The Madness of Holi It’s that time of the year when the madness of Holi grips the country. It’s also the time of the year when I retreat into my shell like a turtle. Or, like an ostrich, I bury my head in the sand. Personally, I prefer the turtle analogy because an ostrich exposes…
My Fellow Indian
The Choices We Make Life is full of twists and turns, and we always must choose. The choices we make are critical, and determine the way we live our lives, our approach to projects, and how we present ourselves. I know this sounds philosophical and grand, but when you weigh my words, you will agree…
My Beloved Olympus (3)
Journey Along The Learning Curve When I started walking the tortuous path of becoming a half-decent photographer, I did not realize I was to journey along the learning curve all my life. I dislike the phrase. It is a cliché, but I will use it for this little confession because it is apt. But the…
My Beloved Olympus (2)
Your First True Love Do you remember your first love? I am not speaking of your first fling, but of your first true love. While studying engineering, I fell in love with corrosion engineering and wanted to do my PhD in corrosion. If everything had gone my way, then I would have flown to the…
My Beloved Olympus (1)
Acknowledge your Debt I bought my Olympus OM-2n camera almost forty years ago. It’s been a while and through the years I have spoken of how my father bought this camera for me. If not for him, I could not have embarked on this journey into the world of photography. It’s good form to acknowledge…
An Alternative Biography
What if? I write every day in response to a writing prompt, and I have a collection of them for the current year. Also, and I must emphasize this, I write in longhand, using a fountain pen. I have a small collection of such pens. Anyway, one prompt encouraged me to write an alternative autobiography….
The City. The Stars
A Book of Human Alienation In recent times, I have read a bit of science fiction. While this was a genre I used to read often when I was a teenager, I ventured into different genres of literature as I grew older. I was about to write ‘as I aged’, but then I stopped myself…
Meat. Passion & Power
The Day The Lightning Struck Meat Loaf died a few weeks ago, and so did Lata Mangeshkar. We, in India, refer to Lata Mangeshkar as “The Nightingale of India”, and she was a fabulous and accomplished singer. Yet, her death left me cold. Zero. She lived. She died. In contrast, when I read about Meat…
Kankhal. Shiva’s Townlet
The Shiva Temple in the Townlet And so, the time has come to talk about the last place we visited. After Rishikesh, Kunjapuri, Neelkanth, and Haridwar, we went to Kankhal. I don’t know how to describe Kankhal, because it is not a town, neither is it a village or hamlet. Nor is Kankhal a colony…
Haridwar. City of God
Religious Fervor After we visited Rishikesh, Neelkanth and Kunjapuri, we went back to Haridwar. Haridwar, or the “Doorway to God”, if you take a literal translation of the name of the town. Some towns are built around religion and God, and Haridwar is one of these towns. Every aspect of the town focuses on sustaining…