Faces of India - 147

Children of Bishnupur, West Bengal, always curious about the strangers (tourists) they see. They are standing on the fence around a temple there.

Faces
of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various
characters of my country whom I met during my travels. See more here.

Sunset in Bishnupur, West Bengal

Exiting one of the temples of Bishnupur, through the arched doorway I sighted the setting sun. I rushed to capture the final moments but the Sun was faster. It slipped in before I could capture its fine round form. Amongst the silhouettes of trees I managed to get just a teeny-weeny piece of it.








SkyWatch Friday

Live Cookout at Hyatt, Bangalore

Live cookout experiences are fantastic, more so when done with cobloggers! Here is one such experience I had at Hyatt Bangalore M.G Road. Our welcome was with a fine glass of “Four Seasons” wine. We settled down sipping it, to a good conversation, and got to know each other.

Four Seasons’ award-winning range of wines has been crafted with the technical expertise of Bouvet-Ladubay, France. They

Faces of India - 146

Waiting patiently for me to finish my photography. I met him at the tea stall just outside Kufri zoo. He too was watching his snacks being prepared. You can see his friends here.

Faces
of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various
characters of my country whom I met during my travels. See more here.

 

Bally Bridge

The picture taken at the banks of River Ganges, from Dakhineshwar Kali Temple complex. In the foreground is the concrete fence of the temple and beyond that is the famous Bally Bridge. West Bengal government has named it Vivekananda Setu. (Setu means bridge in Bengali language.) Vivekananda Setu, also called Willingdon Bridge. It links the city of Howrah, at Bally, to its twin city of Kolkata,

Wall Lamp

The wall lamp was casting stunning shadows on the rough textured wall which couldn’t be ignored. The effect of the lamp ornament was dazzling. It transformed the feel of the room. With a flip of switch the repetitive pattern of shadow around the lamp changed the mood in the room. It was taken at a hotel room in Germany.

Interior lighting does create a magic, don't you agree?!





Thursday

Photo Essay on Duttapara Temple, Joypur, West Bengal

See the previous post on Duttapara Temple: Facade of Dutta Para Temple, Joypur, West Bengal 


There are two triple arched entrances to the temple, one is moss grown, worn out at many parts and dark gray with negligence. Not all nine musicians on the arch are in good form. It is sad to see them in headless form.






I zoomed into the details of southern façade. Here are a series of photo of

Tulips from Modena, Italy

Last week I had this post Macro of... almost all of you gave the correct answer as Tulip. There were some answers like: Rose, Lotus, Hibiscus… I am now tempted to post macros of those flowers in my future posts.

Here is the larger scene of the Tulip flowers I got to see in a park of Modena, Italy. How I often wish that I could grow them in my pots, but unfortunately Bangalore doesn’t have a

Faces of India - 145

The cricket partner of the little master of Depara family.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various
characters of my country whom I met during my travels. See more here.

Facade of Dutta Para Temple, Joypur, West Bengal

From Depara Temple we moved on to Duttapara Temple, hardly few 100m away, very much within walking distance. Nabaratna, a nine pinnacled temple; this too belonged to zamindar (landlord) family who flourished well in cloth business once. This one appeared to be in an even more dilapidated worn down condition. This is the view one gets from the road.

You have to walk through the small passage on

Fort of Breendonk, Brussels, Belgium

A badly planned day tour from Brussels resulted in my missing the visit to Fort of Breendonk. It was a good opportunity for me to see the concentration camp of the Germans.

Breendonk was a "waiting" camp designed to receive Jews and political prisoners before their transfer to Germany. The first prisoners arrived on September 20th, 1940. Initially the conditions of life were very difficult but

Two Local Sweetmeats of Bengal

Besides photographing the sights, searching out and eating local specialties is another fav activity of mine at any tourist destination. Tarapith has a mouth watering delicacy, the ‘langcha’ for which one must pause. These are made of cottage cheese, the dough of it rolled to desired shape and length, deep fried in oil and left soaking in sugar syrup. The specialty of Tarapith langcha is its

Macro of...

You know this flower, don’t you?
Leave a comment with your guess.





My entry for : I Heart Macro
Today's Flowers

Faces of India - 144

The lady of De family, she assists her family in looking after the “Depara Temple”. She was like a local guide to the temple explaining to us whatever she knew about the temple. She said, “I have seen many photographers come and take photographs of the temple. What do you do with those pictures? What is so great about this temple?”

Probably the importance vanishes when you see something

Facade of Depara Temple, West Bengal

The shot was taken from the extreme edge of the courtyard. The complete view of the façade from other directions is not possible. The temple stands on a 4 feet high raised platform. The lady of the house overlooking the affairs of the temple and house doesn’t remember when the last facelift to the temple was given. At least none after she was married into the family. I will be featuring her in

Nabaratna Depara temple, Joypur, West Bengal

On to my destination Depara Nabaratna (nine pinnacled) temple of Joypur, the pinnacles were visible from the bylane. A small gate to De Family’s house and the temple is in their courtyard measuring approx. 30feet by 40 feet. ‘De’ is Bengali surname. This family was one of the reputed and influential cloth merchants a couple of centuries back.





There are columns all around; they have arches

Faces of India - 143

The lady who fed us ‘bloggers’ at the roadside dhaba (inn). Read about the Pahadi Pijja (Mountain Pizza) and see more pictures we had here. She is concentrating on the food she was preparing.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various
characters of my country whom I met during my travels. See more here.

2014 General Elections, Your Vote Matters

 How would you inspire and mobilize India's youth 

to vote in the Indian General Elections 2014 using social mobile apps? 


2014 is special for India! There will be 'general elections' for the election of members of Parliament for the 16th Lok Sabha in another few months. The contest will be for 543 constituencies and the magic figure to form a government will be 272 seats. According to the

Clouds On Flames

“Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence? 

I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, 

one single streak of gold from yonder clouds. Open your doors and look abroad. 

From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers 

of an hundred years before.
In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy 

that sang one