Freeze Frame

"Tell me how will you capture the silkiness of the flowing river?".
"Do you know why exactly why a tripod is needed for?".
"To capture a butterfly will you increase the aperture speed or reduce it"?
Just like you even I didn't have any answers to these questions.The only silky thing I had an idea about was "Silk Smita".Well this is about photography.(Ok you got the hint from 'tripods' and 'aperture').
The prologue:
Last year when I and Xerxes were in Leh,we did quite a couple of trips to adjoining places by sharing our cabs with other tourists,it was quite economical . We always look forward to someone very nice whenever we are traveling either by Train,Bus or Plane,but the chances of that happening are always very low.We turned out to be quite lucky because we had beautiful girls for company .This happened a couple of times and I remember telling Xerxes "How cool are we?".
How long does one ride on luck,we found the answer the hard way.So for our trip to Nubra Valley we hired the cab like we did earlier and told the cab driver that we were ready to share the costs with other people. So we were eagerly waiting for the strangers to turn up to share our ride.Two women started walking towards us and I Xerxes gave me his I-told-you-so look but much to our dismay they were not our fellow travelers.Someone tabbed me on my back and as I turned around I saw two gentlemen both must be in their late 40's having a very striking similarity to Laurel and Hardy introducing themselves to us,within seconds our every hope crashed.The gentlemen were from Delhi so there was nothing to ask much about but if one is  from Delhi one is always eager to tell about it.Both of them removed their Nikon cameras and talked about their love for photography,their professions,one similar to Laurel was a Dr and Hardy was a Software techie.
There was a fifth person who was supposed to come as well.
The fifth person turned out to be a guy and an IITian,photographer and a Delhite.To make matters worse he was a client of the bank my friend "Xerxes" was working in.(Even I used to work there and ironically the Bank is closed now).
So we set on our 110 km journey passing through the legendary Khardungla pass.The journey which should have taken 4 hours took 8 hours for us  to complete because after every 15 minutes we were stopping to click photographs.The Dr uncle did share a lot of gyaan with me about photography the principal among them was to pronounce Nikon as Naikon.The Techie & IITian taught me how about the technical stuff like light settings,aperture and ISO speed on my camera.As an amateur I was quite excited to learn new tricks from these guys but little did I realise that this will come back and bite me on my ass.
With the constant halts during the journey and the bragging about the pictures from their Naikon cameras.This trip was surely going downhill.Between all the "We love photography" talk there was an occasional talk where,the Dr uncle would discuss about his latest car the Nissan X-trail( if he had got it here at least we would have been spared),The techie about his Rolex watch and the IITian was talking about his cocaine addiction.These guys had literally sucked up all my positive emotions like the "Dementors" do in Harry potter books.

The final knock out punch came in during the end of the trip when the Dr Uncle had lied down in the middle of the road  for half an hour to click the adjacent mountain.My patience was finally tested and in an annoyed tone I asked him to come in the car at once.What surprised me more was what the techie said to the doc upon entering the car "How cool are we?",I and Xerxes just glanced at each other broke into a laughing riot.

.

Ishq sufiyana

I came across this dargah in Delhi just behind Humayun's Tomb,it was called "Pattey-wali Dargah",where as the story goes a Sufi saint lived and meditated under a tree.

People who come to pray here eat a leaf and make a wish,if their wish is fulfilled they come back with a silver leaf.

This place has an aura around itself and offers a great deal of peace and I used to love visiting this place,it was not as crowded as the Nizamuddin.Through the months I went there I befriended the old caretaker whom I just called Baba.He had become a friend without ever revealing his name or asking mine.Effortlessly,in a quiet corner of the city,we became friends.He used to tell me Sufi stories,those he must have heard growing up.One that endures in my heart is a love story.It begins like any other:there was a man,woman,and then there was Love.In this case the man was poor,the woman privileged,the love doomed.He was a dhobi,and she a beautiful princess who lived on a high hill.

