Pranav Negandhi - Photographs from India's photostream

Busy lifestyles have become an excuse to stop appreciating the simpler things in life any more. But all it takes is a packed lunch and a few hours away from the television on Sunday to get away from it all. And that was what picnics of yore used to be - an afternoon lazing under the open sky doing nothing at all. Today's high-tech, high-priced artificial worlds don't hold a candle to what Nature offers for free. And the ongoing monsoon is the best time to enjoy such simple pleasures.

Ami just seems to have a knack of finding the best in every situation. It is an invisible, positive bent of mind that she has towards life itself. Close to four years living with her and I still have not been able to put my finger on it. It is not something physical. But it's effects are manifested in her life in more ways that one. I have witnessed her literally having what she wants fall into her lap in the most unexpected of places.

Her optimism is for sharing all around amongst all her friends. And boy does she have friends! She has more friends than pages in her phone book. And that's a pretty fat phone book she carries. But her best friends are the ones without a phone at all - the little children in her school who love her so.

I'm glad she is doing what she is. There already is enough cynicism in this world. If she can help embed the lesson of optimism in a few children under her care, it'll make for a much better future. Happiness, all around.

We encountered these critters near Malhargadh Fort. Quite tiny, almost invisible to the eye, they make for a pretty picture. Imagine my horror when I came home and realized they're prone to emating some rather ugly smells when disturbed. I'm moving into a plastic bubble from now on.

If you know more about this particular kind of bug, please share in comments.

We encountered these critters near Malhargadh Fort. Quite tiny, almost invisible to the eye, they make for a pretty picture. Imagine my horror when I came home and realized they're prone to emating some rather ugly smells when disturbed. I'm moving into a plastic bubble from now on.

If you know more about this particular kind of bug, please share in comments.

One of the earliest principles that photographers learn is the Rule of Thirds. For a layperson it suffices to know that photographs appear much more pleasing to the eye when subjects are placed about a third of the way off-center, rather than being bang in the middle of the frame. But to the interested amateur or aspiring professional, it helps to know the mathematical principle behind this rule.

Artist of the Renaissance period realized the aesthetic qualities of the Golden Ratio and used it in their works. But its mathematical aspects have been studied by intellectuals since at least 2,400 years. Euclid, and before him, Pythagoras studied the golden ratio due to its frequent application in the geometry of lines, regular pentagrams and pentagons. It saw a resurgence in artistic, scientific and architectural circles since Luca Pacioli authored Divine Proportione in 1509.

Uma poses in her self-knit pink beanie cap in this rather benign application of the Golden Ratio.