The Wats Blogs

Long Time No See

2009-05-24T14:21:00.004+05:30

Its been a while since I dropped in on my blog. Again. This time, there were more compelling reasons than just my laziness. Considering the fact that the last post was way, way back in October of the earlier year, I have a lot of time to account for. And I shall do just that.

I seem to have completely forgotten what I was doing in October and November of the aforementioned year. Same goes for most of December as well. I do remember one thing from December though. Tata Consultancy Services Limited finally realised that they had offered me a job over a year back and decided to train me in Trivandrum. Starting from the 29th of December! Timed perfectly to ruin everyone's New Year's plans. More on that later.

After spending a little over (or was it under?) 2 months in God's own country, I came back to Madras sometime in March. After sitting around in TCS' cafeteria and playing TT for aroud 3 or 4 weeks, I managed to get into a project.

Those are what I have been upto in the intervening period after my earlier post. More details of the training will follow soon (hopefully).

XDR-TB

2008-10-04T12:29:00.005+05:30

I have heard of this but never realised how bad it can be.
Pictures really do speak a thousand words.......

A bigger picture here.
To do your little bit to help, go to XDRTB.org.

Lens Reversal Result #1

2008-09-23T18:38:00.006+05:30

After spending a considerable amount of time and energy making an extremely simple lens reverse adapter, I realised that my fingers were in no state to hold the camera and take shots safely. So I waited a couple of days to ensure the safety of the camera, and built up the nerve to reverse mount a lens. And when I finally managed to reverse mount it, it fit perfectly! Like fingers (your own, preferably cleaned with an olfactorily enhanced soap) in your mouth.

Only after mounting the lens did I realise that I had no idea what to shoot. In my search of a suitably micro subject, I stumbled upon a bunch of roses floating on water filled in a brass or brass-looking vessel placed on a suitably unstable, foldable thing about a foot high. Upon closer inspection I noticed that all that dead flora had a very living faunal companion. A worm was cradled inside one of the flowers.

Spotting the worm was a lot easier than shooting it. First there was the lack of light, which was soon taken care of by the careful placement of a rarely used, extended reading lamp. Next was the focusing on the subject. With a depth of field reminiscent of the edge of an aerobically oxidised razor blade, even a deep breath would put the freaking worm out of focus. As a result, the fans were switched off and I started holding my breath while shooting. Thank God for the tripod... Soon, both the worm and I started losing a lot of water, me in the form of sweat, and the worm in the form of worm sweat as a result of the significantly "warm" lighting. After spraying some water on the worm to prevent it from drying up in the course of the shoot, I shot it. Worms are by far the most cooperative subjects I have ever shot.

More pictures here.

It's About Time............

2008-09-21T17:08:00.005+05:30

It has been a while since I dropped in on my own blog to post something. This is what I have been doing these days…….

• Running a little, some working out in the gym and some swimming.

• Running the Chennai Half Marathon despite promising myself I wouldn't run it ever again as long it was held before sun down and then wishing I had kept my promise.

• Spending an unhealthy amount of time reading a lot of stuff online.

• Shooting some time lapse videos.

• Hearing The Song about a hundred and seventy three million times and wondering why I did not listen to Nada Nada earlier.

• Wondering how I could make some money from pictures I have shot.

• Hoping to post something soon.

Basically, life has been in the doldrums the past few months and it finally looks like I may be heading towards the trade winds. Taking into account the fact Geography was never one of my stronger subjects in school, I could be completely wrong. Anyway, it's about time I started posting again and hopefully, more regularly than before.

Reversing a Lens

2008-07-30T16:39:00.014+05:30

The Why

Although I am extremely happy with the Sigma 18-200mm lens which I have been using since the day I got my camera, I do at times feel a little guilty for never, ever, using the 18-55mm kit lens the camera came with. After contemplating the various uses it could be put to such as a visually appealing paperweight, a chew toy for my almost-one-year-old cousin and even as a replacement for the Frisbee on the beach, due to various reasons such as me not having papers to weigh down, my almost-one-year-old cousin's undiluted hatred for the black, lumpy thing with markings and its aerodynamic inefficiency, I finally decided to use it as lens.

But this was completely against what little common sense I still have left. Why use an 18-35 when I have an 18-200 which does everything the former does and even manages to do it better?! And then in a moment of geniosity, reminiscent of Archimedes' overused "Eureka" episode, I realized I could reverse the lens and use it for macros! After searching around Madras for about 3 days and spending an unwise amount of fuel in the pursuit of the above mentioned adapter, I finally steeled my heart and decided to make one myself. I knew I had a Better Photography magazine somewhere which told me how I could make one of those for the price of a few packs of peanuts. Then there were those golden words by the cult philosopher Clarksonius to spur me on – "How hard can it be?"

The How

To reverse a lens and use it, all you have to do is remove it, turn it around and hold it with your hand. Although the simplest method, this would require the use of three hands, which not many of us have managed to evolve as yet, to operate comfortably.

To reverse a lens, you need something that would fit the front element of the lens and something which would fit the hole in the center of the camera body and some glue to stick them both together. I got a conversion ring for about 45 rupees and spent over 2 days looking for a body cap only to be told at the Canon outlet that I cannot get one of those unless I bought a new DSLR. Realizing that this would exceed my modest budget of 50 rupees by over 30,000 rupees, I decided to use the body cap which came with my camera.

Since Canon did not have the foresight to provide me with a perfectly transparent body cap, I had to make a hole in the body cap big enough to not obstruct the sensor. I should have listened to my mum and used the services of a professional cutter of hard things to get a proper hole cut out of the body cap. But instead, I decided to use a soldering iron to melt out a hole in the plastic in the true spirit of DIY. Bad, bad idea. To better control the iron, I kept trying to hold it resulting in multiple burns on multiple fingers, some of which looked uncannily like miniature crop circles.