A strange love story,with unspoken Sufi tones.The young man was the son of Dhoban,a washerwoman,and he was madly in love with her,without even seeing her.His mother would go to the palace and bring down the clothes of the princess down the hill to wash by the lake.He would wash them marvelling at their beauty,imagining how the one who wore them must be.Tenderly he would wash and dry them.fold them caressingly,sprinkling Jasmines on their folds.His mother would then carry the clothes and receive praise for the job well done.Each passing week the clothes would turn newer and newer with the love of the young man.The dhoban got worried.What if the King discovered her Son's love for the princess?His head would be chopped off.'Before that happens I will end my life,'the young man said.And he did.A distraught mother washed the princess clothes and returned weeks later to the princess."Who has washed these clothes? they were not what they used to be" asked the princess."I did myself", said the Dhoban."Then who was washing them before"asked the princess.She felt the difference.These clothes had just been cleaned.No eyes of love had gazed at them.No hands had touched them with tenderness.The Dhoban finally revealed her son's secret love."Take me to his grave" the princess commanded.Together they went in the dark of the winter night down the hill and stopped in an abandoned yard where the lover lay under a mound of fresh earth."What kind of a lover are you to leave this world without even setting eyes on the object of your love?''the princess said.The earth split open,the princess stepped in,the earth closed over her.'In Love there is no death nor borders",said Baba.He didn't explain me much further nor I asked him any questions.

Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner

I was just eight years old when my city completely changed for me and showed me one of her ugly sides.Those were the days when Bombay was burning.I was in school then and in the middle of our class,the Principal of my school made an announcement on the mic that the current period would be the last and we had to leave for home after that.On listening to the news all of us erupted in joy, little did we know then what was happening around the city. Our teacher told us that there was a bomb blast in the city hence we were leaving the school early.I could sense something eerie in the air as I was returning home.

Thereafter for over a month the school was closed.

Apparently there were a series of  bomb blasts in the city on that day, the cycle of vengeance had started.The bomb blasts were an answer to Babri Masjid demolition which had taken place a month earlier in Northen India.

The crazy rumors people in my building were discussing were laughable, one such was that Pakistan is sending people with swords in ships and they will reach Bombay in a few days.One sad incident which appalled me was friend of mine making petrol bombs under the supervision of his parents.

Curfews were imposed during the days but one day I saw a gang of people raiding a shop owned by a Muslim gentleman from my window.

I was never much aware about different ideologies each religion had,I did have friends who were muslims, catholics and parsis but we never questioned each other why we had different kind of names or why we were different. But this school break did make us realise the difference.

As time passed by the rioting had slowed down and the school break which was for over a month long now felt like eternity. For a change I was looking forward to go back to school. The 

school did resume in January and one of our classmates called Nadeem didn't make it the first day.His mother had come weeping into the class to tell the teacher that their home was burned down during the riots and how they had barely survived, Nadeem was fine but will not be able to make it to school for a few days and she left.

After sometime after that one of my class mates tells us the class that once Nadeem comes back we need to beat him up.

This conversation somehow reached my teacher and I remember my teacher with tears in her eyes saying to my classmate "I will myself handover him to you".

At that time I didn't realise why there were tears in her eyes.

I think my teacher would have felt like Atticus would say to Jem "There's a lot of ugly things in this world, Son. I wish I could keep them away from you. That's never possible"

                                      

There They Go-Go-Go!

The events in the dialogue are based on a true story,which yours truly had once a pleasure to listen to during one of the Boy talks we Boys have :)

Neo: Dude did you check out the latest Shakira video,boy the way she moves is simply awesome.

Xerxes:Seriously dude 'Hips don't Lie"

Neo: Shakira is a Colombian,I bet Colombian women are damn sexy.

Xerxes: (with a wide grin) Did I tell you my encounter with a Colombian Girl in London.

