Holi, Holiday

For Holi, this year, me and my friends decided to leave Delhi and go to the Himalayas. After a series of chain mails, we decided a village near Manali--Batahar--was going to be our Holi-destination.

Just a few days before I was to leave for the holiday, Nokia came up with an offer I could not refuse. I was given a Nokia Lumia 1020 to cover the festival of Holi. I had heard from many friends that the 41 megapixel camera was to die for. I could not wait to get my hands on it.

The phone arrived on the day of departure--14 March 2014. Ankita and I took a selfie just as soon as we boarded the bus.

And Sangeeta and Abir also smiled for the camera!

Since the journey was mostly through the night, I did not get much opportunity to play with the camera. But the morning was a different story. We found ourselves in a world of picture-postcard scenery that changed its form every few kilometres but our appreciation remained constant.

We stayed in the Apple Tree Cottages in Bathar village. The views from our rooms, the living room and basically everywhere the eye turned was breath-taking. I am not exaggerating! 

On 15 March we went to the Hidimba Temple and then to the Vashishth Temple.

  

On our way back to the cottage we decided to stop at the river bank. The water was cold so there was no question of us dipping our feet into it. So we sat on boulders listening to the gurgling sound of the Beas.

The villagers of Haripur, a village adjacent to Batahar, celebrate Holi a day prior to when the rest of the country celebrates. I requested the owner of the cottage to take me to the village to celebrate the festival.Our jeep was stopped by a bunch of children who were happy to apply colours on our cheeks and wish us, 'Happy Holi!'

A little further, a group of teenage boys decided to block the road using big boulders. They cleared the way only after Chamman ji gave them some money. This road block was laughed off when they wished us and shouted, 'Bura na maano Holi hai!' (Don't feel bad, it's Holi!)

As we neared the village temple, we saw many more coloured faces.

 I'll tell you the rest of the story in the next post!

Hope you had a good Holi!

 

Six years of life

I did not have a car when I started this blog. I also did not have a DSLR. In fact I was not even sure I had an interest in photography. I would just click photographs from the camera in my mobile phone. The objective was to capture Delhi and its changing face and the moments.

It has been six years since the first post. I, now, drive my car to different parts of the city. Mount my DSLR and click photographs. I do not post on this blog as often as I would like to. My love for the city is still all-consuming but my expression of that love has altered. I now have a keen interest in photography and travel to other places in the country with the gusto which was early reserved for just Delhi.

I think Delhi Photo Diary (with a spelling mistake in the url) played a big role in adding little traits to my personality over the last six years. It ensured I met lot of new people, invested in exploring the city a little more and most importantly learnt a little more about myself during the journey.

I might blog more this year. Or I just might become a fleeting presence in the World Wide Web. I don't know what the future holds and no longer try to find the unknown. But if anyone visits the blog and sees this post, I'd like to tell them that the journey so far has been one of the most important ones of my life. And just by visiting the blog and staying here for a few minutes they too have become a part of my life. And for that I would like to thank them.

Here is a photo of the Tree of Life I spotted a few moons ago at the Design Fair at Dastakar Haat in Meharauli.

 

I dedicate this photo to all those who have altered my life in the last six years. You have made it a lot more fun and exciting. Thanks!

Also, Happy Birthday, Delhi Photo Diary (DPD)!

P.S: I have decided to go back to the roots of this blog. I will be posting photographs taken from my camera phone for some time. Minus the minutes spent on Photoshop. Because I feel the need to unlearn and relearn.

Comic Con 2014

I finally decided to stop being lazy. I took my camera out for a walk. The destination was Comic Con 2014 at the Tyagraj Stadium. Here are some of the things that caught my eye and the lens of my camera captured.

An angry Mickey

Desi super girl!

Friendly neighbour

Sex education through graphic novels. A brilliant idea!

Comical footwear

Shikari Shambhu!

Ugrasen ki Baoli

Hola Chicos! 

More than a month later I picked up the camera again, today. This hiatus was partly because I was busy learning Spanish and partly because I was feeling lazy to do just a little more to go shutter-crazy. Thankfully, that period is behind me and I am ready again to make most of day. 

I tempted my friends (and colleagues) Sudeshna and Kanupriya to accompany me to the Ugrasen ki Baoli in Connaught Place during our lunch break. If I say so myself, we had a great time!

Golden walls

Light and shade

Ruins

Grafitti, motorcycle, and water bottles make for a modern art installation. 

Installation art!

 More graffiti!

Lady in red!

 Rules are important. Some, should not be broken EVER!

Rules

 Best study hall. EVER!

Lone reader

Four friends discussing history

The Blue stars continue to study hard, the White one looks at me. Suspiciously? Maybe!

I have never been able to resist (clicking) a man in white and blue ;-)

And then we turned the cameras to ourselves.

Kanupriya and Sudeshna all smiles

Kanupriya insists that she wants her chance behind the camera.

Sudeshna and I pose while people around us laugh their hearts out.

It was only polite that Sudeshna got a chance to hit the camera button. She clicked the best photograph of the day (in my opinion).

Kanupriya and I, colour coordinated

 We had a few more antics up our sleeves before we left.

Kanupriya trying (laughing) hard to pull the tiger's tongue out

On the way back to our office.

Gods keeping an eye on a bus stop

 We decided that we deserved burgers for lunch after so much hard work that we had put in. The bright walls of McDonald's welcomed us.

Which is the narrowest of them all?

A little play with the camera settings and I managed to experience (or at least my camera did) night while the sun shone brightly outside.

Modern art?

You can see my earlier posts on Ugrasen ki Baoli (also called Agrasen ki Baoli) here.

Hope I did good in my comeback post. Let's hope the good weather in Delhi continues, the festive spirit keeps me happy, and good friends accompany me to other nooks and crannies of the city so that I bring you more posts.




Till the next time,
Adiós!

Dastangoi

The regular visitors to the blog would have noticed that my outings have become few in number. I could make excuses like work keeps me busy, nothing interesting is happening anywhere in Delhi etc. But the truth is, I'd be lying. The fact is at 30, age seems to be catching up with me. I only attend events that excite me enough to push myself to leave the comfort of my home. 

Fortunately for me, Team Dastangoi and India Habitat Centre (IHC) announced a show titled New Tales from the Tilism-e Hoshurba sometime in July. I stalked Facebook pages, Twitter handles and the IHC programme desk. I mailed friends, blabbered about the previous shows I had seen and almost feared that I had oversold the experience of dastangoi to friends who had never watched it before. 

After having very expensive and really awful tasting milk shakes, the six of us headed to our seats--first row, almost centre. I was very pleased. And then the magic began, Poonam Girdhani & Namita Singhai took the stage first. They looked beautiful in their silver and white attires. They sounded even better. 

 

 

Then came the masters themselves, Danish Husain and Mahmood Farooqui,  and they transported the audience to a world of magic. Their words, expressions and actions ensured that every one in the hall sat mesmerised. I could not resist providing just a clip so that you could experience a little bit of magic. 


 

 

 

At the end of the evening, I was glad that I had not oversold the show to my friends. The six of us were smiling for a long, long time, happy that we had been under the spell of the dastangos for over two hours.

To know more about their performances: click here Dastangoi