Tid Bit from My Diary

This is post is the second and concluding part of the series" Finding the Right Photographer"   There was a time when photography was very special and an artist drawn portrait was more affordable. I was reading one day about a trying photographer taking speculative photographs of people in the late nineteenth century in the book “Three men in a boat” by Jerome K Jerome. The photographer was standing by the riverside and took a photograph of the passing boat commuters with the intention to sell them later to those who could afford to buy them. But that was another time when wealthy owned and roared their personal boats and motorcars were futuristic dream. But today everyone takes photographs and probably their claim to photographer is as strong as our claim to be writers. How to select the photographers for our special occasions? What makes a good photographer? How many of these traits do they possess? Passion & Obsession for perfection The single most im...

During the early days of the 21 st century, I completed construction of a country headquarters for a major multinational bank. We wanted some photographs taken of the competed works once we handed over the project for our reference. I informed the person in command that my colleague, who is also a photographer, will come down and take some pictures. While giving consent he commented, “Anyone holding a digital camera considers him to be a photographer these days”. That was partially was true as not everyone had access to a “digicam” as it was known then and the prized possession came with the privilege of being considered to be a photographer. This was then and today almost everyone has got a smart phone and is a photographer. Anywhere we go, we see people taking each other’s pictures, or selfies or things of interest around them. While this has given a whole new dimension to the definition of “citizen journalism”, the doubt remains if it has done a great deal of good to the pr...

Yesterday I was at the supermarket doing my groceries, which was the usual weekly ration of fruits, vegetables, milk, and fish stuff. As I was pushing the cart along, I could see others glancing at my catch. Some of them were a bit shy and looked from the corner of their eyes while others were more straightforward with their act. They must have been quite surprised as my trolley was not even full, leave alone the overloaded ones that one usually witnesses in this part of the world. Those carts would remind you of the fully loaded Lorries in roads of our subcontinent. I wondered if there was anything wrong in this behaviour. Is this comparable to a peeping Tom for example or can it be considered to be an infringement of my privacy? The answer probably is negative though may not be seen as good etiquette. It's not that I am a saint in this regards or my eyeballs are fully under my command in similar situations. They involuntarily move towards other’s trolleys and return with...

I was reading an odd article on a lazy afternoon when I came across the word “Miracle”. Sometimes we come across some stories that appears to be so real and at times we are confronted with incidents those are difficult to distinguish from fictions.  I was taken to a journey down the memory lane to more than 20 years to  the early nineteen nineties and I had just lost our father and I had left my job in Delhi and temporarily moved back to our home town. I used to spend my evenings hanging out with few of my classmates who were fresh out of medical colleges and doing their intern-ships at the government hospitals and also working part time in some private clinics. One particular night we were standing at a street corner with the doctors after their duty at the clinic was over. We were having some silly men talks over cups of tea and cigarettes. We noticed a three wheeler auto rickshaw rushed past us and the desperation of the driver appeared to be tra...

How can one describe the culture in a big and diverse nation like India? Today we have grown to understand our unity in diversity while the astounding truth is that we have united without any fragment losing its individuality. Our culture is our way of life and we have learnt countless way to live, woven by a single thread which is the pride of being Indian.  The fabric of India cannot be described any better than the words of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore— “Hethay arjo hetha anarjo hethay drabir chin Shak hoon dal pathan mogol ek dehe holo leen Paschime aji khuliyache dar setha hote sobe ani uphar Dibe aur nibe milabe milibe, jabena fire Eai bharater mahamanaber sagar tire” I will not go in to the length of translating the texts but in gist our place is the confluence of all culture. Aryans, non Aryans, Dravidian, Chinese, Shaks, Huns, Mughols to name a few have all contributed in developing our culture, our belief, our tradition, our values, our way of life and above a...

This is the 100th post of my blog and dedicated to the Indian Woman. Why should Indian woman change their surname after marriage? They are one of the most educated people in this universe and stand shoulder to shoulder with the men folk. Their contribution in our society is immeasurable and so is their dominance. Most of us were taught in our school and colleges by women and we still fondly remember them with respect and sometime with fear.  In brief they are smart, capable, respected and in charge. So changing their surname is their decision similar to visual symbols of marriage, like saree, mang, bindi, mangal sutra and the likes which some might consider as adornment. But like a celebrity once said, India is so vast and so diverse that whatever we say about India is true but incidentally the opposite is also true. So on one side there is equal opportunity for all and all genders or more appropriately equality exist among equals and on the other side a vast majority o...

This post is designed to make the ace construction manager look like a super hero, a character that is larger than life and well deservedly so. Getting skyscrapers, high risers of even a 30 storied building for that matter is not a child’s play. Anyone who had tried playing with block during childhood will know what I mean. If you are still not convinced, try your hand making a sand castle on your next trip to the beach. The construction industry is very diverse and could easily challenge the nature with its variety.    One has to be brave, assertive and at the same time demonstrate agility in approach to survive in this industry. Unlike the designers, who are primarily dreamers, the construction teams deal with harsh reality and transforms ideas into built forms. There is no gate pass to the top for the timid or the weak. But that for the top, not all who fall on the line are smart, most of them are as clumsy as they come. A complex construction project has the ...