Neo: Shut up,don't tell me,You are serious?...I am all ears

Xerxes: One evening I was outside this pub in London hanging out with my friend,We were in the car park and there was this Colombian girl and her friend taking pictures of herself with the cars.

Neo: Wait,wait.wait...How did you know she was Colombian?

Xerxes: I am telling you the story in Past tense right and please don't interrupt my narration,

Neo: Oh sorry please continue I am impressed by your skills of Deduction

Xerxes:(Raising Eye brow but still continuing) So the Colombian chick comes up to me and wants some snaps of us together.

Neo: (Interrupts ) She wanted to click snaps with you but why would she do that?Are you sure she was not a hooker or something

Xerxes: Yeah rite,shut up.May be she never saw a Sardar beforein her life.

Neo: Hahahaha are you kidding me,you are saying you were the first sardar she saw in  U.K.Was she made to travel blindfolded in London.

Xerxes: Do you  want me to stop telling you the story.

Neo: Sorry ,Carry on :)

Xerxes:So she asks me to come to her place for a coffee and we could hang out there.

Neo: Ok ok what next.

Xerxes: I said to myself after all these years of struggle finally the gods have smiled on me.She was coming on to me very strongly.

Neo: Because of people like you,we have great expectations from Firang girls.

Xerxes: Dude not my fault.Ok so we try to take a rickshaw to her place and the rickshaw drivers turns out to be a colombian as well.

Neo: Rickshaw's in London??

Xerxes: They recently started this as a Eco travel thing but can we not digress please.So coming back to this
Colombian girl,she started getting very chatty with the rickshaw wallah.So when I interrupted them ,She
asked me to get a cigarette from the shop.

Neo: Then what?

Xerxes: Dude she ran away with the Rickshaw walla after telling me to get the cigarrete.

Neo: Hahahaha,thank goodness otherwise I would have had to listen to you Colombian inquisition for the rest of my life.

Xerxes: Ohh please,shut up.

Neo: Dude wait what happened to your  friends?

Xerxes: Do you think I would care after being dumped like that.

Boys don't cry

The Wimbledon 2012 finals was a riveting contest between Roger Federer and Andy Murray.In the end the match was won by Federer but my heart went out for Murray.His frank admission of wanting to win the championship badly.The tears flowing out of his eyes only made him more human.Some will say "Boys don't cry" ,but every Boy has cried sometime or the other sometime in his life and if anyone mocks at Murray,he should look deep inside ask himself doesn't human frailty 

makes it that much more human.

Ending as a Runner up is disappointing ,one might call it a personal victory of sorts but a loss is a loss.So near and yet so far,one chance to make it big and you definitely want to make it count. I could empathise with Murray,during 

 my final year in college I became the contingent leader for my college festival "Brouhaha".Being a romantic I wanted to give a fitting tribute to my college by winning the Festival.

We performed quite well in the Literary arts & Performing arts department but performed badly in the Fine Arts.This debacle in the Fine Arts cost us dearly and we lost the championship by a margin of mere 5 points.A

ll dreams of giving the victory speech in front of my college had crashed.When 

I received the runner's up trophy I had to put up a strong face ,but inside I knew that this moment was never going to come back again ever in my life.I wish I had the courage to be as honest as Andy Murray :)

Fastest with the Mostest

‘Yaar what is happening to our country, now we are going down on all the Human Development index parameters. Look at this now even our Sex ratio is one of the worst in the world’ said Sanjay in a worrying tone,who was recently transferred to Delhi from Bombay and was quite fascinated by the city and it people.

Vikram proudly stated ”Dost pure desh ka pata nahin par Delhi  must be definitely leading.Likh le it should be cent per cent".

Sanjay said’What?, How is it possible, the last time I saw it was 866:1000.

Vikram tried to reason “Oye nahin yaar we Delhite's are healthy people ,it must be 1000:1000,mere hi teen bache hai yaar “ and he screamed across to another office colleague “Oye Bhallsaab aapke kitne bache hai'.

