Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikkaalam

Deepavali day (Wed, 26-Oct-11), around 2:00 pm at the Marina beach
[Click to view at a better size]
Panorama stitch using Microsoft Image Composite Editor of 5 individual photos taken in sequence

Nice horizon contrast with the northern side being bright and blue and the southern side growling dark with grey.

But, where were the crowds?

Maybe the plethora of TV movies kept them glued, or the new film releases kept them screened, or the intermittent rains reined them in, or the festival hogging kept them in sloth!

The beach looked fine from afar, but where the waves lapped, it was definitely yuck. Junk and garbage throughout, including an animal carcass. Less of plastic though, but lots of other junk. Maybe we (the people) will learn its value only after we lose it.

Spent around 45 minutes at the beach and as we returned back home, it poured for an hour or so. Guess we were plain lucky that day!

Note: The picture resolution and hence quality is reduced as to not tax the Indian Internet. :-)

Unworded - Is it a bird or a flower?

'Bird of Paradise' flower

A Midsummer Morning's Dream

The pictures speak for themselves for contrast. Last Wednesday (25-May-11), woke up in the morning to see a blanket fog that had engulfed the whole place.

Couldn't believe it was mid-summer and I am seeing fog with a mild drizzle with a wind-chill making you feel as if you are at some hill station in winter.   :-)

Bangalore does have its Wow! surprises ...

Granted that I live at the fringes of Bengaluru to savour these for whatever time it lasts.

With due apologies to William Shakespeare for punning his title

Unworded - Gubbachchi

Bangalore's Paradise lost - As happy as a lark - Rare visitor at home - Wake up to chirps

Unworded - Color contrasts

Tamizh New Year Greetings & Wishes!

 

Lavender amongst shades of green - Jacaranda blooms

Unworded - Self Portrait

Clicking Self
(with due credits to Ilaiyaraaja's 'Singing Self' from 'Nothing but Wind')

Unworded-A Sun-rise and a Moon-set

And 'Hi' said the Sun to the Moon
Montage using Gimp. Photos taken within minutes of each other at opposite horizons
Camera: Nokia N73 (alas!, the quality does suffer here)

Unworded - As fresh as dew

ரோஜாக்களில் பன்னீர்த்துளி; வழிகின்றதேன் அது என்ன தேன்
One is obvious, Guess the other (the stalk is a giveaway)?
Imaged with a Nokia N73 in macro mode and composited using Gimp

Unworded - The ruler of Madurai

A view of the West Gopuram in the distance, Amman Sannidhi is closer
and the Potraamaraikkulam (The Golden Lotus pond) in the foreground

Visited during the Navarathri festival of 2010

Unworded - Plane view - Crop Circles

Surprised how the farmers find time to do the patterns as these

Shot using Nokia N73, Downsized/adjusted with Picasa 3

This picture was taken approximately half an hour later on the same flight path of where this picture was taken. This region is the bread basket of the US.

Unworded - Plane view - Peaks and valleys

Shot using Nokia N73, Downsized/adjusted with Picasa 3, Effects with PhotoFiltre

Unworded - Contrasts

A distant moonset from a morning walk, a raging sunset from Richmond Road, Bengaluru
Montage-Picasa 3.0, Image downsize-Irfanview, Original images-Nokia N73

Unworded - The new generation schooler's principle

I rebel and therefore I am                 (Snapped from my brother's kid's Tee-shirt)

 

 

Unworded - A sundown over the Pacific

Sunset over the Pacific at the San Gregorio State Beach, California

Demographic targeting

One of the things that I noticed about the uninor outdoor ads is their positioning at youth rather than an all-inclusive demography. The ads are targeted at college goers and those in their first jobs and at an urban audience. Most of the faces that grace the print/outdoor ads look serious, but show confidence or contentment. Probably only two models actually smile/laugh in the ads. Interestingly, not much of jingoism which the others like Tata DoCoMo or Reliance seem to be drumming up. I have not seen any of the TV ads though. Not sure how uninor fares with a rural audience. More females than the males in the ads.

In India with ARPU being low, it is always a tough fight to get a loyal mindshare. With mobile number portability coming in, it will become even more messy. Seems like they have got a decent start in their first month of operations and I hope these folks succeed as I have been associated indirectly with both the companies that form uninor. (Unitech was assisted in setting up all the operations and billing infrastructure and software by my earlier company and Telenor is a customer of my current company (though not here, but in Europe)). Their web-site could be a tad better.

And I like their logo in blue!

Unworded - Sunrise today

And quiet breaks the dawn

Unworded - Fiery and yet mellow, Stirring and yet calm

Sunset over the backwaters of the Pichavaram mangroves (near Chidambaram)

Unworded - Beautifully symmetric, but it is also a scourge

Ad(t)tractive

I notice her at least 3 times daily at different places daily on my drive to/from work. Very difficult to ignore and stands out (literally) from the crowd.

The woman is, needless to say, very pretty, with lovely eyes and a mild smile (Mona Lisa-esque?), gazing somewhere, casual (dress, hair) and looking mildly amused (or is it interested). The lighting is natural. Looks zero percent garish (unlike the other jewellery ads where the woman is bedecked with jewellery at every possible place in the face and torso and dancing around with all that for God's sake, Grrr.. when I see Tamanna esp. with a silly expression and not to mention the nasal twang of a song.). The only jewellery visible on her is the necklace and it isn't prominent and she actually overshadows it with her presence.

Very apt tag line "VERY RARE. VERY YOU". Hats off the ad agency that commissioned this and to the beautiful lady gracing it.

Shutter Chatter

Petal special

A glorious morning shot of one of the flowering plants under my care. :-)

Click on the photos to view in a larger size 

Color riot

The colors look at bit stained due to the lighting pattern in my balcony in the mornings, but that doesn't take anything off the beauty of the flowers.

A fresh lease of life

Just when we thought that the transplanted rose plant needs some time to acclimatize in a big pot, it responded back with a beautiful new clutch of leaves. Welcome home.

In a way, gardening is like parenting. Needs a lot of work, care, patience, time and money. When the results are there, there is no end to the joy that it brings you. (It also brings you hardship as well. :-))

All these photos have been taken with my Nokia N73's built-in camera. Never thought that the N73 could take such good close-ups. Landscapes look great with the N73 and its' 3 mega-pixel camera is more than sufficient for most of random shots that I take.