Silver Lining

Antique Cars

2008-08-21T22:43:00.005-04:00

I had some time on my hands on Saturday and decided to visit the Longfellow Grist Mill in Sudbury.
On my way there, I spotted some antique cars parked and decided to pull over.
The place was the Riley's Roast Beef in Nobscot (between Framingham and Sudbury).
ow Nobscot is a town I had never visited before so I could only thank my lucky stars that made me take the route to the grist Mill.

Some really old cars, lost of Fords Chevy's and some British cars too.

Also took the time for some self portraits in the reflections of shiny fenders

Trapped in a Chrome jungle

From there, I headed for yet another visit to the Grist Mills which looked quite different with lush green foliage, but the water itself was brownish.

Pittsfield HABF, Zip Rider and Thomson Falls

2008-08-09T09:43:00.005-04:00

all in one day!
Was a nice Saturday, and having been forced to be waken up at 3am by the missus seemed worth it. I don't think I would have made it on my own :D
The plan was to see the morning 6am ascent of the Pittsfield Hot Air Balloon festival in New Hampshire.
The day was again gloomy and overcast and the ascent was delayed.
Finally, one after another the balloons started inflating and took to the skies.
A couple of them also did a "toe-dipping" in the river that flows next to it .. you have to see it to believe it .. the skill involved and its a joy to watch.
We even took a tethered Balloon ride and was a lot of fun. We could only imagine how the actual balloon ride would be.

An Hour Glass. This was the "toe-dipping" part of the balloon flight.
The pilot goes up and then comes down and skims on the surface of the water .. a joy to watch.

A local breakfast place, was charming with counter tabel tops and the Breakfast was perfect diner food .. greasy spoons ahoy!

Once we were done there, we decided to head up north toward Conway and beyond. The plan was for some water action at the Saco river but the overcast day changed our minds and we went on to the next item on the itinerary - Zip Rider at the Wildcat mountain. There was a long wait so we hiked a short distance to the promising Thomson Falls. The incessant rains meant that we would see the falls i all its glory, but the trail was soggy and mucky all the way.
The falls itself is gorgeous, the lower lip of the falls fans out and you can sit very close to the falls .. giving it an intimate feel.
More information on the falls here.
This site has good information about how to get there and tips for photographing the falls.

After heading back from the Falls, it was time for the Zip Rider.
The missus decided to give it a pass, having acute motion sickness, and decied to wit on my review.
I went up the ski chair lifts with a little trepidation, the cost of the Zip rider comes with the bonus of the chair lift which provides some amazing views of the surrounding hills, in particular Mt Washington.
The rider itself was a lot of fun and not at all scary .. will be going back there soon.

Some other knick-knack pics along the way ..

Pastoral Vermont

2008-06-25T23:13:00.005-04:00

Pastoral Vermont - that tag fits perfectly.
Had the chance to visit the farms and countryside of Vermont a couple of weekends back as I visited the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Quechee.
I was able to dig up some information about the famous barns that are a must do for photographers.
What I saw certainly lived up to the hype and I most certainly am going back during fall to cover these places again and also cover some new barns and farms.

One of the most famous farms I visited was the Jenne Farms in Reading. It is supposed to be the most photographed barn in Vermont and has also featured in 2 movies, one of them being the famous Forrest Gump!
As mentioned in my prev blog it was overcast and raining at times which made for fog and great atmosphere.

Some pics from there.

Quechee Gorge was Gorge-ous :)
Its known as the Grand Canyon of Vermont and again the foggy atmosphere added so much to the ambiance.
Quechee Gorge and the surrounding area pics.

Quechee Hot Air Balloon festival

2008-06-18T22:40:00.010-04:00

I had heard of Hot Air Balloon festivals (HABF) around the New England area and was curious to see how they would be.
After some searching on the net, I found a few promising links and marked my Calendar to remind me of the various events.
The first HABF of the season was in Quechee, Vermont.
I had seen some pics from there of the HABF as well as the Gorge-ous Quechee Gorge.
After making some tentative plans, it turned out that the same weekend some friends were heading out to Martha's Vineyard.
That posed a conundrum as I was not sure what to do.
After much dilly-dallying, decided it was Sat in MVY and Sunday in Quechee.
That didnt go according to plan and unfortunately or fortunately, we headed back from MVY by noon of Saturday.
Headed directly to Vermont and reached there early evening to find the place under dark clouds and intermittent rains.
That was a mixed blessing too.
Because of the weather conditions, it was not great for Ballooning, but it did mean that the already green hillside of Vermont was looking even more Lush and fog and mist enveloped the countryside making it magical.

Headed out early on Sunday morning to catch the Balloon festival and the weather delayed the start.
It finally took off by around 7-ish and it was a sight to behold.
Colorful balloons dotted the hillside and skies and brightened a gloomy morning.
Of course it was not ideal conditions for photography, but we had a great time.
The good thing about HABF is tha they get over pretty early in the day and you have the rest of the day to explore the surrounding regions, in my case, the beautiful farms of Vermont.
I was lucky to see the famous Jenne Farm, Cloudland farm, Lee Farms, Grandma Moses scene all under the magical veil of fog that enhanced the experience a 100 times.
Pics from there soon.

Coming back to HABF, if you liked what you saw in the pics and are curious to visit such an event, there are quite a few around here.
See below for the list that I know of.

1) July 11-13 - Hillsborough HABF, NH
2) July 11-13 - Stoweflake HABF, Stowe, NH
3) July 17-19 - Green River HABF, Greenfield, MA
4) Aug 1-3 - Pittsfield HABF, Pittsfield, NH
5) Aug 15-17 - Great Falls HABF, Great Falls, ME
6) Sept 18-21 - Adirondack HABF, Adirondack, NY

If you need more information, search for these items, else you can contact me and I could share the url's for these events.

Memorial day wknd - 2008

2008-05-31T00:02:00.005-04:00

This memorial day weekend took u to the Adirondack State Park in upstate New York.
It was a big black hole as I had never checked out whats there and the possibilities of hiking\camping. Turned out its a great place to visit.
Some pic from the weekend.

Inside the small sea plane which provided a birds eye view of the Fulton Chain of Lakes (an array of 8 lakes) and a lot of adventure.

The deep blue water of one of the lakes and the undulating mountain range.

A long exposure hot of the sunset colors over Raquett lake from our own beach.
Long exposure eliminated the ripples in the lake and gives it a wispy texture.
Also, the colors saturate and wash over the frame.

Our ride. Some of these were built in 1956!!
We read that and still climbed into them .. and the simple mechanism, controlls an turbulence kept us on the edge of our seats :)

Yes, we had good breakfast, so good in fact that we skipped Lunch on Sunday!

Our abode for 2 nights.
Kitchen not included.

Another sunset shot from our beach.
The Sun went down right opposite our site.
Site #194 if anyone wants to go back.

Yet another view of our beach. Prev occupants have even set a throne to site and enjoy the beautiful sunset while the lake laps around your feet.

Pics from Sunday

2008-04-13T22:37:00.003-04:00

My Brush with fame ....

2007-05-09T23:32:00.000-04:00

Had the opportunity to go see the Tennis Legends Pete Sampras and John Mcenro in action, and jumped at the chance.
Was surprised to actually see 2 matches, I was under the impression I was paying only to see the sampras-mcenro match.
Turned out we also had the entertaining Pat Cash vs Wayne Ferriera match too.
We were late and were hurrying towards our seats when to the shock of all of us .. Peta Sampras walked by .. just a feet away .. I have even convinced myself that he actually took a step away from us .. else we would have collided .. we were that close :D

Turned out the Cash - Ferriera match was more entertaining .. with the Aussie pullnig a lot of tricks to keep the audience chukling. Very sporting that chap.
He lost, but thats besides the point.
In walked in John Mcnro and Pete Sampras .. It was a thrilling moment, never had I dreamt that I would see these legends.
The match itself was very onsdied, and the only entertainment came with Mcenro living up to his Bad-boy image .. complaining regularly about line calls .. I think it was more to do withproviding a show to the people who had turned up.
Sampras was sober as ever .. and looked to be in great touch.
In between games, I would run down and try to get close-up shots of Both Mcenro and Sampras .. in ojne of the shots below, looks like I caught their eyes and were looking straight at me ... nuff said :D

He's looking at me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pistol Pete's Back

Us and them

Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu thi :D

Wayne Ferriera

Pat Cash!!

Want some Mate?!