About an hour and 8 burns later, I had the hole melted out of the body cap. A few minutes of filing to smoothen the edges, and I was almost done. Some Fevi Quick (anything is ok as long as it can stick plastic and metal together) on the conversion ring to stick it to the body cap and you are done. Do keep in mind that in case you manage to adhere the side which threads onto the lens to the holed out body cap, soak it in warm water to unbind them and do it correctly the next time.

The Result

Shot with the 18-35mm kit lens mounted normally

Shot with the same lens reverse mounted

More pictures here.

2008-05-12T17:45:00.006+05:30

No, its not a book based on the English term catch-22. THIS is the book that fathered and mothered the term (Is that biologically possible?). The book, by Joseph Heller, revolves around Yossarian, a bombardier for the Allies, whose primary objective is to stay alive (what’s the point in winning The War, if you’re not around to enjoy the spoils…), and those around him. This seems quite obvious to us but Yossarian’s superior, Colonel Cathcart, seems to think otherwise.

So, Yossarian does all he can to ensure that he stays out of sight of a million strangers trying to kill him. Unfortunately, he is trapped by a clause in the hilarious Great Loyalty Oath Crusade which states – “A man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.”

Initially, you might believe that for Yossarian insanity is not an excuse to stay away from flying, but is the essence of his being. But soon, you realise that the only fault with him is that he is dangerously sane. The only man on the planet who can clearly see through all the pointless madness and wants nothing to do with any of it.

This is the by far the most bitter and funny book I have ever read. In fact, bitter does not quite fit the bill. Its wickedly funny. Its so wicked that it would make the fairy tale witches cringe.

More pictures here.

PS – KK, I finally found your book!!!

The Beach

2008-01-23T08:02:00.001+05:30

That’s The Beach. Or as its more officially known, Marina Beach. Although there are other contenders for the title of The Beach, Marina beats all of them by a mile. Although Elliot’s Beach, and the private ones littering the East Coast each have their own USPs, there is something about the uique mix of factors in Marina that none of the others can hope to emulate.

First is its geographical extent. 12 kilometres from one end to the other. That would probably make it the longest urban beach on the third rock from the sun.

Next is its location. Having Fort St. George at one end, there isn’t one politician of note this beach hasn’t seen or heard. They even had a stand of sorts erected to hold political meetings on the beach!! Thankfully, that was razed overnight by another politician. Its sort of ideally located, with bus services from just about anywhere and an MRTS line running parallel to the beach.

Then there’s the patronage. Everybody has something they like at the beach. Once the ideal family beach, with the removal of the stalls from the sand and the corresponding reduction in illumination, its been seeing a steady rise in the number of lovesick couples. Families still visit the place but they tend to stick close to the lights. Lovers used to come here even before the stalls disappeared, but the prospect of running into ones parents and siblings at the beach when you’re supposed to be in class or something deterred the majority of them. It provides an inexpensive evening out for the perennially broke and a home for the homeless loitering near the beach. It’s a place where dogs come to walk their masters and meet their friends and bark about the freedom of the strays. It’s a place where the old come to remember what it was like when they were young and a place where the young come and hope it doesn’t change when they get old. Its all that and a lot more.

But the most important factor that makes it The Beach is the intangible one. Character. I know it sounds weird. A beach having character and all. But visit it and the other beaches around Madras and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

PS: That dopey looking chap staring off into the distance in a nostalgic sort of way is my is my brother, another lover of The Beach.

More pictures here.

To the Middle of Nowhere and Back

2008-01-15T15:47:00.000+05:30

Warning: This is a really long post (2634 words).

It started simply enough. A phone call from Tandeep. A trek. 5 nights and 4 days. 4300 bucks. Surprisingly, my mom agreed instantly. I didn’t even have to explain that 4300 rupees is pretty reasonable for what was promised. Guess she was just happy to have me out of the house for 4 days.

After getting a little confused with the date of departure, I managed to turn up on the correct night at the Chennai Central. I was a little apprehensive about the trip as I didn’t know most of the people I was going to spend the next 4 days with. Once the formality of introductions was done away with, we got along like we’d known each other all our lives. The cast of colourful characters consisted of Narayan (aka) Nari, Praveen (aka) SKP, Chandan (aka) The Cook, John (aka) The Cameraman, Prem (aka) Dr. Cowboy, Tandeep (aka) Tan and myself. Balaji and Nirmal, who were organising the whole thing along with Nari, could only wave us goodbye from Central as they weren’t accompanying us on this trip.

Left to right-Tan, Nari, The Cameraman, Dr. Cowboy, SKP, The Cook.
Above- Our Driver.

The train, Chennai-Bangalore/Mysore Express, left on time at 2130 hrs on the 20th of December. We spent some time getting to know each other and the upcoming treks a little better. We had to get off at Bangalore instead of Mysore as the tickets to Mysore were not available when we booked. After an interrupted sleep, we got off at Bangalore at about 0400 hrs and had our coffees at a really upmarket looking IRCTC restaurant. Wonder why they don’t have that sort of stuff in Central?

Once outside, we were pleasantly surprised to see our driver already waiting for us. As he tied our luggage to the roof of the Qualis, the smokers amongst us lit up their sticks and were courteous enough to even ask the driver if he didn’t mind. In reply, he pulled out a Kings of his own and wanted to know if we had a lighter. We knew at that moment, that the car ride would be one happy road trip. We left Bangalore at around 0430 hrs and headed to Mysore. The journey was pretty silent as most of us were catching up on some lost sleep. On the way to Mysore, we suffered our first flat tyre. It was kind of surprising as the road looked like you could play billiards on it. After a tyre change that some F1 teams would have been proud of, we were on our way.

Upon reaching Mysore, the first thing we did was look for a nice restaurant to have breakfast. Our knowledgeable driver took us to a vegetarian hotel, Siddhartha, where I had a couple of masala dosas that is synonymous with Mysore. Without the masala of course. That was probably the best dosa I have ever had. I have it on good authority that the masala dosa was “excellent” as well. So were the idlys (or is it idlies?) and the coffee. After a sumptuous breakfast, we went about town looking for a place to fill up our miniature LPG cooking stove and gas based Petromax lantern. I don’t know if it was because of Bakrid or if Mysoreans are late risers, but almost every single store was closed. After a lot of questioning and driving around, we found a place to fill up the stove and gas lantern. Despite the delays, we left for Kabinakad almost on time.

