TP shaves her head, and ace photographer goes all Clicky, Clicky.

BENGALURU, IN – T Pem, suddenly n the news for her shaven head and colorful bandanas was spotted being shot on Sunday by an unidentified photographer in various basements of Bangalore buildings.

Reeling from countless pictures and making weird faces, TP received help on the sets in the form of tart-tounged but greatly perceptive friend RS.

Though neither has openly acknowledged it, TP and RS are widely believed to be secretly considering each other as a side kick. "Me and RS, we're like Wonder woman and wonder girl" said said TP, but later admitted that she just made up the wonder girl part. “It’s so unfair that I cant think of any woman superhero with a sidekick!”





Though people generally enjoy having a sidekick, both of them acknowledged that it has it’s own down sides too."TP's a great girl and all, but sometimes it's tough to make my moves when she's always hanging on my sleeve," RS said. "Like, last weekend, we were at this party, and I was trying to chat up this cute guy who looked kinda stoned, and she wouldn't leave my side for a second."

TP and RS concede that the affection is mutual, though not equal.

The 8 tag, finally!

S R I R A M, originally uploaded by toothlesswonder.

Arrears are fun things.. Like the Saturday laundry..

Ok, maybe they’re not, but you don’t really have a choice with either of them
A long time ago, Prickster had tagged me to write eight random things about myself. And not so long ago, flyaway mind also tagged me to write eight weird things about myself. Being the lazy bum that I am, I never even wrote one.
The weight of having failed such true blogger friends has been making me lose a lot of sleep, appetite, and not to mention a lot of Reynolds pens from the office stationary shop.

So here goes eight random weird things about myself:

1. You see a weirdo guy wearing an oversized helmet riding a motorbike and doing a dance somewhere on airport road, roll down your window, and say hi.. It’ll probably be me. Very often I get into these mood swings of the happy kind, and then I break into a dance. Yes, I sometimes sing too..

2. I am extremely accident prone. In my toddler years, I am told I used to walk on my toes (much like Fred Flintstone, who I discovered quite late in my childhood) and trip and fall, and get up, only to trip again, and fall again. I used to be called unniyappam (which is a malayalee snack – something like a muffin, only harder, sweeter, and rounder.) for the way my head would be swollen from all the falls every evening. The legacy continues even today.. I’ve locked myself out of the car in an ice storm just outside my house, wearing only a tiny pair of shorts; tore my pants doing some tango at an office party, and I spill hot coffee on myself quite regularly.

3. I’ve never been hopelessly in love, nor tearlessly in pain. I am devoid of extreme emotion. Till date, I’ve not had a fight with anyone that has lasted more than a day, and there is no person that I hate. I’ve never been in love either.

4. I adore snakes, and know more than quite a bit about them. As a matter of fact, I think they’re the most graceful creatures on the planet.

5. I go to boring office meetings just for the pizza. The funny thing is – I don’t particularly like pizza, and I am quite a busy person, but however hard I try, I somehow cannot let the Pizza meeting go by.

6. People tell me I’m a good cook, and that I make the best Sambar in New Hampshire, But here’s my little secret: With the exception of the Sambar, I’ve never been able to cook the same dish twice, and there has never been a cookbook which has worked for me.

7. I love everything about the rain. The sound, the smell, the color and the water. I don’t like the feel of wet cloth though, and so it becomes a major mental conflict every time it starts raining.

8. I am very lazy. Why’s that weird, you might ask.

But figure this: I’ve slept numerous exams off, and to carry my marks cards from college, you’ll probably need a truck, cause there is virtually one for each subject. I’m so used to taking the exams the next time. But I’ve had quite a good career.

Weird!

The photo: This is my first real attempt at doing child portraits, and i'm pretty happy about this one here. Sriram is a friends' kid, and proved to be a great model.

On the podcast: Guess what I found today - AVIAL!

Also, this is the beta version of my new podcasting stream. I'm looking for you guys to test that one, and tell me if it works. I've phased out Odeo for now. [For those of you who do not know, it's on the side bar. you just have to click the play button - after finding it, that is. :) ]

Tired and happy

powered by ODEO

“Then there fell a rain of fire, and all that existed burned..”

rain of fire, originally uploaded by toothlesswonder.

