12Comments ५ दिवसात फोटोग्राफर कसं बनायचं?

दिवस १:
तुम्हाला seriously कॅमेरा घ्यायचाय का? तुमच्या 'Pro' मित्राला विचारा कुठला घेऊ.
ProTip: एकालाच विचारा. अनेकांना विचारला तर सगळे मिळून इतका confusion करतात की पुढचे दोन महिने नक्की कुठला कॅमेरा घेऊ विचार करण्यातच जातात.

दिवस २:
उगाच internet वर reviews वाचल्यासारखं करा. म्हणजे तुमचा कॅमेरा कुठला घ्यायचा fix असतो, पण तरी timepass म्हणून 'हा बाबा काय म्हणतोय. ती बाई काय म्हणतीये' बघून ठेवा. म्हणजे 'Pro' मित्रांनी विचारलं की reviews वाचले का? की हो म्हणता येतं.

दिवस ३:
तो पहिल्या दिवशीच ठरवलेला कॅमेरा विकत घेऊन या. अन मग जरा हवा करा. facebook वर वगैरे टाका 'Bought new camera n it 's awesome!' वगैरे. तेवढ्याच comments येतील जरा.

दिवस ४:
थोडे photos काढायचा try करा. या दिवशी तुम्हाला कळत की तुम्हाला कॅमेर्यातलं ओ का ठो कळत नाही. मग थोडा वेळ वाटायला लागत की च्यायला उगाच आणला कॅमेरा.
Tension नका घेऊ. एक काम करा. परत Internet वर जाऊन जरा keywords वाचा. जरा ५-१० terms चा रट्टा मारा. लगेच वाटायला लागतं की येतं थोडंफार.

दिवस ५:
haan. आता आज कॅमेरा घेऊन कुठेतरी चांगल्या ठिकाणी जा. इतके पैसे टाकून घेतलेला कॅमेरा इतका भारी असतो की तुम्हाला स्वताला काही फारसं करावं लागत नाही. करूही नका. उगाच चांगला कॅमेरा बिघडायचा.
१०० फोटो घ्या, एक तरी चांगला येतोच. टाका facebook वर. उगाच हवा करायला काहीतरी aperture, shutter speed, exposure वगैरे शब्द वापरा.

Thats it! झाला की तुम्ही फोटोग्राफर!

3Comments Decisions

I hear people saying "This is the most important exam/year/decision in my life. My whole life depends on it."

Just wanna say - No. Its not. Life never depends on one particular point.

Once you realize this, you will take decisions without fear. You will live life as it's meant to live.

--
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. (via @abinashtripathi)

5Comments A black spot

Monday, August 6, 1945


I was at Hiroshima port for booking a ticket to Australia. It was necessary for safety of my family. As an ex-military officer, I knew something is gonna go wrong. And I think they knew it too. America gave us a warning. But nobody listened. I got fired instead for protesting against attacks. Well, may be its for good. I thought I'll shift to Australia with my family n live in peace for a few years. 


So there I was talking to people at Hiroshima port and I heard noise. I looked above and saw a small black spot far away above main city. Wait, I know what it was, It was an Atomic Bomb. Yeah, there was nuclear attack on Hiroshima city. My city... 


Almost automatically, I ran and jumped in the water. My skin burned. I knew it'll affect less in water so I started swimming. There was no hope for my family. They are all dead. For sure. and I'll be dead too, unless I go as long as possible from this place. Hiroshima port is far away from actual city. but not far enough. The fact that my skin got burned by the flash means It's sure gonna affect me. No point in turning back. No transports gonna help. Reaching nearby island was the only option.


Focus. Keep swimming. Focus. I kept saying to myself. I swam n swam n swam of hours.. and finally I reached Miyajima island. I was exhausted. I don't remember what happened after that but I think I lost my conscience and people helped me. They heard my story. They gave me food. They gave me place to stay. They gave me cloths. They gave me some money. They were so helpful. 
At night, I cried a lot.. for my family.. friends.. relatives.. neighbors.. They were all dead... and for no reason.. just like that..


Next day, I called my sister who was living in different city. Now she was my only relative. She asked me to come to her place. And made me say yes. I thanked all people who helped me and took a boat to Kyoteijomae. I decided to go to Kurokawa by train and then after that by bus via express highway. It was horrible journey. more than a days journey and nothing to do. I remembered the blast again and again. I was not sure if I should call myself lucky. No family, no home, no money is actually like a punishment. I didn't touch newspapers. They were all full of one and only one thing - atomic bomb at Hiroshima.


I reached my sisters house in the evening. I told her whole story.. again..   But this time it was not that painful. Staying with someone you know really helps. Lets forget it for now. There's always a new day. I ate dinner with that thought in my mind. I said good night to my sister and was about to go to my bedroom, I heard a loud sound. I looked out of window. 
It was August 9 at around 10:45 at night. I was looking out of a window of a house in Nagasaki city. And I saw a black spot in the sky... Again... And this time it was right above me...


