Charcoal sketching

Found a new interest in sketching.
Here is some of the results.

 

Magpie Robin drawn 

 

  

An attempt at a self potrait but tried to potray emotions too.

 

 

Bye to Connectivity!!

The e-Age communication technologies!
Can we stay without them? Can we throw them out of our lives.
In any crowd of people a large majority can be be found browsing social network on their smart phones, chatting through public IMs, lost in conversation over mobile phone and much more.

Off late I began to notice how engrossed I was in these. I was having my phone around every moment of the day. The first thing I did after switching on my computer was logging into the IMs and Twitter. Every few minutes I took a glance at the phone for a SMS, a mail , a SN alert or a call that I might have missed.

Its a virtual life we are living. Talking to people thousand miles away and ignoring the life at hand. Its a partial attention given to the task at hand. The cons are endless. But at the same time we cannot shy away entirely from the communication technologies. For now we need this devil.

So I decided to try a experiment. A social experiment. Perhaps a personal test.

I decided for abstinence from all forms of connectivity for a few days.
 No phone, no SMS, no IMs, no Facebook, no Twitter...
And will be blogging each day's experience. (yes, I am not shutting out on Blogging)

Day 1

The start was not hard. Switched off the 2 mobile phones. The empty pocket was feeling too weird, so I left one of the mobiles in my pocket in its switched off state. However, I kept taking my mobile out of pocket out of habit, only to be reminded by the dead screen. I was indeed quite into it.

Back home refraining from Facebook, Twitter and IMs was harder than it first seemed. Still managed to hold myself so far. Now only time can tell how this goes.

Day 2

The exercise seems to be sinking in. I did not reach for my phone every few minutes. I did leave one in the pocket to keep it 'feeling alright'. The downside were there too. I had hard time doing the work which would have been easier with a simple phone call. Also I started missing the people I used to be in touch always through these technological boons. Wonder if its just going to end as a self-harrasment in the end.  For now I am going to continue with it.

Day 3

Today, being a weekend, was harder than the other days. I found myself putting effort to keep my mind off what I am missing out on. The original objective of getting rid of communication for reducing distraction from the things at hand was somewhere lost. Also an additional downside is that I forgot a birthday of a dear friend. I totally relied on Facebook for those. I think I need to have a better alternative. However, things did seem to work in way. I took a hard time tracking down one of the mobile phone. Not using it for the few days had put it out of my mind completely. A definitive victory I would say.. for now.

Day 4

Definitely a better day. The whole day had been busy in shifting house. With all the packing and unpacking the phones were out of mind. The internet connection will take a few days to be shifted to the new location. So that rules out the temptations of the internet based connectivities - twitter, facebook, gtalk, yahoo, skype. On a brighter note, now that all these are not eating up on my time, I am finding a lot of spare time to catch up on those long pending 'to-do' items. Made quite a lot of progress on a book that I had been reading at a snail's pace so far. 

Day 5

Things started going bad. My parents got worried not being able to reach me. Called up a few friends, they in turn called more people starting a whole chain reaction of calls. The word reached my office mail and also my roomie. I am quite determined to keep this going; hence I used a pay phone to call my mother. Wonder if I am being stupid.. Nevertheless, I explained that things are fine and I am staying of mobile for a while. Hopefully that will take care of the whole furore.

Day 6

The problems starts in office front too. People started complaining they are unable to reach me. I hardly used to get a official call in a week on my cell phone. Wonder why this sudden rise in the incoming traffic. Also can a person shun these things completely in today's world? I think not. Atleast not the mobile phone. We are too used to be able to reach others through a few button clicks. In a simple summation these technologies bring problem both ways - whether you use it or stay away from it. Though the things are getting difficult I will stick to the regime for a couple of days more.

Day 7

Things got out of control today. My manager tried to reach me on urgent matter and had to call up a number of people. As a result of this, I was meeting people at every corner asking me to report immediately. Hence, comes the end to this experiment. I understood though it is possible to minimize the use by conscious effort, it is not possible to entirely do away with these things. Atleast not the mobile phone.

Final verdict: Its definitely a easier and calm life without these communication. Only the present moment affects you as nothing can reach you from distance. But we cannot afford to lead a cut-off life in today's world. 

