Category Archives: Photography

Go but never leave…

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I needed a break, had been working for a while…Got up

and tried to open the door… but it took me some effort before the door opened…

on my way back.. the door opened relatively much easier!

I thought why, and realised something…

  • The flames are more stable near the wick…

  • The flags flutter least near the rope…

  • The door opens with the most effort if pushed from near the hinges…


Strange thought but I need to write it here…

Stability is more when you are closer to your roots… when you are closer to your base…

The farther you wander away the more unstable you get…

Now another point of view can be about the reach when you move away… Remember that geometry problem from school?
What is the area in which the Cow can eat grass when she is tied to a pole with a rope which is 10 metres long?

Increase the rope length and the cow has more to eat, more space to explore… but when it comes to taking a rest, the cow (At least that is something that I have seen in my village) would always come back near her pole and sit… and if they are out in the open, they will come back home in the evening… That’s where the word Godhuli comes from too.

The essence of this post (and this is a note to myself) is to be aware of your roots, and stay connected while you explore the rest of the world… because your roots are where you get the most stability and the most peace !

Taking a step back !

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I had mentioned it a few weeks back that I was seriously thinking of getting a film camera and after a few initial thoughts, I finally got myself a Canon AE1 Program along with a Canon f1.4 FD Lens…


No longer in production ( for obvious reasons) the Canon AE1-Program was introduced in 1981 and has been one of the more successful cameras Canon has in its kitty !


I have bought it to click some B/W film and do more street photography… Call me strange or crazy or whatever, I am pretty happy that I got it !

Weekend in Pictures !!!

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So like I said in my previous post, here are some more pictures from this weekend !!! Enjoy 🙂

I knew I was late for the sunrise 🙂 when I saw this 😛

I thought I should just sit there and relax, but on second thoughts went for a longer walk!
The temperature was more than freezing point, and snow has started melting, giving way to some very beautiful reflections…
The Milwaukee Arts Museum with its wings still closed
The breaking ice in the Lake Michigan

Reflections like I said…
One of the benches in a park near my apartment…


Came back home and decided to make myself more camera happy ! Took a few pictures at home as well.. like the two above and two below…



And Sunday was a pretty lazy day, like always except that we went out for a Indian Buffet Lunch and then to North Point park…

Ganeshji I got for Gaurav’s car…

The Lake Michigan…
That’s ice or lets say a part of the Lake Michigan which is frozen as of now, and Gaurav was pulling Deepali and she was just sliding 😛

Scary, slippery, and very beautiful… That’s how a frozen lake can be…

But the ice is melting… Bright Sun is one of the reasons 🙂

Some people were far into the lake and enjoying ice fishing… in the background you can see some buildings of downtown Milwaukee… on the extreme left you see some bit of Milwaukee Arts Museum and the third building from the left is my office…
So another weekend is over… like I had said before.. Saturday morning pictures were a very soul satisfying experience for me… My love for B/Ws is increasing with every decent picture that I can manage… I am happy I am able to do more experiments with B/Ws now… Click HERE for a slideshow of some pictures from Milwaukee that you have not seen on Chai ki Dukaan.

and I am currently hooked on to “Bhor Bhayee” from Dilli-6… Shreya Ghosal has sung it beautifully! Oh, and “Genda Phool” too from the same movie… beautiful folk lyrics, and brilliant hip-hop-ish beats… unconventional and groovy !!!

Hope the week starts good for everyone !!! Enjoy 🙂

Words Worth

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Words are like machines, over working or over using them diminishes the effect/ fulfillment of purpose over a period of time…
Constant and over-considerate use of words like
nice,
good,
great,
amazing,
wow,
awesome,
brilliant,
that’s a nice thought,
that is a very valid question,
i understand what you are saying,
i will be there for you,
i love you,
trust me,
have faith,
things will be alright,
don’t worry,
you are an idiot,
you will never understand,
be with me

is something that I am not sure is the best thing to do..

