Never Lose the Sense of Wonder

White

2007-03-17T10:28:00.000+06:00

White is what we see when all colors come together in perfect balance
In eastern cultures white symbolizes coldness and sterility.
In wesern cultures it is a symbol of purity, simplicity,innocence, youth ...

Sunsets are awesome.

2007-03-04T14:00:00.000+06:00

"We don't appreciate sunsets because we don't have to pay for them."
Oscar Wilde

Waterfalls

2006-11-11T08:23:00.000+06:00

Some waterfalls at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

" Don’t go chasin’ waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to."
TLC, Waterfalls

Yummy

2006-10-30T20:54:00.000+06:00

What do you think this is?
Whatever... it was really yummmy.

Inside, looking out

2006-10-30T02:17:00.000+06:00

One Solitary Bench

2006-10-25T12:43:00.000+06:00

There is a great solitude about such a shore. The woods are never solitary- they are full of whispering, beckoning, friendly life. But the sea is a mighty soul, forever moaning of some great, unshareable sorrow, which shuts it up into itself for all eternity. We can never pierce its infinite mystery- we may only wander, awed and spell-bound, on the outer fringe of it. The woods call to us with a hundred voices, but the sea has one only- a mighty voice that drowns our souls in its majestic music. The woods are human, but the sea is of the company of the archangels.
-Lucy Maud Montgomery

In the Garo Hills

2006-07-31T08:33:00.000+06:00

At an Art Fair

2006-05-27T08:58:00.000+06:00

Night Flight from dubai

2006-04-22T18:32:00.000+06:00

"Come away with me... in the night,
come away with me and i will sing you a song"
Norah Jones

Flying at night is nice when cities are as beautiful as Dubai

Tunnel Vision

2006-04-20T10:33:00.000+06:00

We don’t see the end of the tunnel but I must say I don’t think it is darker than it was a year ago, and in some ways lighter.
John F. Kennedy, speech in 1962

Filight on Kuwait Airlines

2006-04-12T10:47:00.000+06:00

"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris ... [because] no known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping."Orville Wright

I flew Kuwait airlines yesterday it was a good experience. The service was good
and I finally watched The Goblet of Fire on the flight. The stopover in Kuwait was
only about 10 minutes.
The pics (L-R): Over Afghanisthan, Clear Skies over the Middle East, Kuwait City.

Old Yearbooks

2006-04-02T16:33:00.000+06:00

"No matter how long we exist, we have our memories. Points in time which time itself cannot erase. Suffering may distort my backward glances, but even to suffering, some memories will yield nothing of ther beauty or their splendor. Rather they remain as hard as gems.": Anne Rice, "Blood and Gold"

Some of the yearbooks that i have worked on over the last 4 years.

3 pictures

2006-02-12T23:41:00.000+06:00

3 not normally seen angles of Victorai Memorial in Kolkata.

Tibetian Wedding Part2

2006-01-15T22:06:00.000+06:00

Buddhist Prayer Room

2006-01-15T21:54:00.000+06:00

These were taken in Gangtok, Sikkim at my cousins' wedding.

Christmas is almost here

2005-12-22T17:50:00.000+06:00

"In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.": Christina Rossetti, A Christmas Carol

Window Seat!

2005-12-01T12:23:00.000+06:00

Life is a Beach Part Deux

2005-11-21T06:19:00.000+06:00

"What's really important in life? Sitting on a beach? Looking at television eight hours a day? I think we have to appreciate that we're alive for only a limited period of time, and we'll spend most of our lives working. That being the case, I believe one of the most important priorities is to do whatever we do as well as we can. We should take pride in that.": Victor Kiam

Life's a Beach.

2005-11-01T23:07:00.000+06:00

Chillin at the Beach at Cox's Bazar. This was my third time there, not the last time this year.

" If you’re lucky enough... To be at the beach, YOU are lucky enough."

Power Outage - So What?

2005-10-26T08:34:00.000+06:00

The power goes out a lot here in chittagong, especially in the evenings. I do not have a generator, nor do i wish to have one, i still enjoy the candles and the darkness.

" Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. "
Marianne Williamson, Return to Love, 1992

Some Everyday Things

2005-10-13T11:26:00.000+06:00

A Lock, some Keys and a Telephone, some of the things that many people use everyday.

Mud, Rain and football

2005-10-10T20:43:00.000+06:00

Mud rain and football make for an awesome trio. Kids have a lot of fun in the rain and its even more fun gettin wet and muddy :)

2005-09-18T22:34:00.000+06:00

Pink thoughts: I want it,divine, can i have it, miss megan, fair and lovely, and my favourite one is aerosmith.

Are you ever stuck in traffic?

2005-09-09T11:44:00.000+06:00

Stuck in Traffic? Well this is what I do when i have cars around and a camera with me.

Rain is wonderful

2005-09-05T21:46:00.000+06:00

The rain it raineth on the just And also on the unjust fella,
But chiefly on the just, because The unjust steals the just's umbrella.

Charles Bowen

The Yellow Calcutta Taxi

2005-08-29T13:09:00.000+06:00

Farewell to The Rickshaw

2005-08-27T16:29:00.000+06:00

The Last Rickshaws are to be phased out in Kolkata by the end of 2005. There is only one problem: What will all the rickshaw-wallas do?

