Sometimes back, while in Lyon, France, I went out in the city for site seeing. There is a small silk industry, somewhere near the city hall area. All of us went in to see the place. Now the place is to be frank has its own limit to interest the people. There are couple of big frames, on which the silk clothes are put up and stretched. Now, on these stretched clothes then, hand made paintings etc are done. So, in short it will interest only those who are either in the business or in this art form. I do not belong to either of the categories. So, just a quick look inside and I was out of the place, while others were still busy in discussion on various subjects inside. Outside, there, I found another person of similar wavelength as mine. So, the kid of my friend was sitting on stairs just across the road all alone.
One look and any body would say, the kid is unhappy, probably angry on somebody and even sad. But as they say, what appears is not always true. He was all busy contemplating his next moves and generating new ideas of mischievousness, they he can do, once we are back on the roads towards the next destination.
But all in all, this is one of the most interesting clicks I have taken up till now.
This is an ad (available on youtube on Creative Insight media channel) for the most recent product royale atmos by the Asian paints. More details here: https://www.asianpaints.com/atmos
Now the ad hints at the kind of unimaginable pollution that resides inside our houses. When I came across this ad, I made fun of it. Thought about it as a new gimmick introduced as Diwali is approaching.
But then in my personal life I started realizing few things. Our apartment is roadside. Naturally, the heavy traffic brings in loads
of dust and pollution in through the window. Results are inevitable. A
couple of members of the family are suffering with cuffs entering in the
zone of Bronchitis. Young people do not realize it as easily as old as
well as very young ones suffer. We do not realize, how quietly this dust
enters our house and gets settled at very unimaginable areas. Just try to clean you fans not regularly but say after 3 weeks. The amount of dust that settles and the extent to which the fine particles they are, makes me some times wonder, what air are we breathing. No
wonder, the ads like this have started hitting our Televisions.
We had couple of small plants in the gallery. Never really bothered earlier to take care of those plants. Once in a while, would water them. To add, loads of pigeons and crows make the life of these plants a living hell, I guess. With so many adverse conditions around, it must be really difficult for these plants to survive. Then, recently, I came across some people who are in farming, gardening, making manure out of waste etc. A couple of talks with them made me realize, why shouldn't I also try my hands with it. Its not altogether a new thing for me. Had a big garden, way back some 20 years ago, maintained whole and sole by us.
So, I decided to try it one more time. Got some marigold flowers. Put them in a couple of flowerpots, covered under soil. Kept watering. This kind of triggered enthusiasm in my mother too. She saved some seeds(I guess) of bittergourds, recently cooked at home. Put them in a couple of other pots. We made some manure at home too. Consistency paid off. Slowly and steadily both the Marigold plants as well as bitter gourd started growing. While the marigold plants grew in length vertically, the bittergourd one grew vertically, then horizontally and now it is growing in anywhich direction possible for it. Above picture is a result of these efforts that a couple of bittergourds have grown and ready to eat soon.
This is actually a secondary advantage. The prime one, is that these plants have kind of created a filter which cuts down loads of dust particles, unknowingly entering our home. A significant change is observed in the health conditions of the family members as a result.
But, now I am not going to stop at level only. I will go ahead and try to make the house atmosphere absolutely clean. These plants will help me to an extent to do that, but to reach an ultimate level of safe and clean air condition, now I am going to make use of this new product Royale atmos. I am sure, it will bring about a drastic change in the overall quality of life.
Changing conditions out of our control may not be always possible, but we still can do a lot to improve things inside our premises.
One fine morning, happened to get up early. Too early and fresh, to feel like going for a quick hike. So, decided to reach the nearest hill of Ghoradeshwar, near Talegaon. A place with in reach of 15 minutes drive. A beautiful morning. Surprisingly, I was not the only person there. In fact, many of the people had already finished their climb and were now returning to the base. Then started our climb and half way through it, Sun started playing Peekaboo. Decided to capture the moment and here it is. Now, that I am revisiting the picture, am just wondering what exactly is shining at a far away horizon. Is that the real Sun, just rising out of the sleep, or the one which is already shining in the sky? No clues really!
Weather forecast system in India really seems to be a joke. It almost never come true. They say, it is a science. But, I have now started doubting it. If weather forecast is a science, then Astrology must also be. Recently there was heavy rainfall in Mumbai. I wrote a post about the same here.
I don't really remember receiving any warning about such a heavy downpour from the weather forecast department. If at all they gave warning, it definitely did not reach the common man. What happened that day of 29th August, was once in a lifetime experience for many. Now, the weather department said, the next day i.e. August 30 is also going to be heavy rainfall. They infact requested everyone to not to leave their home if not necessary. All the school, colleges, offices closed down that day. I remember staying back at home the next day, waiting for that downpour, just to experience how it feels safe at home while watching a heavy downpour. But I don't remember, even a drop of rain falling down that day.