On the way to Kabinakad, we stopped at a tyre repair shop to get our flat tyre fixed. Unfortunately, they lacked electricity to power the air compressor, and we couldn’t get the 5th tyre repaired. About a couple of kilometres down the road, we suffered another flat tyre. Now, we had a 4 wheeled vehicle with only 3 usable tyres. The driver jacked the car up, flagged a passing vehicle and left to get the tyres repaired a couple of kilometres down the road. We spent the time usefully staring like infatuated zombies at vehicles passing by, watering the roadside plants, taking a few photographs and eating biscuits. About an hour later, just as we were getting bored of staring at passing vehicles, our driver came back with the tyres repaired and a smile that suggested that he had just accomplished his life long dream of climbing Everest. We were on our way. Again.

We reached Kabinakad Junction about 2 hrs late and a Jeep picked us up from there to take us to Honey Valley, about 3 kilometres from the Junction. If you’re wondering why we had to trade wheels, lets just say a Qualis isn’t built for 30 degree inclines with rocks the size of a human head coated with slippery, red mud. At Honey Valley after apologising for our late arrival, we got acquainted with the Chengappas (owners of Honey Valley), Jack (manager of Honey Valley), Rocky (a wily old dog) and his feisty pups (both turn one year old this January) we were taken to the dining hall for lunch. After a delicious and typically nutritious home made lunch, we were shown to the dorm where we would be staying for the night. And what a dorm it was!!! 10 beds with clean, white sheets and good insulating blankets. If dorms had star ratings, that would have been a 7 star palace!!

We left for Chingaara Falls, a 45 minute walk from Honey Valley, after settling down in the dorm. It was an easy walk full of photo ops and we made the best of those opportunities. After spending some time, a lot of virtual memory and even more battery juice, we returned to the dorm just after sunset.

Once all our cameras had been charged, we left for dinner. Dinner was another delicious and nutritious affair, for both us and Rocky & Pups. As we were swimming about in the twilight zone between being awake and asleep, the one thing that struck me was the silence. It was complete. Almost like sensory deprivation, but in a good way. Remember the teachers shouting for pin drop silence back in school?? This was it. The first thing I did after experiencing that silence was to turn off my bloody phone. It seemed almost sacrilegious there. The full moon lit up the whole valley a pristine and cool bluish white. It felt like I had just stepped into a classy Japanese anime. I almost felt sad that we had to leave the next day.

The next morning, I woke up to that same wonderfully addictive silence, went for a walk around the place barefoot with my camera and returned just in time to have a nice hot water bath. If only I had known then that this would be the only bath I’d be taking this whole trip, I’d have enjoyed it for a little longer. Not being blessed with foresight, I had to keep it short as the others were waiting for their turn. After packing our bags, we had a wonderful breakfast. The rice balls and the accompanying chutney were so good that I soon lost count of how many I ate. After stuffing ourselves full of rice balls, we said our goodbyes to our hosts, who were kind enough to pack us a picnic lunch, and their dogs and left for Tadiyandamol, the tallest peak in the Coorg area. I think. On the way to Tadiyandamol, we stopped at Gonikoppal to buy some of the things needed to ensure our survival up on the unforgiving mountain, such as beer, vodka, whiskey and lighters. We also bought some vegetables to add to our Maggi and some chocolates and chewing gum. It was here that we realised that the rumours about Coorgi women being pretty pretty were totally true.

As we had already packed our bags in the dorm, we didn’t bother double checking everything we were carrying up the mountain. Big, big mistake. Halfway up the mountain, we realised that we’d left behind the picnic lunch in the car along with half the vegetables. But as we had, divided amongst us, almost a tonne of biscuits, we weren’t too worried. Sometime after this realisation, we came to what would be our campsite for the night. It was occupied by a bunch of guys who’d stayed there the earlier night and were about to leave. They told us that they’d hidden their luggage in the nearby sholas and then trekked up to the peak. Fearing for the safety of our equipment, we decided to carry them along. An even bigger mistake.

After trudging along like pack mules, with what felt like 78 kilos attached to our backs, for over an hour, we reached the summit. Although the trek up a steep slope with slippery, loose mud and small stones was pretty painful, the view from the summit was worth every single “ow” and “ouch” and “oh fuck” uttered enroute. After enjoying the vista for a considerable period of time, the lack of water forced us back to our predetermined campsite a little sooner than we’d have liked.

We reached the campsite about an hour before sunset and started setting up the tents, collecting firewood and water. We needed considerable amount of water as our dinner consisted only of Maggi with some vegetables thrown in and some whiskey and vodka. Collecting water in a forest in the dark was a scary little episode with us expecting all sorts of creatures to pop out. Thankfully, the only popping about was done by Chandan on almost stepping on a frog the size of a fist. As Chandan was the only married bloke amongst us, he was assigned the cooking duties. His experience shown through as he cooked what is till date the best Maggi I’ve had. He even prepared some side dish consisting of boiled groundnuts and onions to go along with the alcohol. God bless him!! After a wonderfully hot dinner, we stared for a while at the fog creeping up, a lot like how it does in the movie The Fog, and retired for the night into the 2 tents.

The next morning, we woke to a sunrise that still gives me goosebumps every time I think of it. After spending a lot of time photographing the sunrise, we attended to the various calls of nature and then packed our tents and started the climb back down to our car. The climb down was slightly less strenuous as some the food we’d carried up had disappeared down our gullet. On the way down, Nari mentioned that the next trek, later in the day, would be “better”. We had no idea how much “better” it was going to be!!!