On Walking

2005-08-19T10:40:00.000+06:00

It is not talking but walking that will bring us to heaven.- Matthew Henry

The longest journey begins with a single step.- Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive at where we started
And know the place for the first time.- T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding

I went for a walk the other day and noticed the different surfaces beneath my feet and here they are.. (all this was within 15 minutes from home.)

Swades We the People...thoughts on Independence Day

2005-08-15T21:00:00.000+06:00

India celebrates its 58th anniversary of independence today. How much have we changed since that night in 1947 when the Indian Tricolour first ? To answer that i would like to tell you a little about today. I watched a Hindi movie called Swades. The story goes like this..

A NASA project manager, Mohan (Shah Rukh Khan of course) misses his home India. He comes home to find his foster mother and take her back to the US. In his quest, he goes to her village and stays there for a while, he also meets a childhood friend, and cannot help but fall in love with her. ( pretty standard hindi movie fare right?)
The movie contrasts the high-tech world of America and the colorful world of developing India, while at the same time exploring the nature of 'home'. Mohan sees the best of India, as well as the worst: the poverty, the prevailing caste system and lack of education. The course of his life changes when he decides to be a part of the solution and help his nation. Mohan's simple quest is similar to what we all go through. I have been through it at times and still ask myself what is 'home' and how can i help make our country better.

What was different today was something called the Swades Project that we were reminded about at every commercial break. This project is a move to provide electricity to villages across India that still need electricity. All you need to do to be a part of this is to simply SMS "SWADES" to 7827 and for each SMS Rs 10 will be donated to the fund.

"Aiming to provide electricity to 60,000 villages across India, project ‘Swades’ managed and supervised by STAR TV Viewers can support this by sending an SMS donation to the national project fund. “The subscriber need to SMS the keyword ‘SWADES’ to 7827. Each SMS one sends will be ones donation of Rs 10 to the project ‘Swades’ fund,” stated Mukul Khanna, GM-Marketing, Spice Telecom, Punjab. Project Swades takes cue from the reel film - Swades in which the lead actor Mohan Bhargava (Sharukh Khan) leads the villagers to come together and generate electricity through water turbine technology."

http://www.thefinancialworld.com/corporate/economy.html
To read more about Project Swades go to
http://stargold.indya.com/specials/swades/projects.htm

Today's collage is from the movie and not my own pictures... sorry, but I have been inspired.

Orange

2005-08-13T20:21:00.000+06:00

What comes to mind when you think of orange:

Afterglow....bathing in sunsets.... swamped with warmth...
holland ... and the best one of the lot......juice

Deathly Silent Cemetary

2005-08-12T07:52:00.000+06:00

* "A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died. Hakuin answered 'How am I supposed to know?'

'How do you know? You're a Zen master!' exclaimed the samurai.
'Yes, but not a dead one,' Hakuin answered." ~Zen mondo

Red is not Dead

2005-08-09T20:50:00.000+06:00

Yellow and proud of it.

2005-08-08T17:11:00.000+06:00

Yellow is an amazing color it signifies warmth and happiness but at the same time cowardice and deceit.
Reminds me of "Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree"
and of course there was the old one: "Yellow yellow dirty fellow", that we used to shout when we were kids.

GREEN GREEN and Green

2005-08-08T08:53:00.000+06:00

Calcutta look really good and green in the rainy/monsoon season

Green is the colour of Life. It signifies growth and renewal. It is also known as a restful colour. Among other things it is believed that a green room is a calming one.
Among other things green also is used to signify jealosy and inexperience. My personal favourite is the expression 'green-thumb' which signifies that you and plants seem to have a special relationship.

BLUE TODAY

2005-08-04T22:24:00.001+06:00

Blue is a color that is all around us, from the sky to the sea. It is a color of calm and coolness.
In many diverse cultures blue is significant in religious beliefs, brings peace, or is believed to keep the bad spirits away.
I love the Blues but i'm glad im not feeling blue.

Wonders all around me

2005-08-03T08:49:00.000+06:00

Some reminders of things that are around us and that we see everyday. Do you stop to take another look at the flowers? do you still stop to collect shells at the beach or is that only for kids?

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
( I Hope You Dance- Lee Ann Womack)

Salt Lake in the afternoon.

2005-08-01T19:14:00.000+06:00

Salt Lake a suburb of Kolkata, is very different from the rest of the city. It has its share of interesting sights too.
Clockwise: See this: A street vendor shows off his prized cross-stitch design. Leaning against a pillar: as he writes in his little book. An old Horse-powered tram: so this is how people traveled before electric trams took over. ( this is a shop at City Center )
Tiger in the bushes: in Central Park .

A visit to Barrabazar in Kolkata and more.

2005-07-30T19:06:00.000+06:00

Kolkata presents so many opportunities for photographs, its very tough selecting just a few.
Clockwise: What does he think about me? i wonder as i take his picture. . This was in a crowded part of the city called Barabazzar. Howrah bridge as the sun sets. Victoria Memorial.
Sitting and Staring: someone looked at it and said they like his hair.

3 Weeks, 2 cameras, 1 Blog

2005-07-30T10:37:00.000+06:00

I am home in Kolkata for 3 weeks on my summer vacation. Blogging will give me a chance to exprss myself and to keep memories of the time here.