Mom oh Mom ....

We humans at times can exhibit a charmingly strange behavior. And I prefer to call such human beings as "Characters".  And among those species one of the most common people who show such character are Mothers.

 

Yes no doubt they are quite charming and innocent when do such antiques.

 

When I was a kid , like most of the kids in India and probably across the world, I used to carry my lunch from home and being the naughty kid that I was , most often when my Mom used to keep the packed lunch on the desk from where I was supposed to take it, I used to forget taking it  and have to have Dad drop it at school :). And needless in the evening it would have resulted in heavy scolding from both of them.

 

That happened countless times in my childhood and biggest concern of my Mom everyday , apart from ensuring that I don't spill milk on my shirt, was to ensure that I have taken it from the desk.

 

And now if we fast forward to the present , there were times when I used to carry breakfast from home to office and during those time when I could have missed the box at home and still could have eaten a sumptous breakfast at office, she used to put it herself in my bag.

 

I mean when in childhood if she had put that in my bag then it would have saved both of us from the pain, her mental and mine physical .

 

When I mentioned this to her that why during school times you used to keep it at desk for me to pick and pack and now when I am grown up you yourself ensure that its going to office with me ? She had no answer, she just said she does not know why she used to do that.

 

The answer I could think of is that she wanted me to be responsible at that age and now she is just concerned of my well being and no longer needs to teach me anything :)

 

My Adorable Mom

 

This picture was taken at a bus stop in Seoul, South Korea, during our visit last year. This is so typical of the adorable character she is :), wearing those Goggles from 70's and wearing a customary scarf so characteristic of a Bengali in a cold place, all wrapped up. Love you so much Mom :)

Happiest Day of my life...

Finally the day came for which I was eagerly waiting since so long, the happiest moment of my life. I bought my first DSLR yesterday :)

I wanted to share with you all on the day I ordered my Nikon D7000 but the first order got cancelled and I thought I should not jinx it :)

I can't tell you guys how much happy I am . Not only this is my first DSLR, its something for which I was waiting since last many years and something which will give the much needed purpose to my life.

Before I write further , I will like to thank my sister and parents for letting me buy such an expensive equipment. Especially my sister, if my parent brought me to this world, you have given me my life Didibhai. 

Upgrading from a Point & Shoot to a DSLR in itself should be a major improvement and that being D7000 itself takes me to a different world. (Its a mid level DSLR costing round 62K with lens)

I ordered it on Wednesday and was supposed to pick it by Saturday but could not stop myself and went there Thursday itself :) 

Just sharing some initial thoughts. I am yet to take it out in daylight as I picked it at around 7:30 in the evening yesterday . But I already took 300 shots while travelling back from store to my home(around one n half hour trip).

So since I have only shot at night and that too from a moving car with my less than novice technique, I din't have much keepers out of those 300. 

I bought it with 18-55 kit lens as any other lens was out of my budget and anyways the reviews of this kit lens were quite good. 

1. The first shot that I took after the shopkeeper handed me the cam was the below potrait of my dad and now when I checked on my laptop ,its something I could never take with my P&S, a potrait with just the person and rest all blurred.  (The below photo is the cropped version of that.)

2. After that I shot while travelling and that too in low light condition. Since I have never used a cam that could give me any kind of control on Aperture or Shutter , I shot first in Auto mode, which popped out the flash the moment I tried to click. 

Don't take it as a negative comment but I found it hunting a lot with me missing some shots. Actually the P&S would have clicked those irrespective of whether it could lock focus properly or not. I am not comparing the quality here, I am just saying that since it has way more IQ then a P&S, it is more choosy :). 

P&S would have clicked it irrespective of whether anything is in focus or anything is sharp or not. But the few keepers I had itself gave me the idea that if I had played around with the camera or had been stationary, it would have locked many more shots in near perfect way. 

3. Then I switched to Aperture mode and owing to lack of knowledge when I reduced the aperture to say till f22 it increased the shutter speed by quite a few seconds and owing to my constant motion and novice techniques all of them had blurred (although I could still see some interesting light patterns due to its long exposure :)) 

4. So next I moved to Shutter priority, and again due to my stupidity , I clicked it at fastest possible speed initially and as expected they all were blacked out. Then I reduced the speed and I clicked a series of photos where I can see the scene illuminating as I slowed the shutter. 

5. The Viewfinder is AWESOME. Man I din't even checked the live view till I reviewd my shutter priority mode photos and found them blacked out. The Viewfinder is something to die for and I don't think I am going to use live view ever when I have such an amazing view finder. 