Bhalla shouted back “Sirji two daughter's both are girls”..Vikram glanced back to Sanjay and gave a I-am-smarter-than-you smile.

A startled Sanjay couldn’t believe what he was listening and said ‘Boss I think you didn’t understand, by sex ratio I mean the number of  Females to Males and not the number of times you have Sex.

Vikram shot back “Then why do you call it a Sax ratio, why not just Buoy to Girl ratio".

Taking a deep breath Sanjay tried to get the answer by questioning ”What is your sex?”

“Four times a week” zapped Vikram, realizing what he said he was embarrassed and quickly added ”Bhai tu personal questions kyun puch raha hai”.

Sanjay on the verge of losing his patience,took a deep breath again“Yaar main puch raha hoon whether you are a Man or a woman,and you are telling me the number of times you do it in a week,Hadh kar di yaar”.

Vikram shot back”kya baat kar rah hai yaar, ofcourse I am a Man”

Sanjay”So now that is your sex”.

Vikram still embarrassed “toh aise baat kar nah, itna ghumaaney ki kya zaroorat thi, tum Bombaywalley kabhi kisi point pey directly aatey hi nahin ho”.

Sanjay adding salt to the wound ‘Sirji, every kid in school knows what sex ratio means' .

“ok ok ab itna gyaan jhaadney ki zarorat nahi hai the other day I asked you how you reached office".

‘Yes I remember that and I clearly said I came by a rickshaw’

Now making a great scene in the office, Vikram made this as a news item“ listen to this Mr Sanjay travels Dilli in Rickshaw.”

A roar of laughter from the office colleagues came back like sonar waves, embarrassing Sanjay who said

tried to repair the situation ‘Haan toh usmein kya harz hai’.

‘Sirji the cycle rickshaws are called rickshaws here,Auto rickshaws are called Auto’.

‘Oh, so now I understand,why the Rickshaw guy, I mean the Auto guy was giving me condescending looks, every time I referred to his auto as rickshaw’.

Now Sanjay trying to change the conversation 

‘But you know what you Delhi wallah's bhu kuch kam nahi hai,the other day I inquired with  my landlady,Mrs Malik about her husband’s health and guess what she tells me.’.

‘Unko nah Heart  aur Liver dono hai.’

‘I broke into a laughter , she didn’t understand for what I was laughing at but we continued chatting. Well on further probing I realized that she was talking about her Husband’s heart & liver ailment.’.

“So what yaar,this is our culture we don’t like to be negative,hence we don't use the word 'Problem'.”

‘Yes I agree,you guys are extremely positive.'

Sanjay now fed up  and realizing he had digressed ‘Yaar Vikram baat kaha se kaha pohoch gayee,we were talking about the dwindling sex ratio of the country,what could be the solution yaar.’

“Sax yaar,its simple,you have more Sax and produce more kids,usmein kuch ladke honge aur kuch ladkiyan”

“Aur population ka kya?"

“Yaar decide karle,what are you more troubled with Papulation are (or) Sax ratio.”

“Currently its your Brain,which is troubljng me.And I think aapko Brain hai."

Hop along Casualty

Biking in South Bombay is a very delightful experience - just like the way Amitabh Bachchan is seen enjoying himself as he rides his bike in "Muqaddar Ka Sikandar". It is indeed a gratifying experience to pass by structures like the Victoria Terminus,Horniman circle,Mumbai university and my personal favourite the Asiatic Hall.
Now when you are young and biking,a certain sense of power grips you,which can be overbearing at times.So on one such occasion my Biking rendezvous came to an abrupt halt,courtesy a Tempo.With all my power I pressed the brakes,which made my Bike skid.Thankfully I didn't suffer any injuries but I was deeply disturbed and I wanted to have a go at the driver.To my shock the driver didn't care much and just drove on.Now I was really mad at him,so I pulled my bike and raced to overtake the tempo.When I reached besides him,I did give him my piece of mind.The guy was in no mood to listen.He asked me to pull over and he  parked his tempo on the side of the road.Now I sensed that it would be foolish to get into a fight,as in Bombay we avoid doing that.So I drove on,but the driver wanted to shake a leg.He yelled from behind "Darr gaya kya" (Are you afraid).My toes,hands and my Heart all worked in unison after listening  to those three words and in a moment I esperienced my transition from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde. I parked the bike then and there,now walking slowly towards the tempo guy for a possible brawl.It striked me that Mr Hyde inside me had ignored the part of observing the opponent.It was actually now like a scene from the spaghetti western movies,where the cowboys would just stare at each other for eternity and running away now was out of question.
When I looked  him in the eyes,the very first thought,which crossed my mind was
"Oh Boy, my Mumma is gonna be so so  mad at me".