See the guy diagonally behind Mcenro

Bad Boy - throwing a tantrum

Hes looking at me too .. uh oh .. I hope I have the flash off ..
else he''ll have me thrown out :D

Game Over

In Hibernation

2007-03-12T10:27:00.000-04:00

Have been away from the blog world for the entire duration of Winter .. has been like a hibernation .. Been too lazy and the cold winter makes the mind sluggish .. well it may not but thats how I like to think :)
In the meantime, visited the Acadia National Park in Maine for the Xmas weekend with lots of friends .. was off season to go there .. but we had fun nonetheless.
Before that, shifted residence from Quincy to Natick .. closer to my work place but a bit further off for the missus.
Bought a car .. compact one .. good for commute.. still not sure if I am going to take it around all the places I want to visit this summer ..
Had a friend of missus come to Boston for a month .. so we played host and guide for Boston .. was good to have her over .. its a a bit too cold out to really show her around Boston .. but she got the idea :)
The winters been a see-saw battle .. started strongly with chilly winds and dropping temperatures .. but just when it was expected to take an icy grip .. the mid parts of winter was strangely mild.
No snow at all and talks of a rare winter with no snow started making rounds ...
I was actually looking forward to the snow .. a year can play tricks on your mind and make you forget how difficult life becomes when its snowing .. and to top that .. I had to contend with a car this time .. additional work needs to be put in when you have a car ..
Bought shovels and ice scrapers .. tanked up on the windshield fluids and surely the snow did finally come in.
We still missed most of the snow this time .. was a mild winter in terms of snow atleast .. but just north of here .. upstate NY and upstate Vermont got a pounding .. there was a phase where oswega in upstate NY got as much as 110 inches of snow in a few days ...
we should count our lucky stars I guess :)
Winter seems to be ending finally .. it finished strong with really cold temperatures .. the Arctic winds adding to the wind chill temperatures of upto 15 below 0 F!!
But this weekend was good .. warm temperatures and sunny days .. and looks like the trends here to stay .. for now. As usual, the beginning of spring is heralding rainy skies but hope that we have a dry spring.

Tis also the eve of the World Cup .. will be interesting cos its much more open this time .. India and England look strong on paper .. Pakistan is mercurial as usual and Australia strangely does not look that strong ... don't have much of an idea about South Africa or Sri Lanka and New Zealand are the perpetual under dogs.
Quite open .. isnt it?

What can a couple of months mean??

2006-11-04T00:31:00.000-05:00

One of the wonders of traveling in New England is to visit the same place again and again .. and still see different things .. you have so many different things to do and places to go .. that usually we dont go back to some place you have already been.
I am glad I did go back to one particular place .. and that has taught me a great lesson ...
A couple of months can do great wonders to a place.
See the difference below.
The first one was shot 25th Aug in Summer and thankfully I like it so much that I revisited the same place again with my Jundk friends and on 15th Oct .. the view was so very different .. you can see for yourself

View of the Squam Lake from West Rattlesnake mountain top ( 25 Aug, '06)

Same View from West Rattlesnake mountain top ( 15 Oct, '06)

Deepavali .. with a twist

2006-10-24T16:14:00.000-04:00

This weekend was Deepavali .. the second one I was missing in a row; Not that I am the types who's been missing it and mooning over it .. anyways ..
Nandita and her roomies invited us over for festival lunch. Akshata's granny is here and we all were looking forward to some good home cooked food.
There was also a parallel plan to hire a car and keep the tradition of all-weekends-of-october-out-of-house alive .. so decided to spend the saturday in Boston and Sunday driving around.
Woke up late and headed out for lunch. The Food was awesome as expected with a number of dishes and all home made.. we literally Binged!!
After that .. we had half a mind to just curl up and sleep .. but it was also the Pumpkin Festival Day in Boston Commons and we didnt want to miss the same.

The Place was swarming with people and I was pleasantly surprised to see how popular it was. There was a Guinness Book attempt and successfully accomplished to have the most number of Carved Pumpkins in one place.
Once the sun went down and the pumpkins were lit.. Was a magical sight .. Felt myself in transported to an enchanted place.
It was also fitting that we each lit a few Pumpkins .. it was our way of celebrating Deepavali .. the festival of Lights :)
Couple of my ex roomies wanted to visit the Temple as there was a Firecracker show scheduled. We hurried home .. took the rental car and reached the Temple where our fears of not finding parking proved true. We were directed to some other make-shift parking area from where we were to take a shuttle to the temple. While we were waiting .. we could hear the distant thud of the crackers and knew that we wont make it in time.
At least we were able to go to the temple for Darshan .. had some prasadam and decided to head to Dakshin for Dinner.
They had a special festival spread and for the first time had Dosa Idly Vada in a Buffet place. It indeed was a celebration for us as far as food was concerned.

Sunday morning we decided to head out to Mount Washington .. but on calling up found out that saturday snow had closed the Auto Road so had to make last minute changes.
Decided to head out to the Berkeshires and what a good decision that was.
After going to the state of New Hampshire for 3 wknds in a row .. headed out towards the border of Mass and NY and found rolling hills .. beautiful fall colors (just past peak) and some lovely quaint country sides. It was refreshingly different and could really see some great Barns, farm animals and pristine white church steeples against the hills painted yellows and browns with Fall colors.
I am really regretting not having visited this part before ..
the Town of Shellburne was as quaint as they come. We loved the place.
In case time ever permits.. am sure to go back there and spend more time than just an casual drive by.
Stopped at the Forge Pond .. one of the ponds along scenic drive we took in the Berkeshires area. Mirror still lake and some cool colors again made good backdrop for some pics.

We drove along the Mohawk trail and the Holyoke State forests to reach the summit of Mt Greylock .. the highest peak in MA.
Was a lovely view from up there but was also cold.
There is a particular Hairpin bend along the way which provides breathtaking views of the villages and towns thats worth a stop by.

Some more pics

Bethel,

2006-09-30T07:49:00.000-04:00

"The Most Beautiful Mountain village in Maine."
In fall.

Please dont dissapoint me

4th Anniversary

2006-09-16T23:54:00.000-04:00

Today is Sept 16.
Four years in the Software Industry.
Wow.
What am I today?
Where am I going?

...................

I am Addicted!

2006-09-11T10:42:00.000-04:00

I have heard and felt this feeling where u sit in a theater .. the movie starts and you don't want it to end, you listen to a song and you want it to go on for ever .. you start a book and you fall in love with it and again .. you want it to go on for ever and ever with you enjoying it ...
I have the same kind of feelings for a new thing now ..
Whenver I sit at Rami's and bite into the falafel Sandwich .. I don't want it to end .. I want the taste and the flavor to last for ever ..
We make plans to visit this place in Coolidge Corner, its not in the way, it takes some time to get to by the C Green Line. Doesn't matter. We go there time and again .. and pretty frequently. I think about it during the days in between the visits .. and I know I am not alone .. Priya is hooked too and we are like a couple of Zombies answering the call .. the urge to feed there.
Falafels are chick-pea batter fried dumplings .. have eaten in half a dozen places in Boston and except Steve's in Qunicy Market and Newbury Street (think they make the Falafel from Flava beans as compared to Chic Peas in other places .. just a personal preference), have liked it to different degree's.
Rami's happened when I took Priya to Coolidge Corner in early spring during one of our walking trips of Boston and we waked past Rami's .. came back and went in and thought we would try the Falafels. We asked only for the chunks and the friendly person in there gave it for free and said that if we liked it.. we could come back .. he seemed confident for some reason.. We walked out .. tasted and were promptly back for the entire dinner!
and as they say.. the rest is History
Guys in the counter recognize us and I don't have to tell them extra Hot sauce and the Mango sauce cos they know .. we "Indians like it Hot" ..

Rami's
Take the C Green Line to Coolidge Corner stop. Walk along the Harvard Street NW (same side were u get down from the T going outbound) and Rami's is the small shop opposite the Borders and JP Licks.
Recommends:
Since I am a vegetarian, cant vouch for the chicken dishes .. but this I hear is one of the really few places that sells Glatt Kosher stuff. I have tried the Falafel Sandwich and the Falafel Salad plate .. try with the extra hot sauce and the Mango sauce.

Darn .. you guys carry on while I wipe the drool off my keyboard.

Story of my Life

2006-09-09T16:35:00.000-04:00

So Many Trails .. So little time :(

Lonesome Lake

2006-09-06T08:10:00.000-04:00

This wknd had grand plans of going to the Acadia NP .. Weather had other plans for us .. Sunday was forecasted to be wet and damp and Monday was not certain .. so we decided to hold the Acadia plans and hurried to find other options for day trips.
Decided on the Lonesome lake hike which we (Nandita, Priya and myself) had earlier attempted and abandoned after wasting half a day on it.
The hike is a moderately difficult one with steep inclines and rocky paths .. the temperatures were cool with a breeze blowing .. that did help.
We were 7 of us and most of us had not met one another .. friends friends etc had come and dont think they had much of an idea what they were getting into .. one girl had the wrong set of footwear but bravely went through the entire hike with little complaint.

