Photography

It was a fantastic day.

Kanchipuram, Brilliant weather. 5 shutterbugs. 6 cameras. 1 Renault Logan.

Erina, Joel, Aravind, Me and Alexandra

It says Nothing should be pasted or written on the wall. Funny people.

Will I get the gift voucher from Univercell if I send this to NXG?

Joel and Erina with the local kids

Aravind - Yea, the same guy who laughs at his own ‘jokes’.

Alexandra.

And finally myself! And Alxandra at the background.

More photographs here.

There were some funny moments esp the time when we had actually passed Randhan looking for it. When we asked a village bumpkin for directions,

Me: Anne! Randhan epdi ne ponum?

(How do I go to Randhan?)

Village Bumpkin: Randhan ah? Adhu poirichu baa!

(Randhan? You have crossed it!)

Me: Seri ne. Ippo epdi ne ponum?

(Ok bro. Tell me how to go now.)

V.B: Adhu poirichu baa.

(You have passed it!)

Joel took over:

Joel: Adhu seri ne. Ippo epdi ne ponum?

(Thats okay. How do we proceed from here.)

V.B: Adhu poirichu baa.

(You have passed the place!)

Joel: Podaaaang……

($^%&*$)

I just returned from Acoustic Acapella at Bella Ciao, ECR.

20 bands. Acoustic guitars. Plenty of Beer.

Saw a girl who had a DSLR. She was shooting in Auto mode with her flash on! EKSI!

More Blue Floyd cases.

Got some good photographs.

Abhishek

Passion

Poison

More on FindNearYou.com

I think it worthy to mention again - the girl got on my nerves - shooting the evening with a DSLR on Auto mode with flash on. Her loss - I decided not to invite her to join us on our Photowalks.

On a serious note, I need to get back to music. For those who dont know, I used to play in a rock band called Zephyr where I played the keyboards and did backing vocals. After the band broke up, I was into another unnamed band where I played the drums and did the vocals. The band lasted for a week. Going by the trend, me returning to music will atleast solve my COACB problem.

5.30 AM - 10.00 AM

Started from home early in the morning to SIET College where Aravind had promised to pick me up for the 9th Chennai Photowalk. Walked till C.P.Ramaswamy Road and it was 5.45 already. A small hike till Mount Road and we were soon settled in Aravind’s car. Had to pick up Varun as well from Guindy station and he had been apparently 5 minutes away from Guindy for the past half an hour. He arrived finally and we soon arrived at the foot of St.Thomas Mount. A quick breakfast at the roadside shop with fellow photowalkers, Chandru & Anand and we were off. It was exhausting. I didnt take much snaps, but enjoyed the walk. I also learnt a few stuff about a specific person. Keeping up with the tradition of meeting new people each time, I met Laskhman and Gaurav Mishra of BharatMatrimony.com.

Then a small discussion about our childhood beliefs which ranged from Anand’s assumption of how milk was ‘manufactured’ when he was 8 and another bugger’s assumption of how women got pregnant when he was 7! Born pervert!

Then the drive back into the city is also worth mentioning as Sharanya made the mistake of hitching a ride in Aravind’s car. Me and Varun had a good time bugging her. She would probably not even step into Aravind’s car again!

A couple of snaps from the Photowalk.

After the walk. Me, Sudhamshu, Varun, Sharanya, Shreya and Gautham.

10.00 AM to 11.30 AM

We had to while away time as the mini blogger meet we had called a mini blogger meet at 12.30 PM at Amethyst, Chennai and the best option was Alliance Francaise De Madras, which had almost become third home to me. Second home is FindNearYou.com! After having a catnap at Alliance Francaise de Madras and biting into Yusuf’s delicious chocolate cake, we were off to Amethyst.

Me and Varun at Alliance Francise de Madras.

11.30 AM to 2.30 PM

A nice get together. Just 5 of us and we had the entire Amethyst shaking with our laughter! Me, Aravind, Varun, Rohit and Sandhya Rajan. Had great fun. Had a great time teasing Koyanda Sandhya! She apparently thinks I’m horny! Atleast thats what she said! He he!

Me making a point. Hence the crooked mouth. Koyanda Sandhya is all ears.

We need not be rocket scientists to tell who Rohit is checking out!

2.30 PM to 3.30 PM

Then the five of us were off to Little Mount. We were about to leave and then I saw John. We were meeting for the first time after college ended and it was greaty seeing him again. We were so close in college and we had trouble talking to each other today. Words failed us! And we were actually very lucky to have seen him because he got access to us inside the two caves there and it was kickass! A quick goodbye later, me and Aravind and me headed to Mathsya while Rohit joined us there after he dropped Varun and Koyanda at Guindy station.

Varun, Koyandai Sandhya, Rohit, Aravind and Me at Little Mount.

3.30 PM to 5.30 PM

A late lunch at Mathsya with Rohit and Aravind. Again had fun recalling funny moments about Koyanda. We were the only people in the restaurant and were laughing at the top of our voices - thanks to Koyanda !