Upon reaching our car, we feasted on the wonderful picnic lunch packed by the people at Honey Valley and visited the nearby Nalknad Palace. After lunch, we proceeded to Irupu Falls, from where our next trek was to begin. As that trek, to the Narimale Forest Guest House, went through a nature reserve with wild animals, we needed the forest officer’s permission as well as a guide for the trek. Although we had booked in advance, due to the unexpected rush, our stay there for the night was in doubt. But a few phone calls later, everything was set. Upon reaching the falls, we had our lunch at the restaurant there and started our climb. About 15 minutes into the trek, Prem asked the one question on all our minds…. “How the fuck is this trek better??!!!”.

That was a pertinent question as the path was inclined at what felt like 88 degrees, was strewn with slippery rocks the size of footballs, wound through a really thick, dark and humid forest, was littered with elephant dung, some of which looked pretty recent and we were carrying about a tonne of food on our backs again. To this question, Nari’s reply was “I meant it would be tougher”. After all of us had uttered some choice words, whose mention here would result in the flagging of my blog, we carried on bravely expecting elephants to jump out at any moment. Thankfully, the only fauna of consequence we met on the way was a 6-7 foot spectacled cobra with its hood fully extended. I was so mesmerised that I forgot I had a camera on my side.

After what seemed like an eternity, we were out of the thick forest and what we saw took our breath away! An ocean of knee-high grass with islands of emerald forests!! We were in the sholas. I felt like I was in the middle of a Planet Earth documentary and could even hear David Attenborough narrating in my head!!

Soon, we were at the Narimale Forest Guest House and the number of people there really surprised me. Once we'd dropped our bags and were just beginning to settle down, our guide turned up and wanted to know i we wanted to see the sunset from an isolated place. We said yes with palpable apprehension as the walk up here had been enough to sap us almost completely. The trek to the sunset point was nothing more than a walk but actually seeing the sun set from there was an indescribable experience.

The collection of water and firewood here was an altogether different and much more frightening experience. A bunch of guys armed with sickles and empty buckets is not a very comforting sight. In the middle of a forest in the dark, its positively scary. After a dinner of Maggi and MTR’s ready to eat Jeera Rice, we slept. I slept anyway. The others went to the nearby abandoned outpost to hopefully sight some animals.

Unfortunately, the only thing they saw were shadows in the moonlight and the bone chilling wind put an early end to their vigil. It was decided that we’d visit Brahmagiri and other places nearby in the morning and then start our trek down to Irupu Falls. Unfortunately, as the guide decided to leave only at 9 am to Brahmagiri and we had to catch a train later in the day after a safari at Nagarhole, we had to skip the climb to Brahmagiri. We had our breakfast (bread, cucumber and a chutney made with tomatoes, onions and capsicums cooked in Parachute hair oil by the ingenious Chandan), and started down without the guide. We managed to reach Irupu Falls after getting lost only once. After a dip in the falls, we were on our way to the safari at Nagarhole.

Nagarhole looked a lot different on Discovery Channel. I don’t remember an army of tourists or tourist buses or vehicle trails or forest department buses with very impatient drivers or woodcutters being mentioned on Discovery. Guess that programme must’ve been shot on a different planet or something. Or maybe the whole thing was CGI…. Anyway, the safari was pretty routine. The fact that those who’d been on the safari before us wanted to name the place Nagarhole Deer Park didn’t do our sagging spirits any good. Luckily for us, we managed to spot an elephant, a bison, some Sambar and a few peacocks. But thanks to our impatient driver and the bozo who occupied the window seat next to me and slept the whole way, photo ops were not exactly knocking on my doors. But on the way to Mysore, just as we were leaving Nagarhole, we saw a huge bison grazing on the roadside only a few feet from our car! We also think that we might have seen a tiger in the forest…. The photograph wasn’t exactly conclusive and there was a good chance that our minds might have been playing tricks on us. But if anyone asks, I’ll say I saw a tiger. Period.

After a silent ride, we reached Mysore. We settled our driver’s accounts there and gave him the extra bottle of whiskey we had. He was one happy chap. It was kind of difficult to leave. I had gotten used to the silence, the animals, the tents and the walking with tonnes of food attached to my back. The city felt like a different world. But some things just have to be done and returning to civilisation was one of those things.

The Cat

2007-12-18T11:50:00.000+05:30

Photographed this cat at N4. Except for this time, I have been there only on weekdays and only in the afternoon. Looking at the number of people there, I always wondered why it didn't attract more crowds. Three or four of us and this cat would constitute over 80% of the visitors present then. This Sunday evening, I fully realised how many people patronise this place (excluding the cat with the permanent resident status)!! I think this chap lives off the generosity of the fisherfolk and other assorted visitors. Although in full posession of that uniquely feline grace, I dont think he (or was it a she??) goes about hunting for fish and crabs, both present in significant numbers. Although the expression is quite fierce, he (or she) is surprisingly well mannered for a feral cat.

To see more pictures shot on this particular outing, click here

Shutter Speed: 1/250 s

Aperture Value: f/6.3

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 200 mm (325 mm in 35 mm equivalent)

PS: Shot this in RAW and then processed it.

The Tournament

2007-11-25T19:49:00.000+05:30

It was a typical late November morning in Madras. Dark and cold. One may wonder what I was doing up and about at such an early hour, instead of staying back in my comfy bed. I had gone to photograph the finals of The Tournament and the third-place decider before the finals. The Tournament refers to the frisbee tournament held by the CUF (Chennai Ultimate Frisbee). These aren't the ones we used to get free with Complan. Remember? The round , flying saucer miniature with a cone in the middle available in red and blue?? No? Well that frisbee does not look like this... neither did it cost as much.

Actually, this is the disc that was used in the final match of The Tournament. Before the final, a bunch of round robin matches were played among the four teams to decide who among them will play in the finals. Due to various reasons, the chief among them being my unwillingness to get off my bed on a cold morning, I was unable to watch or photograph any of the round robin matches. The scorelines were as follows....

Manu 8-3 Shankar

Mama 8-4 Sukrit

Sukrit 8-4 Shankar

Manu 9-7 Mama

Mama 8-0 Shankar

Sukrit 8-6 Manu

After some professional analysis, it was decided that Manu and Mama's teams would fight it out in the finals while Shankar and Sukrith's teams would vie for the third place.