When I started working on computers, I was told that every key on the keyboard has a life and it will function only those many times… which basically means that if you have used a couple of keys too much over a period of time, you will not be able to use them anymore and that would in turn mean that your sentences would be incomplete, your codes would be erroneous, your programs would be faulty and results might be disastrous too !!! (I think they did not know that Ctrl C and Ctrl V works magic… but then what if the Ctrl key stops functioning? Can’t imagine a world without that)

What if the same thing applies to a person too, he can use a certain set of words only an “x” number of times and after that he cannot use that word anymore… It might just help us evaluate what we speak before we do, and also increase the value attached to them !!! Also I need to earn my right to use the words… To start with I think this would apply to me first, I speak freely and too freely at times, but that can be misinterpreted because of multiple reasons… A better way, I guess, would be to hold on to words and take my time before I start talking again… tough? Yes. Doable? again yes? Thinking about it? Yes! Will I do it? Yes!

But then some people say and believe that Silence is golden… I don’t really agree to it all the time… There are times when you gotta speak up and there are times when you gotta let something other than your words say what you wanted to say !!!


So all I am saying is open your word tap wisely, there is only so much you are left with !!!

Stills from : Harley Davidson Museum (Milwaukee); Millenium Park (Chicago); Daurala Railway Station, Meerut (UP,India)

Tea Stall by चायबाज़ देवजित आचार्य

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Tea Stall., originally uploaded by cheerfull_soul.

I loved the green walls … that prompted me to take the picture.

Time for another ChaiBaaz to be introduced on Chai Ki dukaan…
Name Devjit Acharya, nick name Cheerful Soul

and the photo is from the streets of Banaras.

What I like about him is his fantastic eye to capture moments from the streets and the powerful compositions he presents. Dev is also one of the people who is excellent with photography fundamentals from the group of people I know, needless to say he is one of my favorite photographers and a constant source of inspiration!!!

Check out his flickr page (here) and enjoy !!!

Thanks Dev for letting me post this photograph on Chai Ki Dukaan !

of Love that is not that common, but IS !

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I was in college, and like most of the other college going lads would not leave an opportunity to show off my smartness at the drop of a hat !So I went to this marriage function and I saw her !!! She knew me and I knew her, we had met a few times previously, were introduced to each other too, but never got talking !!!

It was her brother’s marriage, and she out of courtsey came and talked to me… and then the smartass mr. Prashant spoke, “आप अकेले अकेले chewing gum खा रही हो, मुझे नहीं दी !!!” (aap akele akele chewing gum kha rahi ho, mujhe nahin di)… and she simply takes her gum out of her mouth and offers it to me !!! I am stunned and She just laughs her ass off !!! and I still shocked ! Thankfully I am saved from any further embarrassment, and her friends come and take her away !! I am sure I was their laughing stock for the evening !!!

However later in the evening, we met again and I took her number… I think she felt safe giving her number to a stupid guy… we cannot be much trouble, I guess !!!

I did not call her for a while… weeks in fact, and after a month or so I gather enough courage and call her up, hoping that she picks up the phone… she does, and she says,” ओह, तो फ़ोन कर ही लिया आपने, मुझे तो लगा के फ़ोन नम्बर कॉल्लेक्ट करने का शौक है आपको “! (oh!, to phone kar hi liya aapne, mujhe to laga phone number collect karne ka shawk hai aapko) third encounter, second embarassing moment !!!

That one phone call matured to a call a week and then, in not too long a time, our daily 1600 hrs 30 minute call… and then transformed into one of the most beautiful relationships of my life… It did not work out the way we wanted ( but that’s another story, and I rather not talk about it right now)

Bhoomi and me went around for a good 4 years, and she, till date, is the only woman, who managed to pull my leg as often and leave me dumbstruck and in a state of shock like no one else… but her chuckle and more often than not a loud laughter at my state, made me happy…

It was like I grew up with her, from college to masters, overdose of Theatre in Graduation, to loads of study and Basketball in Post Graduation, to the IT bubble burst and my hunt for jobs and the stress and struggle, and my first training/job and then the real fist job !!! I think it was THE perfect relationship… no point regretting now though…

anyway, why was I talking about Bhoomi?

because I was reminded of my second longest relationship ( yea yea, I have a few extra feathers in my cap, but so what!!!)

Radha… another relationship that did not take much time to develop and only got stronger with time !!! My first and only “Love at first sight” as far as I can remember… here are a few pictures of her that I took on our first long drive together to Uttaranchal ( now uttarakhand).. More than 4 years now and her charm is still as strong as the day I first saw her !!!


Some more pictures from the trip here and here. and if you are keen on reading about the trip click here.

2008, the year that was !!!

