Steel & Poise

It rides in, brand new and glistening. The exterior colours of red and yellow stand out against drab and dusty surroundings. Whilst it waits momentarily people hustle around, in and out, excited at the prospect of riding new steel wheels.

Rushing in too, I saw pinky-fawn coloured seats and unpainted steel plates and dividers, reflecting the brightness of ambient light. It looks like everyone is glowing, for no apparent reason, save the feeling of happiness at the opportunity of being on a new train. Where there were solid partitions, there are grills letting in light and breeze. The overhead racks now have guard rails, while electronic signboards announce approaching stations. Beneath the seats, the area is left open to the detriment of wee rats or cockroaches often lurking in dark, dank and dirty corners.

A little girl sits at a window with orange shorts and a pink hat. Hesitantly, I gesture her to sit up and forward to view her better thru the lens. In a couple of moments, my actions are discovered by her mother who sits opposite. Expecting queries or a reprimand for not asking permission to photograph the child, I was relieved to hear the sound of embarrassed laughter. Taking a few more photographs I thank little Ashwini. Before exiting a few stations down, her mom asks her and her brother to say ‘bye’. I am surprised and very pleased. Responding, I thank them again. Increasingly, taking photographs in urban India has become a nuisance for professionals, whose intentions are percieved as suspect. The rampant abuse of photography through various devices by miscreants and criminals is making candid and street photography very difficult. Experiencing such implicit trust is a treasure.

Delicious...

He was tall, not dark but handsome. Dressed in tracks, he entered the foyer conversing on his cell. Other than eyeing 'candy' I was there to meet with a colleague.

Later as we sat awaiting our assignment of the morning, he came over asking if we were from *****.com. He was our 'assignment'. Exuding warmth and a quiet self-assuredness he talked of his interest and achievements in extreme sports.

Bhauvik will be rowing across the Atlantic from Spain to Antigua in 2006. Living and working in Sweden he has bicycled to Istanbul, trekked thru Siberia and Mongolia and done a couple of other things that are not a regular day at the office!

Impressions

Worldy wise with a very attractive personality are jus a couple of things one can start to say about Sushma Reddy... vj, model, actress, and probably a few other irons in the fire that jurnos should'nt know about, prudently.
The intellgence and sensitivity enhanced by that lithesome persona, was like a breath of wild flowers. Lovely girl.
In a city like Bomaby where one constantly engages the 'celebrity' (every jack and johnny come lately thinks he/she is the cats whiskers) who portray an arrogance thats so unwarranted, is the bane of the media. Especially for photogs(there are some lewd dogs in that lot too), who simply take images. Its not as if we hang out at their homes or resaurants and pubs they frequent and chase them day and night... I often wonder if they realize how good they have it compared to the Europeans and Americans... Do they watch AXN's bizzare videos clips?
Then again, just the lack of discretion on the part of a single jurno or photog tends to upset the whole apple cart.
And then again, you have the obnoxious actress (in indian wet look porn roles) who are suck-ulent fodder for those morphing mms, deserve all coming to them...
Oh well, today, the very effervescent senior sibling Reddy made my day. Thank you girl.

Wary college kids!???

Trying to get images of college going kids with their cells turned out to be quite a 'task' today! Unlike a while ago, they were always happy to be photographed! Today was like, "no no aunty! we can take our own!", dunno wot shocked me more, the 'aunty' or the refusal!
Considering the kinda cells they were tooling around with, most of them probably have digicams of their own (on their cells) and being seen in the media is suddenly not so cool! Anyway there were a few who were still quite willing... phew thot i was gonna hav a real hard time. Got a real cool one with a guy actually wearing a shirt that said MOTHER TONGUE: SMS YIPPETY DO DA! gottit :)

Restaurants NOT recommended!

...and the first one on my list is MAINLAND CHINA at Andheri, Lokhandwala! 4 of us were there Friday night for Jay's birthday and we were all ill one way or another the next day! mostly headaches and upset tummys, for that kind of money???? NO way!

Bhutta! Mine should be soft, yet firm ;}

Roasted bhuttas HAVE to be white. The American YELLOW are for cooking and steaming as far as im concerned!
So, buy mine white! Dig in a (CLEAN) nail and if 'milk' spurts out, thats the one, 'cept it should be full kernals and not the dimpled variety that are too soft but sweet none the less, but i like mine firm... okay? thanx, a 5 rupee one will do.

Deleting...

Wrote a perfectly sensible 'scribble' the other day and deleted it... WAs after the London bombings... felt silly at the time and then i heard and read exactly wot i'd said over the next couple of days... how different can we be...?

It was something that was waiting to happen, an inevitable. The timing was perfect. Complacency after a major victory (for the Olympic bid). Only now, its the terror of waiting for the 'terror' to take place. They have succeeded in all they set out to accomplish since 9/11. The unrest (of catastrophic proportions) in our minds will never go away.

Stairway to Heaven went to Hell with a backpack...

On the sets of a reality show a beautiful, tall glass vase with white pebbles, water and bamboo stalks shattered across the floor along with my ego cos me backpack brushed against it... ground-swallow-me-up prayers didnt work at all!