My 1 year old

My 1 year old, it’s my new laptop, in fact no more new. Today is its 1st Birthday, unfortunately, I am very particular about dates. Dates just remain there, in my head; this reminds me Kylie Minogue’s Can’t get you out my head. Naaa naaa naaaa naaaa naaaa naaa naaaa naaaa naaa…….

This is my baby, whether it is movies, music, work, talking to friends, it does it all. Oh yes, I forgot, I use it for the meditation and reading books too.

So there is nothing really great about this picture, just that I had to use a good background to shoot this one. I took couple of shots on other backgrounds and then felt it would look good to shoot it on dark background, since the color of lappy (short form for laptop) is light. Apart from that, it’s just the brand that makes me happy.

SONY guys, please don't sue me for posting this picture. This is my laptop and I have spend $1200 for this and by the way this is my blog and I shot this pic from a NON-SONY camera!!!. And yes the author reserves all the copyrights for the content, so you better not copy this picture now and use it on your advertisements !!

I love my India

It has been really busy week, earlier I used to work on single project at a time and now I have 2 of them. And I feel like life is a curse for me.
Few days back we celebrated our 60th Independence Day and I was thinking what is it that I really like about my country, what is it that makes me proud of being an Indian. And here it goes.

Road Names – all of the names of our roads make sense, we had so many great freedom fighters and most of our roads are named after them and not something like “Frying Pan Road”.

Childhood – I still sometimes visit those streets where I grew up and that house where I fell so many times to stand up.

Weddings – I like the Indian weddings. I have seen American Wedding (not the movie) in few movies and I am really scared of it because I feel it is so formal. And weddings in my country are so great, our big families and friends circle which sometimes constitute 300 people make it so interesting. We go out on streets dancing, singing and firing crackers, without really caring about traffic jam.

Food – I really miss the spicy Indian food when I go out of country. Therefore, I learned on my own, how to cook some of my favorite dishes. I remember one of my American coworker was in India for quite long time and he loved the Indian food so much that he took classes to learn all the stuff. I hope he is good time cooking Indian food in LA.

Workarounds – in local language we call it as ‘jugaad’ and it really rocks. It actually is workaround for everything. Since most Indians are middle-class families they have to acclimate in whatever they have. From childhood we learn how to adjust, how to spend only on necessary items. And that gives birth to ‘jugaad’, the cheap alternative or workaround and many innovations have happened because of this. I remember a village girl invented a washing machine that runs without electricity. She attached the machine to cycle and peddling the cycle runs the machine, a ‘juggad’. AMAZING!!!

Secular – the advantage of being a secular country is that you get to holiday on festival of each religion whether it is Christmas, Id or our own Diwali. And it is fun too.

Culture – one of the things I really like is that we treat our guests as God. We let our guests sleep on our bed and we ourselves sleep on ground. (No that’s not a rule, but when we run out of space).

Lastly, I don’t have to really care about people loosing jobs in Europe or somewhere else.

60 years of Independence

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It is that day of year which is working vacation for us. It is a national holiday because it is our Independence Day. It is working because we fly kites on our Independence Day and it is really not easy job. In the subcontinent beach is only available to few people and unfortunately my location is not good for that, so we get to use our terrace. Nevertheless, the wind was good, sun was bright; I have been waiting for this day for more than 2 years as last year I was out of country, so I missed it badly. Moreover, this is the only sport I am good at, besides soccer, I really enjoy flying kites.




On Right: it is me preparing kite for its maiden voyage




Unfortunately, I got only morning to noon to fly kites, and thereafter since I have not been spending time with family, we planned to visit the nearest shopping mall. Flying kites is messy in the summer, you sweat a lot, and I had to change my shirt thrice. My shorts did a good job to provide air supply J. And it is good competition, as soon as your kite starts its maiden journey, some kite from behind will compete and one of them wins the battle by cutting the other one. Yes, it is in the sky, the thread of both kites is at test here and of course the skills of the person flying the kite.


On right: me taking rest after sweating out. Oh, by the way I don't ride that usually.



Since I have learned it on my own by experimenting, I
think I know most of the mechanics. Kites can be configured
according to one’s mood. Whether one wants to use lot of energy or one wants use more of wind energy, kites can be configured accordingly. The thread is also important, it is not normal thread, a special thread with coating of paint, and minute glass fragments to make it capable of the battle in sky. I cut my fingers in almost an hour from the time we start and of course there is tape that you can use to protect the fingers but you don’t the feel and besides that the thread cuts the tape and then tangles in the tape which can get one to loose the battle. Oh yeah tangling of thread is painful process because “you can only untie a knot when you know how it was tied”, now, how do I know how it was tied, I was busy flying my kite!!

Visit to shopping mall was hell of an experience, we Indians just love discounts and everybody knows it except us. Every outlet was offering heavy discounts, which was properly advertised and the mall was packed like it will explode if few more people enter it. The air-conditioners were ineffective, almost 90% or may be 95% people were there just to pass time and we were among those 90-95%. People shouting, children crying and humid heat, nothing was right. There was no place to move the shopping cart which the rest of 5% was carrying. Out of the 5%, 2% of the carts were empty with kids in them who were getting ride in the cart.

14th August

Just few hours before 15th August, our Independence Day.

This is gurgaon skyline. Mobile phone camer really doesnt capture good in night and especially after zoom it goes worse.

Hungry

It has been a busy week and my camera is hungry. I haven't got good shots since quite sometime. Hopefully, things will be better next week, I need to get some great shots.

Come August and I see pilgrims on the Delhi roads. These pilgrims walk hundreds of miles every year to collect the holy water from rivers in northern India. Most of them are men but I often see women also. Dressed in saffron clothes and carrying stuff to worship and to collect holy water, they travel miles. Stoppages on roadside are created expecially for these guys where they can take rest, get water and other amenities.

I don't know how do they do it, I walk few miles every weekend to be fit. But hundreds of miles is too much. The Sun doesn't wants to left behind too, it plays its part.

I am sure most most of them are illeterate and that's why they ill tempered too. Some of them are notorious and do crazy stuff, such as they get on to a truck, with big speakers, playing loud music they dance and roam around.

These guys are hardcore, that's why they are able to do this, I take stairs to 15th floor of my building and I get tired like anything.

Kudos to these guys.

The Brilliance