Now this week end, once again the department released a warning, about heavy rainfall, just like that of August 29 to take place with in next 72 hours. Now, this warning came I guess on Saturday. A news about the same appeared in Maharastra times on Monday. I was about to believe and get scared and to make arrangements of food and necessary things for next 3 days and stay at home, but then I saw by mistake the comments made under the news. It has kind of relieved me and took off all my worries. Its almost 72 hours over for the warning news I heard, and now while I am writing this post, some rain has started outside. It will interesting to see, if this gears up and turns into another heavy downpour.
But I can resist form sharing the news and a couple of comments reflecting the general attitude of people towards weather forecast. The news is in Marathi, I hope you get a hang of it.
So, the kid while on his way to the school, with his father, is all in a good mood. His father is happy, as the school dropping task of the day seems easy today. Suddenly, things change. Just round the corner of the school, the kid decides to play a different game. He stops frozen at a place, giving no clue behind this sudden change in the ongoing good plan. The father tries all possible ways of persuasion manageable in public place and broad day light. But things doesn't seem to change.
Finally, the father tries the last possible method known to him.
He moves a bit distance away towards the school, all the time looking at the kid. And then, from the pocket, he takes out one thing that may lure the kid to shift his base. He points the thing towards the kid.......
and clicks!!
Yes, that works. Just the thought of getting clicked excites the kid and he moves from his place running towards the father, giving all different poses on the way. Yes! Photos and photography are the new ways of persuasion for today's kids.
Somewhere enroute AlibaugfromMumbai, took a halt for breakfast. While waiting for every one to gather to begin the onward journey, tried killing time by taking some snaps around. There I found, this construction of these houses for the Gods, made by the mortal humans. Beautiful design and the steps to climb up for the God, are the things which caught my attention. I am just wondering, if it is the Coromandel King Superior cement or the Marble, used in their construction.
Last Saturday, early morning, I went to a garden nearby my home. It was a lazy Saturday, I guess. While moving around in the garden, I came across this set of benches arranged in one of the corners of the garden. On one of those benches, two puppies were lying lazily. It was an awesome moment worth capturing. As I reached near them and took out my camera to take a snap, a kid from no where came in the seen and disturbed that lazy moment. He started pushing the puppies around. As a result, the position where in the two puppies were closely lying together lazily and were creating a beautiful moment was disturbed. One of the puppy, just moved a bit aside and went back to sleep mode. The other one, was an interesting character. It was lazy no doubt, to get up and do anything, but it was attentive enough to look up and give a beautiful pose. The pose compensated for the moment I lost a couple of minutes ago. Those are some deep eyes with loads of expressions hidden inside.
I visited Marseille sometime back, while in France. A couple of reasons to visit the place. I was keen to have a look at the sea at some coast of Europe. That's why earlier I tried to touch a sea coast on the north western side of the Europe at Delft. Unlike my expectation, the sea at this coast was rather bland and uninspiring. Ofcourse, it might be a wrong day to visit the place. But, we have always seen in different movies a blueish shade of color of the sea water, that awestruck you. I was in search of such a sea. And finally I found it in the Mediterranean sea. Just at the southern coast of France is this place, which kind of play a role of connecting point between France and some of the neighboring countries including a few from Africa. It can directly connect France through sea route to Algeria and Tunisia. I found people from all these countries living together in the city.
Another reason why I wanted to visit the place, was it being a connection with Vir Savarkar. One of the legendary revolutionary from India. Once caught in England and being brought back to India via sea route, he escaped through the toilet hole on the ship and swam through the rough weather of Mediterranean and landed at Marseille. Of course he was caught later on. But his attempt is marked as an attempt of great escape in history. I wanted to know, if there is any symbolic presence of this adventure in the place. But apparently there is none.
The sea as I said, fulfills the imagined blue sea version. I couldn't resist trying to capture the depth of sea. So, a full zoom snap of nearby island form with a nearing ferry is captured. But all said and done, the sea is blue to the core. Simply Amazing
Sometimes back, went to one of the famous forts near Pune, called Torna. The route to the top is slightly difficult, if you are not used to climbing. But otherwise, a very interesting route to the top. It is surprising, that even after been there many a times earlier, we lost our way and took a very long and odd route to climb up. Now, even if we try, we can not find that way again. Anyway, once up, it is full of scenic beauty. Look anywhere and the place mesmerizes you. Couldn't hold myself from capturing all of it in one frame with the help of this panoramic shot Enjoy the moment.
This is one of the snaps taken at the Mumbai airport. It has been sometime now that this new architecture has been presented. But, even today, if we visit this airport, it definitely makes you take a minute and wonder about the magnificent architecture of the place. I really like this place and am always in an awe of the place. When ever I look at these huge pillars, they remind me of the Bodhi tree, under which Buddha sat and meditated and gained the knowledge of the world. Not that I have seen Bodhi tree, but the way it was always pictured in our school textbooks, the structure goes very close to that. Just check this picture for instance.
And the huge very old style watch put just next to the pillar makes the snap even more wonderful. I would surely suggest you just to visit this place for the awesome architecture presented to us at the Mumbai International airport.