The rocky yet green trail

We had fortified ourselves with gatorade some chocolate and Nandita's "home made" mysore-pak :) each of those items proved precious as the hike took the entire day and there was no place we could get any food.
On reaching the summit of the trail, we saw the Lonesome lake and the name was fitting ... how could you expect a lake on top of a summit? It was all alone by itself .. It was a pretty little lake with boardwalks around the lake and we quickly covered that too.

The group sans Nandita(who was taking the pic) at the Lonesome Lake.

After some rest we decided to take a different route back and the Cascade Brook trail sounded very promising .. and we knew that going downhill should be easy.
We made good time but the path was far from simple .. lots of loose rocks and tree roots were a continuous hazard and we had to navigate carefully.
The path looked like a stream bed in itself and we could hear the Pemigawasset river gurgling next to the trail.
After sometime, we decided to be more adventurous and Pri, Nan and myself got on to the river itself and followed it downstream.
The rocky bed with crystal clear water was a beautiful sight and we even filled up the water bottle with clean spring water.
This was one of the closest I have felt to nature .. sitting with my eyes closed on a bolder on the river with the cold water swirling all around ... was perfect!
After some time we got back onto the trail and by then there were some doubts about if we were on the correct trail .. the Map scale stared looking flawed .. we asked a couple of fellow hikers coming the opposite direction and looked like we were on the right path.

On reaching some plaque with the directions near the end we realised that we had trekked in excess of 2.5 miles on the way down .. while I had estimated that the distance should have been more closer to 1.5 miles.

The beautiful Rocky Glen Falls

It was worth it tho .. we saw a lot of cascades along the trail .. it was rugged yet beautiful terrain all around us.
Most of us were bone tired I guess .. and we quickly hopped onto the car and rushed to the nearest exit that could offer some food ..
had piping Hot pizza and some garlic bread to top off a fruitful outing..

Camping at the Lakes Region

2006-08-30T10:50:00.000-04:00

The Lakes region in New Hampshire is dominated by the chief lake Winnipesaukee.
There is also the lovely Squam lake nearby and its pretty near to Boston; around 2.5 hrs away.
Surprising then that we hadn't visited the place ..
Turned out the place was charming with a lot of variety .. lots of lakes, but some good peaks and scenic drives and charming quaint little towns.
Holderness and Meredith especially were very picturesque.
Camped at the Alton Bay near the lake shore and we even had access to the lake. There was a private island that we could swim\canoe over but we couldn't due to lack of time.

Saturday was mainly covered hopping from place to place .. started off with a pleasant mile long hike up the West Rattlesnake Mountain .. the hike was over a bridle path and relatively easy. It had the reputation to give the best views from the summit for the effort we put in to climb.
It was really breathtaking at the top .. Beautiful views of the Squam lake and we could even see Winnipesaukee at a distance .. the summit has rocky ledges and clear views for miles. It was truly great.

View from the top of West Rattlesnake Mountain

Rest of the day we drove along the winding roads and the lake was never out of sight. As I said earlier, Holderness and Meredith are small town but very aesthetic .. they were very colourful, adorned with summer flowers .. I can imagine how they would be in Fall.
Weirs beach is the main entry to lake W'saukee and it was a bit crowded .. provides good opportunity to try out some water sports ..
Ellacoya Beach was more deserted by the time we reached it. was early evening .. around 5:30 pm I think. I personally liked this beach better then the Weirs .. but that could be because of the lack of a crowd .. we felt like we were the only ones there.
Reached Alton Bay and our campgrounds while there was still sunlight left (unlike last time where we had to use the car lights to set up the tent in near freezing temp's :) ) and we put up the tents in no time .. we were after all pro's with the REI 3 person half dome tents :D
Managed to catch the sunset by rushing to the lake shore next to the campsite ..
Next day was a day of rain and gloom .. luckily we managed to break camp and leave before it started to pour.
Change of plans meant we missed out on Lake Chocorua :( .. and we headed to Castle in the Clouds. It was surprisingly good and we had a good time touring through the castle (small by European stds I guess .. but impressive)
We headed back to Boston way earlier than planned .. and that was good in a way .. hit bad traffic on the way back .. and the rain increased in intensity.

Breathtaking Vistas	The 2 tents at the Campsite
Sunset at Winnipesaukee	Enjoying the warmth of the campfire

Found out the power of good customer service. We had ordered an intermediate car from enterprise .. but due to non availability .. got a Honda Pilot .. SUV .. nice vehicle .. smooth and comfortable .. drove at an even speed on the way back in heavy downpour :D

Honda Pilot SUV

Castle in the Clouds

Another JUMP

2006-08-18T00:01:00.000-04:00

Do the Anti-Rain-Dance with me please

2006-08-17T23:42:00.000-04:00

Please pray that the weather Gods have some pity .. Hoping that rain stays away this wknd ...
pls pls pls pls pls pls

Canoeing at the Ipswich River

2006-08-11T12:04:00.000-04:00

A couple of weekends back, 4 of us went canoeing at the Ipwich river.
Ipswich and Essex are two seaside towns near Boston and to boost tourism there, they have introduced special shuutle busses to make touring there car-free.
More information here
We boarded the Commuter rail from North station and it was a 50min journey to reach Ipswich.
From there we took one of the various busses and reached the Foote Brothers Canoe place .. they rent out canoes and also take you to different drop off's from where you can canoe back.
Most of us were beginners and there were some doubts if we could canoe without prior experience .. so we took the easiest route .. ie .. take the Canoe from the Willodale Dam and go up stream and come back when we felt like it.
Our fears were unfounded as the canoe's were very stable and there was no real risk of capsizing .. and even if you did .. at most places .. the water was pretty shallow.
Anyways .. was a great experience .. was pretty easy to row .. but navigating took some time to get used to .. most of the time we were zig-zagging up the river.
It was part fun to look at Param and Mon banging into tree branches and even into the pillar of a bridhe we came accross :)
There were also places we could pull over .. haul the Canoe out of the water and go on short hikes into the woods .. we tried only a couple of them.
Best part personally was the low hanging branches over the water and we going below them .. was fun!!

Followed the Canoe trip with a visit to the Crane Beach (again!) and this time it was even better .. had got a change of clothes .. so didnt hesitate to take a dip!
was a nice n rlaxing wknd .. planning a return trip and this time gor for the extended 4-5 hour Canoe trip :)

Param

Mon

All Knotted up

2006-08-08T09:36:00.000-04:00

Not a very original composition I know .. this composition has been done to death.. still couldn't resist trying my hand at this Shallow DOF shot ..
was again late in the evening, at the Charles River Boating Inc (CBI) after a Kayak session on a windy choppy day.
Am justifying the post processing by blaming my camera's limitations :D
There is something feel good after you take a pic and it turns out the way you had it in mind ... other times when a couple of hours effort is all wasted when you come back home and realise some setting was skewed and all the pics are a goner .. you feel really lousy ..
should not let pics sway my moods this way .. but then again .. isnt that what passion is all about?

Self Portrait

2006-08-03T17:17:00.000-04:00

My fascination with reflections continues..
Reflections in shades especially with interesting details looks great (atleast I think so :P)
this was an attempt at a tangential self portrait .. I am a bit dark in the pic .. but that was as a result of processing to get better overall contrast to the pic.

Like the trees and the light and shadow interplay .. planning some more shots with more grandoise reflections .. high-rises, sunsets etc

Which Led Zep song am I? :)

2006-08-02T16:06:00.000-04:00

You Are

Tangerine

You are a beautiful person, in a wistful kind of way. If you could, you would spend all your time daydreaming and writing poetry. You are a tragic beauty.

You are sensitive and caring, and you don't take insults well. You don't smile much, but when you do, you really mean it.

People like to be around you because you are a calming influence. You have an appreciation for all things beautiful, and you probably have some potted plants. You also most likely own a cat.

You like Sundays and hot tea. You will spend your entire life yearning for quiet beauty, which is a rarity in this world, so you read a lot.

Everyone you know thinks you're "nice."

Take the Which Led Zeppelin Song Are You? Quiz

God .. I feel like the prince from the Holy Grail who launches into a song in every scene ;)
"tragic eauty" :-)))))
gosh .. I should take the test again

you cant believe everything you see ....

2006-07-24T00:08:00.000-04:00

After visiting Diya we proceeded to the Crane Beach near Ipswich.
It was supposed to have 4 miles of pristine white sandy beach .. and it lived upto its promise.
The downside was that we reached there when everyone was leaving .. at around 7pm.
Still .. we went down to the beach and had a bit of fun .. splashing in the brr chill water.
I even ventured into something adventerous .. I jogged a few steps and decided that I had done my part of adventuring for the week :D
was not all that bad tho'...
Came across the reclining figure and decided to have some fun with pics ..

Played some Football and some Frisbee and was fun watching Nandita try to alternately launch it into space and trying to clear the Atlantic Ocean.

