In darkness

Seeing people walking in darkness is not a big deal in India, at least not in the rural parts where people are used to walking in darkness. The reason probably is that their farms are away from their homes. It gets dark by the time they return after hard work. The probability of walking in darkness increases in the winter season when the sun sets early. Amazing thing is that they are not afraid of wild animals!

I was on a 3 days vacation to the greens of Konkan last weekend. Our stay was near Gharadi village and Shedvai village. Click here to see the location of our forest lodge. Try zooming out in the map to get a broader view.

On the first day, when we were returning from sunset point in Anjarle to our forest lodge, we saw a man walking alone in darkness. It was so dark that the clusters of stars were in the maximum number I had ever seen. He was brave for sure as we had been informed about presence of tigers, leopards, hyenas, etc. in the area.

See him.

In darkness

In darkness

I was a bit brave too as I stepped out of the car a couple of times to take photographs that were not possible to be recorded on pixels from inside the car. The feel outside the car was magical. I will share those photos in some future posts.

East view terrace

What is the advantage of living in an apartment with east view terrace? I hope it is quite evident in today's photo. The aperture of my eyes did not divide at all when I was in the terrace today morning just at the right time when nature was painting the huge wallpaper with vibrant colors. There were birds chirping and flying around for special effect.

I was mesmerized! Am I able to forward the feeling by today's photo from my east view terrace?

East view terrace

East view terrace

If you haven't already, please see my sun view posts from the past…
• HDR of Sun and Clouds as seen from my home
• Moon and Sun in One Photograph
• Golden Sun
• Happy Earth Day
• Rays of Hope
• Sunset at Matheran Hill Station
• Photo of sunrise at Veer Dam backwater
• Sunset and trees

Balaji Temple Pune

Those who have reached this page from search engine must be knowing that Tirupati Balaji is a very famous temple in south India. I'm saying this because most of those visitors reached this page by searching "Balaji Temple Pune". You have reached the right place to see the very beautiful Balaji Temple Pune.

For my blogger friends, this might be a new information that Balaji is one of the highly believed in GOD, in India. There is a huge temple in south India. Considering the faith of people, many replicas have been created all over India. One replica is near my city Pune. Balaji Temple Pune is very clean and beautiful. See the below photo to know for yourself. Balaji Temple Pune is very decorative, with amazing carvings, beautifully painted walls & ceilings and breathtaking views of many gods and goddesses. Sadly, photography is not allowed inside the temple. So I could not take and show you the photos from inside. But the view from outside is equally worth. See below. What do you say?

Balaji Temple Pune

Balaji Temple Pune

If you are visiting my blog for a long time, you might have noted that I had published 2 photos of this temple last October. See Balaji Temple Replica in Pune. Those photos were loved very much. But it was time to take even better photos. I took many new photos of Balaji Temple Pune 2 days back, on Sunday. Early morning of winter gave amazing colors and my Canon T2i did a great job of recording perfect Booleans creating this beautiful electronic painting!

Thoughts of the Season [Poetry by Carmen Henesy]

Have you visited Carmen Henesy's blog? The name of her blog is Carmen's Chronicles. She is an amazing poet with very creative thoughts.

Recently, she composed a very touching poem; Thoughts of the Season. I'm proudly sharing it with you all in this post. The meaning is so beautiful, which can come from a pure soul's mind only. Tell me your thoughts on this poem. And do not forget to check her book — Life's Journey.


Thoughts of the Season

Far from the hills of Afghanistan,
Guns sound on American streets,
An innocent teen falls to the ground,
As his heart pumps its final few beats.

A mother pauses in cooking a meal,
In a home full of bright Christmas cheer,
As uniformed officers solemnly tell,
News she never thought she would hear.

So many go hungry all over the world,
They don’t have a feeling of joy,
No stockings are filled with wondrous treats,
For a good little girl or a boy.

In this season of love, goodwill to all men,
Terrorism is something we dread,
Why can’t we all aim for world peace,
And learn to negotiate instead.

We are all brothers, perhaps different colors,
Who share the holy seasons on earth,
May we join in our blessings, look into our hearts,
And see the value of each human’s worth.

Carmen Henesy

Copyright © Carmen Henesy
December 14, 2010


You are the best Carmen!

Fake grass

This is a story of fake grass. Many people are using fake grass now-a-days. This story may probably change their opinion!

Once upon a time, a great scientist finally created fake grass. He was so proud of himself because his fake grass could be created in minutes and in bulks that could be supplied to everyone in the world at rapid speeds. He sold the formula of creating fake grass to a big businessman, who did not lose a minute starting the production of fake grass.

A day came when most of the houses and offices were having fake grass instead of the real grass. The fake grass never needed water, sunlight, special care, etc. The fake grass never dried! A few years passed. One fine morning, photographer Bhavesh Chhatbar saw a bunch of real grass in the wild! He took a photo and showed it on his blog. He touched the grass and told stories to all his known ones how amazingly wonderful it felt. He mentioned one very different additional thing that the people of the future did not know; he said that when he saw the real grass in the morning, it had water drops on it, which upon finding traces in the past was mentioned as "dew". How amazing, isn't it? See the photo he took that morning.

Bristly Smithia [AKA Smithia Setulosa, Motha Kawla, मोठा कवला]

Bristly Smithia is a small flower that is found in the western ghats during the month of October. When Bristly Smithia blooms, it spreads itself in abundance. You can see huge patches of land covered by Bristly Smithia in October. Bristly Smithia is actually a herb! The flowers are just about 1½ or 2 centimeters in size!!

