Dove in Flight from the rear

Dove in Flight; Flying away

Relaxed man--Obviously not married

Some girls make a man go mad by refusing to marry him;

the rest of them do it the other way.

The Colors of India

The Colors of India

On the way to the Vittal Hari Temple, we can see many shops with colourful vermilion mounds like these.

Sunset on the Wainganga

This shot was taken from the Wainganga bridge on the Bhandara-Raipur Road from the Eastern side towards the southern side. I liked the play of the setting sun on the water and took the shot with a little strip of land visible on the extreme western bank.

Instant capture!

Having a 5 mega pixel solid camera built into my Nokia cell phone is the equivalent of having a sketch book and an infinite variety of color pencils perpetually on hand. Every object, shape, color theme or juxtaposition of images can be captured for future examination. Here is an image I saw from my bed in the GITAM guest house room!

Anna Salai by Night

A Night shot of the Y Bend in Mount Road (Anna Salai) taken from the Terrace of Hotel Mathura.

Dark Tree

I photographed this tree from the Window of the ICAI Branch. I am experimenting with the Picture Manager. By reducing the saturation and increasing the contrast I have made this image look like it was shotlate in the evening on a stormy day. It wasactually shot in full sunlight at 16:00 Hrs.

Cranes in the Harbor by night

19.08.2010

I attended the marriage reception of my colleague Mr. Palani at Korukkupet today. On the way back, we took the Royapuram bridge to cross over to Rajaji Salai. The car stopped on the bridge for a couple of moments. From atop the bridge we had a glorious view of the Harbor with gigantic cranes working full swing; bedecked with lights creating a surreal atmosphere. I took a snap of the cranes looking resplendent as they were luminously outlined by the lights on them against the back drop of the pitch dark sky.

The Hunter's Lament

01.08.2010

A game hunter walks along a forest trail. In the distance, a black buck pauses in its grazing, looks up and presents a perfect target. Later he sees a leopard slinking up a hillock about twelve feet from where he is. But, alas, he has forgotten his rifle…!

My situation was no better at the beach today. As I crossed the Tarmac from the parking lot, on to the sand, the evening sun shone brightly from the west, illuminating the colorful scene on the beach with a last burst of light before sinking down behind the white colonial façade of the Police Commissioners Office.

The horses standing with the yellow sand and blue sky as the backdrop; the performing girl on the tight rope stretched right across the beach with the sea and waves just behind creating an image of walking across the waves! As I crossed over and looked back at the scene from near the waves the same girl standing on the taut rope, a long pole balanced in her hand presented a classic silhouette as she came between the bright evening sun and me. So many images to capture and I had forgotten my camera.

Of all the words ever said or written, the saddest are these-

It might have been.

Monkey on the Mind

Taboo Topics!

19.08.2007
To day is World Photography Day because the first announcement of a photograph was made on 19, August 1839, in France at a scientific demonstration. I celebrated World Photography day by selecting some of the best shots taken by me.

Presided over the meeting of the Chennai Toastmasters Club. The meeting was moderately well attended, with a few enthusiastic guests. As the meeting drew to a conclusion with nearly fifteen minutes to spare, I decided to exercise my prerogative as presiding officer and take up an issue for constructive discussion. Three topics viz. Sex, Religion and Politics are known as taboo topics and are to be avoided by all speakers at Toastmaster meetings. I raised the issue as to what was it that was to be avoided. For example, TM H L Ratan in his speech today about the pain of parking in Chennai, mentioned the names of two well known politicians and commented on how they had misused the “perquisites” (His word not mine!) to use traffic rules for their benefit. The question is whether this amounts to speaking about politics. Similarly, TM Aditya had earlier delivered an awesome speech on the essential unity of the male and female by giving examples from Hinduism (Ardhanareeshwar), Christianity (The Blade and the Chalice) and Chinese Buddhism (Yin and Yang). Is this Religion? I also gave the example of Guruvayoor temple where in the lower tiers of the pagoda in the sanctum sanctorum, various human figures engaged in the sexual act are depicted. Is this sex or sexuality. (By mentioning this I suppose I broke two rules, mentioning sex and religion!)

But that was what I wanted the members to explore. We had comments from TM Abraham Zacharia CC, TM Pattabhiraman CC, TM Aditya Maheswaran, TM H L Ratan, TM Ravi Bhaskaran CC and finally TM Akhil Lila a visitor. The sum and substance of their collective view was:
You can use quotations from religious texts and stories etc. but should judiciously avoid making fun of another religion or putting another religion down.

Talking in general about sexuality is OK so long as this is not misused to deliver jokes and innuendos that are in bad taste or extremely gender biased or chauvinistic.

(While on that, there are a certain variety of marital jokes that have no sexual innuendo but are extremely gender biased in as much as they paint married women (that’s wives!) as being always suspicious, nagging, overbearing or spendthrifts. TM Nina John ACB CL always reacts to these types of jokes and TM Abraham and I are always in her line of fire as we constantly indulge in such jokes at the expense of our respective wives. In fact TM Nina once remarked very perceptively that people like TM Abraham and I, who crack these misogynistic jokes have two wives, the imaginary woman that we describe in our speeches who nags and argues and commands us and our real wife, the poor innocent lady who takes care of us and our children at home! I think she is right. But, these jokes come out well in speeches and have almost become an idiom of life if not a cliché.)

Politics is best avoided as it will definitely lead to controversy.

The reasoning behind the taboo was clearly brought out by TM Ravi Bhaskaran CC, when he mentioned that these three topics are also banned at the officers’ mess in the Defense Services for exactly the same reason viz. they lead to avoidable controversy and ill feeling.