-----
[obviously fictional. I don't know if the details are perfect. sorry if somethings not correct.]
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For tomorrow is another day
well that is what we always say
but does optimism always help?
Oh life's such a delusional play...
- Indrani


----
Edit2: Abhijit told me there's a guy who survived not just one but both the blasts.. http://goo.gl/x6E0 interesting read..

4Comments Peace is..

Like dew drops on sunflower..

Like watching a smooth flight of a kite..

Like sitting on a beach at night..

Like listening to sound of waves..

Like watching a bird building his nest..

Like playing a soft harp in background..

Like sitting alone on a mountain top..

Like raindrops on glass window..

Like listening to classical guitar..

Like driving on a straight empty road...

...

[photo via]

15Comments 13,800

Then we asked Sherpas "What are the names of these peaks?"

Sherpa said "These? These are not peaks.. These are hardly 14,000 - 15,000ft above sea level."

What? I knew the guy has climbed 26,000ft.. but still, kind of feeling embarrassed, I walked away from the group....

-------------------

This year I did Sar Pass trek. 

We started from 'Kasol' which is at 6,500ft and on first day climbed upto 8,000ft and camped at 'Guna Paani'. When we reached camp it started raining heavily. So heavy that we were actually scared if we could finish the trek or not. And we should turn back. But rain stopped after 4-5 hours. We came out of our tents in the morning and just looked around. It Was Beautiful...

This made us forget about turning back. And on second day we went forward to 'Funal Paani' which is at 9,500ft. This second day trek was pretty simple and weather was also very good. Tents were on slopes. We slept at one position n woke up at the end of slope :)

Third day trek was kind of difficult because of heavy rain. Path was very slippery. Me and one of my friend reached the third camp (Jirmi - 11,000ft) early and found this Glassy looking sky above us...

It was good that we reached a little early because then we found out the path became even more slippery and that people formed chains to climb up.
At night we gathered for campfire. We looked up and we were astonished to see thousands of stars that we never able to see in city. My eyes were my camera that time. No man-made camera can capture such a beauty.

We were around 60 when we started. But there were only 24 of us when we started for Tila- Lotni camp. Everybody else returned to base camp from Jirmi coz they had no extra cloths after two days rain.

Our group was smaller so we moved faster.. At around 12,000ft I saw these cows n oxen taking a break or something and I was like - "What?? How on earth they reached at this height?" I took the photograph.
I like the colours involved in this photo.

Tila-lotni. 12,500ft about sea level. You know, lot of my friends at US keep telling me how they hate snow and snow fall. But if you climbed for 3 days and then what you see is something like this (check below pic) then how can you even think of hating it..

We Just loved Tila-lotni Camp.. It was like heaven.. correction. It was heaven.. Pure white snow all around the camp area. and beautiful peaks like these.

We slept little early.. and woke up at 10 at night because of freaking cold... scary... but then again slept woke up at 2:30am and started packing. It was D-day. First ray of light and we started climbing up. Here we were companied by two trained Sherpas who had a lot of experience. climb was getting more n more difficult. firstly because there was no grip and secondly because there was lack of oxygen.

But when we reached top, we were at 13,800 feet. For the first time in my life. It was amazing. Like top of the world.
It was around 7:30 in the morning. Sun was just above the horizon. I faced the sun. Felt like I'm challenging the sun god. I guess he took the challenge n gave me a Sun-Burn :( But no matter.. It was waaay too awesome to think about this stuff.
I took the below pic of my friend at 13,800ft. I like it becase of Black shadow - White snow combination. This pic, I think, looks great.

We were 13,000+ feet for next two hours. There was Tea shop (tapri) at 13,800 ft. Imagine that!

And then there was this amazing snow slide. Sliding from 13,000ft to 12,000 was Crazy as hell.. We enjoyed it a lot. we reached Biskeri camp (which is at 11,000ft) at the end the day. We had a feeling like the trek is over now. So next day we descended to 6,500ft in one go skipping one day.

Trek was over. next almost a week we were travelling here n there. First Kasol then Chandhigad, Kalka n lastly Shimla. It was like another holiday after great trek.

On our first day at Shimla, I came across one guy with a telescope and stand.

That guy pointed finger to few mountain tops visible from shimla and asked me "Do you want to see these mountain peaks? Only for Rs. 10, sir" 

I said "These? I'm just coming from the top of one of these peaks."

and I walked away. And this time I was proud of myself...

-------------------

I wanted to write post about my trek for last two weeks but didn't get time. But its for good coz BlogAdda announced this Share your travel photos contest. So now this post also acts as my submission to the contest. Its sponsored by site PringOO which has collection of T-shirts/mugs like these -

4Comments Understanding Sméagol...

Sméagol, in my opinion, is the best character in Lord of the rings series..
Most of us consider Sméagol (gollum) as an evil character and tend to hate him at one point or another. But we really need to understand what that character is all about. What exactly he has gone through.. This is how I understand Sméagol -

Now, its very difficult to defend him n say he was not evil because it all starts with him murdering Déagol... But consider this, Sméagol as we know was a son of a thief (as mentioned in tolkien letters), a mean son of a thief.. And you know how mean people behave.. they don't care as long as they are getting what they want.. So it is possible that ring affected gollum so much so that he ended up killing Déagol. Its not entirely his fault then, is it? 