Third Place Decider

The third place decider was the first match of the day. Shankar's team, in green dry fit jerseys, would take on Sukrith's team, in equally dry fitting red jerseys.

After about 45 minutes of flying frisbee, the match was decided. It ended the Reds-8 and the Greens-4.

In the interval between the two matches, the players were served Red Bull free of charge by a couple of pretty representatives for the company. For some strange reason, people about to play the final game decided against drinking it, eventhough its supposed to be an energy drink....

The Final

The final was to be played between Mama's team in the really bling yellow and Manu's team in blue.

The match started pretty evenly. Both teams playing fluently and committing few mistakes. For a final, the match was strangely free of loud abuses. The sort you hear when you let a bunch of people who have known each other for quite a while run around in the sand chasing a frisbee. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that Mama's geared up to go to Sabarimalai. But the onfield action more than made up for the lack of verbal action.

But with the sun coming up the players were getting a little tired and with some strategic substitutions, the Blues gained the upper hand and the bling Yellows were beginning to look a little harried.

Soon the match ended with the Blues beating the bling Yellows 8-6. As with the completion of any tournament, it was time for the award ceremonies.

The Winning Team

MVP

Once the bling Yellows were convinced that they did not loose because of their jersey's blinginess, all the participants gathered for another customary group photo. I must say, they looked a very colourful bunch indeed.

Experiments....

2007-11-05T19:49:00.000+05:30

I shot this from my cousin's terrace. We got so bored watching TV, that we ended up on the terrace with my camera. Shot about 20 photos before realising that I could use the camera bag as a tripod to avoid camera shake. Shot this after the realisation.

Shutter Speed: 20 s
Aperture Value: f/16
ISO: 100
Program Mode: M
Focal Length: 59 mm (96 mm in 35 mm equivalent)

70 % Cocoa!!!!!!!!!

2007-10-28T11:20:00.000+05:30

That's the cover from which a piece of dark chocolate I ate came from. It looks characteristically dark with some golden highlights here and there. Although I've tasted some dark chocolate before, nothing comes even close to this!!!

The first sign that something's different about this came as I was trying to open the packing. A small, semi-circular piece has to been torn off one of the corners before it can be opened. Inside, there was a slim bar of dark chocolate surgically divided into 2 columns having 5 considerable sized pieces each, covered in a wonderfully textured silver foil. It was all so beautifuuly done, I almost didn't feel like tearing it open.

Almost. As I ripped open the foil, as aesthetically as possible, one single piece of chocolate peeked out. It wasn't as black as I expected it to be. Actually, it wasn't black at all. It was brown!!! It looked a lot like good old Diary Milk, except for the brand name on the chocolate.

But looks can be exceptionally deceptive. As soon as i broke one piece off and put it in my mouth, I realised 3 things-
1) The piece is too big
2) That was the most bitter piece of chocolate I have ever tasted!!

3) I got so high so soon that I don't remember what the other thing was.....

God bless the Pre-Columbian-Mesoamerican Maya for introducing to the world the greatest eatable west of the Dosa Line!! Wonder how a Chocolate Dosa would taste???

Shutter Speed: 1/6 s
Exposure Program: M
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 200 mm (325 mm in 35mm equivalent)

Cactus

2007-10-20T12:00:00.000+05:30

This was one of two cactuses (or cacti) we found near one of the places we took a breather inside Vandaloor Zoo. Think they were planted there for purely aesthetic purposes as it neither provides shade nor a place to lean on for the weary. This is a colour shot by the way.

Shutter Speed: 1/4000 s

Exposure Program: Manual

Aperture: f/6.3

ISO: 1600

Focal Length: 200 mm (325 mm in 35 mm equivalent)

For more pictures taken at the zoo, check out my flickr account.

Red On Green

2007-10-18T20:30:00.000+05:30

That's the stamen of a hibiscus flower found somewhere on the huge grounds of the Arignar Anna Zoological Park, more colloquially known as Vandaloor Zoo. Went there today with a bunch of friends from college. Strangely, this was the only flower on the plant. I was always under the impression that hibiscuses (or is it hibisci) bloom in multiples. Maybe the others got plucked...

Shutter Speed: 1/800 s

Exposure Program: Manual

Aperture: f/6.3

ISO: 1600

Focal Length: 200 mm (325 mm in 35 mm equivalent)

For more pictures, checl out my flickr account.

Power Cuts Aren't All That Bad......

2007-10-11T16:21:00.000+05:30

Shot this during one of those beautifully timed powercuts, at around 7 pm on a tuesday, when you're just lounging around after having read the newspaper twice and are bored out of your mind. It is a string of beads made by drying and rolling the stem of the tulsi plant backlit by a couple of lamps lit up everyday for as far as i can remember. There a lot of gods, semi-gods, demi-gods etc. in the Hindu pantheon. Wonder what the exact number is...............

Shutter Speed: 1/13 s

Exposure Program: Manual

Aperture: f/6.3

ISO: 1600

Focal Length: 200 mm (325 mm in 35 mm equivalent)

Perception

2007-09-28T20:24:00.000+05:30

This is how the landing between two floors in my apartments looks from the outside once the sun goes down. Its very strange how you start looking at things differently once you've got a camera in hand.... I've been looking at this same sight since kindergarden, but never really noticed how nice it looked. Also, for anyone trying to lie down on a dining chair in the balcony, put their feet up on the parapet wall and looking to use their knees as a tripod, it can get pretty uncomfortable very quickly.

Shutter Speed: .3 sec

Exposure Program: Manual

Aperture: f/6.3

ISO: 1600

Focal Length: 200 mm (325 mm in 35 mm equivalent)

The Three Capsicums

2007-09-27T20:01:00.000+05:30

The members in this group photograph from left to right in a clockwise direction are Red Capsicum, Green Capsicum, and Yellow Capsicum. A few minutes after this particular picture was taken, all three were brutally slaughtered to make a salad, along with Onion and Lemon. The salad tasted pretty good, although it was not all that photogenic.