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This is a long post… I would recommend reading along with the pictures but then if you just want to have a look at some pictures, scroll on !!!

While I was getting ready for the new year…


I thought, why not write about what all I have been upto in 2008…

I was at the Chai ki Dukaan

I was in Air

I was in Water


I drove

I traveled in Trains

I travelled in Buses

I relaxed

I walked

I was with friends

I was with Family

I was alone

I saw rains

I saw clouds

I saw Snow

I saw Sunsets and Sun-rises

I saw buildings that man made

I saw caves that man decorated

I saw some Art

and made some myself


I started cooking

I spread some smiles

met some great new people

and let go of some !!

Took more photos of nature

and even more of people

I realized how much I love B/W, both in Life and Photography…

I even had an exhibition in New Delhi 🙂

I got closer to my country
And I stayed far far away from it too…

All in all, this has been such a remarkable year for me that I could not have imagined !!! Lets hope that I come out a winner in 2009 as well…

Amen !

And now !

I should get back to work 🙂 I have spent more than 90 minutes on this post already 😛


But you keep visiting Chai Ki Dukaan !!! It feels great to have company here !!!

Fall of Winter !

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Its interesting, rather very interesting how the small snow flakes keep floating around you, and then come stick to you when a gush of wind brings them closer… You can even see the shape, thanks to the larger ones, and just admire this careless flowing around of pure white particles all around with silence!
No, it did not snow much last week, but this sunday morning, I could see the small whites flowing all around… It was beautiful, but the wind makes it very hard to enjoy anything, and all you want to do is rush back home !
I am living not too far away from the office, just about 10 minutes away on foot… and I am wondering how would it be to walk around when its just snow all around !
I am not too far away from the Lake Michigan either… I see it everyday from the 13th floor of my office building, and the calmness of water and the view of the lake is beyond words !
Its been a crazy time so far… so many things to do, and so little time ! But thankfully, everything is falling into place… I have a new apartment… nice, big, without a view though… I still do not have any internet connection at home… and nothing to boil water to make tea in 😛 Though I think putting some water in the cup and using the microwave is an option too !
Also, a photography exhibition is on, in Delhi these days… and it has 5 of my prints on display too… Please do visit if you have sometime ! I have not been able to see it myself, but I was really very very happy to the large prints !!! They looked fantastic !!! Not sure how they are looking after being framed though !

More details HERE and HERE

Tea Time Cousins !

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Met them at a Chai Ki Dukaan ( Tea Stall) in Badrinath Puri.

 

No trip is complete, rather starts for me if there is no TEA… a good tea to start the day and things look much brighter :)These kettles are very common all across north India for keeping the tea warm (tea is kept in them and then on the stove) and serving. The nice steaming tea coming out of the nicely curved nose of the kettle falling into a cup or a kulhad is such a delight to watch !!! (Like the picture on the top right corner of this page)

and Pouring tea using these kettles is an art too, the angle of inclination, the time, the distance from the cup, all play a role together for one to have a delightful Cha(ie)xperience 🙂

(Not posting this one on the Chaya Chitralaya Blog)

a bLaSt a BuRsT and GiFTs !

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Radha completed her 4 years with me in the last week of September and I wished her a belated happy birthday with the following gifts 🙂

– A set of 185/65 R14 Yokohama Avid H4s Tires
– A pair of 300W/100 RMS 3-way DS Series Rear Speakers from Kicker
– A Roots Wind tone horn !!!

She is moving much better, sounds like a dream ( though my previous Pioneer 2-way speakers were and are fantastic, but just some loose connections and worn out cables and magnet were distorting the sound too much) and the horn sounds much better… the previous windtone horn had one of the two components bad !!!

I also plan to replace the current Air-filter in my car with a K&N Air filter soonest ! Its a stock filter so I just have to buy it and replace the current filter with this one and its expected to increase the power of the car in addition to the fuel economy. Also whats interesting about these filters is that they can be reused after washing ! so you do not have to replace your air filter EVER !

