Anoop Negi's photostream  

Bangalore is undisputedly the software hub for the IT industry from where India churns out billions of dollars worth of backend work for corporations located abroad. It is a thriving metropolis gone to seed already. The infrastructure just can not cope up.

Flickr is dotted with a rather large number of software and allied engineers who work in Bangalore. This post is to them and their lives.

On the Bangalore Mysore highway, about 50 kms out is a place called Ramadevaraya which is a hill rising up on the right hand side of the road. This is just before the town of Ramanagaram.

A small narrow road snakes up passing the ubiquitous schools of higher professional learning that come up at the oddest of places in India as commercial education mongers set up their shops anywhere and everywhere they can find a place. So once you have passed the College of Pharmacy and climbed up a smaller hill you come to a small meadow with a lake and barred gates of red blue and white set up by the temple organisers. The stairs about 300 of them leading up to the temple repeat the same color scheme of blue red and white.

There were children raising up a merry din and you could hear that from afar. I thought there was a school group out on a jaunt but there were only 6 of them from the village nearby and it looked that the local schools and colleges would never see these young ones in their classrooms anytime soon. The merry bunch was blissfully unaware of attending a school and what education could or could not give them.

Portrayed here is Sita with a flawless dark skin and she sports a fearless red bindi and possesses an elegant jaw line, high cheekbones and collagen full luscious lips and an inborn grace and poise that was amazing to see and remember the lack of it in the so called professional models that one tends to bump into ever so often. No tutoring what so ever was required. She is a born natural.

This was shot in May 2010 and Poonam Parihar, a fellow Flickr and a software person was also there along with Pooja Prabhu from the LSE, In fact you can find more details of the trip on Poonam's blog.

Poonam says she lost all her footage from the shoot due to a wrong press of a button. I hope the software guys and girls do not delete / format this nation.

This then is as much from her as from me.

Dates
Taken on May 21, 2010 at 1.58pm IST (edit)
Posted to Flickr February 2, 2012 at 11.06AM IST (edit)
Exif data
Camera Nikon D70
Exposure 1/2500 sec
Aperture f/2.5
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 500
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

DSC_0232 nef cu niksilef tfm

At the carnevale in Goa, ,much dancing and revelry. Lots of people watching, lots participating. It is a fanfare of fun and light heartedness that descends on the taciturn Goan existence.

Yes Goa has its beaches, its fantastic Indo Portuguese food, its air of sussegaado and that chill factor of not bothering you. That is a given.

Most people are, however, serious and reserved. This is one fun event where people wear a lot of smiles.

Taken on February 16, 2010 at 5.25pm IST (edit)
Posted to Flickr February 1, 2012 at 3.50PM IST (edit)
Exif data
Camera Nikon D300
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture f/2.5
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

_DSC0685 nef jpeg 2

In the harsh sun light of a Goan summer a woman from the tribal lands of Karnataka stirs up a pail of coconut shavings to pound them in a large stone mortar and pestle that she holds in the other hand.

Goa is more known for its beaches, tanned flesh, food and carnevale then for its salt. Here right next to Panjim, salt making goes on in the summer months. I guess since no tourists arrive here during that period, no one even mentions the existence of these historic mines which work on the principle of solar evaporation of the saline water that reaches up the Mandovi in the summer months.

In Goa, during the months of summer, nothing moves, not even the breeze, it is hot and sultry and almost impossible to think. The famous beaches are not happening as the water is so murky and full of churning that the currents are vicious.

The only activity that seems to occur during this hottest part of the year in Goa is the making of Salt and living life and dreaming of the monsoon to break and bring the rains.

Dates
Taken on June 1, 2010 at 1.08pm IST (edit)
Posted to Flickr January 27, 2012 at 4.24PM IST (edit)
Exif data
Camera Nikon D300
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 17 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

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India has a holiday today. A National Holiday for this day Indian adopted a Constitution and set the bedrock of democracy within a constitutional framework.

The big event of the day - A Republic Day Parade in Delhi. I remember peeping on to that many decades ago. Now you can see it on the idiot box.

"Vande Mataram" , is a catechism of sorts that intellectually defines the Republic Day in India as much as the popular parade does for the masses. It is a poem written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1882 and is an obeisance to the power goddess Durga.

Vande Matram was the offering and greeting that freedom fighters used while communicating with each other in the halcyon days of the struggle to overcome the colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The first two verses of the poem "vande Mataram" form the "National Song" of the Republic of India.

This text is the calligraphic creative work of Uday Tadphale, a wonderful creative artist with absolutely rocking good credentials.

He is on flickr -- Uday Tadphale on Flickr

You can see his creative work here

You can download this image and use it as a Display Icon for Twitter, Flickr or Facebook or what ever.
Please do so. Much obliged.

Thank you Uday Tadphale for sharing your creative genius.

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Marriages made for Photography.

Esha Marwah and Sumit Gurjar.

I think the marriage ceremony had just got over. A brief exchange of conversation between the groom and the bride. Perhaps, relief that all had gone well.

Dates
Taken on May 18, 2011 at 12.33pm IST (edit)
Posted to Flickr January 23, 2012 at 9.34AM IST (edit)
Exif data
Camera Nikon D300
Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/3.5
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash
_DSC0822 nef nik bnw copy