It has been a hectic week, and a very fast-paced one. One place to the other, and one thing led to another.
This was shot from over a flyover, and what you see is the passing traffic, and the street lights below.
My muse seems to have totally given up on me, or maybe I’m not trying.
So I’m posting a double entry this week.

Featured photo

featured photo, originally uploaded by toothlesswonder.

This was the featured photo of the day for 4th of July on webshots.
http://travel.webshots.com
:)

The turbulance under

the boat-starter, originally uploaded by toothlesswonder.

It was yet another day at work, and he liked to work alone. Below him, the sea was calm, with only a ripple over it’s surface.
The calm intimidated him - It always had something to say.
When he was younger, the sea used to turn funny colors and sober down and then there would be days of plenty.
But now it seemed as if ocean had way too many stories to tell. The last time it was still like this, in minutes monster waves came out of nowhere and took homes and lives and children. And then it was quiet once again – as if nothing had happened.
“What have they done to the world..” He shrugged, and started his tiny boat - It was time to go home.

The street seller

I'm the street seller.

I live on the road, and the road is my home.
How sad it is to live, How sad it is to dream...

But that was a long time ago. Bangalore’s streets have turned out to be a huge marketplace with virtually no overheads.
A majority of the population here is a floating lot, and a prosperous floating lot at that.
If I had the money to spare, I’d definitely invest it here on the streets.

Update: Check out my radio station on the side bar. (I'm the RJ there *wink wink*)

Blur intended

A self portrait with half a mind to show it will look something like that.
I’m too busy to write anything, and the picture that I see is as hazy as the one I’m in.

Half of you already know me anyway, so to hell with anonymity.

Have a great week ahead guys.
Party on. Ding dong. :)

Infinity - Of time, and faith.

Reason and faith do not go together.
Just look at the sunset at the end of the road to infinity -
I could spend my life chasing the real, and call life unreal and temporary. And that is what most religions ask me to presume true.

There is the eternal lamp that lights the higher path, they say - walk the path, do not look to your sides, indulgence is a carnal sin.

The sun among the evening clouds at the end of the road is real; But so is the road, and so is infinity.
I seek gratification, and I like to look around - I believe in the drive more than the destination.

I believe in now.
Believer? Atheist?
How about indifferent?

The river between

The river had been flowing undecided for a few months now. The sun was exceptionally hard this year, and the stray patches of land in it’s center this time were larger and more in number than in the past so many years.
The kid liked the river in the boat. He had once seen a boat with so much water in it that it became only an outline on the river’s surface.
But there were his friends on the other side, walking up the path that followed the river’s turns to the next village.
It was summer, there was no school, and he wished the boat would go faster.

Running the wrong way

Now, getting back to where we left off:
It was Seven in the morning, but it was long since the day started in the forest. By the reason of its quietness, the walk seemed longer than it naturally should have. And perhaps adding to it was the disappointment from the lack of any real sightings in the morning.
We had woken before first light, and even as we walked through the slush of the previous night’s rains, the pale light was only setting in, giving the dry river bed a shade of solemn grey.
We had hoped to walk into the elephant herd – which we had a chance encounter with, in the dark of the past night, and I was ready – unlike then - with the right lenses, the camera on, and ready to go.
It was dismal crusade – even the persistent elephant scent this morning was a lot lighter, compared to the sharp musky odor that hung heavy in the air the previous night.
The leeches were feasting on my leg, and many were trying to suck the juice out of my shoes as well. There we were – at the riverbed - risking snake bite and impending rain.

The walk would have been a disappointment, had we not spotted this guy high up in the foliage.

[In the pic: A Malabar Grey Hornbill]

Some damp melodrama

In the evening, it began to rain.

From the other side of the window came the sound of drops on dry stubble, and muted light of a melancholy blue. The noise elaborated silence, as I watched a stray drop roll down the glass.

It was the kind of rain that would have been as good to go out to, as it would have been to come in from.
Yet I chose to stay thus in my lone rocking chair, with the cup of tea still steaming.
It was getting dark.


[That was the mood of the picture, but it is doctored – Clicked on a hot summer afternoon for a friend who needed it. It took me a mirror, a mug of water, some house plants, and a toothbrush.]

Hop. Skip. Jump and SPLASH!

