The thing I love about mornings is that everything seems reborn. The birds are chirping, the air is cool, the sun is waking up and everything is filled with hope. And the increased possibility of finding something nice to photograph

Picked up this leaf during my morning jog today.

I walked the plains in search of what I wanted.
I knew where to find it,
And followed the directions on the compass.
Only when I reached my destination,
I realized that it wasn’t my goal,
I had followed the wrong compass.

Everybody is in search of the right direction, some use experience, some use intuition, some use faith and some use that compass deep inside their heart.

Took these photos as I waited for my carpool yesterday. Remembered to post about it after reading Swetha’s post! What were the odds of that happening?

ps: I just love macro photography

They initially had the car under wraps and made us wait for like an hour before unveiling the work of art.

The first thing that hits you is “Its huge!!!” It was longer than an luxury car and incredibly low!

Got a chance to stand near the front wing and frankly that is one of the most impressive parts of a formula one car (if you ask me). I just went on clicking

Every part of the car was really beautiful… It was an amazing experience just standing next to it

Now that I look back at it, considering I was the closest to the damage it seems more like an ordinary event rather than something that should have scared the life out of me.

The accident involved a truck that was making a ‘U’ turn. We were traveling at a good speed at the time and even honked a few times, he had clearly shown the turn indicator but for some reason stopped for a moment. This made us think that he would wait for us to pass, then he started moving slowly forward… couple of seconds later we were breaking hard but not enough and crashed right into his left wheel.

I was sitting at the front left seat at the time and now that I think back to the incident, this accident could have been far more serious if it wasn’t for some quick thinking from my friend Suhas, who was driving at the time. If we had missed the wheel and hit the ‘belly’ of the truck, most certainly the people in the front row would have been crushed!

The positive of the whole thing was that it got me to test my sense of humor under extremely stressful conditions. I was making jokes about “seeing the light” about 5 min after the accident

Well so much for the damaging part of the trip, will upload pics form the trip a bit later(got some good ones this time ).

Last weekend my friends and I decided to getaway from the busy city for a one day trip. We directed our attention towards the direction of Mysore, more specifically a beautiful temple 30 Kms away from it. The wikipedia entry says:

Somanathapura is famous for the Chennakesava Temple (also called Kesava or Keshava temple) built by Soma, a dandanayaka (commander) in 1268 CE under Hoysala king Narasimha III, when the Hoysalas were the major power in South India. The Keshava temple is one of the finest examples of Hoysala architecture and is in a very well preserved condition.

The architecture of the place simply blew my mind away. The concentration to detail is magnificent and the variety of statues and design is very impressive. I have a soft corner in my heart for Sculptors and statues so it was a pleasure spending my time there despite the scorching heat.

I have been here before but looks like lately they are maintaining the place pretty well.

I never understood what this was for! What do you think?

The pillars were amazing, it looked like the work of some sort of a Lathe.

There were statues inside all corners of the temple. Some the size of a few millimeters! The ceiling depicts the phases of a Banana Flower! Brilliant concentration to detail!

The Gods at the temple are not worshiped as the statues were damaged by raids and vandalism.

Each row on the outside walls of the temple had a different animal. Each animal was unique by either stance, shape or position! Imagine desiging thousands of the above statues, each unique! Took a pic with the standard 1 Re coin for perspective of size!

There was some great work in parts which would hardly be visible, shows the dedication of the craftsmen and the designer.

As I walked and touched the statues it felt weird… These statues have been around since 1200s and they were probably seen and touched by people hundreds of years before me. We will always have that in common… Me and that someone hundreds of years before me!

Its that feeling that I love when i visit ancient monuments… That feeling of traveling thru time to a place which is frozen in time! Reminds me of the scene from “The Mummy” where they show the aging of a statue from the Egyptian time to when Brendan Frazer is chased by the defenders of the temple.

The trip was really fun and I would recommend you to visit the place once atleast!

Mall Street, Shimla:

Scenic Shimla:

Snow:

Snow fight:

I was busy taking photos so no pics of me in there (I did later join in though )

Skiing:

Gorgeous Nature:

Streams and Valleys:

There were too many monkeys around the Narkanda Golf Resort where we stayed for 2 days. This dog kept chasing them away when ever they approached towards us

Delhi:

It turns out that our windows are tinted and that from outside it was acting like a perfect mirror. The bird saw another bird and was for some reason trying to get its attention(looked like it was trying to attack it ) The curious display happened for over 15 min.

One of my colleagues suggested at this juncture that we open the window and see if it would come in. I was too busy taking photos to stop him from opening the window and the sound scared the bird away

But then there is a brilliant quote from Locke(from the tv series Lost)

To find what you are desperately searching for, sometimes all you have to do is stop searching for it…

Guess where I found it… Thousands of Kilometers away from home, on the other end of the country! To be specific in a small shop in Shimla…

What is brilliant is that its exactly what I wanted… No compromises anywhere(considering I was ready to do some this was a nice thing ).

Ps: The cap is the “2005 Renault F1 Team - Fernando Alonso(No. 5) Cap”… That was the season of his maiden F1 Championship!

The trip involved traveling in train from Bangalore to Kovalm in Kerala. We had booked a houseboat which became our residence for the next 2 days

The boathouse was pricey but it was totally worth the cost We traveled in the houseboat from Kovalam via Alleppey to Cochin over the two days. We spent about half a day in Cochin before traveling to Pallakad from where we took the train back home.

The train journey was beautiful and scenic… It was totally worth it waking up at 5:30 am and enjoying the fresh morning air in Kerala

The houseboat was luxurious and beautiful… The wood work inside was simply awe inspiring

The Jelly fish were just beautiful and abundant

Kerala is truly a photographer’s paradise… You can just spend hours after hours snapping up the beautiful flora and fauna.

I got my heartfill of sunset pics

I loved the movie when I watched it a long time back and when I saw the book I just had to read it… I am glad I picked it up
Contact the book is very different than Contact the movie… Actually there is just so much brilliant stuff in the book that the movie feels like it was made off a short story

The book beautifully captures the lives of people who dedicate their lives for SETI(Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) and the repercussions of a possible contact from a civilization light years away from us. What would happen if they are far more advanced from us? What would their goals be? Their reasons for wanting to speak to us? All that encompassed in a gripping story.

Some of the arguments in the book were excellent and intriguing… Especially the ones that deal with God got me thinking about possibilities I have never fully thought about…

This book is a must read for every atheist… and every one who ever looked up at the sky and thought if there is someone looking back at them millions of miles away.