Revolver - Review

2006-07-23T01:16:00.000-04:00

I have seen my share of bad movies, Confusing movies, Bad and Confusing Movies.
After Snatch and Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels, I am a big fan of Guy Ritchie.
I picked Revolver based on that fact alone ..
btw, for me personally .. Lock, Stock beats Snatch .. but that could be cos I have seen Lock, Stock recently .. twice .. thrice I think.

Anyways .. I digress .. the review ..
Didnt understand ... Dont Care.
Period.

Will still look for Guy Ritchie's next movie .. any other movie will be an improvement on this.

I created a Slide Show! Check it out!

2006-07-21T11:30:00.000-04:00

wknd and record of sorts

2006-07-14T17:25:00.000-04:00

weekend is here ... and no rain .. at least thats what the forecast says so far :D
looking forwrd to some Kayaking tonight .. planning to learn some stuff before the 4 hr long canoe\kayak thing I want to do badly in Ipswich-Essex ..
joined the 30 day kayaking-canoeing classes in the Charles .. yey .. !!!
FINALLY ..
darn .. could have done this so much earlier, but the Spring really has been sucky :( I keep blaming that for a lot of things :D
friend from Jundk wil be visiting .. so I shall play the part of the proud Boston guide ... darn never bored of that role am sure ..
will have Priya's help in that now ..
and did I mention that she loved the water activity on charles? :)

also a personal best I guess .. have blogs on 3 consequetive days

Another Experiment - LOMO photography

2006-07-13T22:57:00.001-04:00

LOMO photography
came across the link and took up as an assigment and below is the outcome ...

Before

After LOMO treatment

Some info on LOMO that I could gather from the link given above.
LOMO pics were 'defective' pics from a russian make camera.
But the look gained popularity and we have ppl who have DSLR's and want to treat their pics so that it looks like a LOMO.
Color slide pics are to be developed in E6 chemicals and normal 35mm pics in C41 chemicals.
Another importatn aspect to the LOMO look is that users take the color slide and get it treated in C41. This resulted in oversaturated pics with often surprising results.

Its my first LOMO and I guess I am swayed by the tutorial but I think LOMO's look good with pics which have metal, chrome and rust. Dont think it will work well with others .. I might be wrong there.
Lets try and see :D

Four Seasons

2006-07-12T14:25:00.000-04:00

never thought I would be around to get all 4 seasons :D

Azzuri's and unexplicables

2006-07-10T00:16:00.000-04:00

what was Zindane thinking?
I am very interested to hear what Materazzi said that proveked ZiZOu .. :(
whatever it was .. it worked in Italy's favour .. Zidane would still have taken the penalties and it might have been a different story ..
having said that .. Italy winning was a great experience here in Boston ..
Little Italy (the Historic North End) was celebrating in style.
Ppl got into their cars and zoomed in and out of the streets with their Horns blaring .. sounded like Blore on a good traffic jam day :)
Went to the Boston City Hall where the game was being showed on large screen .. was hot and sunny .. but worth the sweat ..
Later on, walked to North End to find the Hanover street taken over the by the celebrating fans .. they partied till late into the night I guess ..
we were there for sometime only .. but was great fun to see them sing and dance to Ole! Ole Ole Ole :)

Cant have enough ...

2006-06-28T23:52:00.000-04:00

of Charles .. keep going back again and again ..
this time .. had a really long walk .. and went over the Harvard bridge .. which we dont do often ..
plus point was that it leads to Bhindi Bazaar .. and surprisingly .. the Idly's and Dosas were awesome ..
PS: First time I am having Idly's in like a really long time ..

Lost in Time

2006-06-22T16:50:00.000-04:00

Tried for a HDR .. but was flat in color and contrast .. converted to Sepia and darkened shadows to brng about contrast .. ppl didnt like the sepia much .. so retired BW ..
really liking HDR's now .. captures the textures very well..

At the End of the world .. and an alien landscape

2006-06-16T13:15:00.000-04:00

Delicate Arch - Magnificent

Fall and winter

2006-05-19T16:58:00.000-04:00

Past week has been gloomy and wet and have not had the chance to step out .. been confined to indoors mostly ..
this is the risk here .. you have a mild winter and thank your lucky stars and mother nature has other ideas by giving us a sucky Spring.
Going through some of my old snaps and trying to cull out unwanted ones .. came across some snaps .. and in particular two which I had taken of the same place at different times .. another attempt to get the same location in different season ..
well have got the Fall and Winter shots .. might go back for a spring pic .. lets see. I like this idea and have tried it once before on a different subject .. will post that sometime later I guess

On another note .. Arsenel lost the UEFA final :( was a bit dissapointing .. but I like Barca too .. so was oki .. more depressing was the fact that Henry and more so Ronaldhino didnt feature much in the match...
hope the world cup's different that way!

Fall

Winter

ps: the winter snap has been cropped to match the fall snap .. they were pretty similar but by cropping, have tried to get the same zoom\anngle to make them as alike as possible.

Boston Skyline

2006-05-03T10:37:00.000-04:00

Another visit to the Charles.. this time at night to capture the twilight and lights of the skyline.

Find 5 Differences

2006-04-20T16:29:00.000-04:00

go ahead ... lets see what you can come up with :-D

Spring is here and the flowers are in bloom .. surprisingly I had missed this phase in Boston last year .. looks so beautiful and is such a pleasant change from the barren browns and greys of winter. Still a couple of weeks for spring to peak and am looking forward to it.

Ingenious

2006-04-04T15:48:00.000-04:00

No .. not me .. not atleast in this case that is ..
saw this unique and brilliant window decoration on Beacon Street in the Beacon Hill Area.
People talking a walk along this beautiful road were stopping at first to puzzle and then to eventually admire this ..

Experiment

2006-03-30T18:24:00.000-05:00

had some idle time .. so tried out a couple of thngs ..
here they are ..
have another idea that I want to try soon .. think will do that in the coming week ..
will be interesting how it turns out.

Taken at the Boston Public Garden with the Sun setting .. its a statue of George Washinton btw
the left most if the cropped version of the original, the one next to it is with a bit of warmify and saturation while the last one is just a red tint for the original.

Inside Man

2006-03-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

Just returned watching the whodunnit heist flick Inside Man .. and was shocked the first min of the movie ...
guess what .. the opening track of the movie ? Chaiyya Chaiyya :-))
almost the entire song that too !! and at the end when the credits roll on again .. same song :-)
the movie itself is pretty good .. keeps you guessing .. and tho Clive Owen spends more than half of the movie behind a mask .. he is a cool dude .. Denzel Washinton is good and also Jodie Foster ...
worth a watch ...

Spring is here ... almost !

2006-03-12T11:46:00.000-05:00

Weather was beautiful this saturday and decided to take Pri to a part of Boston which I had discovered after she returned to India.
The Charles River Esplanade is a beautiful stretch next to the Charles. Its a walkers, joggers, cyclists as well as rollerbladers paradise and you will find quite a few of them there.
We reached there early noon and the weather was perfect. Bright sunny and warm except for the cooling breeze blowing.
Then walked along the esplanade and that is quite refreshing.

Planning to make a visit to the Charles mandatory once or twice a month if not more :)
Took a couple of candid shots .. the bridge seen in one of the pics is the Longfellow bridge, one of the bridges connecting Boston city with Cambridge (Cambridge is where MIT and Harvard are btw).
Priya loves the water .. wont take me much to keep her Happy .. in Boston .. :-D

20 Things - The Virtual Tag

2006-03-02T16:37:00.000-05:00

well had to happen .. in the blog world, you get tagged.
Got tagged by Doooka(what had I done to you girl !!) and here I am visiting the Blog world after a small hiatus ..
Below points are in no particular order .. and might contain information that make you go "I knew he was like that" or "what??!! Him ?" or for the more literary types "et tu !"
so here are 20 things about me .. which I think therefore I know about me

1)Hate filling forms; Paperwork was never my cone of Bhuel Puri .. and given a choice would barter my bank application forms, drivers license forms, illegal alien working as a specialised skilled worker form (h1 and L1 etc etc) with my favourite roadside snack. Just cannot get myself to have the patience to fill the simplest of forms !

2)Hate sleeping during the daytime .. especially on weekends :-D. Period.

3)Bad Bad handwrting. Was devising ways of cramming in as much as possible in small spaces of parchment, only to realise shorthand was already in use. Stopped all other ideas of patenting I had in mind. Hell,I would automatically create a bad enough font by just typing long enough on a keyboard :-P

4)Cant sing, dance a li'l. First was a dissapointment to my mom who croons a bit !

5)Believe in Chivalry and gentalmanly conduct :-P

6)Learn and pick up stuff by watching .. especially sports. Have this knack, makes me pretty good sportsy person ..

7)Pretty abd at spelling .. not sure why! Not terribly bad but not as good as I would like myself to be :-(

8)Know 5 languages, Can read and write faily well in 4 of them.