6. The Camera is heavy but I found it quite sturdy and grip was amazing. 

7. Coming from a Canon P&S and with Canon being quite user friendly as far as button layouts is concerned, I found the buttons quite easy to use. And there are so many buttons at the back that I was just wondering if I am ever going to use them :-D 

8. Then I shot in without flash mode and man I was hugely impressed. The shots have come too good at times without flash in low light. By good I don't mean keepers but in that low light I never expected it to lock and capture so well and once my technique improves I think there will be many keepers. 

 

Below is my first attempt at Bokeh (about which I will definitely write a post once I get more hang of it)

If I have to summarize in one line then it will definitely be I'm Loving It :)

Since my Di is not here so the only muses that I have at present are my helpless Mom and Dad , who are going to be most frequent subject of my photography.

 

I just loved the above pic that I took of my Dad.


So guys be ready to start this new journey with me :)

Mom Oh Mom...

Mothers are simply amazing. Was just surfing through the channels trying to find something other than the cricket talks that is engulfing each n every media space, where people of any intelluct has an expert opinion on the Indian cricket team. Its World Cup final today between India & SriLanka.

So I landed on one such channel which was airing Sehwag's Mom's interview. The intervieweer asked her what was the last thing she said to Sehwag when he called , to which she replied "Beta kal kuch kar liyo (Son, do atleast something tomorrow) ".

This reminded of the time when I called my mom from college telling her I have topped my semester and her first remark was "You have passed in every subject right?".In her defence, in that semester we had a tough paper in which many people flanked. But the anxious tone she had with which she doubted despite me telling that I topped was so similar to what Sehwag's mom had when she said that.

I am not comparing our talents (as if I have any as compared to Sehwag) but to our Moms may be we are the same. Sehwag with his reputation and performance itself demoralizes the opposition without even touching a single ball and here his Mother asking him with a doubt in her mind that her son is not doing anything.

They are our biggest supporter and perhaps our biggest critic too....

Hey Mom hope you will read my face like you used to do when I was a kid, understand what I am going through and will let my cry while hugging you ...

Happy Women's Day

Just where I get down from my office bus there is a small shop which sells cigrates, bettle leaves (paan) etc and some confectioneries like Wafers. So many times I had thought of purchasing some for home but never did and infact once I was almost on the verge of buying but on not finding my favorite flavour (Lays's Cream and Onion) I decided otherwise . So today when I got down I noticed that they had it and so I thought taking one packet home.

 
Out of all the people in my family (we are 4 in the family), I knew that one person who will love it the most is my Mother. And I was overwhelmed by her sweet reactions. She started having it little later as she was making tea but the moment she had one she liked it a lot and till the time the last bit of it was engulfed she kept on telling "How tasty it is, isn't it? We are having it after such a long time. There is so less in it" and similar child-like reactions. All in all she was quite happy and as a result so was I :)

I was quite glad  to make  her happy especially since today is International Women's Day :)

As I turned 26....

Ok I know I was supposed to write something on it the day it actually happened but that day I could only muster that post which was not that happy -happy.

So after exactly a week has passed I am here to share how it has been so far.

Well on that day my beloved elder sis called me (she is currently in some other town pursuing her PhD) and asked me "so 26 now ? Till 25 its fine but 26 is like you start feeling older now" And later another friend called me up and said more or less the same thing.

To both of them I told that I don't think so in fact I din't feel anything different. It seems the same, neither more young nor more old. I told them that may be turning 30 will be a milestone and we may not be same after that but before that I don't think life will anyway change while we are still in the 20's.

So as the tradition has been going on since last few years, My mom cooked the season's first Gajar Halwa (a sweet dish made from Carrots) and also cooked a lot of other delicacies.
Apart from that there were no other celebrations that day.

But since Tuesday onwards till Thursday , every day I had a party.
First on Tuesday with two of the people who for the last few months have made my life in the office so memorable. One a very pretty girl who is as sweet in nature and company as she is in appearance and the second is a guy who can make anyone laugh with his antics. Unfortunately it was the last of the many memorable eating rendezevous we three had in the last few months as he moved to some other firm.
Second was next day when I had to bring sweets and snacks for my office colleagues and lastly the day after me and my team mates went to have lunch together.

All in all its going fine and I have a lot of things planned for the coming year about which I will be updating soon....

