Ja Bhadve Ja

Two drunk men are standing talking about nothing in particular, when one of them is bothered by a handcart… he glares at the guy behind the hand cart, and the other man consoles him, thus preventing a fight. The other man draws him aside, the hand cart moves ahead, maneuvering around a Qualis that honks impatiently at the other drunk man, who glares at the Qualis driver, and who is consoled by the guy who glared at the hand cart, thus preventing a fight. The hand carts winds its own way through the crowded streets, as does the Qualis, only in the other direction. In the background is a veritable moving palace, drawn by twenty bulls with red circles painted around their eyes. Inside sits the Ganpati idol belonging to the richest Mandal in Pune, the seventh richest religious establishment in the world, including the temple at Kanyakumari and the Vatican City. The crowds throng around the Ganpati, ears, tusks and crown glittering with gold and jewels, but there is a lot of movement of people into a side street, their backs to the glimmering electrical chariot, away from the processions, which is pretty strange. The Ganpati is supposed to fulfill wishes, where could this steady stream of people possible be headed? Obviously, the chronicler investigates.

Cigarette shops and bars litter the area, but that is not the major concern here. There are dead looking empty black buildings, where people are sleeping drunk, vomit leaking out of their mouths, and while others sit and smoke or sleep for the night to pass, since the next morning, the procession begins again. There are men dressed in white handing out back and leg massages – malish as they call it… the price is pretty cheap, two bucks – two bucks for some unit of massage known only to the massager. The crowd meanders through, all of this, and suddenly, there is light. Cigarette shops and bars litter the area, but they are all more lively. There are yellow buildings, with clothes out to hang. Young girls chatter away and look mischievously at the crowd. Boisterous men gesture enthusiastically as they wave around their cigarettes, bleary eyed men walk out of the bars, consoling each other from fighting over trivial issues, and strangely enough, there are a lot of young men around, walking slowly, with tired but satisfied smiles – no – grins on their faces.

I walk around with a smirk on my face, and look around. From the window on the third floor, a woman dressed in a perfect oriental costume – straight from the sets of Memoirs of a Geisha stares right back. I wonder if it is a part of some old tradition of this place to dress up women in exotic costumes. The women here are all, in fact, dressed up in various ways… it is like a fashion show, Arabic, Assamese, Victorian, and Punjabi seem to be the most popular trends going around, but nothing can beat the western look – or at least the look attributed to the west in the 80s bollywood movies. Knee length skirts, a blouse, and a garish red lipstick… most of these skirts move up the thighs for a while before dropping down, something the men find very entertaining.

I was fascinated… Bhudvarpet in Pune was a sight… mostly because it was so lively, unlike the shabby and demented look of Mumbai’s kamatipura.

Personally, I was beyond excitement or disgust, it was fascinating, and yes, I admit, oddly uplifting, to walk around in an environment where the very atmosphere was charged with some sort of taboo gratification… because here it was not just a fuck and pay thing… there was an aura around the entire transaction, there was some wooing, some selection, even some romance involved in the entire affair.

There were famous windows, from where the most renowned (the words used to describe was “the best of the lot”, but I guess, I am being more fair here) prostitutes used to peek out and there were crowds below waiting for that one glimpse of her. She, would earn a lot irrespective of her looks and abilities only because of her reputation, and some weird kind of arousal generated because of the prospects of fucking someone who showed just a glimpse of herself to a hungry audience every now and then.

The middle aged whores dressed in exotic ways, and it is funny to see an Egyptian goddess sitting most invitingly at the door or a Mallika Sheravat look-alike in a sarong and a top smiling and waving at the passing crowd. There were the demure girls, probably newbies, or trained to act innocent, I could not make out which, staring shyly at passersby with dilated pupils. The most popular activity, was however, the group flirting, where a bunch of prostitutes were surrounded by an even bigger bunch of men, with some bargaining and negotiations known only to them going on.