9)Not Photogenic :-|

10)Good eye for capturing shots .. or atleast thats what I think and ppl have been too nice to tell me otherwise.

11)Despite my build , ie short and stocky, pretty flexible and athletic ..
(now now .. I can already see ppl snickering !!)

12)Surprised myself by turning out to be pretty adept in the Kitchen.. cook a variety of vegetarian dishes .. not iron chef kinds .. but nonetheless edible and a couple of dishes are well appreciated... including Bhel Poori .. (keep coming back to that !)

13)At one time thought Egg Puff was the best thing God made. Then it was Bun Omlette. Both these were from a small roadside bakery near college !!
(Do I see wise head nodding in agreement? :D and some salivating palettes)

14)Cant remember Dates. Am "chronologically challenged" !! When my friends say they remember their neighbour's dog's bday I think they are a bit mental.
Regret - dont even rem my folks Bday's and aniv :-((

15)I have not watched the movie Sholay !!

16)Dont like SRK, Tendulkar, cheese and chocolates :-P Go figure !!

17)Couldn't finish Fountainhead
(whew !! almost there .. just a couple more ... !)

18)Have the capacity to eat realy spicy food

19)Just cant lose wt, cant say have tried much .. but dont see much of a result for the effort I put in... so Quit ... :-D

20)I am a nonconformist.

Well there you have it .. my confession ..
some might feel this is too superficial ?? that it might be .. but am sure it has still opened up windows to have a peek inside me ...
and as the tradition goes .. I tag Trashpan and Slap-Dash to do the honours.
Both should be plenty to look forward to :-D

PS: Point #7 above .. isnt it ironic? Genuine mistake which I didnt bother to correct !

Silver Lining

2006-02-04T15:35:00.000-05:00

Silver Lining .. going through some of my old snaps and came across this one .. a very apt one for my Blog title :-D
taken during .. hmm let me see .. first week of Sept on a trip to Newport in Cape Cod.

Hmm .. nothing much of importance in that trip .. Newport is a port side city, known for its multi million dollar estates with each one having its own piece of cliff or beach .. couldnt explore much as my companions were tired and did not want to walk the cliff walk.
Cute little town . might go there again .. and hope to see more !

windows ... in time

2006-01-26T21:34:00.000-05:00

Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, an expensive affair .. went there with idea of looking around and in particular to check out the Black and white photography by Ansel Adams ..
first thing .. was too expensive and secondly it was sold out !
The Sun was going down and I was on my way back and passed the Windows .. looked like molten glass reflecting the heat from the Sun of a time gone by and yet was gentle .. what was striking was the absence of any other reflecting surface around ..
almost like an alien entity transported across time ..

The same evening on my way home got into one of the omnipresent Starbucks to escape the biting chill of an early winter evening, ensconsed in the warmth watching the world pass me by.
Love the texture of the pic, captures the stillness and warmth of the inside while the world rushed on outside .. me in an oasis of time ..

One Year - down the memory lane

2006-01-24T19:23:00.000-05:00

Been One year here in Boston.. not yet .. at this time .. I was probably on my flight from Montreal to Boston .. but did Land here on 24th Jan 2005.
I was supposed to land early noon on 23rd, but because of the big blizzard that weekend, I got a chance to See Montreal and enjoy the Luxury of Hilton :-)
Time does fly .. just feels like yesterday that I parted with near and dear ones back home .. and then the excitement of a new place and for someone who loves to travel and see places, this was a great chance.
Soo much to do and soo little time was how I felt .. the plan was for me to be here for a year .. so I wanted to cover as much and see as many places as possible in the time I had.
The harsh Boston winter was invigorating to say the least ... :-D that turned to Spring and I saw colours springin up overnight. It was also the time my missus came to US ... she was in Minneapolis and we had a great 3 months, travelling almost each weekend to be with each other and also seeing a lot of places in the process.
Was a lovely time we had ..
and then she had to go back to India :-(
Was a sudden change in tempo .. catching flights every friday and returning back late Sunday nights or even early monday mornings .. and suddenly there was a void ..
took some time .. but had to get used to it and get on ..
Fall was something else .. anticipating seein the famed colours realised that it gets cold here in Fall .. and tho spells of wet weather put a lil bit of dampner on the fall plans did see the picteresque NH and Vermont countryside in addition to the Local Boston sights...
In between went and visited friends in Boulder and had a great time there .. driving and camping and meeting old friends.
The other highlights were the New Hampshire trip and the impromptu Maine trip where only my friend and myself made up our minds for the thanksgiving wknd and went trekking and hiking and discovering Maine .. was awesome !! The Acdia National park .. maybe one of the smallest National Parks .. but certainly one of the most beautiful !
and its a year since I arrived .. and its been a good one .. and I await at the crossroads of time .. not knowing where I would be in a months time ..
has been a great ride so far .. no regrets .. except that I would have wished Pri to have been here and spent the same time with me ...
well .. you never know !!

and yeah .. the fact tht I could not make my trip to Peru .. and wont b able to till I get a new visa :-((
well .. u never know about that either ? ;-)

The Italian connection

2006-01-10T01:10:00.000-05:00

There was one part of Boston that I had somehow missed, had read and heard about the North End part of the City ut never was able to go there.
I finally googled a bit more and with a printout of the walking tour map of North End or "Little Italy" set out to surprise myself.
The Italian version of the China Town, its the Italian and European influence on the Boston map and its full of Ristorante's, Bakeries and still more places serving authentic Italian dishes; Pata, Penne, Parmesean's, Pizza's, succelent pastries et al
As soon as you enter the Hanover street and the Salem street, your eyes are greeted with beautiful european architechture and your senses are made curious by the wafting smell of fresh bread. Cafe's and restuarants are lined with wooden and wrought iron benches on the sidewalk and in one particular case, a bench of white marble too. I just wish I had been there much earlier in summer which would have doubled the experience am sure.

So much history in and around North End. Try this; The oldest Tavern in the whole of United States, the Oldest House in Boston still preserved as a museum (the Paul Revere house from 1670 the last remaining structure in Boston from the 17th century), the House of Rose F Kennedy mother of John F Kennedy all within minutes of each other, in the quaint little neighborhood with cobbled walkways and in parts colourful and in parts brick work architecture that takes you back in time.
Its an instant favourite and anyone will fall in love with the place and as one of the guys pointed out the Paul Rever house and said "Boston is the Best !!!!! ". I could only answer in affirmation.

A Ball drops ... and a Pilgrimage of sorts

2006-01-03T10:45:00.000-05:00

Times Square during New Years celebration .. I didnt want to do it, in fact I particularly didnt want to, but for lack of options tagged along with my friends and ened up standing for six and a half hours in Freezing cold to see a Ball drop and some feeble attempt at Fireworks light up the city at 12 mid night to usher in the new year.
Local bands and musicians played on and "New York New York" was rendered a dozen times and requests to "sing along" became really irritating after the gazzilionth time.
Cold, Lack of Food, Sleep Deprivation and standing in one place for soo long does little to cheer you up, atleast cheer me up. Guess with such a big turnout (estimated forecast of more than a million people at Times Square before the event), this event is important for some people.
I was left gnashing my teeth at the lost oppurtunity for visiting other places of interest in NY.
It did have one fleeting moment for me, when just before the Midnight countdown, they played Imagine by John Lennon. It felt good that in between all the glitz and marketing and made forTV celebrations, where even the New Year countdown screen had a big Budweiser ad, the organisers thought it right to play that particular song.
But the high point of my trip to NY was the plan to Visit the House where Einstein stayed in Princeton after he moved to US.
I was looking forward to it, and it almost did not happen as we were too tired and slept till late
but we finally decided to just go there. It took us almost two and a half hours to drive from Stony Brook, NY to Princeton. I knew that the house was a private property now and someone actually lived there and that its not permissible to visit the house as such. But still I was curious and it was almost like a pilgrimage that I wanted to do.
By the time we reached the Princeton, it was dark and chilly and we reached 112, Mercer Street in the quaint little university town of Princeton. We could just take some pics from outside and had tp be content with that. Later on we walked around a bit and came across a Bust of Einstein made of Bronze. Another Photo Session :-)
Felt good to have done it .. got a feel that the entire weekend was not wasted :-)
Anyways, its a new year now, a new beginning, and as I write this, I realised that I have made no resolutions this year !!
Happy New Year !

Sands of Time slipping by .....

2005-12-30T15:44:00.000-05:00

Another year gone by; at the ede of stepping into a new year
with a brave face and a firm step
hoping for a year thats good in every way.

How was this year? was eventful. That about sums it up I guess.

Lets see what a new calendar brings about !

Wishing You a year exactly like you would want it to be.

Peace.

where did the Hols go?