Shutter Speed: 1/20 s

Exposure Program: Manual

Aperture value: f/6.3

ISO: 1600

Focal Length: 200mm (325 mm in 35 mm equivalent)

Woo Hoo!!!

2007-09-21T18:16:00.000+05:30

I finally have a DSLR!!! An eos 350d with a sigma 18-200mm lens to boot. I havent yet figured out how to shoot in the RAW format yet but still, all i can say is.......

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PS:Thanks to dpreview.com for the pics. :)

Of Hills and Peaks...

2007-08-30T18:37:00.001+05:30

This picture was shot somewhere near Munnar. Don't quite remember the name of the place but it was a national park or forest or reserve or some such thing. Turns out the Kurinji flower blooms here once in 12 years. It is scheduled to bloom sometime around September 2008 I think. (Please do check up the information provided here. I'm not too sure if i remember the dates correctly and am too lazy to find out). Some of the pics they had on the buses showed the whole fooking mountain covered in purple!!! The whole fooking Mountain!!! And some Nilgiri Tahr loitering around. The only fauna we managed to see, apart from wheezing and obese homosapiens in garishly coloured dresses 2 sizes too small, was a kite (or a hawk) hovering over the valley in the wind. Pretty impressive sight, though capturing it clearly in the digicam was pretty difficult as the SLR didn't have enough zoom.

The above photograph was shot on a Pentax SLR, sometime in the evening in the panorama mode. Think the peak is Anamalai.... Anybody who actually knows, please confirm. Thought it would look nice in b & w and hence did just that in photoshop.

Day One (Part II)

2007-08-12T12:18:00.000+05:30

We were allotted the air conditioned reference room over our central library. Some of you may say that an air conditioned room can’t be all that bad, but we on the inside know better. These are the characteristics of a typical ac classroom in our college – no fans, no windows to open, one side-wall is glass accentuating the greenhouse effect, and most importantly, NO AC. In those rare instances when the ac did work, the only noticeable effect was the sound coming from the vents. The drop in temperature was so minute as to be undetectable by all but the most sensitive thermocouple. In such a sweltering environment, our first class began. What happened in class is typical of all classes – each table had its own inaudible conversation up and running in a matter of minutes even though most were total strangers and the subject being taught nothing more than a vague background din. One announcement that really made us listen was that we would be served fruit juices and buttermilk in unlimited quantities along with snacks such as pakodas, biscuits, cakes etc. during the 10.30 am break instead of the coffee or tea (we are still not sure which one of those they serve as both taste and smell like each other) we are usually served.

After class got over at 5 pm, we picked up our luggage and went to the men’s hostel to pick our rooms. It turns out each room’s occupants had been predetermined, but since nobody even bothered to see that list and took any room they pleased, that hare brained scheme was done away with. We were under the impression that each room was to be shared by 4 people and hence were hoping to find 2 rooms side by side to accommodate 8 of us. Upon reaching the hostel, we discovered to our chagrin that each room had to accommodate 6 people and that every room allotted to our department was taken. Not quite every room. There was one room at the corner of two wings - Room Number 71 - which was used as a sort of dump yard for things such as broken beds, torn clothes, stolen sports equipment etc. Since that was the only room available, we took it and went about the tedious process of cleaning it. Cleaning took a lot of time, effort, and water. We decided to sleep on the floor as it would have been impossible to place 8 beds inside the room and have space to move around. We left the window open to aid in drying up of the floor. Little did we realise our folly then.

We then had to attend a programme designed to keep us entertained from 6.30 pm till around 9.30 pm when dinner would be officially served. The majority of the hostellers “chose” not to be entertained and stayed back in hostel. Out if curiosity and hoping to listen to some songs, I went for the programme. After a few cursory announcements, the programme began. It was an English movie - The Flight of The Phoenix. The moment I saw the title, I decided to head back to Room Number 71. I found my room mates heading for the mess hall to have dinner and I joined them. Dinner was almost identical to that day’s lunch. After dinner, we discussed the day’s happenings in various classes (we had 5 different companies training us in various aspects) in terms that one cannot use here without being flagged for inappropriate content. Sometime in the middle of that informative discussion, I fell asleep surrounded by hundreds of the second most feared creature on the planet...... the mosquito.

Barbed Wire

2007-08-09T17:28:00.000+05:30

This is, as its name suggests, a barbed wire fence shot on the way back from Swamimalai, one of the tallest hills around Yelagiri. It was late evening by the time we got back to flat ground after going up the hill. KK and myself were walking a little behind the other chaps, taking in the sights and a few photographs using his eos500, when he noticed the fence and said it would make a pretty picture. I dont really know if its pretty or not, but this is one of my favourite pics.

Day One (Part I)

2007-08-03T13:57:00.000+05:30

Due to various delays such as going out for dinner with the family, tiredness from the Kerala trip etc. packing of my bags wasn’t completed as per schedule on the previous night. Hence I had to get up about an hour earlier than usual (usual being 5.30 am) to supervise the packing, not because my parents weren’t competent enough to do it themselves, but because I wouldn’t have remembered what was where if I hadn’t seen it being packed. Once everything was safely tucked away inside the 2 bags, one bearing the logo MARS and another SNICKERS, and after getting bored of double and triple checking their contents, it was time to head for the bus stop.