Great sporting day :)

One of the great sporting day. First Sania Mirza enters semi final of tennis singles event at Asian Games. Then India beats Pakistan in Hockey. Then most of Indian Boxers make it to semi final of their perspective events in Asian Games. Indian cricket team reduces New Zealand to 127/7. Then in the evening first Tottenham Hotspurs comes from behind to defeat Arsenal in Premier League , then ManU defeats Wigan with Rooney back on field and at the end the icing on the cake, Chelsea loses enabling ManU equal them on points and be at top of the table. All in all a nice day for me to relax after almost two hectic weeks at office. Tomorrow will go to watch a movie with Mom n Dad :)

Whistling :-)

I just put a status on Facebook that I want to whistle along with the song I am listening but couldn't because of my surroundings.

So it just reminds me of an incident which I wanted to share since long.

One day I was driving and my mom n dad were there with me and some song was playing on radio so I started whistling along with it. Although I thought that when I was kid and used to do something similar my dad always used to scold me but now I thought it should be fine as I am an adult now :-). So I continued whistling. I don't remember whether it was the next day or some days later but we three were watching some Bengali sitcom and in one of the scene the guy, around my age, came to the room in which his dad was sitting and started whistling and suddenly my Mom commented something "Nejer babar samne whistling korche" meaning "How can he whistle in front of his dad?". And the previous days incident came to my mind and I felt so embarrassed. Although its another matter that I have still not stopped doing it :-)

Kya itna buraaa hun main Maa... :-(

For one more day....

Image taken from coverbrowser.com

Another best seller from Mitch Albom after Five people you meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie. 

For one more day is a story of an ex baseball player who tries to commit suicide after he fails completely in his life.He was a phenomenal player in college but despite being drafted in the major league he couldn't last more than a year and despite all his father's pushing he never makes it back. He has lost his job, his wife has left him long time back, he spends most of his time drinking and doesn't have anyone who cares for him. And when even his only daughter whom he loved so much doesn't want him around and don't even call him for her wedding,he decides to end his life. So when he goes to his native place to kill himself there he find his Mom who has already died and this book captures that one day he spends with his mother and when he goes through all the things that has happened in his life. How he always loved his father the most and how his father left them one day and he blamed his mother for that. In that one day he came to know about the real reasons , the hardships his mother has taken for him.

Since this book talks a lot about a mother it itself becomes quite a touching story.

So here are the statements that I liked a lot from this book and as always my comment on the same.

Mothers support certain illusions about their children and one of my illusions was that I liked who I was, because she did.

Ha ha ha . So true. I always feel that a guy is very lucky at times as he always has two ladies who will always adore him and love him. One his mother and the other his sister. For these two ladies he is always the best. 

What is it about childhood that never lets you go, even when you're so wrecked its hard to believe you ever were a child?

Absolutely sometimes I feel I am the child who used to be so naughty and fun loving when he was a kid and sometimes I can't even imagine that I was that child. 

I can say I adored my mother in the way that boys adore their mothers while taking them for granted.

Hmmm , we guys always know that there is one person who will do everything possible for us like no need to care about whether our clothes are clean and pressed, what we will eat etc, whether we will get up on time for school or college or office etc and sometimes we do take her for granted. 

Her only flaw was that she didn't make me work for it.

A mother never makes a child long for her love or affection, she will never say do this then only you will get this. She will always give you that without making you toil for that. 

Kids chase the love that eludes them . 

And we guys always run for the love of our Dad. I still remember when I was recovering from food poisoning for which I was hospitalized and I went to a doctor for a checkup along with my Mother and my Dad was not in town and I know only how my mother managed everything. So the doctor asked me whom do you love more, Dad or Mom and I said without thinking Dad.

A mountaineer on being asked which is more difficult , Ascending or Descending ? Answered without a doubt descending because ascending you were so focussed on reaching the top you avoided mistakes.

So true.

Winter ...

Thithurti hui thand ko badati sard hawa,

Oos ki boondein se lipte hue patte,

Dhund ki chaadar ko oode hue dharti,

In sab se sawra hai sardi ka ye mausam.

Bade kasth se sawere ko uthna,

Garam thande pani se jee bhar ke nahana,

Kanpte kanpte wo kapdo ko pehnna,

Or Mummy ka jabardasti jacket or topi lagwana.

Bus me beth kar khidki se jhakne ki wo koshish,

Phir parde se seeshon pe jami nami ko pochna,

Haathon se khud ko kas ke jakarna,

Phir garmi lagne par jacket hathana.

