Street photography-Diwali markets

I finally worked up the nerve to go for my very first walk around to take photographs last night. Since it was the night before Diwali I knew I'd get some colourful shots of the local marketplace.
I almost chickened out though. Its one thing to take a few stray photos when you see something interesting. They are quick and you're just passing by so before anyone can figure out what you're doing, you're gone.

But when your camera is constantly in your hand, navigating your way around an EXTREMELY crowded market, dodging cars, people, dogs, and the glares of certain vendors in a place that does not cater to any tourists, a simple thing like taking (a lot of) photographs turns in to a daunting task.

Especially when you've never done proper street photography before. And even worse, when you're doing it with the help of a standard digital compact camera, which requires standing still for a some very long, painful seconds to avoid a blurry mess. Which is what the first few photos looked like-A blurry mess. But after about 10 minutes i stopped feeling self conscious and made it a point to aim, and stand perfectly still till i got the shot, no matter who was staring/glaring.

Here are a few of the decent ones...



Paper Lanterns and Paper stars with a light bulb in the center, along with fairy lights are used to decorate windows.












I love this one of this man with an armful of gold plated chains breaking his big notes with an ice cream vendor for change.









One of the fruit vendors even asked me if i worked for a (news)paper.





Most of these flowers have strong, heady fragrances, used either for Puja, decorating your door, the petals maybe seperated to make rangoolis, and to decorate your hair. When my Mom was a kid she'd sometimes tie a jasmine garland (known as a gajra) to her hair before she went to sleep and by morning her hair would smell heavenly.










Firecrackers...fortunately( or unfortunately, depending on how old you are) the amount of cracker bursting this year has been next to nothing. Usually the fireworks start a week before Diwali, but this time, even during the actual diwali day, all you can hear is a stray rocket, if anything.




The quality of 99% of my pics was substandard. But i was flying high from this whole experience by the time i ran out of batteries.

I headed home with a kilo of oranges, a garland of flowers, a box of fuljhadis(sparklers), and over a 100 digital photographs, that might not all be good enough to save, but they made me so happy:)

I can't wait to buy myself a good DSLR next year.

Gateway of India at Nariman Point.



Ferries to the Elephanta Caves, Alibaugh, or just a simple joyride in the sea start from here.


The day i took these pics was the day i was playing the tourist with a friend who was staying in mumbai for 2-3 months for her college project.

We were walking around Colaba Causeway(tourist hub,home of the famous-amongst non-mumbaikars-Cafe Leopold, and great junk jewellery shopping) and i asked if she wanted to see the Gateway cause it was just 5 minutes away, and she agreed.

So we reach Nariman Point and a lot of it was blocked because of repair work on and around Gateway. And i point in the direction of the (very prominent) Gateway of India, turn to my friend and say-"Its supposed to be here , maybe its behind this thing,"(and here i'm actually pointing at the gateway).

My friend gives me this strange 'are you ok' look and starts laughing. And only after 5 minutes did my mistake sink in.

Very embarasing...

Note: My brain may have altered what exactly happened cause i remember feeling very stupid afterwards because of my hand waving and self important air-of-tourist-guide declaration of "I'm sure the Gateway is around here somewhere," like it had gone for an evening walk or something.

Has this ever happened to anyone else, where you feel like you ought to know more about the places that are well known in your city, but which neither you nor anyone else you know who lives there actually visits?

Mumbai-Pune Expressway

BEST Sandwich

The BEST in a BEST bus stands for Bombay (well actually its Brihanmumbai now) Electricity Supply and Transport. It is more commonly referred to as b.s.t bus... People tend to drop the 'E'. They are usually red and white in colour and they are single decker buses although certain routes have double decker ones as well(my personal favourite). The routes cover the whole of Mumbai city, with bus stops convieniently located in virtually every road friendly area, and since the bus is a state owned enterprise, the tickets are heavily subsidised and therefore, extremely cheap.

If you want a list of all the bus routes there are many places where cheap little books with everyday information like this along with maps, important numbers etc are easily available at Railway Station (for local trains) book sellers and other places as well.

For more info on BEST buses you can go here

From Pretty to not-so-pretty

Mind your keedas

i feel like getting me a tel maalish

This picture was taken outside a mall in ksa...And i managed to take it with a lot of difficulty..Mostly cause since it is the loading/unloading area it was outside one of the (very crowded) mall entrances(Mostly crowded because of lots of very cute teenage boys trying to sneak into a family-only mall).

To whip my camera out in a place like that is out of the question, and my cell phone camera has this annoying mini flash feature that works even when you switch the flash off. So this had to be taken at night, close to mall-closing time with my dads cell phone camera(which kinda sucks compared to nokia). So its not like i had a choice, and i finally got the shot i'd wanted since i first laid eyes on it.

The thrill was kind of weird, but i had been in a strange state of mind, so i got my kicks out of doing something in a cloak and dagger way which made me feel like i was in a spy movie..i live for cheap thrills eh?and this one was for free...

A Wonder On Wheels

Happy Independence Day

I really wish i could have taken a better picture. Its a streetlight covered with a creeper plant somewhere in Pune. If it were upto me i would have stopped the car but i don't think my dad would've taken kindly to my wanting to stop on a narrow crowded street for a photograph.

cola-brellas

for the summer sun and monsoon downpour...

Picture on a box of Qahwah (its a kind of arabic coffee,thick,strong flavour,aromatic and absolutely delicious)

When i was younger, certain supermarkets would distribute free Qahwah during certain days of the week in tiny paper cups. The size of Qahwah cups are small, they have no handles, and they look like mini bowls. We have a Qahwah cup set somewhere at home.

Its usually had without milk. I like mine with a lot of sugar, or with dates. The taste takes some getting used to because of the consistency and the bitterness. Its also popularly known as Turkish coffee.

I'm a huge fan of coffee, in any way shape or form. My coffee kick started when i was a kid, in the form of a candy called Kopiko, which tasted exactly like strong sweet coffee., andI used to eat it in place of chocolate(which i dont really enjoy all that much).

When i started college, i officially started having coffee by mixing a heaped spoonful into my milk. And i sweetened it with condensed milk.Not very healthy,i know.But it tastes soo good!! And I went from one mug, to two, and eventually my daily coffee intake became 5 mugs!(or was it more?) And each mug was around 300ml of milk! You do the math.

Coffee kills your appetite, and i had pretty much stopped eating. Not that i did it to lose weight or anything. Condensed milk isn't exactly fat free. Mom was really worried cause when she refused to buy me any more coffee I'd just go out and have some.

Then, during one of my 'vacations' to ksa, mom got rid of all the coffee in the house, and i couldn't go out to buy any by myself.

That was a really difficult time for me. I went through withdrawal symptoms., and i was cranky and depressed and frazzled all the time.I mean imagine going from 5 mugs a day, to none!

Whenever i'd pass by a vendor or a coffee place I'd make a sad face and look longingly at my mother. But she was pretty strict about it. And i slowly started regaining my appetite. She finally let me off the hook after about 4-5 months.

So that was it. Now, although i still drink the stuff, I've learnt to control my intake to 2 mugs a day.I've even had to cut down the sugar from 2 heaped teaspoonfuls to one level teaspoon per mug. Diabetes runs on both sides of the family so i gotta be careful.

The only sad thing is during exam time, i have friends who rely on the stuff to help keep them awake, but coffee relaxes me and ends up making me feel woozy. I'm actually immune to caffeine now.

Inside Churchgate station

balloon men

The balloon men of juhu beach

I just noticed this a couple of months ago...Eggs that come with their own date of birth and death...i wonder who came up with this one...and why no one thought of it sooner.