Tagged (Six random things about myself)

Tagged by Sharanya
Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

So here they are,
1) I love to go on unplanned trips. I love to travel in the most rural means of transport, in unfamiliar places, where people do not recognize me, and where I am not able to communicate in their language and the only means of communication is my smile and the other signs. In fact my new year resolution this year is to smile everyday! :)

2) I have a great amount of uncertainty to a certain extent.. but when I decide on something ... I have a great determination towards attaining it! I like to dream crazy stuff... and go to a great extent to fulfill them. I fulfill them and then shed tears of joy (Yes.. I do cry :P) over it and then dream more.

3) I have an obsession for India and anything Indian. I have an old resolution to travel across India before I turn thirty! So not many years left to fulfill that! Covered quite a few states... 18-19 I think.

4) I love meeting new people, but still cannot start a conversation when in a public place. So, I chat a lot! (My typing speed actually has improved a lot because of that) And often people confuse whether I am the same person with whom they were chatting when they meet me in person. When in person, I am often a quiet person and more of a listener! I have a tendency to stay in touch with people for a long time and am thrilled when I get back in touch with someone after a long time!

5) When, I was a kid I loved to make my own greeting cards. I think it made it extra special for the person for whom the card was made.. When in class four, I mistook Anniversary for University and was about to send a hand made card to my parents saying "Happy University" . Thank god we had a outing, and in the store I saw a Anniversary card! :P I think I would soon get back to sending physical tangible cards again rather than just e cards!

6) I have this feeling that I want to do so many things that one lifetime is too short a time for it. I thus want to write a book, make movies, roam the world, give lectures... and of-course design! !!! Phew.... Is that a disorder?

Most cool bloggers I know are already tagged, so all those who feel inspired, do write and let me know your list ! :)

Some of them are
Tanushree
Neha
Shivi
Nitin
Chandan
Shreelesh

How?

Do you fight Desires?

Especially negative desires...
the things that you know are wrong.. that the society despises.. and still you feel like doing it..

How do you do it?
Well I guess there are many ways to do it.. but for me what is working currently to a little extent is to be occupied in some other work.

It's kinds weird to have such a kind of post in the start of the year. A post with more questions than answers, but I guess it gives some direction to follow.

Guess its with human nature to believe more in things... when they are written down that just spoken.

New Year Resolutions?

So, I was just listening to the radio the other day and there was this section on new year resolutions. While the most common one is the loss of weight, and people dropping other habits, there were some interesting ones as well. I am sure I have done the same a few years back too...



Like every year, and like every other person I thought I should have some too.
But unlike every year, I thought that this year I will take more reasonable resolutions. Somethings that I think will be possible and I would be able to follow without any guilt or pain.

So for me, one is, that I will spend more time with Netra and explore more of the world around us. While I cannot promise to explore newer geographical locations, I am sure we will meet more and more interesting people.



Second is that I will smile everyday and make more people around me do the same in whatever way I can.



And of all the years, I think this year I will be able to stick to the resolutions the most.
I think its because of the fact that the past year I was able to understand myself better and that was possible since I was most of the time.

Here's wishing everyone a very pleasant New Year and loads of wishes for prosperity.

...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!

Inspiration

Of late I have been in this non-stop working mode.

One of the films that has hugely inspired me in my photography, the style and the subject is Born into Brothels. I have watched it multiple times and the desires to do something worthwhile in life always sets the adrenaline pumping high! The photographer went on to set up the organization Kids with Cameras.



Today was no different! I remember this kid, Avijit from the movie. Just learnt that this kid has now been admitted to the Tisch School of Arts, NYU. And that is such a great news!!!!!!
It inspires me for my project all the more.
"Avijit has been accepted to Tisch School of the Arts at NYU! To help fund his education expenses, he has selected nine of his photographs taken last summer in Calcutta and combined them into a stunning collection of postcards. On the back you will find Avijit's title and description of each photograph. Purchase this set of nine postcards and help Avijit realize his educational goals! "

The point I am trying to make is that there is a determination that can be seen in the photographer, the student and finally there are people in the world who are helping Avijit achieve his dreams.

What is more interesting but not significant, is that I was admitted there too (I did not make it there finally though). Wish I had, then I would be studying alongside him! :)