...and then she smiled.

...Netra... who else?

Ya indeed... I was happy at that ! Of all the negligence that she has had to face over the past semester, I think she truly deserved a outing to some exotic place. And here I am currently in San Francisco, which is on a close fight with Chicago as my favorite city. However I figured that Netra had been bored of seeing the same cityscapes, the same high rise buildings, the same concrete jungles time and again. So I figured that we should do something different this time.

So Netra, me, and a few other friends took drive on the Pacific Coastal Highway and I think the journey was blessed. The weather was perfect, the skies were of an amazing blue and the waters displayed the gamut of blue never seen before. I could see her smiling with all her might!
Every time she is in such a mode, I just feel I am a different person. The pains within me seem to recede to somewhere unknown and my smiles stay with me as if they have never left me. How I wish that it was like that always.

Oh and did I tell you that she took a few good pictures of me too!


As I said, she makes me feel special. In her company I often feel I can do crazy stuff. I guess its that way with all people in love. In the company of their loved ones, they just feel that extra special. Where the whole world just seems to be saying that you cannot do a thing and that one source of inspiration comes from the one person you love. That motivates. It inspires and gives this extra bit of energy.



This bridge really caught Netra's attention and she was looking at it non stop. I felt a bit jealous at the lack of attention and so I just went and stood in front of her in her view of the bridge! :) I am sure she did not mind me spoiling the composition of the frame.



This past year has been a special year and there have been many ups and downs. However, Netra has been with me through thick and thin, rain and sunshine, ice and snow. We have traveled around the world.

We have spread the smiles together, we have taken good care of each other.
We have met a lot of good people and we have also met a lot more interesting people.
We have got in touch with a lot of people and many have become fans of mine and Netra's visions.

It's with this love and adulation that we seek out for the new year, in the hope that we continue to show the world through our eyes. I have got mails and notes from people from different corners of the world saying how much they loved the pictures that we have created. I guess this is true of anything that is done with extreme love and compassion. Both for the team you are working in and also the artifact that is being worked upon. What results is not a product, but an extension of the love. And I guess the photographs that me and Netra create are the extensions of our love for each other.

If Netra could read this, I am sure she would be really happy.

God Bless.

The last lap

Been off blogging lately... as I was busy with the semester..
But now thats over.. and I am back.... and officially free.

Some time off and then I enter the last lap which is the last semester.
Pretty excited about that :)

Which incidentally is the last semester of my graduate studies.
At the moment this looks like this is going to be the last semester of academic life as a student.
Been quite a while since I started as a student some 21 years ago. But then they say that the student in a person never dies. Every day is a day of learning.

It's really gone cold here in Bloomington. Temperatures of -4C to -8C is normal.
But I fly off to SFO soon and that would be warm.

Looking forward to the break.

Nakhrewaali Netra

This Netra na... I tell you .. one big nakhre-waali !

Just the other day she was all up in arms protesting against me keeping her at home and not taking her to the places I visit. I was attending a few parties and she had to stay home. I tried to convince her that it was a party with my friends and that she would be bored in it. I agree that I am a bit too possessive about her, so I don't let her mingle with others in the party. And also I don't like to say no to the other friends who are always so eager to talk to her. I guess its with her charming personality. So, in the end its me who suffers. Always having to deal with this situation whether to take her or not.

But as promised earlier, I did take her out of Bloomington finally. She was on cloud nine I tell you! Just as we were to board the flight from Indianapolis, I got a scare for a while. In the security check the officer mishandled her! I almost shouted at her. During the trip however, I did keep her with me all the time.

So we reached Augusta, and it was beautiful there. I introduced her to a few other friends of mine. All was merry and happy. Later we were supposed to go to Atlanta. Now this is where the 'nakhre' started. It was raining and Netra simply refused to move an inch. When asked why, she just said, she is not too fond of the rain. And add to it the cold weather that was starting to get me...I ended up leaving her at Augusta and going to Atlanta all by my self. I understand that it's kind of difficult to digest the fact that one has to leave someone you love so dearly within the confinements of the room. Ideally that is unacceptable, but sometimes the situations demand it and that judgment should be honored.

At Atlanta, I missed Netra so much. The journey on interstate 20 highway, was nothing short of a heavenly ride with fog and lights penetrating through the pine forests. I am sure she would have loved to see it. Even in Atlanta, the area around the Atlantic Station and opposite to the Regal Cinemas was magical. The lights on the top of the skyscrapers shone like stars on a foggy night. One could see the tip of the buildings hugging the clouds. I missed Netra all the more. Somewhere in the corner of my heart I promised to be with her at that location sometime in the future.

Another thing that we end up debating on recently is what we see. There are some things that I want to see and save for eternity, but Netra refuses to see it saying that it is too cliched or overdone. Like while returning, at Charlotte airport, I was trying to show her those glider planes that they have it hanging from the ceilings, but she simply turned away! For an instance I was furious. But thank god I controlled my anger. So in the end we both end up visiting the same places, but I have seen a few things and she a few things.

After all these, in the end however, I feel bad. I think it was too selfish on my part to go all by myself to certain places. I am to blame too for this state of not spending so much time with her. Men will always shirk it off by saying that they are busy and that certain places are not suited for the women to go. Women, need to be cared for, spoken to, spent time with. Why is it that in the end its the women who have to try to understand always?

I hope our relation is not affected much and I hope that Netra understands. Oh no .. not again!