Photowalk in Pottery Town

Date : 4th March 2012
Members:Me, Abhish Lohithan & Rajat Mohanty

I and Rajat was new to photography and we decided that going out on photowalk was probably the best way to learn.
We didnt want it to be too elaborate, least we lose sight of our original purpose. A little bit of searching on the web gave me this lovely location. It had all the promise of a good photography location. We decided to give the place a shot.
On that day I started at 11 in the morning. I was still not clear on how to get there. From Majestic bus stand I took a bus to Shivajinagar bus terminus. Once I reached there it became clear to me that the Blogs and forum posts had misled me to believe the place to be close to Shivajinagar bus stand.
Rajat met up with me at the bus terminus and together we enquired on how to get to pottery town but not many recognized the name. This was the digital age so we flipped out our mobiles and hunted a few more blogs, a homework that we should have done before taking the leap. It was then I found out that Pottery Town is too inconspicuous a place and the nearest prominent location is known as Fazer Town. This was something the bus conductors could recognise and hence we hopped on to one that could take us there.
From Fazer town its just a 15 minutes walk. The way is pretty easy to find.
On reaching the place we found that its nothing more than a small locality of some 20 or so houses, each of which doubled up as a shop cum workshop. This was quite not upto our expectations.
Instead of waiting for Abhish, we decided to take a stroll around the place. The area was pretty small, however the way people gave casual glances at our cameras confirmed that photographers frequent here.

Once Abhish reached we prepared our gear and approached a shopkeeper. Its was the first on on approach from the road. The man was kind enough to permit us to watch and shoot while worked and informed that he would be making fresh set of clay glasses shortly.

We shot at the pot and pitchers drying and also the ones already prepared and put up for show in the shop. Once the shopkeeper started making new pots we had some really dynamic shots. The light inside wasn't adequate and we could not use the flashes too, least we disturb the man.

Fast focus prime lenses are the best options here. Unfortunately I didn't own one, and had to make do with a wide angle.

Soon we were content with the shot we had and we left the shop after thanking the man. It was a short outing but a good one considering the shots that we got.

My land, My voice, My words: Ragging on facebook - a vulgar story by media chan...

My land, My voice, My words: Ragging on facebook - a vulgar story by media chan...: "In a social networking site, a person can send chat message to anyone only if he/she is a friend of the person. Now, if anyone uses abusive..."

Weekend Escape : Safari adventure in the Bannerghatta national park

Yesterday I went out with three friends for some safari fun in Benarghata National Park. Ever since coming here in Bangalore, the days ha been spent in idling and lull. So I personally was quite excited about spending a day out. However having read and heard others experience in such national parks I didnt hold much expectation for sightings. The day was bright, a perfect weather for a day out and that was all that mattered in the morning.

We reached the place by the time the clock struck mid day. The ticket cost us only 160 rupees and included a safari ride and entry to a small zoo, quite contrary to our premonitions built from the stay in the expensive city of Bangalore.

After a short wait we boarded the bus and found ourselves seats at the back. The rear window and to side windows offered us ample view. The only thing we missed in this perfect setting was a camera.

Right at the beginning of the journey we were greeted with sightings of a pair of chitals, spotted with white marks on bright honey drop coat. Moving on the jungle trail, we met a family of Sambar (antelope) crossing the road. One of them, probably the alpha male, with a magnificent display of horns, stopped midway. It gazed in our direction for sometime, as if to ensure the safety of the others, until the whole group had crossed. We had more sightings of the chittals and Sambars . A Gaur bison was seen standing idle, all the muscle hidden under a glistening dark hide, with enough power of tipping the bus. Seeing it standing alone, forlorn and lonely, I could only imagine what a grand sight it would have made to see it among a full herd.

A crocodile was seen basking at a distance on a rock on the side of a stream. A nilgai (antelope) passed by us, catching our attention with that breathtakingly beautiful hide. I then understood why it was one of the most coveted prize hunt in India.

The scenery around offered no lees a feast to the eyes. We were going through a narrow trail amongst troughs and crests of a plateau region. Large and ancient trees around with a small slow stream flowing through the jungle only to join a sort of naturally formed water reservoir. Once upon a particular high spot we found ourselves looking a marvelous sight of the whole valley, forests broken by the array of high rocks.

We then came on to an area, so as to say, 'infested' with bears. I saw about a score of Indian Sloth bears rumbling about or siting idle . Some of them were curious enough to come over to the bus when we stopped and take a few curious sniffs and peeks at the bus tyres and doors. The bears seemed harmless at a casual glance but a closer look would reveal its arsenal of the talons on those large paws. A particular one seemed quite unhappy with our approach, reacting with grunts and snorts and a strange swaying motion with its head.