2005-12-27T14:35:00.000-05:00

Thu Nite
met Arvind - from Dallas
Chennai Woodlands Dinner
Sleep

Fri
tele conf 9 - 11
bad connection .. embarrasing
Resident Guide to Boston - Me !!
Downtown area
Felafel and Sphaghetti (not together of course !)
Quincy Market lit up and looking lovely
Waterfront
Darkness Falls
Home - watch Chocolate - Usual Suspects remake .. pretty OK ending ! Surprise Surprise !!
Rice n Dal dinner
Watch Dark Waters - So So .. not great
Sleep Late

Sat
Late morning
Bengali Lunch Buffet
Harvard Square
Watch Polar Express in 3D - Awesome spectacle !!
Alu Gibi with rice and chapati @ home - yummy
Watch 40 year Old Virgin
Sleep

Sun
Dead city - everything closed.
Damp and gloomy weather .. drizzlin continuously
Merry Xmas ???
Puliogre lunch
watch The Island - not great again .. one chase is cool ..
Very Nice Chinese Noodles dinner at home - Spicy !!
Sleep

Monday
Leave at noon
Walk the Charles River esplanade - Cambridge side
Visit MIT
Felafel Lunch at Central Square
Visit Prudential
The Skywalk closed owin to Inclement Weather :-(
The Enchanted Village - Dissapointed.. for Kids only
Hard Rock Cafe! Finally !! Nice Place, good music
Boston Common Park
Ice Skating closed! - Rain Rain Go Away :-(
Shoppin - Boston T's
Arvind dis regards resident Boston guide's advise to buy one size large to compensate for Shrinkage. He will learn it the hard way >:-|
Some more shoppin
Finally find somethn I could consider buyin .. find it one size too small
Home
Rice n Dal dinner
Read Book
Sleep

Tue
Call from offshore at 6:50 am
Xmas Hols officially over :-(

A tribute to John Lennon

2005-12-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

Imagine ..
such a powerful word and a song by the same name from John lennon .. has become a byword for peace anthems and a message of Love. I dont know much abt the Beatles and the members .. much before my times .. but when I heard the solo from John Lennon, I connected instantly.
Simple lyrics, asking to be heard .. a plea, a prayer for a better tomorrow, for a world free from war and conflicts .. for a future that John must have seen and wanted all of us to have, no boundaries separating us
Imagine
25 years to the day yesterday, Dec 8th, when he was shot dead, and still his message is just as powerful, if not more relevant today .. and the proof? People still havent given up on the world, since the day 25 years ago when the world went mad and shot John Lennon and still there are people out there full of Hope and optimism, of a free world .. of utopia you may say?

You may say I am dreamer, But I am not the only One ...

Imagine
Can you?

************************
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
************************

Peace.

The Vermont Countryside

2005-11-23T10:23:00.000-05:00

The picture perfect Barn .. in Vermont.
The Lake Champlain seperates the states of NY and Vermont and some of the bigger islands in the Lake are joined by roads .. is beautiful to drive along the lake shore and you encounter the beautiful and serene countryside of Vermont.
On one such road saw this barn and snapped it up :-)

HP, P&P .. Movies and me

2005-11-20T19:52:00.000-05:00

I am a movie buff .. but hardly watch any Desi movies .. even back home watched very few select ones ..
Netflix has been feeding my appetite and have been able to watch some good movies which I had missed .. and have been discivering some new ones too .. but off-late have not liked that many Hollywood flicks ..
watched Pride and Prejudice on Friday Friday night. liked it .. have loved the book and thought that it was pretty well made but for a few places .. which I feel was more to do with personal dislikes that stood out as sore points for me, Keira was good for most of the time and the Hero (who ?) was OK .. he looked uncomfy initially .. the mjusic score was good and the Brit feel was all prevelant .. which I liked :-)
Harry Potter was a complete dissapointment ... for ppl to see this as a first time HP franchisee might like it .. for the special effects and the look of the film, but for soemone who has read the book, am sure this would be a letdown ..no Quidditch games, no scenese from the classrooms, the trivialised 3rd challenge from the TriWizard .. and too little time spent on anythng .. kept getting the feeling that it was too fast moving no not fast moving, but rather disjointed .. and very little of Prof Snape !! and talking about Proff .. what is Dumbledore prancing about all the time?
Overacting by Hermione at times, the weasely twins lookign girlish (?) .. dont rem much of the book but wasnt there more of Sirius? and was there anythgin in the book showing the weasely twins and Ron and Harry sitting in the same Snape class?
anyways .. was a letdown :-( and dont like Order of Phoenix at all .. so not looking fwd to the movie .. but will b interested in the next one after that ... hmmm ..
apart from this .. have been watching loads from Netflix .. Layer cake .. another Brit gangsta movie (like Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels, features the new James Bond), Oldboy .. was Tarantino's fave movie sometime back, is an Asian flick .. was a good movie .. but the Über surprise(loveee the word :-))ending was great tho was disturbing .. looking for more Korean\Japanese movies and Brit ones .. Hollywood is turning into another bollywood :-(
got "pi: Fith in Chaos" and "Hitchhikers .." at home now .. the former is a Mathematical dosucmentry and the other is .. well .. ppl who recognsie will know and others wont :-D
oh .. also have "The Clockwork Orange" .. by someone called Stanley Kubrick :-P

Why I like Terry Pratchett ?

2005-11-18T17:40:00.000-05:00

well .. the books are so very funny .. took me a couple of books to get addicted .. ironic, dripping with satire, great characters and all such a parody of a life normal that we are used to .. a parallel Universe..
Just a sample below that I liked .. from one of my favourite books .. The Reaper Man .. its about the grim reaper .. or DEATH .. and how the "auditors" try to put him into retirement.
anyways .. the sampler

----------------------------------------------------------------------
'That's 'oo I am, ' said Mrs Cake.
'Am I addressing Mrs Cake?' said Windle.
'Yes, oi, know,' said Mrs Cake.
'My name's Windle Poons.'
'Oi knew that, too.'
'I'm a wizard, yoysee -'
'All right, but see you wipes your feet.'
'May I come in?'
Windle Poons paused. He replayed the last few lines of conversation in
the clicking control room of his brain. And then he smiled.
'That's right, ' said Mrs Cake.
'Are you by any chance a natural clairvoyant?'
'About ten seconds usually, Mr Poons.'
Windle hesitated.
'You gotta ask the question,' said Mrs Cake quickly.
'I gets a migraine if people goes and viciously not asks questions after
I've already foreseen 'em and answered 'em.'
'How far into the future can you see, Mrs Cake?'
She nodded.
'Roight, then,' she said, apparently mollified, and led the way through the
hall into a tiny sitting-room.
'And the bogey can come in, only he's got to leave 'is door outside and go
in the cellar. I don't hold with bogeys wanderin' around the house.'

'Gosh, it's ages since I've been in a proper cellar,' said Schleppel.
'It's got spiders in it,' said Mrs Cake.
'Wow!'
'And you'd like a cup of tea,' said Mrs Cake to Windle. Someone else
might have said 'I expect you'd like a cup of tea', or 'Do you want a cup of
tea?' But this was a statement.
'Yes, please, ' said Windle. 'I 'd love a cup of tea.'
'You shouldn't,' said Mrs Cake.'That stuff rots your teeth.'
Windle worked this one out.
'Two sugars, please,' he said.
' It's all right.'
'This is a nice place you have here, Mrs Cake,' said Windle, his mind
racing. Mrs Cake's habit of answering questions while they were still forming
in your mind taxed the most active brain.
'He's been dead for ten years,' she said.
'Er,' said Windle, but the question was already there in his larynx, 'I trust
Mr Cake is in good health?'
'It's OK. Oi speaks to him occasional,' said Mrs Cake.
'I'm sorry to hear that,' said Windle.
'All right, if it makes you feel any better.'
'Um, Mrs Cake? I'm finding it a little confusing. Could you . . . switch off . .
. your precognition . . . ?'
She nodded.
'Sorry. Oi gets into the habit of leavin' it on,' she said, 'what with there
only bein' me an' Ludmilla and One-Man-Bucket. He's a ghost,' she added.'Oi
knew you was goin' to ask that.'
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Speed !

2005-11-13T23:00:00.000-05:00

This one is from quite sometime back . . 24th July to be precise .. had a long and tiring day wandering around the Cambridge-side Galleria mall .. and trying out my Friends new Canon A95 ..
We were on our way back home .. and I was tired and sitting down at the MIT Redline subway stop waiting for our train ...
Saw a train coming in the opposite direction and got a braiwave .. I wanted to capture the train as it was leaving the platform such that it was half in and half out of the frame .. I pre composed the shot I wanted and clicked and hoped for the best .. and what you see here is the result .. single shot .. cant tell all how lucky I was to get this .. I have tried but in vain to get another capture like this .. with different camera's .. but have not even come close ...
The idea was good .. but luck played a big part .. and dont think I can get this shot again .. :-D

On another note .. the various Subway stations in Boston have distinct characteristics . . the 4 lines Red, Blue, Orange and Green .. each have their own charm .. the plan is to visit each nd every station :D and in case I am still aound till winter .. would be one thing we can do without the snow being a showstopper !