Up ahead, after another turn, the army and the police were struggling to keep a large crowd waiting for a glimpse of the Ganesha under control, and we were walking towards it. The microcosmos around me was fading, but before it left its hold over me, managed to cheer me up with the most pleasant parting gift of laughter. You see, some over forthright man tried to grope a girl, and she publicly insulted him, making everyone else laugh. What interested me really was, that even for a whore, calling someone a “pimp” is a really really bad insult.

Insects at Khardi

All are caps from my videocam... so imagine all this in motion ok, I've got dragonflies in extreme close up taking off and landing... pretty cool... the first three are all pics of dragonflies... will later vlog a few clips, also of one totally insane guy putting a live dragonfly in his mouth...








That's a water beetle... static camera, them flitting around a lot, this is the clearest frame I could cap... would make a nice background for the credits of some movie







This is a photo of three insects. Yes three, look carefully man...







There is a grey one camouflaged behind the rock, there is the red one which flies like a helicopter, and then there is the crab like spider...

morekut

Orkut cute is a nice program to change the color, and do other things like scrap a lot of people at once, reply in communities and suchlike, highly customizable, orkut only browser, is a stand alone application, but is difficult to use. Scrapboy is also good, but unfortunately it throws up the scraps of everyone in your friendlist by default, turning them off is a hassle, so the best way out is to combine an orkut toolbar with greasemonkey. Greasemonkey is a really cool plugin for firefox and opera that allows you to execute javascripts on webpages... pretty nice and universal... should try it out. Ap exploring firefox plugins now, will blog about them.

Psychadelicia - camera tossing variants

Ok original pictures taken on mobile camera, no photoshop retouching, although most of these effects can be created in photoshop, still make itneresting pictures. Pressed the joystick while vigourously shaking the cameraphone instead of setting a timer and tossing it. If you want to try this out too, put it in night mode, that's the equivalent of setting a long exposure on a mobile camera... this way, you get a lot more control over your images... streaks, circles, long streaks and sudden curves... whatever... really cool way.

















Headed out to Khardi for a two day vacation... will blog all about it when I come back. Till then, Sayonara... oh, btw, today, bunch of us had some beer, sent a friend off, waited at the airport for a couple of hours for another friend (atrocious parking rates, we did not park at all), Saw Sushmita Sen from like six feet away, (damn tall she is), came back home late, now leaving at three in the morning to send that friend off THEN headed to Khardi by a seven fifteen train... so sayonara now... will play unreal all night long

more photoshop experiments

Photos are of a friend named Sandeep

more photoshop experiments

Photos are of a friend named Sandeep

Star Wars: The attack of the terribly bored photoeditor

Come on you half mechanized heartless tinman with a fucked up family... lesse what you got





I have a message for Obi Wan... tell him that his padwan has gone from killing children to destroying planets





Most feared Dark Lord ever my ass... Sauron can kick your butt - and that with ONE eye





Watch and Learn Guys





Wipeee! Hyperspace! There goes everything Einstein said...





No matter how much ILM tries, they cannot beat Leia in the golden bikini, and Jabba's having all the fun... we need to go there






Hey nice infrastructure to design your hairdo princess!





A big bad beast is going to eat up all those people there... shouldn't we be going to watch?





the chosen one and you didnt even ask Lucas to give you a cool lighstabre?





Hmmm... how does a knight move on a circular chess boad?





Kabab mein haddi





Weren't you the one who fooled around with the Mona Lisa?

I donno

Exams over. Three sems down - half way through journalism. I am now HALF A JOURNALIST. Yeah right. I am also half an advertiser.... going to be two thirds of it before I become a complete journalist. Arty party farty blog tomorrow no photoshopping today.

for what its worth - more photoshopping

Bunch of kids around an old jeep

Pretty bold and energetic kids at that. The old jeep caught my eye, and I was photographing it when the kids came upto me and asked me to take their photograph... which I did... then they started clicking each other, and good ones at that, despite it being the first time they held a mobile cam in their hands. Then they even directed me... how to sit in the jeep, how to look at the camera... and my friend.



The really tiny kid was responsible for this whole bunch of goats... that's more responsibility that I am willing to take up.

























Except for the goatherd, the kids are from an orphanage...