Office me ghusne se pehli ki wo chand kadme,

Wo chehre pe apne, gili hawa ka takrana,

Sang chalte wo kapdo se dhake rang birange sehkarmi,

Or unhe dekh kar mand mand muskana.

Kursi pe apne jacket ko latkana,

Or waise hi bina jacket ke bahar chale jana,

Haatho me lekar coffee ke mug ko,

Is mastane mausam ka lutf uthana.

Dopahar ke samae dhund ko cheerti wo Suraj ki kirane,

Or kirano ki baarish se har staha ka chamakna,

Us Dhoop se khud ko niharne ke liye,

Wo dosto ke saath campus ka chakar lagana.

In haseen lamho ka ye mausam,

On lamho ka mere dil ko behlana,

Bhale cheen lo mujhse do din ke liye saawan,

Par kabhi na ruke in sardiyon ka aana.

Another weekend but not an ordinary one...

This weekend was simply one of the best I had since a long time. Its not that something great happened but the small things that I did, gave me an immense sense of satisfaction. 

Ok Saturday I got up around 9, read the newspaper, took my bath as I had go to bank with my friend. Then had my breakfast. Then my friend told me that we will go by 12 so I just sat and played guitar. Then I reached crown plaza where the bank was located. I saw its hoarding on the first floor and went upstairs but there I couldn't spot their office so I asked someone and they told me that its on third floor so I raced to third floor but there I found that its some other division of that bank and they told me its on ground floor. 

So on third floor I spotted a fleet of stairs which I haven't seen any normal public use. I thought its because normal public is not aware of it. So I sprinted down those stairs but so many people always told me that don't think so much , I soon found out why sometimes they are so correct. The moment I reached ground floor and tried to push open the door to my amusement I found it locked. So I had to tire back to top floor again and walk down the normal route :-) to ground floor and went to the bank. There I asked where does Mr. O sits. The guy at the inquiry told me that  he sits on first floor. Huh. So I finally reached first floor and looked carefully among the various shops and finally I spotted their office. 

So I entered inside and went to Mr O, sir I need this document which I had to submit. So he asked me my loan account number and as I din't have that so I gave him my name and he said Aapka to abhi approve nahi hua? I Said oh and asked him to check for my friend. He said Unka ho gaya. Then after waiting for a while he said I will check for you. 

In the meantime my friend has arrived and he also went to third floor straight but because I had done his part so he din't have to run much and I called him to first floor directly. 

The bank guy told me that your office verification is pending and I need to send an email from my office id. I said it will be difficult as my office is closed today and I can't access the office network from home. Then my friend told me that he can access office network from his laptop. So we now ran to his home. So after sending a mail we went back to crown. There he said that yes I got the mail but the person who will approve is not reachable. So I inquired about by what time is his office open and we left. 

On my way I purchased a sketch book. Oh I forgot to mention a dear friend of mine long time back has started sketching and she used to share her creation with me and those used to motivate me too. Ok I know I used to dread making diagrams in school but somewhere I always wanted to someday sketch too and I somehow feel confident that I can be good at that. And ya this is the same friend for whom I purchased the sketch book few weeks back. 

So on reaching home I got my internet connection reinstated and after that I also got a message from bank that my Loan has been approved. So I again raced back to crown plaza to collect that document. My friend had already collected it the last time we went there so I was alone. So while giving me the document he told me Are aapko to itne ka loan mil nahi sakta, you have to give me letter to reduce your amount. I thought are mere dost ko to bina kuch bole de diya. Then he told he has to give that too. Then he gave me the document and while checking I spotted that he has entered the year as 2009 hmmm. So I got that corrected and left but after walking few paces I realised that the same mistake must have been there in my friends letter. So I went back and got a new print out for him. After that I went again to give a letter. 

Then I went to McDonald and bought three burgers to take home. There I met two of my college friends after a long time. Then I went back to home. So as net was working I sat and uploaded the Bengal trip pics on facebook which I am yet to make public as some editing is left. And as the active x control was not working I had to select each pic manually. In total there were close to 200 pics 80 from a previous picnic trip I had with my office friends. So by the time I finished I was too exhausted to edit and add captions to it. And also ManU's match has started so sat and watch them win after a long time. Then I slept little exhausted with the days work. 

Next morning I got up around 10 and as already planned I have to watch 3 Idiots with Mom. So as soon as she got free with her daily chores, we too sat and watched it. Nice movie. I don't know if I had mentioned it earlier or not but I had already watched it with my friends. It was fun to watch with Mom as always. 