Weekend Getaways

2005-11-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I was traveling a lot of weekends to Minneapolis, for around 3 months between mid April and Mid July.
The place I used to stay, with my wife, was close to a lake and the walk upto the lake was beautiful with houses and cottages next to the road and lush green walkways bordering the roads.
The two pics featured here were from the same place.

The house with a small pond, with trees and shrubs .. just the way a child would draw a "scenery" .. I used to do it .. My idea of a scenery was a house, a fence, water (pond or stream), bushes and trees.. throw in all this and I have painted countless masterpieces with various permutations and combinations of the locations of each of the objects mentioned above.
The pic is symbolic of it and I guess thats why I like it so much ... its my paintings coming to life !
Lake Josephine, a large Lake where private boats and jet skiers get together for a lazy warm summer afternoon .. the lake is again bordered with lush greens where one can sit and soak in the Sun ..

I could never paint anything like this. The Sunset is Golden Yellow and with the light filtering through the clouds .. is almost surreal..
One of my favourites .. like the almost black n white feel of the photo ..
Again .. these two snaps taken with the Cannon SD series (SD300 or SD400 dont rem)

Japanese Gardens

2005-10-20T00:07:00.000-04:00

A bit of traveling back in time, when I used to travel often to Minneapolis to meet my wife .. The thing that struck me was how cramped your lifestyle becomes if you dont have a car of your own, and the next thing was that Minneapolis is a really green. Lush green describes it the best.
During one of my visits there, went to the Como Zoo and Conservatory. The Zoo itself was pretty good with the Tigers, Orangutans and the Lone Polar Bear providing some good challenges to capture them at their best.
Next to the zoo was the conservatory which has a couple of gardens, the Sunken Garden and the Japanese Gardens.
Japanese Gardens are pretty famous and has its roots in Buddhist and Tao philosophy. It is a place to sit and reflect, to meditate. Usual Japanese Garden objects would be the Waterfall, Pond, Rocks, Plants and Bridges.

The shot shown here was taken from a friends camera, borrowed a new Canon SD300 and he was yet to get his memory card. So was using the one that comes default .. 32MB .. so was taking snaps at low resolution. But was impressed with the Camera. Excellent Colour Quality, above par Sharp images and ease of handling. But there is a major minus, for me personally, that it has only 3X or 4X optical zoom. Else I might even gone ahead and bought it. Still hoping that they release an SD model with 8 - 10 X zoom.
Coming back to the Pic, when I had taken it, I looked at it and was like WOW, because it had captures the Japanese Garden as it actually was. I could see the ripples in the water, standing still, the kind of atmosphere that the garden is supposed to evoke, of stillness, quite and peace, where you can sit back and look inside you.
Another view of the garden below

On top of the world ...

2005-10-17T14:18:00.000-04:00

well .. not exactly .. but that's how it felt .. we were on the Trail Ridge Road, the highest Paved road in US. (Boulder, state of Colorado)
Actually, the precise description would be "Highest Continuous Paved Road in North America". At an altitude of 12,183 ft, well above the treeline, where vegetation is sparse and the thinning atmosphere makes you light headed and dizzy, we were there .. and it felt good !
Clear blue skies, and the Road seen for miles, twisting in and out of sight, hiding behind small peaks, the wind howling and tearing at us .. it was quite an experience.
Just a couple of hours out of the City of Boulder, made me really envious of my friends who stay there. But am also grateful to them for having shared this experience with us and it was great fun to meet Old friends.

The snap posted here was taken from very close to the road and aimed directly at the sun, which has caused a couple of flare's, but is not too bad. Have not modified this in any way except to resize it to a Postcard size.
Really gives the feeling of the Top of the world, in'it? :-)

Covered Bridges of New Hampshire

2005-10-10T17:30:00.000-04:00

Back to New Hampshire, land of White Mountains, beautiful Fall Foliage and the NH specialty, Covered Bridges.
I was visiting NH during the First wknd of Sept and as I found out to my pleasant surprise, there is a lot you can cover in one day.
There is the Cannon Mountains, The Echo lake, the Flume Gorge etc all within a few miles of each other, so that you can cover all of them pretty easily and still have time to take the odd hike or sit in the silence of the sighing winds.
(Separate pics for each o the above mentioned places soon !)
Coming to the Covered Bridges, you can find lots of such Bridges in NH and most of them are pretty old. They are also called "kissing bridges" for obvious reasons :-)
More info on Covered Bridges can be found here.

The particular bridge that I have featured here can be found on the way to The Flume Gorge.
This is built over the Pemigewasset river and the best way to experience this is to trek down to the Flume from the Visitor Centre. There is a Shuttle which takes you from the centre to the Flume, but you will just pass through the bridge before you know it.
The bridges have a certain charm and beauty that is easy to understand, and quaint and colourfull at the same time. I just adored them and am waiting to see more of them .. there are around 50 such bridges in NH alone!! and some more in Maine and Vermont.

Directions:
From Boston, take the I93 North and keep driving .. take Exit 34A to the Flume Gorge where the featured bridge can be reached.

Foggy Boston

2005-10-08T13:25:00.000-04:00

Fog in Boston is rare indeed, its more of a case of Low altitude clouds descending here .. but as a side effect of Ophelia, the tropical storm in this remarkable storm season, Boston did see Fog .. dont ask me how but.
I was to leave for Denver on Friday and was hurrying on my way to a Book reading session from Terry Pratchett.
As I neared the South Station Subway, saw this eerie and haunting scene,
the old fashioned South station architecture stark next to the sky scraper of the Boston Bank, half obscured by Fog.

Just had the time to catch a couple of snaps here before I hurried to my book reading session, which will be part of another blog !
As an aside, was researching how the storms are named, and they are alphabetically named, alternating between the Female Gender and Male gender.
Also, that if a certain hurricane causes exceptional damage, then the name is rested and cannot be used for the next 4 years .. going by that .. dont think we will see another hurricane by the name of Katrina for the next 4 years at least .. Actually lets hope there is none as bad as that ever.

PS: Terry Pratchett :-)

what if

2005-10-06T15:57:00.000-04:00

you went through life, not knowing .. its kinda difficult to express,
Let me give an example ..
when we were Kids, Lazy summer afternoons .. u lie down and stare at the clouds .. and not really focussing on anything .. and you see these uni cellular things floating on you eye balls . . they are so very difficult to focus on .. as soon as u try an see them they swim away .. I never gave it much thought and when I did, never thought that everyone sees them and realises them to be what they are ..
that our Eye acts as a Microscope .. a combination the focal lenght of our lens and the eyeball on which these organisms float ..
I happened to read about them and realised that its the same with everyone else .. what if I had not come across that piece of writing? what if I had gone through the rest of my life thinking I was the only one seeing them?
Are there other things that I am not aware of ? This is not common sense .. or even General Knowledge .. How do I know that when I see the colour Red .. others are seeing the same colour ?
what about the voices in my head? Just because I hear them, and I have not read that others dont, does that mean I am all on my own ?
What is I spent my entire life knowing things, thinking that that's how everyone knows it to be .. and be wrong ? and that others see it in an entirely different way .. and each of the others actually sees it in a unique way .. not knowing that the others dont share it at all ..
am not coherant .. and dont think I have been able to put forth what I wanted to .. but then again .. I dont think I can ....

2005-10-03T00:23:00.000-04:00

Sunset at Castle Island
Copyright Vikas

The weekend was almost completely wasted, Saturday turned out to be useful in term of getting the Laundry done, and finished some odd jobs .. wanted to replace my shoe lace .. and did so .. only to realise that it was too long for my formal shoes ..
When they say that mental patients and prisoners alike are deprived of the laces lest they hang themselves with them .. now I know what they are talkin about ... I would have had to make a double strand with mine to prevent touchin the ground on hangin myself !!
Anyways .. the savin grace of this weekend was a short trip to Castle Island .. its near South Boston and had to take the T and a Bus and an invigorating walk to reach this place .. it has one and only one eatery and has the old world charm .. you know .. like they dont accept cards .. Cash Only .. 3 of us ... hungry as .. well ... the proverbial appetite for a horse sized meal .. and we had around $ 6-8 between us .. and we also needed to pay for the Bus cum Train fare on our way back ..
so decided it was goin to be Upavasa Sathyagraha .. it was befitting ... it was Gandhi Jayanthi ..
Castle Island was nice .. a bit of History , a couple of memorials for soldiers and a Pentagonal Castle which we saw from out .. it has a beautiful close up view of the Logan Airfields .. you can actually see the smoke raising off the tarmac as Flights Land ...