Ok lets assume that ring didn't affect him at all.. It was all by himself. But after that he spend not just 13-14 years but 500+ years alone.. 

What happened in those 500 years? Quoting FoTR -

The murder of Déagol haunted Gollum, and he made up a defence, repeating it to his "precious" over and over again, as he gnawed bones in the dark, until he almost believed it. It was his birthday. Déagol ought to have given the ring to him. It had previously turned up just so as to be a present. It was his birthday present, and so on, and on.

I guess I'll call him 'clean' after these many years.. evilness percentage back to 0.

In the hobbit book, in revised edition, tolkein made him nasty n dark.. previously he was not like that.. In previous edition he was more like how peter jackson has pictured it.. not exactly evil.. not exactly charming helping personality either.. I guess that's how he was after those 500 years..

Now.. consider a situation, your father stole something from me and gave it to you. You know that, I know that. I want it back. So why am I the evil person here? There was nothing wrong of Sméagol for wanting the ring back.. I probably would have done the same thing...

So Sméagol tries to get it back. Frodo and Sam capture him. Sam suggests to kill him. Frodo says 'no.. lets use him as a guide instead..' (wow! very noble of him) 

Still Sméagol agrees. He had no choice anyways.. Frodo says "Its the only way.."

Sméagol must be thinking "dude, I kept it secret for more than 500 years nothing happened.. now you showed it to the Sauron n now everybody's at war"

Anyways, Sméagol keeps the promise n shows him road to the black gate, stops him from going through the gate (really pointless n ridiculous idea) and tells him that there's another way.. 

At this point Sméagol must be like - "Wtf?? They stole the ring from me. and why am I at their mercy? And why am I showing them road where they can destroy the ring they stole from me? Chuck it! I want the ring back.. one way or another.."

Here gollum tries to I'll not say 'kill Frodo', I'll say 'get back the ring from frodo'...

And it was actually his right to do so.. He fails..

Then Sméagol waits till they both come to mount doom. Frodo Cries "The Ring Is Mine.. m not gonna destroy it.." Imagine what Sméagol must have thought that time - 

"W0ot!! Dude, you told me My ring must be destroyed so I can't have it.. so I showed you the path.. now you say its mine? WTF! Give it back to me"

n So they fight and you know the end.. 

Here, at any point, I don't think he's nasty or you know, evil for no particular reason..

------

Side note: I agree with people who think Gollum is kinda like a warning to Frodo. Gollum was created for showing frodo what he could become if he has the ring for too long..

3Comments इथे वाडे आहेत का कुठले?

बरेचदा अस होतं की काहीतरी आठवायच असत पण आठवत नाही. असं जिभेपशी येउन परत जातं. माझ्याबाबतीत तर अस बरेचदा होतं. परवा मात्र दुसर्याला त्या स्थितीत पाहून खूप मजा आली.
आम्ही शुक्रवारपेठेत एका मित्राच्या घराखाली उभे होतो. असच general गप्पा मारत होतो. तेवढ्यात एक आमच्या एवढाच मुलगा आला तिथे. आम्ही गप्पा मारायच थांबलो. त्याला काहीतरी विचारायच होत पण कळत नव्हत कस विचारायच.
"umm.. इकडे कुठला umm.. वाडा आहे का?"
 एक सेकंदासाठी आम्ही गार झालो. हा काय प्रश्न आहे? मग शुक्रवारपेठेत असा प्रश्न विचारणे म्हणजे गुन्हा आहे असा आव आणत माझा मित्र म्हणला -
"म्हणजे काय? हा वाडा आहे ते बघ. तो वाडा आहे. तो तिकडे त्यापलीकडे आहे तो वाडा आहे.. तुला कुठला वाडा पाहिजे?"
आता हा part त्या मुलाला आठवत नव्हता. "umm .. नेरु.. (मग काहीतरी तोंडातल्या तोंडात) असा वाडा आहे का?"
"कुठला?"
आता त्यानी giveup मारलं. "एक काम करा तुम्ही जरा वाड्यांची नावं सांगा"
"आवरा" मी म्हणलं..
तरी माझ्या मित्रांनी एक नाव सांगितलं "हा आहे तो परुळेकरांचा वाडा आहे"
त्यानी नाही म्हणून मान हलवली.
"जोशी वाडा?"
परत नाही.. "नाही अजून सांगा.."
बास आता.. फार बील झालं.. "तुम्हाला शनिवारवाडा पाहिजे का?"
सगळे हसयला लागले. त्यानी पण smile दिली. हुशार होता तो. त्याला कळल interest गेला यांचा.
"सोडा. जाऊदेत. मी बघतो काय करायचं."
अन तो गाडीवर पुढे निघून गेला.