Journey or destination...?

Parallel tracks of the train ~
Moving together,
What do they gain..?
Talking to them without a mask,"Do you ever meet" I had to ask.
"Does it matter?" the return question
"Do you believe in journey or destination?
Together so much in every terrain,
We shine in the same sun,
And gleam in the same rain;
Still alone in our own way
Never coming in each other's way,
Far in the horizon we may seem to be nearer,
But here in the now we are together;
Any dream is alive till it shatters,
Ours is living, isn't that all that matters?"
I nod in agreement with them and with me,
Yes, it's not the destination, its always the journey...

Rusted

A bright blue once fresh and promising turning into a rusted, fading brown. Why did this happen? Was the blue not taken care of? Was the weather too unfavourable? Did the blue not wish to remain so? But who would want to get rusted and faded? Actually nobody. But then why do you and me let the spark inside us get extinguished? Why do we let the circumstances get the better of us and let the fire in us die off? Why do we let our weaker side get the better of us and let our individual assets fade away? Why do we not take good care of the fresh and bright blue, fight against the weather to retain its colour and take efforts to prevent it from rusting......?

Waking up on a lake...

One of the most beautiful and peaceful experiences one can have on this earth is waking up on a tranquil, blue lake. And what makes it better is that you have spent the night in a tent by the lake, and you awake with the crooning of birds to soak your eyes with the blue of the sky and the lake. This is what we experienced on our trip to a quiet, lesser-known hill station called Bhandardhara ~ a small, uncommercialized place some 3 hours on road from Nasik. The lake rests peacefully surrounded by the Sahayadari hills and indulges in its own subtle games with the changing light since sunrise till sunset. We watched mesmerized as the sun rose from somewhere behind the hills and a golden hue spread over the blue of the clean waters of the lake. With mugs of hot tea in our hands we sat quietly looking in awe as the soft golden rays tickled the lake and then moved on to the trees and eventually us too. How were we feeling..?? Bliss is the word...! :)

This is the tent that we stayed in....

India in the heart- Spirit of Independent India

Taking India in the heart, today's Indian youth is going places.

The spirit of India today is the confidence of the youth in themselves and their determination to do something and make a difference. Free from the age old superstitions India is today a happy blend of eastern values and western practicality. Adopting the best of the western world, but at the same time feeling immense pride in our Indian roots ~ That's the spirit of Independent India today.

Brothers

On a recent visit to ravivari, the sunday flea market below Ellisbridge, came across these two kids. These two brothers living in slums. There seemed to be an age difference of around two years between the kids.

What caught my attention was the signs of the growing up phase of siblings during childhood, where the elder one generally takes up the responsibility of showing off his newly discovered found knowledge about things around them to the younger one.

It was a joy to see the bond between the two children.

How they were playing together, running, laughing, oblivious to the environment and condition that they were born and living in.

How the two brothers were there for each other, learning with each other and taking care of each other while their parents were out to earn their daily bread was very heart touching. It does bring back some nostalgia of our our own childhood and the relationship that we shared with our siblings.

Some time with these leaves...

After many days today morning went to the balcony with a cup of tea. The breeze was cool. Suddenly my eyes fell on one of the plants that we have placed in our balcony. Such a beautiful arrangement of light and dark green flowers ! I was still halfway with my tea, but then it could wait ! I had to take capture the foliage in its element, in the morning light....

After this first capture, i started looking for other interesting arrangements. Did find some, but felt something was missing. Sprinkled the leaves with some water and found this set of leaves...It seemed as if the leaves were smiling with this splash of water...!



Another arrangement which caught my fancy ~ Liked the way the leaves were hanging in this one...



Wanted to make use of some depth of field in this one, blur the rest of the leaves and make the leaf carrying the water droplets stand out. But my lens allowed no more effect than this. Still like the way this came out ~



Taking these pictures, dowloading them, resizing them and sending them to my official id so that i could upload them in the day, ensured that i had to rush madly to avoid being little late for work.... but felt good that i began the day well....

and yeah, the remaining tea also tasted much better after that........ :-)

Street vendor in the evening glow

It was the evening of our second and last day at Jodhpur. It had rained in the afternoon for around an hour and again in the evening the sun had come out with it's beautiful golden light. We were passing through the market near the clock tower where we spotted this turbaned street vendor. The golden light on his face and the quality of his eyes caught my attention. Took a couple of his photographs from different angles, but liked this the most.