Stop,Look & Hasten

Chasing the Sun, is what you do when you do Biking in Northern India during winters as the day is very short & it becomes pitch dark by 6 pm.
After every 15 minutes you look at the Sun to see how much it has set.

This was the season when we were returning to Delhi from a disappointing Tiger Safari in Ranthambore.Four of us were on Bikes,
We wanted to reach Delhi comfortably and avoid riding in the dark & hence as a bold move we decided to get up early and start riding at 5 am. Next day sharp at 5 am we are ready to leave(yes we got up in the freezing cold).
I start my Bike(First Kick)*...It gives a nice Dhug,Dhug,Dhug,Dhug sound of the Royal Enfield
My  2^nd  Friend starts the Bike(First Kick*) ...And again there is a Dhug Dhug Dhug
 The Third friend tries to start...First Kick- no response, Second Kick( I got an ego boost) -No response, Third Kick- We all got anxious to check what’s the issue.
After 30 minutes of trial & error we agreed that we need a mechanic.

Further we came to know from a local source that there is a legendary figure called "Raju" in town that repairs Royal Enfield. But he will be available only by 8 am and boy it was not until 11 am did Raju come on to the scene and started working on the bike.
This guy was a small with a big moustache and he was a very popular chap.
Over a cup of Chai we were discussing riding in the dark, and I would be lying if the thought of staying in for one more day didn't cross our minds.
While discussing, the chaiwalla started his tape recorder and the song played in the background  was-'Pardesi, Pardesi jaana nahi"(Foreigner don’t leave) from Raja Hindustani but we decided to go ahead with the plan as some of us had some errands the next day.
So we started our return journey at 12 pm, we had lost seven hours by then :) Rajasthani landscape is beautiful; you come across small lakes, villages, vast stretches of land and mountains as well. But more importantly when you are on Road,
It is the quality of Roads which matter ,yes the wide tar roads, give nice grip to tyres which makes the journey a comfortable experience.
Further on the road we came across this beautiful Sand dune, & I wanted to click some snaps

Now suddenly on the horizon we see a  guy on a bike, just like the entry of Omar Shareef in Lawrence of Arabia.
The Bikes noise did get our attention but we carried on with our activities. In the next  second we heard a thud and what we saw next was unbelievable J
The very same guy riding the bike had banged the very same bike we had repaired in the morning, but what were the chances on such a wide road this guy picking our bike.
We ran towards him as he was injured too 
We asked him" Bhaiya intni chaudi sadak, aapne accident kiya hi kaise"(How did you manage to bang the on such a wide road)
He had a simple answer to this
"Main aapko dekh raha tha"( I was watching you guys). 
All four of us were in splits; we quickly bandaged him from our first aid kit
We now had a broken headlight and accelerator wire and now walking towards a mechanic in a nearby village.
After getting the Bike repaired ,at Six ‘o’clock in the evening we saw a direction sign -Jaipur 50 kms, New Delhi 250 kms :)
Chasing the Sun was now out of question & in fact it was Moon which chased us all the way

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*First Kick-An Ego boost to  Boys if the Bike starts on the first attempt

                                                     

                                             The Bike,which could have won a lottery