Calcutta Trip

Dec 24 2005 to Dec 31 2005
Bombay-Calcutta-Jamshedpur-Bhuvaneshwar-Konark-Puri-Bhuvaneshwar-Calcutta-Bombay ... whew!

Kudos to Brij (and Maggi) for planning the entire trip so well.
An early morning flight always sucks – but what the heck – this was one of the high points of the trip – 7 days of touring India - yaaaaaaaaaay
Calcutta city was like any other city in India … only worse! It was a pleasure to see so many yellow Ambassadors as cabs! God bless Amby’s for their ability to seat 6  - and welcome to the land of trams – double yaay :)
The road to Heera’s Holiday Inn gave Brij (and the rest of us) the jitters … but it was a nice place – snug in the heart of Calcutta … a couple of blocks from Calcutta’s famous Park street!
Walking on Park Street on Christmas eve was good fun – the place was crawling with people … and we added 5 to the numbers :D Flurys was a fun place to be … albeit the waiting and pushing in the waiting lines – but hey that’s the festive spirit no?

Spellings in Calcutta are a different story altogether – we were fortunate to witness some of the most innovative spellings and sayings – and our favourite had to be “Mony loss is nothing loss but chariter loss is everythisg loss” – priceless!


The Graceful Victoria Memorial and its light show was good fun.


The Kalighat temple was an experience - I will say no more at this moment!


Lots of good yummy food at the Gupta's - novocaine for the vegetarian souls in Calcutta :) And all the cakes and pastries at the famous Flury's on Park Street.



We bumped into Mr. Ajit (almost ran over would be more appropriate) on the corner of iforgotthename street … and in less than three minutes, all of us were humbled/overjoyed/stupefied/sad to see the amazing talent of the man – the man who painted on greeting cards without a brush! Just uses his fingers and nails – awesome!

Of course the wannabe entrepreneurs in all of us started musing on the idea of trademarking his style and art and not only making big bucks but also give artists like Ajit his due! “Finger art” / “arty fingers” and the likes made their appearance and quickly got lost in the task of getting to Howrah station quickly.
We had to get to Jams for the wedding ...

All in a single day

Horsey’s marriage tomorrow … jet lag is still around - but the euphoria is keeping excitement levels high.
– All in a day’s work today
1am – walked out of the airport in Bombay
7am – woke up for the pooja
5 hours of pooja and more than 200 pictures later ;)
heavy traditional south Indian lunch
quick 45 minute shopping and Rs 8000 later
quick trip to the bride’s house to officially invite the bride’s family – and I was driving – yep barely 16 hours into the country, I was driving on Indian roads and nothing felt different … almost!
Got to get back and prepare for tomorrow – big day!

The smell of Bombay

Could smell Bombay for the first time … as soon as we walked out of the airplane at Bombay Intl. airport - despite all the headiness and sore sore throat!
Am I getting soft?

MP3 and Music

Those days of audio-cassettes, where we would listen to a tape till it got worn-out - literally! Albums were hard to come by and music got its due diligence ... an album was heard a few times before judgement was passed.
But of late, music has almost become like fast-food "to-go" - if it is not something that makes me stop what I am doing then it does not get a second chance! I don't really like that - one that it is not fair and two that I notice that I am doing something when I am listening to stuff ... not like the old times when I would stick the tape into my Walkman (a SanYo personal-cassette-player actually!) and simply “listen” to the music!
Life has gotten more complicated and music has become more diluted! Like Sarat pointed out, there’s an insane amount of music that is being produced - unlike days of yore! And with mp3's the whole situation seems like it has been put thru the blender!
Ask me my favorite albums and they mostly are the ones I heard on tape first! (‘cept Karsh Kale of course)! Bad. Not Good. Something needs to be done.
the worst thing is - I don't know what to do about it!

Random shapes

Was reading the interesting comments that Brij made in his blog about my arty-farty pics - very insightful observations by Brij (as usual).
And then D, made another insightful observation (as usual) - that she has noticed my fascination to flames, steam and other things related to fire!
Very very true - she couldn't be more correct - I am fascinated by fire.
On more pondering, I think it is to do with the randomness in shape that fire has. I I have never ever liked clean-cut and orderly designs - I have always been a stickler for random brush strokes and the likes - even scattered handwriting! - my hair, my ties, my tees ...
notes to self!

The lull after the storm

Kinda feel that way - with most of the homework and tests completed for this week.
At least no more sleepless nights working ...

Kinda unsure what to do - feels strange now that the weight's lifted! But I guess this is only momentary - with India 7 days away - things are going to get hectic soon!

arty farty pics - 2

quick snap in a store on Bourbon Street - New Orleans (Dec 2004)... will buy one of these busts someday :(


Diwali diyas at home (2002) - love the way the flames move in different directions.


selftest - with the JVC camcorder - March 2002 - lots of trial and error to get that right ... working by myself