There’s absolutely nothing that can beat a bath in a river on a hot and humid summer day.
Run , tear your cloths off, woooooosh and SPLASH!
Whatta whatta fun! :)

These kids were spotted at the river, and this one appeared to be demonstrating his bowling skills as the other two watch closely.

The fiery colors of passion, and attraction to beautiful women

Beauty is magnetic - and that is the way the universe was designed.
The fiery colors of a flower, the fulgent plumes on a bird and to a man what might seem to be the most physical of attractions - attraction to beautiful women.
Magnetic, and momentary, and functionally so.

[You've got to see the picture at a larger size to really know what i'm talking about. :) ]

Lone clansman pissed.

Agola 27th April:

The abominable clansman Rednow Sselhtoot expressed his annoyance in having been compelled to give in to the tribe’s ways against his own personal conviction.
“I eat, dog fart. I meet girl, dog fart. I do anything, dog fart.” According to Rednow, his dog was capable of performing the feat so effortlessly, and to perfection, ahead of even his wife. What concerns him, however is that he has a ban from the tribe on letting his dog perform in front of an audience.
Rednow had attempted the act once at a friend’s wedding, and was (mercilessly) beaten up and thrown out. The exhaust gases at the dance had made the dancers desert the venue, and village council had imposed an indefinite ban on bringing his dog to a public function. “He big brain. He see he learn” The tribesman is now facing a risk of being evicted from his own house, and the wife is said to have been seen with ex-boyfriend Guimba very often in the recent past. Guimba is believed to have the best bone knife in the tribe.
“Who say no teach old dog new trick? Who say?” A visibly agitated Rednow was heard saying.

[I'm dead the day Spark gets internet-enabled. :) ]

A complex world out there.

The loud silence of disorder

It is funny to think how dramatically the intensity of conceptions can change when one starts noticing contrast. The jungle was perhaps as loud as the cobbled streets of Bangalore, but the noises were strangely silent.
Perhaps it is the collective rage of unspoken disapproval that hangs eternally over the crowded streets of the city, or perhaps it is the hushed personal malice. I can’t say which, but it makes me want to run away.
Because the unsaid is often louder than what’s said.

Picture: Smiles for sale - Street children on M.G. Road

The UFO's a Dragon!

For two weeks he enjoyed the U.F.O status.

But now I know - he's spread his wings, he's resting, and he's a Dragon!

Here's how:

"Dragonflies, the jeweled helicopters of the insect world, are generally stronger and more robust than damselflies. They are also fast and agile fliers. While at rest their wings are held away from their bodies.

Comparitively damselflies have slender bodies and a weak, fluttery, hovering flight. At rest their wings are held close to the body. Also their eyes are well separated unlike dragonflies. "

[Source: www.nerdybirders.com/html/dragonflies/dragonflies.html ]

This was when we were investigating some movement in the bushes down the stream, and then decided the bushes were too thick, and the investigation could prove to be a very risky one.

So clicked him instead.

Think: Can you chew what you're about to bite?

Distance seems to lose meaning in these villages by the forest and the world truly shrinks. On being asked where we could find some breakfast, The old man at the DISCO tea shop and salon pointed to the east and told us that Eappan's store in the next village should be open by the time we reach there.
What was not said, however was that there was a dense jungle between this village and the next, and that the road to there was almost non-existent.
We were asked to write a letter to the range officer at the check post seeking permission to pass, and the air was heavy with the sounds of the jungle ahead.

As the gate went up to let us through, we knew we were being watched.

[In the pic: Lion tailed macaque. More on his kind in the posts to come]

To look, to see, and to know the difference.

I’m back from two consuming days in the jungle. If there is an ultimate getaway, it is this – because out there, you are all by yourself. No phone, no gun and no light – the color of the forest night is pitch black, and the silence of the noises overwhelming. The blindness being one-sided leaves you exposed, and the crackle of a leaf makes you sweat. In its depths where the smallest patch of exposed skin would be swarming with leeches in no time, and your every move is watched by dozens of invisible eyes, your survival depends on how much you listen, and how much you can smell. Here I start a photo blog. (for a while)

Note: The pictures are best viewed at a larger size.

Angamuzhi is the first check post to the jungle while approaching it from west. It is a small town, and the local amenities include a tea shop (with one wooden bench) and a salon.