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!

Anita Gokhale's Terrace

Delhi is full of places which are open to everyone--people who live here, people who are visiting from other parts of the country and people who are visiting from other parts of the globe. However, there are a few places, beautiful sanctuaries if you will, open only to a select few. My aunt, Anita Gokhale, has managed to create such a sanctuary for her family and her thousands of friends on her terrace. 

Going to her terrace garden to witness it in full bloom is a spring ritual. We welcome the colours on her terrace and in our lives every year by spending a fun-filled afternoon sipping tea and munching on delicious snacks made by her. Then we linger on to spend the evening with friends, sharing more delicious food and drinks while watching the stars in the sky and inhaling the aroma of the beautiful flowers that adorn her beautiful garden. 

This year I went specially to click photographs one afternoon so that I could share her passion for flowers with you.   

A big thanks to Anita aunty for working so hard to ensure all her family and friends enjoy the fragrances and beauty of these amazing flowers. You all will notice that she herself is as beautiful as the flowers she so painstakingly tends to. She is the one, standing on the right, wearing a beautiful smile in the last photo. The lady in the left is my mom. And she sure is always happy to be with Anita aunty. The presence of flowers and the sun makes it all the more special.

The complete view

Cornered

The pink flower bed

Blues, what blues?

Standing out

Saying something

The swing

Even the setting sun shines to honour the beauty

Bright as the sun

Folds

The bar

The source of light

The colour purple

Open

Friends and flowers

Sorry, I was supposed to do this post sometime in February. However things, in hindsight not that important, kept me away. This is my way of bringing the cool spring breeze into your lives :)

A Sunny Afternoon at Jantar Mantar

The sun is finally out after a very long time in Delhi. I decided to coax my friends to take a walk to Jantar Mantar during lunch. Thankfully, they did not need much convincing. They packed themselves in their woolens and I wore the camera around my neck and we went for a pleasant walk. Here is my loot from the day.

Anu, flaunting her eskimo jacket and bright smile!

Sangeeta in her brand new jacket, smiling to her heart's content in the bright sunlight

The Colour Purple

Green with envy?

Roots, enroute

Eye see you

Veins

Sorry, please talk to me again

Secret passage

Shaken not stirred

Underground

Sun n Shade

Cornered

Spotlight

An Early Morning at Connaught Place

The sky was beautiful after the rains through the night. The Click Walk group had planned to meet in Connaught Place to go shutter crazy on Saturday morning, 14 July 2012. There was no reason for me to miss this walk and I should have been amongst the first people to have arrived. But I was the last one to join the group. I did not hear the alarm when it rang for the first time and I woke up only 15 minutes after the appointed time. I rushed and managed to reach in another 15 minutes to the spot of meeting. And boy am I glad that I did not miss this one!

The skies were in a generous mood and showed me all their colours! 

Golden

Brown

Blue

There were devotees who were up and about even before us. I spotted this garlanded symbol of the Shani God on the footpath.

Worship

By the time I reached the group, they were already busy clicking pigeons.

Shutter crazy over pigeons

I did my share of pigeon clicking.

To the sun

Chaos

In one direction

This group of crows caught my attention. This one seemed to tell others, this carcass is mine!

Mine. All mine!

With others still busy clicking the pigeons, I decided to enjoy an empty Connaught Place. You can barely see one pillar without people crowding the place in the afternoon or evening or night.

Pillars of Strength

The editor in me could not help herself from spotting a spelling mistake.

The case of a missing P

I saw some photo-friends move away from the pigeons

Click-Board

Some remains of the previous day were still visible on the grey roads.

Road advertising

I turned my attention to me and decided to get a self portrait with this well dressed mannequin.

Arm candy?

The stores with their well-done window displays did not hold my attention for long and I again pointed my camera to the blue skies.

Travelling

 Though the traffic was slow in the early hours, there were birds flying, autorickshaws moving and the Metro stations had also been cleaned and readied to welcome passengers.

Up and Down

 For  some, morning was still a few minutes away. So they slept in innovative beds made by joining chairs and a big stool. This is what is called 'jugaad' in India and what Delhi is famous for!

Jugaad

 Some men had been discarded and were lying carelessly on the roadside.

Discarded Men

 There were other men doing the job of cleaning the heart of Delhi before the crowds came.

Hard at work

 Not satisfied with clicking pictures of pigoens, sleeping men and the skies, a friend and I decided to venture a little and take the view of the city from the top of the white buildings designed by Lutyens. Now, partly residential and partly commercial these buildings and their approach from the middle circle is a revelation. It was surprising for me, someone who has lived in the area for nearly a decade and a half, as well.

Red

 We were told by the care taker of the building that we can climb this ladder if we wanted to get a bird's eye view of the Inner Circle of Connaught Place. Unfortunately, we were not adventurous enough.

Steep Climb

 With not much else to see, we returned to the pigeon point and I tried to capture all the colours I could.

Colours

I then pestered the photography expert with us, Abhijeet Kothale, to teach me the technique of getting a handheld burst zoom shot. This is what I got in my first attempt.

Centre

We ended the morning's shoot with a cup of tea. The roadside vendor looked like a Marathi man (because of the cap he is wearing) and a small chat revealed and we were happily surprised to know that he belonged to Bihar. This was a wonderful case of national integration.

Chai!