
The difference in numbers in huge for even a kid to understand that we are not taking action and there needs to be something done fast.
I think all the campaigns and the famous personalities campaigning for saving the tiger are doing some amazing work to show the grave situation we are in right now. I only hope that some of the people leading this country are also watching a bit of TV and they have a look at these campaigns being done and more important is for them to have a look at that '1411' number that is being shown in huge font.
If that number does not awaken them into action, I feel sad, that my kids will not see any Tiger in the wild and will keep cursing us for not doing anything in our time...

Important Days

As all people will have very important days in life, i too am adding a few days to that list of important days in my life...
Amongst the regular bdays of all the important people in my life, there are a few days that I have added to the list.
1. Dec 6th.
2. Dec 31st.
3. Jan 27th.
Now one very important day and date that I need to add to the growing list of important days is the 16th of May 2010.
Yes the date of my marriage is set and fixed. 16th May 2010 is the day me and Prathibha will remember and cherish for the rest of our lives... It is going to be a very important date and happy moment for both our families as well...
There would be another date added soon to that list and that is for my engagement, but that is not yet fixed...
Also with so many dates to remember and me running short of memory, I wonder if I will be able to remember all the important dates....cos if I forget the 16th of May, I might be put through a lot of bombardment...
If I forget it, I will be the target of all kinds of ammunition, the source being Prathibha of course...
But the best part of this date is I can always say 'and vice versa'....
Njoy...

The 4 Digit Shocker

It has been almost a month since starting to speak to Prathibha and just a few days back I got my first telephone bill post starting to speak to her.
Well it was my first 4 digit bill in my life... Though I might not credit that whole thing to just speaking to Prathibha cos Ive been making a lot of STD calls as well....
This bill is a shocker in more ways than one...
Shocking cos I dont sound to be a talkitive kinda person, so it surprises me even more that we have been able to speak so much and know much about each other.
Secondly, thinking about all the kinda topics we speak and all the time pass that is happening, I wonder did we actually speak all that... and my mom keeps laughing at me and asking if there is so much to talk...
Should I be feeling sad looking at the bill, should I be feeling happy at the bill???
Well Im not feeling sad looking at bill for sure. But at this moment Im smiling at myself and thinking if I really can speak much and have a great conversation...
As I smile and laugh at myself, I am only hoping that all the taking and all the profit that Vodafone is going to make is just going to be better for our relationship...

The year that was - 2009

The last one year has gone by so fast and already we are 9 days into the new year and I am wishing you all now???
Wishing you all a very happy new year.
I had a bit of busy new year so had to come up with something interesting and thought of dwelling into the last year and refresshing into all the moments that were part of my life... It has taken some time for me to come up with it...
It was a great year indeeed. Lots of fun, lots of learning.
Below is a summary of the year that has been for me...

Note: Music by Rahul Sharma
Youtube link for better clarity in the video

Check out the youtube video for sure, it is of much better quality.
The video shows the time only till Oct, but then Nov and Dec has been even more exciting...

Work wise I have been doing some amazing stuff... After the initial phase of a couple of months, the work has been very enjoyable and challenging...

On a personal front, I have been able to start playing sport again and have been able to shed all the weight that I gained in the US and yes, I have taken a decision to get married.

Being the person who enjoys taking photographs, the big problem is to have a decent enough photograph of yourself in your collection. Well that has been a big problem for me. I had a tough time searching for a decent enough photograph to put up in the matrimony site when it was required and the only snap that I could find is what is put up in the video...

Luckily I dint have to go to a studio to get a photograph clicked for putting it up in the matrimony site....

So with a wonderful year behind me and an amzing year to look forward to, I am full of excitement and energy... Hope everyone is feeling the same...

Njoy.....

Errors in the videos: The write up on Ashy Prinia is 'Workshop' not 'Workshot'.

The world's largest Piano must be actually the World's largest keyboard...

Njoy....