Smoking Ban, India and the World...

Before typing in my thoughts to the word processor, I thought it would be wise to delve deeper into the banning of smoking in public places around the globe. And I was right in doing so, because till now I was under the impression that India is the only country to impose such a ban. In fact we are actually delayed in passing such a bill: more than 80 nations have such bans in place (Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans). To my surprise, the earliest smoking ban dates back to as early as 1590 brought about by Pope Urban VII and the first modern age ban was imposed by Nazis in Germany and was in effect till their fall in 1945 (Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_ban).

Though governments round the world have banned smoking, how many nations are effectively implementing this rule is still an unanswered question. My feel is that, in India this ban as any other rule has transformed into an array of bribe collection mechanism. Curious about other nation’s success stories on such bans, I searched the web and found out one or two research paper exploring the barriers in implementing smoking bans. This clearly means that every other country is trying to achieve higher success rates in imposing smoking ban and are finding it tougher. Probably I will weave one of my next blog based on my reading of these researches. 

Lenses...

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." ~ Dorothea Lange (1895–1979)...
I saw this quote in one of my contacts in Flickr photo sharing site and felt how true these words are...

In fact, I welcome the new year 2009 by exploring an ocean of bits and pixels of frames shot by people world-over. A real satisfying experience that no words can express...

Wish you all a happy new year indeed.

Flaring horizon - witnessing today's dusk ceremony

It was 6.25pm, the sun was almost set. Today the sky was preparing its final ceremony with a hue of greenish yellow at the horizon. Relishing the ceremony, I felt for not having my camera with me. Suddenly remembered that my room mate also had the same model camera, I ran and grabbed it, pushed the batteries in and set the lens for the shot and at 6.28 this is what I could capture…

The trees which were a part of the pink explosion mentioned in my previous blog were bare and along with the dusk sky, it seemed like the horizon was flaring...with a passion that it would again host the dusk ceremony tomorrow.

Fell in love for bottle green color

This is in sequel to my previous blog-post on my favourite frames of ‘Vaaranam Aayiiram’

Those frames captured my senses to the extent of forcing me to take a screenshot of the same by doing a print screen while watching the song. 

Though exact frames could not be captured... yet sharing the joy of my minimal success below

My favourite frames in the movie 'Vaaranam Aayiram'

I saw the recent Tamil movie ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ when I visited Trichy a fortnight ago. In fact I felt lucky relishing the camera / photography of the movie frames. I fell in love with this particular frame sequence in which the actress enters the frame from left; the back ground is brownish orange of an old monument. The actor then enters the frame from right dressed in a white coloured t-shirt and jacket. The actress’s bottle green saree contrasts her skin tone and the back ground. Writing this piece of text, I felt a sudden urge to search shots of those frame in the net but in vain. The search returned my next favourite shot in which the duo is in front of Taj Mahal with mist clad Yamuna River in front; she dressed in red and he in grey suits.

(Photo courtesy: Sify)

 Apart from photography and music, I did not find the movie satisfying enough…

Kudos to the cameraman Ratnavelu alias Randy, Music director Harris jeyaraj for the songs and lyricist Thaamarai for expressing the frames in Tamil...

A pink explosion!

This happened last weekend.
The Saturday was a dull day. The trees lining the streets were all experiencing autumn…Not much of interesting sights though. Sunday morning it was like magic! It was as if a pink explosion had occurred the previous night. Certain breed of trees was a part of this explosion and whole Bangalore was dotted with these pink flowers. Bees rejoiced this explosion by bubbling around these flower bunches as a welcome gesture. That sight out of my window made my day more enriching and enigmatic…

Isn't nature ever inspiring and ever understanding? But do we??

Speed breakers as Arrogance index!

Speed breakers are a common sight in the urban and semi-urban areas of India. The speed breakers are thought to be speed calming devices/constructs which are either planned by the traffic authorities or are a result of digging of roads for telephone, sewage, or optical backbone networks.
For the past two weeks we have been commuting to office by bike and what I feel is that the speed breakers are a measure of the arrogance of the local inhabitants. The number and height of the speed breakers in a locality can be thought of as arrogance index. More the people are arrogant, more number of speed breakers are planned!.

When we slow down our vehicle to tackle the speed breaker, another Indian brother might overtake us from the left peeking his way to the side of the road where the speed breaker tapers and wanes. With no concern for other commuters of the road, he would reenter the lane and proceed stopping our normal flow. So most of us do not give even a thought to these constructs on the road, with full speed we dash against it and fly in air for an instant causing trouble to everybody on the road.

Does these constructs really serve their purpose? To some extent yes, it serves the people in those places where majority of people have patience and do not display the Indian identity of arrogance. In most places, speed breakers are just another mound of tar and road metal and concrete. Any road when opened for public is like a sky way; six months down the line speed breakers crop up like mushrooms after a seasonal rain of arrogant traffic. But unlike mushrooms that die and reborn with season, speed breakers are permanent.

JOY!...

A good lab infrastructure, a small enthusiastic bonded team, newly designed electronic cards for testing...this is called JOY...
What do you say?

Me and the grasses, we witnessed the sunset!

I was at the edge of the peak at kodachadri to witness and capture the sunset better. My camera battery indicated low charge, but we were not! for the sky was too beautiful. I had to reserve my batteries for next day sunrise and resolved a strict 'NO' to more shots.

Returning back from the edge of the peak, I was forced to break my resolution and I captured this frame.Into my own world, lying in the ground focussing my lens, I felt immense emotions kindled by the sky flaunting deep shades of orange and bluish grey. I got up contended and saw three leeches on my left hand getting ready to attack. Just peeled them and threw aside...the intense joy and this frame is worth the leech attacks :)

Lived in sync with nature...

Lived in sync with nature for 2 days...and now back with lot of memories, photos and leech bites too.
We had a wonderful trek to kodachaadri and hidlumane falls this weekend. I fell in love with the sky that flaunted thousand expressions as the cloud embraced the sun rays...
They were my subjects for my camera lenses.
On the way up, shot some good macros too...