Last night when I was coming back from a friend’s place, the rear Tyre just burst into pieces and I do not really know why… and there is still some 30-40% tread left on it. All I know is that it could have been dangerous, but I was lucky not to get involved in an accident !

and if you did not know it yet, every tyre has 6 small triangles on the outer side facing towards the tread… just next to these triangles there is some extra rubber between the grooves and the sign to change the Tyre is when your Tyre is used enough that the grooves match the rubber next to these triangles !!! A normal Tyre usually would stay with you for some 40,000 kms in India if you are doing regular city driving and occasional off roads !!! rest depends on usage ! my tyres lasted me for about 55000 kms and looked good enough for another 2-3K but I decided to get all replaced together and used one of the better ones for the spare !!!

and a nice news (Thanks Amandeep and Priyanka) to end the weekend :

One of my pictures was printed in the latest edition of Tehelka. (Thank you Nithin Manayath and Tehelka; using a picture and giving the photographer the credit for it is an excellent practice which some of the leading newspapers do not follow these days; you guys have just earned a lot of respect from me for this activity). The picture is in reference to the Delhi Photographers on Facebook with a few words from Dinesh Khanna who is a fantastic photographer and the administrator of the group.


36 36 36

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A few weeks back, I had written about how I feel about the camera and the person behind it (Read it HERE)… Like I said its not the camera but a photographer that really makes a photograph !!!

What should make my belief get stronger is an initiative by Kshitiz and some of his friends called the Projekt 36. Let me not talk about it much here and dilute your experience, but give you the links to reach the right pages right away 🙂

Enjoy reading about the concept HERE, and the main page of the Projekt36 Blog HERE !!!

Say Cheese…

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When was the last time you asked- A Writer about the pen (s)he uses? Oh, so you use a Mont Blanc? No wonder you write so well !

– A Painter about the canvas and the brush (s)he uses? Oh, so you use the brushes made of rosewood? No wonder your paintings are great !

– A Blogger about the keyboard (s)he uses? Oh, A Logitech ergonomically designed split keyboard? wow !!!

– A Chef about the kitchenware (s)he uses? Oh, reinforced plastic with titanium knifes, no wonder your dishes are great !

If you don’t remember that, then do you remember when was the last time you asked a photographer about the camera he uses?

Oh, a Nikon d200 or a Canon 40D? Wow !!! Is it a dSLR? Yes! WOW !!! no wonder the pictures are fantastic !!!

I think a lot of us would remember that!!!

While I am not in disagreement with the fact a good camera has the capability to make a picture look better, OK much better a lot of times, I personally think this is not the question that should be thrown at a photographer to start with !!!

Photography is as simple and complicated an art as the rest of the them, and only because it involves holding a camera, pointing at something, pressing a shutter which everyone can do, does not really take away the effort that a photographer puts in !!!

I think the above lines look a li’il more harsh than I would like them to be, but I am not really sure how to put them in a softer way across !!! apologies if you are reading it and found it offensive !

चाय का फार्मूला

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दूध चीनी रोक के !
चाय पत्ती ठोक के !!

(This translates to, less sugar and milk, and stronger tea)


Thats the key to a good regular tea !!!

Funny how people react to these lines when I speak them every time someone is preparing tea for me… 🙂


This is a wonderful ice breaker too !!!


next time you are sitting on a tea stall and feeling out of place… just speak this to the chai wala and jump start your conversation !!!

Listening to Manna Dey on Raaga today !!! lovely

We painted the Weekend in Moradabad :)

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Saturday Morning: 0300 hrs… my alarm goes off!!! And then the alarm on the other phone goes off too… I had just slept at like midnight… but getting up was important… I did… Woke up Ashu (my cousin) called up Tushar to wake him up and checked with Aro to make sure he was on his way to my place…Why get up this early on a Saturday morning?
Valid question 🙂

We four were going to Sankalp, Moradabad… The same place I had visited in Feb’07… and wrote about it HERE!

Me and Aro had been discussing this trip for a while now, and last week when I realised that my travel plans were still very unclear I decided to go to Sankalp and do what was long due… So a few phone calls over the week, some bit of planning and we were all set… Roped in Ashu and Tushar as well… so we were four of us who were traveling to Sankalp and organise the painting competition…

The weather was good, the roads were good too wit a few exceptions… It did rain almost throughout the drive and at times it was too heavy to drive as well, however with one pit stop just about 10 kms after Gajraula (Reliance A1 Food Plaza) we reached Sankalp around 0800 hrs…

Found these beauties together on the grass @ A1 Plaza…
A Bunch of Happiness 🙂

I discussed the plan with Kalpana and Santosh who take care of the centre and we were all set to start the painting competition around 1030 hrs… The main centre has 100+ students and it was difficult to involve everyone in the competition, so we decided that we would let the teachers select some students from all the classes and have about 40 students participate…