This time, I was escorted to the bus stand by my parents. Not to ensure my safety against hyperactive pups and cud chewing, tail swishing bovines, but because they wanted to make sure I got onto the college bus and did not take the first auto to the CMBT. At the bus stand, I was pleasantly surprised to see a few chaps more than on an ordinary day, all of them accompanied by parents. Our stop being the first, students from the next few stops had turned up there hoping against hope that the whole farce had been called off. After introducing my unfortunate fellow inmates to my parents, and bidding them farewell, we waited for the bus. Usually, our bus turns up at around 6.30 am. Now the average time shown by all our watches was closer to 7 than to half past 6. Just as we began to believe that maybe the P.O.P. had been called off, we saw our bus rounding the corner at the end of the road and proceed at a stately pace towards our stop bringing back images of a horse drawn hearse with Chopin’s Funeral March playing in the background. Once the bus came to rest silently in front of us, we clambered aboard at a pace that a sloth would have considered slothful and placed our luggage in strategically vital spots to ensure that those daring to climb aboard at future halts would appear even more sluggish than we did. Thus, after securing our luggage, we chose our seats and did what we Josephites are renowned for, stare emptily at the road and slowly pass onto dreamland, the transition from one state to another being so smooth and slow as to be undetectable. After a dreamless 45 minutes, as we neared college, some part of our internal clock that got synchronised to this particular journey, woke us up on cue. As we passed the Sathyabama Gate, most of us were awake or in the process of waking up, we had our last look of the true masters of our potholed roads, the ubiquitous plastic-eating-cattle.

As we got down inside college, baggage and all, we felt a lot like what we did upon getting off that bus the first time a long three years back– clueless and doomed. For the first time, since my first week in college, I headed for one of the trolleys, around which my classmates usually congregate, which bring us our breakfast and got myself a plate and started eating breakfast. Although I don’t quite remember what was served that fateful day, I do remember that it still tasted as bad (objectively speaking, it was probably due to the fact that I am not used to eating that early) as the first time I ate it. With some help from friends who couldn’t find plates, I managed to finish breakfast. Then we just sat around and stared at each other, wondering what to do next. Then, in that wonderfully inaccurate way in which all vital information gets disseminated in college, word of mouth, we came to know that all “male” luggage had to be deposited in rooms 31 and 32 while the “female” luggage in room 34 and then head to our respective classrooms. This raised another question – what classrooms? Again, we learnt from the grapevine telegraph that each department had been divided into 14 batches and that each batch with the same number from all the departments would constitute one heterogeneous class. After marvelling for a while at the sheer joblessness of the person, who so dutifully split all the classes into 14 batches and the pointlessness of the whole exercise we decided to go to our allotted classrooms. I was in Batch 13 and for the first three days, we would be tutored by BKS Consultants (wonder why the plural? There was only one guy teaching….) along with batch 14, specialising in mathematics.

The Ear

2007-07-28T13:51:00.000+05:30

That's the Cochin Harbour (some part of it anyway...) from behind my athimbaer(paternal aunt's husband)'s right ear. It was during this particular boat trip that I realised that he's got one of the most photogenic faces in the family...Did some cropping, and applied some curves to this particular snap. This was shot at around 3 or 3.30 in the afternoon... Wonder why people say that colours look washed out in photos shot when the sun's high in the sky?

The Flying V

2007-07-20T13:15:00.000+05:30

This photograph was shot in Kumarakoam (hope the spelling's right) on one of the 5 days i spent touring God's own country, Kerala. This place is basically a huge lake-like, backwatery, sort of place, with a lot of birds and most importantly, WATER. The chaps here use the waterways like roads. Just like how every household has a cycle or bike in landlocked places, here, every house has a boat. Our oarsman (although ours was a motorised boat, i really like that term) actually pointed to a signboard in water that read "COCHIN 48KM"!!

This was shot using my mama(mother's brother if you dont know)'s Pentax SLR. I was sitting on the prow of our boat, to the great consternation of my paatti (paternal grandmother), and looking into the water through the viewfinder wondering how the rippling water would look on film (not too good as it turned out) when my cousin (think its onnu-vitta-thambi in tamil...), Sriram, shouted at me to look up at the birds flying in formation. I did, focussed unto infinity, and released the shutter. This was the result.

The colour cast and artifacts, I think, are because the chaps at the studio screwed up while scanning the negatives. Any of you know a nice place where you can get your negatives scanned without major screwups, do let me know.

Prologue

2007-07-16T21:11:00.000+05:30

It was probably one of those idle Tuesday afternoons, when most troubles in life are bound to blindside you, that we came to know. As usual, we were sitting in class discussing various topics such as India’s permanent membership on the UNSC, the effect of outsourcing, open sourcing, supply chaining and off shoring on the Indian Economy, the Iraqi insurgency, Zimbabwe’s inflation rate (it would have been funny had it not been so scary) and of course WORLD PEACE among other things, when the omnipresent JI entered our class with another one of those announcements and handed the written copy to the staff. As usual, the staff began reading it out to the class without much preamble. As usual, no one except those unfortunate souls in the first bench bothered listening. Unusually, the expression developed on their faces was akin to the one developed by the last surviving member of a species of deer caught in the headlights of a turbocharged Hummer V8 driven by Salman Khan. That’s when we knew something was wrong. Seriously wrong.

In the deathly silence that ensued, an incredulous voice spoke out, barely loud enough to be heard by the professor, “Could you repeat that please?”. Now with all our eyes boring into the professor, he/she re-read the announcement. We heard it alright, but it took a couple of minutes to fully register its implications. Once it sunk in, all hell broke loose. The ensuing scene was probably a lot like what the construction site of the Tower of Babel looked, and sounded, like after God cursed a united Humanity. The announcement went something like this – “The Management, Staff, and Students of St.Joseph’s College of Engineering would like to congratulate our men’s basketball ……..” Hold on. This isn’t it. Although I don’t quite remember the exact words, it went something like this – All students with less than 2 arrears had to attend a compulsory residential Placement Orientation Program (P.O.P.) to be held from 6.6.2007 till 19.6.2007. Those fortunate enough to have 3 or more arrears could enjoy life on the outside for those 14 days.

This announcement had the same effect a sledgehammer to the solar plexus would have had on most people. To me, it felt like a lobotomy. Without anaesthesia. This meant that I would have all of 5 days to spend with my dad. Someone up there definitely has grudge against me….

Those of us eligible were given forms to be filled and signed by our parents. After seriously contemplating boycotting the whole exercise, curiosity (the same trait that got the poor kitty killed) about life in the hostel got the better of us and a few forged signatures later, we were all set to enter hostel. After completing our semester exams, of course.

