Behind the Camera

I have got more than 20,000 photos on my system. Unfortunately not even 10% of them will have me. Being behind the camera has its own disadvantages. You see the world, but the world does not get to see your face. There is a solution - self-portraits. But I cannot indulge myself into it as I feel they are gross self-obsession. Last few months, I seem to have got lucky in getting photographed. I have never got so much screen presence as I got in the engagement ceremony. I don’t complaint. It was one of the most important days in my life. And I deserve all what I got that day.

And then I got lucky again. This time, thanks to a friend of mine. Doc (Gibbup Doc, as we affectionately call him) took this photo of mine at the sunset point in Mount Abu. It was a cloudy evening and rains were just minutes away. Lights were just perfect as the sun was playing hide and seek behind the dark clouds. Doc zoomed the camera on my face, not copying the other shots that I had taken by then. I did not know what he was upto. But I sat still. The result is beautiful. It is one of the best photos that I have featured in.


I titled this photo “I saw a dream...”

Thanks a lot Doc.

6:30 am

I have just got up. It's very pleasant weather today morning. It's drizzling here in Ahmedabad. For someone who has got up this early on a Saturday (that too in 2nd year of his MBA course), it feels like being in heaven.

I can hear an alarm screeching at some distance. Somebody, surely, has forgotten to switch off his 'lifesaver' before going on a well deserved break. Others must be fast asleep to be bothered by this sound; I can bet on this. We get used to our own alarm clock and did not even feel existence of those of others. This is what first year of MBA do to you.

I have just one more month left before I leave this campus for a 3 month break. The schedule looks the toughest of what anyone could possibly have. There are days with 9 classes back to back from morning 8:45am to evening 10:45pm [think of it, in 1st year we usually had just 3 classes in day and our classes got over by 1:10pm]. It's going to be an experience in itself. I cannot even say that I am looking forward to it.

I have created some new albums on my picasaweb account. You can find it here. Idea is to get more structured in the way I have posted my work. There are some underlying themes in those photos and I will try to do some more shoots on same themes. Hopefully, one day I will have a nice portfolio.

Statistics

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
Mark Twain

“Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”
Aaron Levenstein

"We'll call you when you're six years old
And drag you to the factory
To train your brain for eighteen years
With promise of security
But then you're free

You're free to speak your mind my friend
As long as you agree with me
Don't criticize the father land
Or those who shape your destiny
'Cause if you do
You'll lose your job your mind and all the friends you knew
We'll send out all our boys in blue
They'll find a way to silence you

But there's nothing you and I can do
You and I are only two
What's right and wrong is hard to say
Forget about it for today
We'll stick our heads into the sand
Just pretend that all is grand
Then hope that everything turns out ok."

- THE OSTRICH From the 1968 release "Steppenwolf"

ps: Some of the things we heard in introduction class in the course "Media & Society: The Economics, Politics, Ethics and Technologies of Mass Communications"
ps2: For those who were wondering where had I been, please check out the link http://picasaweb.google.co.in/8priteshj/MountAbu
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/8priteshj/Flora

Lost

I have lost last one year of my life. It's the phase of my life that started after I entered these temples made of red bricks. Unarguably the most important year of my life. It's not that I have lost it completely. I have lived each and every moment of it to the fullest and the memories are as fresh as it happened just yesterday. There is still hope that I will be able to collect a lot of it back with the help of people here (and of course the lifesaver DC++). Still I know that I have lost something important. Something that is very dear to me. And I can not forgive myself for it.

Crib n Crap

1. Yesterday I had the shock of my life when I stood on the weighing machine. I really need to do something sometime soon. And this soon is as soon as I finish this post.

2. My system has 40 GB of free space now. God!!! It was so difficult to reach this stage starting from just 1GB free memory left in the system.

3. I am sleeping 7-8 hours a day these days. I just don't know what is triggering this sleeping attack. There were days when I dozed off at 10pm and got up at 8am. I am really thankful to God that I am in second year of my MBA.

4. I have got around 50 movies with IMDB 7+ rating in my hard drive. All carrying a RECO from none other than Heda. I don't know when will I watch them.

5. French movie festival is on in NID campus. I have not been able to go there so far though. :(

Pure Music

Lucky Ali is back. In my playlists that is. :)

So will be Bryan Adams in a day or two. Heaven and I am waiting hold the same significance in my life as Nahi rakhta dil mein and O sanam. Difference is in the point in time. College vs high school. Both part of my development years.
There are some nice memories associated with these songs.

Anoop and me started listening to Lucky Ali at almost the same time. 12th class - the time of IIT, Roorkee, BITS, MP-PET, KCET and what not. Whenever we got tired we listened to Lucky Ali. We shared lyrics and enjoyed them word by word. I think for the first time I started thinking about things beyond as they appeared. My formative years had started.

Many of you would be amazed to know that I heard Summer of 69 for the first time after reaching my engineering college. In hostel, everyone knew the lyrics by heart and here I was listening to the song for the first time. It took me quite some time to understand the song and its spirit. Still, Bryan Adams had not replaced Lucky Ali. Sometime in 3rd year I heard Heaven and I'm Waiting. And they caught my attention. I heard them again and again. I don't know why. Bryan Adams still did not become my favorite. I liked some of his songs though. In fact, many of them. I guess it was language that kept me from becoming his fan. My mind and heart thought in Hindi I guess. And thus the distance.

Post engineering, I resorted my mind and heart's dilemma by starting to listen to Fusion and Zen music. Enigma, Enya, Oliver Shanti and others. Instrumentals. Pure Music. I don't feel any distance now. Music is universal for me now.

Anonymous

Did you ever wonder seeing those ads inside local trains in Mumbai (or for that matter any other city).

Here is a take on the same by Suketu Mehta in his book Maximum City.

"The ads on the Bombay locals are the same as the ads in the New York subway, dealing with indescribably private subjects: haemorrhoids, impotence, foot odour. In this safely anonymous mass, these ads can be perused; there is comfort in knowing that these afflictions of the body are universal, shared by the flesh pressing all around. They too need these pills and potions, this minor surgery."

I am in love with this book. I recommend Shantaram and Maximum city for anyone who wants to know Mumbai.