The first edition of the 8th Chennai Photowalk happened today at T Nagar.

Lot of hostile stares, friendly poses - as usual!

Met more people like Sharanya, Ole and Sindhu (Pradeep! This is injustice to Sita!) More about Sindhu later.

We started at around 5.30 from Panagal Park by going round a small portion of the park and embarking towards Pondy Bazaar. There were some blog worthy incidents like the two girls who were so amused seeing a bunch of crazy shutterbugs clicking away to glory that they kept coming with us looking at us apprehensively. Then there was this flower shop guy who wanted a snap of himself and his friend. He then actually ran upto me and gave me his card asking me to courier the pic to him!

Got some wonderful pics which can be viewed here.

At the end, Dilip Muralidharan gave a long talk about Aravanis in Chennai, his documentary on them and their cultural background. Interesting! For that matter, the aravanis’ headquarters in Chennai are in need of a decent internet connection. They are trying to digitalize all their documentation before it is too late. They have got some 300 year old documents that are withering away. So, if anyone can help out in form of cash, they can contact me or Dilip.

Then me, Gapp and Jump headed to High Time, the bar at GRT Grand Days to meet Ram, my boss and he offered us free drinks! We cashed in on this opportunity and had a couple of drinks. Jump walked back home while me and Gapp walked till Teynampet and took a 12B till Luz Corner. We had an interesting chat about a Chidambaram School that was in need of some serious renovation, not only in form of buildings but also in form of man-power. He claims that the teachers there are just school pass outs. Shit! Again, people who are willing to spend a weekend in Chidambaram talking to the school kids and teachers in order to motivate them or give some creativity workshop to them are welcome. They can contact Gapp. Update on 16th June: Gapp claims I got everything wrong. Will update soon after I get to know it in detail.

The day started wild, as me and my family were visiting a few of our relatives and got stuck in an elevator in a posh apartment complex in Alwarpet. The watchman came and as a matter of factly, took a lever and propped the grill gate open and asked us to climb out! It was fun, but the thought of kids and the elderly getting stuck is scary!

Off to bed now. Ram probably asked the bartender to serve me non-alcoholic drinks so that I would turn up for work the next day on time! I’m not even feeling the drink!

Oh! And by the way, Pradeep turned up for the walk with a new chick, SIndhu (he probably has ditched Sita) and we had the following conversations over phone four times throughout the walk.

Point to be noted is that he was very determined to come for this walk.

Before the walk:

Pradeep: Hello?

Me: Dude! Where are you?

Pradeep: Just around the corner. Will be there in a few minutes.

He came with the chick.

During the walk. He was nowhere to be seen.

Pradeep: Hello?

Me: Dude! Where are you?

Pradeep: Er… Me in Marrybrown da.

Me: WTF!

A little later:

Pradeep: Hello?

Me: Dude! Where are you?

Pradeep: Well… Er… Um… Besant Nagar beach da.

Me: #$^%&*

After the walk:

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Dude! Whats happening!?

The Seventh Chennai Photowalk happened on May 11th. I know its a bit late for me to write a post about it here. Still.

I had to sacrifice my sleep at a time when it is at its best - 5 in the morning. But, it was worth it!

A quick stroll to the Mylapore Temple Tank and I was on. It took a while for everyone to come and we were all set for the 7th Chennai Photowalk.

We were met with some stares, some hostile and some obliging poses all the way from Mylapore to San Thome.

Met some interesting people like Chandru (the chief of this tribe) Subhash, one of the editors in The Hindu, Mihir, Gautham, Shillika, Shaam, Anand, Dilip and many more. Saw PlaneMad for the first time though we knew each other through our respective blogs. He claimed to be named Arun Ganesh - I prefer to call him PlaneMad. Infact, I had and still have trouble calling him Arun.

All this means more additions to my blogroll as most of these people have interesting blogs.

All the Photowalk pics can be seen here.

In other news, the Pichavaram trip with Gapp, PlaneMad, Vetti and Dilip was not that great as we expected it to be. It was good though and we had fun. Again met new people - Vetti and Dilip. Cant write a detailed post on the Pichavaram trip here as I have promised Ram of findnearyou.com that I would write the travelogue for his website. The pics can be seen here.

Also, Shankar Ganesh’s three SugarSync Annual Subscriptions are up for grabs. All you have to do is to visit the link here and write a catchy comment on why you need a $49.99 worth SugarSync subscription and how you’ll use it.

Hurry!

Update on May 17th - While I thought that I, along with Gapp was pulling PlaneMad’s leg throughout the trip, it finally turned out that it was my leg that was being pulled. All along.
Right now, three people are laughing away like hyenas in Chennai. Bad.

Mera number aayega! Hope so.

…and had to wait patiently for nearly ten minutes so that I could gain his confidence - and move closer.

He (or she! I didn’t find out the sex!) was skeptical at first; but later placed his confidence in me and totoally enjoyed the photo-shoot.