Logistics

Number of days = 14.

Hence, number of clothes required for a chap who has never washed clothes in his short life = 14 pairs of trousers, 14 shirts, 14 sets of underwear, 14 pairs of socks (or 7 for the olfactorily challenged), 3 to 5 sets of casual wear (read tees and shorts) and assorted items such as towels, hankies, cosmetic equipment etc.

The number of clothes I carried = 5 pairs of trousers (a pair for 4 days + 1 for emergency situations), 9 shirts (one for 2 days + 2), 7 sets of underwear (washing clothes can’t be all that difficult…), 2 sets of casual wear (washing clothes can’t be all that difficult…can it?), and the assorted items as required. The above items were strategically divided into 2 parts and placed in separate bags to aid in mobility. Thus fully equipped (different people equipped themselves differently depending upon various factors like bag size, ability to learn the art of washing clothes, olfactory insensitivity etc.), we set out to face just about everything P.O.P. could throw at us (maybe not the kitchen sinks…).

NOTE:
This is the first of a series of posts relating to our 14 day stay in hostel. Hopefully, you'll find it to be at least half as much fun as we did.
There may be terms (like OD, JI, etc.) which a non-Josephite might find a little difficult to comprehend. For explanations, use the cbox or the comments.

The Broken Bridge

2007-07-15T12:37:00.000+05:30

The Broken Bridge (real name unknown, at least to me), is located about a klick north of Elliot's (Besant Nagar) Beach. Once upon a time, it would have been a robust bridge used to cross the piece of beach, where one of the many pristine waterways of Madras joins the sea, without getting your feet wet. But now, its exactly what its name says- a broken bridge over a glorified and open sewer.

To get here, head to the northern most piece of road adjoining the beach. Once there, you should see a sandy road (more of a lane actually...) with a sign post reading "UROOR OLCOTT KUPPAM" (wonder where they got hold of such an aesthetically pleasing name??) and pointing vaguely towards a bunch of thatched huts. Drive on past these huts and you should find yourself at The Bridge, even if you are one of those directionally challenged chaps.

The impetus to get up at 4.30 am and drive all the way to The Bridge to see the sun rise was provided by my cousin Sriram and for company, we had Rajesh 'The Elder' Madhini who had thoughtfully purloined his younger brother's W810i to have a photographic record of our visit.

The first hurdle we faced was of course getting up early enough to see the sun rise. Especially on a holiday. Once we managed to do it, the next problem was driving. Although I love driving, it can become quite a handful when you have shifting sand beneath your wheels and a not quite lissome pillion rider. After getting through that hurdle with nothing more than a few skipped heartbeats, we finally sighted The Bridge. That's when we faced our final and biggest hurdle. The full blooded assault on our olfactory senses. But having travelled over other Madrasi waterways and boarding trains at Central, we were well equipped to handle this situation. After a minute or so of discomfort, the receptors in our noses developed a sort of specific insensitivity and we smelt nothing for a while.

Then we saw it... The Sun rising out of the sea! Looked very surrealistic with a few scattered clouds and the orangish glow. I was pretty surprised that a mobile phone camera could produce pictures with this clarity and colour reproduction. And i still am.

Blog Number One

2007-07-12T20:39:00.000+05:30

Good morning (or afternoon or evening) ladies and gentlemen. This is Srivatsan aka The Wats posting my first blog. One may wonder why I’m a little late in posting my first ever blog. There a good many reasons for that. Here are some of them….

Reason 1:

Microsoft Word 2003. It may sound strange but that particular piece of software is what really pushed me away from working on my first blog. Imagine waiting for approximately 10 minutes for the computer to install the software, only to get the message that a piece of something is missing from somewhere and that installation is not possible. EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU CLICK ON THE FOOKIN’ ICON!! Pretty demoralising I must say.

Reason 2:

Sometime later, I got to know the wonderful world of Torrents a little better. I had heard of it back in school, in hushed tones of course, from guys who had downloaded whole games for free. They tried explaining to me about how it worked. I didn’t understand it then and I still don’t. Using this little innovation, I proceeded to download Microsoft Enterprise 2007. After an uneventful download period, I began the tedious and time consuming process of installing it. As installation began, my insides began to churn. This was not the usual sinking feeling one experiences, the sort you get when you’ve flunked 5 out of your 6 internals and come home to see an open mark sheet from college and your mom watching professional wrestling. This was different, like you’ve just run over your girlfriend’s pet Chihuahua with your second hand Maruti 800... As installation began, I realised that I had spent over 800MB of my 1GB download limit and over 2 days sitting in front of the computer downloading the Polish version of Microsoft Enterprise 2007.Yes POLISH. Although it looked very humourous with its excessive use of Ws, Xs, Js, Cs and Zs, it wasn’t really funny once I realised that I actually had to use it. After seriously considering getting hold of an English-Polish dictionary, I decided to slug it out and proceeded to download the whole thing again (there goes my 1 GB limit...). This time making sure it was in English.

Reason 3:

After another uneventful installation, I was ready to start blogging. Unfortunately, a 14 day residential (compulsory) placement training program was held in college and I had to say goodbye to my computer for a while. After the completion of the program, placements began and we had to prepare our CVs. Word 2007 came to our aid, like the proverbial knight in shining armour, and we managed to finish our CVs in time and mail them for printing at a ‘remote’ location. (Basically, we had no idea who was going to print them, so we mailed it to everyone on our list, including ourselves, to print it in college if the need arose.) The second I began to type my first blog, the computer crashed. After crashing it a few more times I realised that our knight in shining armour was really a sort of dark knight (or black knight or some such thing). The computer crashed every time I struck a key on the keyboard while in Word 2007. Someone up there really has a sense of humour….

Reason 4:

By far the biggest and most significant of all the reasons I have given has to be my volatile memory and laziness. Most of the time, I just forgot that my computer wasn’t exactly fighting fit and in those rare instances when I actually remembered, I was just too lazy to do anything about it. Now that alls well with the computer, blogging can begin!! (Hopefully)