So after the movie ended I sat and started my love with sketching (So I am back in love with something). Oh it was fun. Had difficulties in making circles but by the time I stopped which was around 10 in the night I was happy with myself. I am little sceptical about whether I should share it on my blog or not. May be I will wait till I have sketched something substantial.

I had difficulties in making eyes and the first sketch I made was of a Girl, mom told me that it doesn't look like a girl. So I edited few features and by the time I said I am finished drawing it she agreed that ya to certain extent it does look like a girl.Hmmm...

In between I also played guitar and learned to somewhat play " Give me some sunshine." :-) :-).

Then in the night I continued with the book O Jerusalem. I have just read 200 pages out of 700 :-(. 

Anyways overall I fun weekend fulfilling one of my wishes. Now I think next wish to fulfill is theater. :-) :-)

Some updates and weekend ...

In Friday's Garfield strip Jon says "There are things I never realized about being a Boyfriend. I have awesome responsibilities now. I Have to shave on weekends"

Thank God I don't have such responsibilities and don't have to shave except on Mondays or special occasions.

So I shared the same strip with Ram Prasad who is very irregular with shaving. He told me, no problem, anyways I only shave on weekends.

There is a positive development in that love story. It seems Soni is also a Brahmin, a Punjabi Brahmin. So that means my title for that series of post is not exactly applicable as its now just a inter cultural relation not an inter caste one. Feel that's better. And anyways the title need not be taken literally. Anyways will update on that topic if something substantial happens.

As it was Sunday so we decided to do some shopping for Sankranti and also mom had to buy few things for winter. But as someone has very rightly said that "Chances of going to a shop to buy a loaf of bread, and coming out with only the loaf of bread is one in a million." So we ended purchasing a hell lot of things including a jacket, a pair of shoes and two trousers for myself. And as we went to C R Park (Mini Kolkatta in New Delhi) I purchased misthi doi and some sweets and dairy milk too. I am having too much sweets nowadays. First Bengal, then Gajar ka halwa yesterday and now these sweets but still when I was having dosa at one of the food joint I couldn't resist the temptation to have some hot jalebis which was being sold nearby and bought some.

All in all a lovely weekend. More so because after a long time god gave me a chance to be good to someone and prove that I too am a nice guy and I hope in the coming times I won't disappoint him.

A New Year ...

That day of the year when you get to change the digits of the yy field in the date although unlike school or college we no longer have to write the complete date everyday on the top of the class book but still for certain things we do need to put it in the year. So the way this new year day started or went I feel the year will be quite interesting. 

In the morning I was quite irritated but nevertheless was happy to be out of love (most of the time when I say love it means romantic love ) or feelings related to it. Don't know but don't have those feelings for anyone any more. Then took a bath quickly because of two reasons. Didibhai reminded me that its essential to take bath on the first day of the year otherwise you won't take regular baths throughout the year. Although I told her that I don't think I took a bath on the first day last year but still I was more than regular throughout the year. Nevertheless the second reason was that I had to go outside to buy a sketch book for a friend who has of late started sketching and she has already done some wonderful work. I have also decided to start learning the same. Actually one of my other friend once told me that one way to pass time is to make or buy gifts for your friends so thought I can atleast pass time buying things for my friend. Also I had to watch Avtar. 

So I went to watch Avtar. It was an ok movie. With the amount of money used to make it, it could have been much better. But nevertheless must appreciate the effects. They gave the movie a mixture of real and animated appearance. Then bought the sketch book and some drawing pencils. 

Had a long discussion about the investment and loans with Mom n Dad and it seems this year is gonna be an interesting one for our family possessions too. Well overall an interesting day. 

Although the new year has started and I am almost finished with my previous years but still need to share my experience about my trip to Bengal and Bhubaneshwar. Anyways I know I will need to do a lot of sharing this year so wishing a Very Happy N Prosperous new year to my blog. We will rock :-). 

Well will definitely update about the whackiest list that I made for last year and will also come up with the one for this year. So till then enjoy ...

Games we are playing...

Games bug is what has bitten my family. My mom has by chance found two decks of cards in the drawer and ever since then we three play cards in the evening.

So nowadays after reaching home I watch as usual friends from 7.30 parallely playing cards with my parents. Not only cards, my mom also found ludo, carrom and also chess. So we play carrom too although the board is quite small. I also brought a print out of snakes and ladder and now we just need to paste it on a card board.

So we have found a nice past time for the evening :-)