The biggest excitement of the day came from the big cats. We caught sight of a pride of lions, 5 lionesses resting out in the shade of trees and a solo lion sitting a bit apart from the rest. They seemed to hold very little interest in us, preferred to rest in the shade rather stroll over to us. Looking around from that spot we also found a white tiger, deep in sleep, in a peculiar pose, sticking a hind leg up in air. The camouflage was so amazing that we hadn't noticed for all the time we had been there looking at the lions when the tiger was just a few yards away. All the shouts of the children or the excited chatter of other co passengers couldn't rouse it, all movement we saw was a casual twitch probably to shake away a fly or two. We were busy gazing at this magnificent beast when we discovered a second tiger, a younger one with a bright stripped fur, lying low under a bush, watching us silently. I reflected in horror that it was actually stalking us, and had this meet been under different circumstances of me being on foot instead of the safe haven of the well protected bus the day would have ended in bloody encounter.

We were about to move on from that spot, leaving behind the two tigers and the lion pride, but suddenly the stalking tiger seemed alerted by something else. Out of a bush suddenly came along this huge white tiger, a magnificent beast in its prime days. It by far the largest one i had ever seen in my life, including all of the ones i had seen in the numerous zoos i had visited and the stuffed ones i had seen in museums. The beast truly seemed regal in its movement, strolling casually, taking little care of our presence. We were in his dominion, at his mercy. A second bus have had caught up with us and was just rolling in behind us when this lordly tiger went unto its front, freezing it and the passengers within with a soft growl. Even the little unruly children were frozen with fright. The tiger then jumped onto a road side raised rock, easing itself into a royal posture. It seemed the king of the jungle on its throne. It seemed to be enjoying all the subsequent attention, the flurry of flashing cameras busy to capture every bit of the majestic scene. That went on for a while but soon got bored of the whole show, gave a huge yawn, displaying its array of those huge fangs. A bite would have ripped through all my scanty flesh and easily ground the bones within. With a short leap it went off into the depths of the woods. A lord tired of the pestering of the subjects.

We started once again only to meet with more tigers, some lazily lying as if on a weekend rest, one seen doing the ceremonial territorial marking, though that effort seemed futile with so many tigers present in that reserve. I had crossed the dozen mark only to give up counting and employ the attention to capture every bit of the sight of the magnificent beasts, en effort to make up for the absence of a camera. We came across another tiger, unmistakably a Royal Bengal by the rich yellow shiny coat and the heavily built body, as if a wilderness counterpart of a body builder, pacing along impatient with something.

The journey then came to an end, leaving us dazed with the experience. The wild seemed to call us to return visit the place and we made up our mind to come back for more, to have a greater adventure of staying in one of the jungle lodges in the reserve.

The end of the journey brought us to a small zoo. However after all the grandeur of the day we were little taken by all that in the zoo. Few of the notable ones we saw in the saw in the zoo were a few leopards, though they were also there in the jungle we didn't get a single sight of these highly stealthy beasts of prey. We also saw a large collection of snakes including a particularly interesting King Cobra. A few imported animals were also there in the zoo like emu, ostrich and zebra.

We covered the whole span of the small zoo in a short time and started back home, running the memories of the day in our mind. A day of adventure, a day of fun, a day alive...

Digest for the absent period

Well for more than a year i had been away from blogging. There were numerous achievements and failures in this period.

The most notable of these is securing of a job, not a exceptional one that one aspires for but something to sustain and build oneself upon. Soon after that I also came to the end of my graduation days. It ended with a bitter note of having tussle with a couple of close friends, a rift not mended even to this day. My graduation results also came out real poor, a ghost that come back to haunt me again and again in future, posing problems in my career.

I had content myself in working on personal development after the college days, building some necessary skill set. However the joining letter came in much earlier than I anticipated, thus putting an end to all such plans. I had to go over to Trivandrum for work training posting. The travel guides said it to be "God's own country", and I fast fell in love with the surrounding. I quickly transformed myself and adapted to the new environment, putting back all past bitterness and worked for personal glory. For a short time I succeeded in it. Accolades started coming in and began to get recognized. I faced quite a few stumbles but came along to overcome them. On end of training i got my first posting as Bangalore. A dream city for most software professional, but on seeing the city i found it disappointing. The place lacked a distinct culture of its own. The people were totally self oriented and quite distant. Out here one had to look over the shoulders always, watch out for one's own back. The work environment made up for these disappointments. I got to work on a development assignment of mobile softwares, quite congruent to what i wanted.

Hopes of Second chance

In the past few weeks of walking down the blind alley, having nothing but blighted hope and adverse fate, I was doused in rays of exhilarations. A series of fortune events ebbed away the agglomeration of dashed hopes. A expeditious awakening brightened me. Some of the credos go to a movie flick. I do wish now to put in effort once more, something that had long gone astray from my path of life.