Hauz Khas Village and Fort

My friends and colleagues often tease me that since my blog does not have a single post on Hauz Khas Village, I'm not a true Delhiite and definitely not a worthy Delhi photo-blogger. Finally, after 5 years I decided to make amends. I took a walk in the posh village market, which has the impressive Hauz Khas Fort as the backdrop, with my camera. Here is the loot:

Footnote: Marilyn Monroe, Jawaharlal Nehru and Krishna-Radha 

The Hauz Khas Fort overlooking the calm lake

Hauz Khas Lake

Marriage of two eras

Blue, green and the smell of history

On the watch

Let's walk, shop and eat

Who doesn't like a little bit of argument?

What a tease!

With the skies turning a threatening grey and the sun peaking from behind, showing hints of its golden light early morning last weekend, I picked my camera and decided to head to Purana Qila (Old Fort). The fort was majestic as usual. But the thing that made this trip special was me spotting a peacock ready to dance with all its feathers spread out to entice its mate. 

Grey skies, peaking gold

Dancing for its mate

Side profile

The bird was quick to spot me and decided to run in the other direction.

Escape

It stood at the top step and posed, giving me a slight hope of seeing its feathers in full bloom, hopefully from the front this time. Then like a tease decided to make me run after it.

Spotlight

 Unlike me, it was light on its steps and decided to walk on the wall of the fort. I could have continued to chase it if only the wall was not so narrow.

I knew I was beaten. I should huffing and panting. While the tease, the beautiful peacock, went as far as it could from my prying eyes.

Catch me if you can!

Rain or Happiness? You decide

Rains always bring with them a feeling of joy. The blast of colours from behind the screens laced with water droplets, caught my attention this Saturday evening as I drove around the city enjoying the rains that came early to Delhi this year.

Rain colour

A cup of coffee

This young boy and his enigmatic smile left me warm and smiling. He was selling gajras (small flower strings usually worn by women in their hair) on one of the busiest traffic signals of Delhi. With the rains bringing the temperatures down considerably, he was busy singing and splashing water in a huge pothole in the middle of the road. When he caught my eye, looking at him and smiling, he rushed to my window, smiled his big happy smile and asked me to click his photograph. After I obliged he asked me to buy some gajras as well. I, of course, could not say no to that smile. So I came home with the fragrance of rain infused with the fragrance of the white flowers.

White and the brilliant smile

Offering me beautiful flowers, with that brilliant smile

He made experiencing the rains better

Elephant spotting

An elephant is considered a good luck symbol by the Hindus. For me, it was a great way to start the day. I was on my way to Hauz Khas, when my rear view mirror became a bit more interesting as I saw the beautiful animal striding majestically.

Spotted!

Intimidating the automobile

And it gets closer

Photography - Getting Started by Ashok Kochhar

Three years after its opening, I visited the Kunzum Travel Cafe again today. I had fallen in love with the cozy little cafe in June 2010 and unfortunately did not return till today.

A friend informed me about a 4-session photography workshop titled, Photography - Getting Started, by Mr Ashok Kochhar at Kunzum. The Facebook events page showed other members of the ClickWalk group would be attending as well. I decided to brave the sun and headed to the Hauz Khas Village. The talk was interesting and catching up with fellow ClickWalkers was fun.

This new experience left me thinking a lot about what is my photography ideology. Hopefully, I'll learn new techniques of photography and also find a new facet of my personality in the course of the next three sessions of the workshop.

Here are some of the clicks from the day.

Mr Ashok Kochhar

My seat

The Kunzum Mug

The attentive class

Child's Play