We started on time around 1045 hrs and the kids finished their work around 1215 hours…


Our goodies for the Painting Competition 🙂
The kids could use the water colors, or the Crayons or Sketch Pens…
During the Painting Competition…
During the Painting Competition… (She went on to win a prize, for the strong message presented in a simple and very effective way)
During the Painting Competition…
One of the other winners in progress…
All done 🙂 ready for a picture 🙂

We did manage a riot of colors 🙂 and spread happiness 🙂
Some of the winners 🙂 It was tough to decide what was better than the other… so we did not differentiate between the winning entries.. We could not have anyway 🙂

Post this we played “Stuart Little” (Hindi Version) for all the kids… (We had arranged for a LCD Projector, a laptop, the speakers and the DVD last night)… It was an amazing feeling to hear the kids laugh together and react to various scenes in the movie… One of the best experiences that I personally had EVER… So much so that I don’t have enough words to write about the entire event!!! Now there was something for the kids after the movie too… We had prepared some questions from the movie, and the kids who answer those questions right were to get prizes…

The movie in Progress !!!

Once we finished the movie, we distributed the prizes for the Painting Competition and followed by the overwhelming question answer round!!!

The post movie huddle 🙂 Had a great time here 🙂

We had asked everyone to first raise a hand and then we would pick who answers the question 🙂 but as you might have already guessed for 100% of the questions everyone first answered the question and then raised their hands 🙂 by the end of it we had exhausted all our questions and had to make a few set with our own knowledge of the movie 🙂 it was fun…

Everyone would answer and then raise their hand 🙂 It was tough to decide the winners 🙂

One question we asked was the name of Stuart Little’s father… Well no one knew the answer, but one boy very confidently stood up and said “Daddy” 🙂 I even asked the duration of the movie 🙂 when we did not know what to ask 🙂 and kids answered that too without raising any hands 🙂 too bad it did not have a prize 🙂

I participated too 🙂
And then moved back to what I was slightly better at 🙂 Capturing the moments 🙂
Managed to capture a game of Kho Kho too on the terrace 🙂
Windows XP 🙂 Professional 🙂

Did I forget to mention that Gupta ji (The caretaker at the centre) also arranged for some Aalu, Pyaaz, and Palak Pakodas for us and the Chatney with Raw Mango and fresh Mint was just too good to resist… Don’t know if I was eating the Pakodas with the Chatney or the Chatney with the Pakodas 🙂

What yummy Pakodas were they !!! Heaven !!!
Only one 🙂 Love the way water rests on Rose Leaves 🙂

Once we were done at the Centre we moved around in the Community to get a first hand feel of the workshops…

The melting/moulding workshop… and smoke all around!
Molten Brass on fire…
Still from the same workshop…
An Art on its way towards extinction… The artist spends about 4-5 hours on every piece and gets around Rs. 50 per piece…
From the electroplating workshop…

Did not even realise how the time flew by and it was already 1645 hours when we started back for Delhi!!! All in All a wonderful day, an experience which words cannot express, and a feeling of satisfaction…

We have brought back the winning entries from the painting competition and the plan is to sell them with support from Online friends, and people we can reach via other mediums too… In one of my next posts I am going to post the paintings and if you are interested in buying one of them please do write to me @ prashantbhardwaj@gmail.com. I am currently in the process of finding out a place where I can get them framed for a decent price.

More about Sankalp:

Sankalp is an initiative of ASK (ASKINDIA.ORG) which aims at providing educating to the children who are involved in Child Labour in Moradabad… An initiative that is not 500+ children strong and going strong with its committed workforce… The teachers for the schools also come from the local community itself, and hence help the educated local women as well.

You can read more about Sankalp, ASK and my previous visit by clicking the following links:

ASK

Sankalp on ASK Website (The page also has a few photo essays that I did the last time I visited Sankalp)

My earlier visit to Sankalp (http://rightmore.blogspot.com/2007/02/ask-me-how.html)

Pictures from Sankalp and Moradabad (http://flickr.com/photos/prashantbhardwaj_ut/sets/72157594564953401/)
My last picture of the day 🙂 All smiles… all happiness 🙂 All Funn !!! Loved it !!!