मोठा कवला - Motha Kawla - Smithia Setulosa - Bristly Smithia

Bristly Smithia [AKA Smithia Setulosa, Motha Kawla, मोठा कवला]

Internet Connection Issues

Do you find anything funny in the below screenshot from GMail taken after sending an email? Nope? See the line in blue. I had actually sent an email to Internet Connection Issues department of my internet service provider. GMail is asking me to invite Internet Connection Issues to GMail! Very funny. Computers will be computers :) Do you find it funny?

Internet Connection Issues

Internet Connection Issues

Suggestions for gift please

Well, this post is very different in a way because in most of my posts, I show something, but in this post I am asking for something — your guidance. My friend is getting confused what to buy for her "probable" girlfriend. He wants to gift some cool dress to her, but is not able to decide on anything. I knew a good website. So I suggested him to check some yoga outfits, jeans for girls, trendy tops, etc. and to look inside that website for more options. There are quite many options over there to choose from.

My personal liking was winter clothing for her. But it was not what was in his mind. So I looked up for something more, even asked Megha to help. She suggested stylish blazers for girls. I showed it to him, and viola! He liked it. I think he will go with it.

What do you think? What should he buy? What are the latest trends? What is it that the girl of today will like the most? Add your valuable contributions. It will help my poor friend to impress her. Of course, he himself is quite smart enough to impress her. But some cool dress will be cherry on ice.

PS: The photo above is taken from the following URL under creative commons license.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/idhren/3228851786/

Altocumulus

Be sure to search Altocumulus in Google; here is the direct link to search it — Altocumulus. You will be amazed to see what it is! I have summed it up as follows…

Alto means high and cumulus means heaped; thus the word is formed as Altocumulus. The clouds of Altocumulus are found at a height of 6000 feet to 20000 feet or 1800 meters to 6100 meters or 1.8 kilometers to 6.1 kilometers. These are not precipitation clouds. Technically, the clouds of Altocumulus are spherical or roll shaped clouds that are always in bunch and are spread in a beautiful pattern formation. Altocumulus lie above Stratocumulus and below Cirrocumulus [mackeral sky]. Often Altocumulus are followed by cold weather. Many times Altocumulus seen in the morning of warm and humid summer results in thunderstorms in the evening. This is so much of interesting information about Altocumulus, isn't it?

We were lucky to see this rare bunch of clouds of Altocumulus one evening. We did not miss it to photograph :) Here I present you with a photo showing Altocumulus. I hope you will like it :)

Altocumulus

Altocumulus

Sunset and trees

Yesterday was a day decided to earn some extra money. We went to Sinhgadh Fort again to do some clone photography and some marketing for selling my photo paintings. Did a good business for 4-5 hours and then was the time to enjoy sunset and trees together from the second highest point in Maharashtra state. It was such an exciting moment to take a beautiful picture of sunset and trees. There are really no words to express how it feels to see such a majestic display by nature. You have to be present there to enjoy sheer size and expanse of the landscape being enlightened and then dimmed by the sun.

Sunset and trees

Sunset and trees

Be sure to do some Google to see more of such pictures :)

Photos of people doing stupid things

Burger baby - Photos of people doing stupid things


Boy with dino t-shirt - Photos of people doing stupid things


Cheerleader man - Photos of people doing stupid things


Drinking from childhood - Photos of people doing stupid things


Fat man on little bike - Photos of people doing stupid things


Fire fighter fighting with water - Photos of people doing stupid things


Flower pot with jeans - Photos of people doing stupid things


Girl messing with chocolate - Photos of people doing stupid things


Man on four decker cycle - Photos of people doing stupid things


Man seemingly peeing in car petrol tank - Photos of people doing stupid things


Man with chalk cycle - Photos of people doing stupid things


Photos of people doing stupid things - Matador on bullock cart


Note: I received the above photos of people doing stupid things in an email forward. These are not photographed by me. The copyright and credit of these photos of people doing stupid things remain with the original photographers. If you are one of the original photographers of these photos of people doing stupid things, please let me know; I'll very happily link back to you :)

Felicitation of Bhavesh Chhatbar at Olympus India's Nariman Point Office

Hello friends,

I was awarded the prize I mentioned in my Contest Winner post, on 29-November-2010 at Olympus India's office in Nariman Point, Mumbai. Here are some glimpses…

Facebook Screenshot of OlympusPro


Kinya Yoshimura, the General Manager of Olympus India, giving away the prize to Bhavesh Chhatbar


Kinya Yoshimura with Bhavesh Chhatbar, Bhavesh's uncle-aunty, and Bhavesh's wife Megha

Gold price is Rs. 21000 in India per 10 grams!

Delhi Bullion has declared today's price of gold per 10 grams [often called as "tola" in India] as a whopping amount of rupees 21000! The prime reason seems to be the upcoming wedding season expected to be the costliest wedding season of India ever in history.

I clearly remember that 3 years back the gold price of 10 grams was only rupees 9000. This proves that gold is the best investment option available in any market. No market has proved the return of 233% in just 3 years. The invested money has more than doubled in such a short span of time. So what are you waiting for? Invest more in gold and get richer faster than any other investment source! Gold prices are always going to increase.

Update: 2010-12-06: One of my friends read this post yesterday, and whoa! What an influence. He bought 2 tolas of gold! I'm so happy for 2 things…
• By this post I added some demand to the market, worth rupees 40000.
• My friend will make money in the coming days that will be higher in return compared to any other investment option. I'm expecting that he will be able to sell those 2 tolas for Rs. 44000 in 6 months, which means 10% increment in 6 months, or 20% in a year!

PS: The photo of 2 drachmas gold coin has been taken from the following URL under creative commons licence. The copyright and credit of the photo remains with the original photographer. The URL is http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/326314641/sizes/l/