We were leaving as the Sun set .. and I got this beautiful shot !!
Wont say I was lucky to get a shot with the silhoutte of the plane ... rather that I was lucky that I got a single Plane in my frame .. !! the frequency of the flights was that High ..
Hence this Postcard in my series .. is from Castle Island, Boston.
For Bostonians .. take the T to Broadway station and from there take the Bus route 9, 10, 11 (I think) and you can reach to within walking distance of Castle island.

PS: Have tried my hand at a bit of Post Processing in this snap and feeling guilty as hell .. but the Post processing is more to do with removin apparent blemishes, ie, flares resulting from pointin the camera directly at the Sun.

Isle La Motte

2005-09-28T23:26:00.000-04:00

Contuining the postcard series ..

On a recent visit to Vermont, went all the way upto Burlington.
Its on the shores of lake Champlain, which separates the states of Vermont and New York and in this lake there are numerous islands, all connected by roads.
Is beautiful to drive along the lake-side roads.
On one of these islands, Isle La Motte, there is a shrine called st Ann's Shrine.
The picture featured here captured my attention, showing elegance, desolation and symmerty. Also, the purple coloured tree looks striking in front of the greens and the Blue of the sky !

Postcards from Boston

2005-09-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

Planning to start a Postcard series, for the Boston cityscape in particular and maybe others too.
For all the high end Mega Pixel count, realised that when viewed as a Postcard with borders, a picture looks the best.
Hoping to keep this up on a regular basis .. and comments and criticism will only help me improve :-)

so here goes

Acorn Street, Beacon Hill, Boston.
Considered one of the most photographed Streets in the US, time has stood still here.
Cobbled streets and Gas lit lamps and windows adorned with beautiful flowers, a walkers paradise.
Placed my S1 IS on the pavement because I wanted a long exposure shot and then realised that the angle was perfect to capture the quaint cobble stones.

Bereft of Rock, I turn to some soulful Ghazals

2005-09-07T16:43:00.000-04:00

Not sure if I have lost my music collection or left it back home .. miss it and hoping that at least its safe at home ..
Computer's also been cranky and somehow not able to tune into launchcast, that was a pretty good source of music for sometime .. now have to listen to my meagre collection of Megadeth and Enigma .. over and over again ..
I long for some Metallica, Staind and Led Zep ..
But of late have been re discovering ghazals. Have always liked it and had heard quite a bit to them .. and looks like this enforced exile from Metal\Rock\Alternative is not such a bad thing.
Got a Punjabi roomie who has a large collection of Ghazals and luckily many of them were common between my earlier collection that I had become familiar with.
Loaded my 4 Gb player with a random set of songs and have been enjoying them during the daily commute and at times in Office too.
The vast differece bet Ghazxals and Rock has not been escaped me. I like varied forms of Music, mind you, and is a nice experience to explore Ghazals deeper.
My Roomie helps out with a couple of tough words which might have roots in Punjabi but there are pure Urdu words that fail us both and we try and figure what they might be
Ghazals have their soul in the lyrics, most of which deal with Love and Longing and in most cases Booze as well :-D .. strange ? U need to just listen to any random song and there will be mentions of "jaam", "maikhana", "saqi" etc ..
Some of my favourites have been sung by Jagjit Singh, who i think has the cleanest of voices ever and my other favourite would be Ghulam Ali whos is unmatched in pouring his feelings into the song.
there have been songs which I like and am not sure who has sung them, there is a large contingent of pakistani singers who excell in this field, Noorjahan, Begum Akhtar and others .. am still a long way from claiming mastery on Ghazals and Ghazal singers :-)
But having a good Hindi background did help me in following the lyrics and nuance's that are so very important to this form of music.
Great to listen to at almost any time, especially when you are missing someone, missing home or in mood for some introspection.
Current tripping on "Tere Aane Ki Jab Khabar Mehke" by Jagit Singh .. is a beautiful romantic song and Singh is at his vintage best.
As Mcdee's says - "Am Loving it" :-)

Am digressing here a bit, but the Macdonalds here are sad for Veggy's .. I mean, the UK macdee's had some awesome Veggy Burger's.The Veggy Burger here, if you are lucky to get in any of their outlets, tastes like the bottom of my sole, which however clean it might be is not appetising ! I used to swear by the Macdee's in UK and the ones in Blore are not bad either are they ?
PS: No questions or wise cracks about how I know the taste of my shoe Sole ..

Of Pristine Lakes and Windy peaks .. something was amiss

2005-09-06T16:59:00.000-04:00

Was a good weekend, and though was a long weekend, had one of the best outings on just one of the days.
The plan was to go to the state of New Hamshire for the first day, come back and head Southwards to the state of Rhode Island.
2 Romies were enthu and thus started our journey .. NH is pretty near and except for the whole world landing there at this time of the world and clogging the Interstate 93, we made good time ..
The plan was to cover Cannon Mountains, The Flume Gorge and the Echo Lake.

The Cannon mountains have arial tramways which take you to the peak in 7 min, 7 odd min of awe and frantic clicks on the camera wanting not to miss a single angle of the beautiful scenic view ..
The top has a small snack bar which was strangely closed, except for a few cookies and refreshing drinks, so we decided to carry on exploring, grabbing a few chcolates for refreshments.

There are a couple of nice walking trails and once we started, I felt something was wrong .. not wrong .. something there .. just out of sight .. or maybe somee glaring absebnce. I couldn't place my finger on it and it kept nagging me for sometime till suddenly it hit me .. there were no papers\plastics\chocolate wrappers anywhere in sight .. and that was the thrill of it ..
you can hike here for quite sometime and not meet anyone and the place gives you the feeling that you are the first one there .. discovering the beauty in all its granduer ..
It does make a lot of difference, the wrappers et all spoil an experience for what it should be .. and its sad that almost all of the walking trails I have been back home have glaring reminders of chocolates, cigaretts, Beer and what not's ..

Have vowed to join in on the group which organises cleaning trekking trails back in Blore and do my bit when I can ..

After the mountains went to the Flume (http://flumegorge.com/), a beautiful natural wonder, a chasm in Granite , with a waterfall that becomes a stream running the entire length of the Gorge .. it was indeed gorgeous ...
what more could I ask for? there were covered bridges in there which are a speciality of the NH region and was picture perfect .. (http://www.bridges-covered.com/cov_pics/flume_nh.jpg)
took in the range of 200 photographs and have tried my best to capture the beauty of the place .. and apart from a few .. have sadly failed ..
To end the day went to the Echo lake .. and the lake had a beach !!
we were there at the right time, just before sunset and was a great way to end the day...

The trip back was quite, with each of us trying to index out the memories of this trip ..
we were checking out the snaps and to the beats of Enigma sometimes, Jagjit Singh soemtimes hummed along, sated with the beauty of New Hamshire ...

---------------------*********************---------------------

On the return journey, was looking out for visible signs that we had passed over from NH to Mass and couldn't .. then realised that its not like back home when you are coming back from TN to Karnatak where in all the signs and letterings change in language :-D .. everythings the same here !!

will try and write about the Rhode Island trip .. but it was dissapointing .. so in case I dont .. no loss ...

Tennis and the T

2005-09-01T15:38:00.000-04:00

The usual struggle everyday, wake up and walk to the Subway and if lucky get a seat and nod on n off to sleep,
the time the T (subway in Boston) takes is around 15 mins so its an awkward amount of time to spend, usually carry a book with me
Terry Pratchett has been a good companion for amny a ride and the last book I read was The King of Torts .. got my hands on it and read it cos I didnt have anything else at hand .. had even fin readin the Canon S1 IS manual .. and if I could would hav ready the espanyol version too :-)
Today was different as was feeling more sleepy than usual when from the corner of my eye happened to look at the newspaper being read by the person sitting next ..
Sania Mirza, the latest teen sensation or somethn along the lines .. tried to surreptiously read what the article was about, and turns out she is turnign quite a few heads with her twinkling nose ring and how she being a orthodox Muslim and yet wears tennis attire ... seems she has a bodygaurd after receiving threatening letters .. oh yes, there was also a mention that she played good tennis ..
later on out of curiousity checked on espnstar and saw another article on her..
http://www.espnstar.com/tennis/tennis_newsdetail_1618608.html

If she wins her next round match, she will face another 18 year old ... Sharapova ..
Looking forward to that match

A Friend in Need

2005-08-24T00:05:00.000-04:00

is a Frined in deed
actually, I was not in need, but then again, I did need to blog I guess.
A friend, a regular blogger suggested that I jump in too and I thought why not?
There were the proverbial potholes in the road to Blog, the biggest of them being
what was my Blogspot login id forget the password.
I somehow managed to create a new one in the process of searching for my old login
and here I am.
It's kinda late here and guess I wont be able to do justice to my budding Blog by writing ad hoc
so will refrain.
Expect my next blog when you see it !! :-D
Peace