Magical leafs - PramsPhotography #111

#2015 @Lekha farms, Pune, India

#2015 @Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, India

Lekha farm is located a few kilometers away from Pune on the Pune-Mumbai express road. It's a good place to hangout for a day's trip. There is a swimming pool inside and on its side they have arranged poolside furniture. I laid down on one of them and kept seeing the sky as usual. Then I observed the leaves above me with blue sky backdrop. Clicked without any further delay. Shadows of the leaves of the same tree in its younger years have been captures at a conference room in Chinchwad area. The corridor looked enlightened! 

Deco piece - PramsPhotography #110

#2015 @Pimpri - Chinchwad, Pune, India

Mom and I went to a nursery near to our home in Pune couple of years back to buy pots, sand and few plants. That was when we shifted into a new terrace apartment. We wanted to have few plant-pots in our terrace. We looked for the required stuff at the nursery and purchased it. While we were doing that I saw this beautifully made, probably handmade, decoration item made with sand. I immediately clicked it. I thought I might not be able to capture it as it was too dark at the nursery but the deco piece came glittering under the mobile's flash light. We did not purchase this though! 

Sugarcane farm - PramsPhotography #109

#2010 @Sugarcane crop, Telangana, India

My mother's brother, one of my closest persons too, works in sugar factory as cane manager. Every time I visit his house, I'm taken to the factory, to the power plant and the sugar cane farms. During one such visits I clicked the above picture in a sugarcane farm. The fresh looks of the farm and the green filled fields mesmerized me to the core. It's been long since I visited farms; looking forward to visit soon. 

Coconut trees and sea - PramsPhotography #108

#2017 @Murud beach, Maharashtra, India

We visited Murud beach in the 1st week of 2017. Moon being half of its size, the tide in the sea was just apt to be playing while the smooth sand soothens the feet underneath. The coconut trees were seen planted on the beach side towards the main road. One of the trees grew in ninety degree orientation as if it grew into the sea in all love! A few other trees were too seen grew in slight angle towards the tree. May be the loose sand made them grew so! 

Click at the sky - PramsPhotography #107

#2017 @Clicks at sky, India

Looking at sky while lying down used to be one of my favorite pass times in childhood. I used to get worried if the moon would fall onto earth one day! That thought used to disturb me in a negative sense. As I grew up, I realized the fact that earth, moon and for that matter any entity in the cosmos is at its place and everything binded by the laws of physics and nature. That's when I started looking at sky in all pleasure, only pleasure to be specific. As I looked up at different point of time, I found few objects flying and I captured them without a second thought. Moon is of course not a flying object as you can see in one of the pictures, but that's the first object I saw in sky after all. Enjoyed clicking them and will continue to do so!

Morning walk into the fields - PramsPhotography #106

#2017 @Velliyangiri foothills, Coimbatore. India

Had been on a morning walk into the fields near Isha Yoga Center. Having the beautiful Velliyangiri foothills in the surroundings, the fields looked immensely beautiful in the early morning sunlight. The fields majorly were of onion; in one of the pictures above, the early stage of the onion crop could be seen. We had been to Isha Yoga Center to attend 112 feet Adiyogi statue unveiling done the honorable Prime Minister himself. Some pictures above show the statue. All in all, it was a great experience to stay amidst the breathtakingly beautiful views for five days. 

Reflections of nature - PramsPhotography #105

#2017 @Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore, India

The pond is one of the center of attractions at Isha Yoga Center. The lotus flowers of all colours blossom in batches together and makes the pond look awesome in all seasons. The different types of fishes and water snakes stand as lively attraction to the visitors. Last time when I visited Isha Yoga center I noticed the reflections of the coconut trees, lights, and of the lotus flowers themselves in the water and thought I must focus my lens there! Resulted are the pics as posted above. 

Positive talk... Take Home #633

Positive talk is not that which makes us happy, rather that which makes us realize.

The fan-ism-trap!

It's important to understand certain things to stay away from them to the possible extent. I took a lot of time, though less time relatively, to understand one of the deepest traps the current generation is stuck with, which is fan-ism. 

Not being a fan 

Is being truesome 

To the art, sport,

For that matter 

To any person.

Fan simply means an admirer in its true sense. The problem starts when admiration is taken personally. When we admire a person we admire certain qualities of him or her because we tend  to identify ourselves with those qualities for some reasons. Slowly steadily, sometimes briskly too, we commit ourselves to the deepest level of admiration, that we fail to differentiate or analyse fairly of what's right and what's not, what's better and what's not. That's when we enter the highly fantasized trap of our generation called fan-ism.

Coming out of fan-ism takes realization about being truesome to someone by being open enough to see things the way they are. Hence letting the other person too do things the way they are supposed to be done rather than tweaking them for fans, which may appear entertaining them whereas it could at times mean taking them for a ride.

The debates and critical remarks about each other's favorite persons is one of the terrible scene to be at. The people who discuss have no connection with their favorite persons, except the emotional element usually. Still, the discussion can lead to as miserable situation as an ugly fight. What's the fun! The next day in media, the two celebrities join hands to make money and these two fans lose each other for life in some cases! Well, it's not easy to explain all that in few paragraphs. Introspection is the only lead towards the ultimate realization. Until then whatever said and heard seem impractical or hypocrisy!

Not being addicted to something or someone lets us be open to enjoy a few things or people. All that we need to do is to stay inward, question ourselves about our favoritism and try to answer ourselves the 'so what' element of it! What we do is the contribution we make, not whom we merely follow or be favorite to. Admiration shall never be taken personally. It shall be kept at its place at a certain distance so that it can only motivate and not make us go blind. Such a kind of admiration must be developed towards the people we feel connected to. And that really helps. 

The other point of view - Take Home #632

Two most difficult yet important things to be done to become potentially professional is to stop proving ourselves right and start widening our perspective to understand the other point of view.

Dealing with people... Take Home #631

The day we realize and accept the fact that every person is unique, dealing with people becomes an interesting job to do.

It's back - Federer's class vs Nadal's reach!

It was during the mid of 2007 that I started pushing myself to come out of the debaculous memories generated by the Indian men cricket team with their unanticipated exit from the first round of world cup at the caribbean islands. Dumbstruck I was on the day of their defeat to Srilankan team. Although I nonetheless supported them in public saying that everything was part of the game, some portion of me needed something other than cricket to come out of all that occurred.

It was at the same time when Roger Federer kept defeating Rafael Nadal match after the match, tournament after the tournament. I was not a follower of Tennis until then and knew nothing about these two players. But the series of defeats of Nadal caught my attention. I thought why the hell this person had been continuously losing to the other! With that curiosity I started watching Tennis. I just wanted to watch Nadal defeating Federer one day and I had no other wish absolutely. I saw Nadal reaching out to the ball on every corner of the court, including the thunderous aces of Federer, and on the other side Federer executing every shot with an ease of class. That was for me the class vs reach and I desperately wanted to see the reach win at least once! 

The much awaited day came in 2008 when Nadal won the Wimbledon final after a marathon match against his rival, Federer. I enjoyed the match to the fullest and never looked back since then. The wish I had to watch at least one win of Nadal expanded itself into watching final after final, win after win Nadal went through. Since then and till date, Tennis has been one of my favorite sports to watch.

Couple of years back when these two champions reduced their pace in the tennis arena and of course with the arrival of the champions like Djokovic and others, I too started to stay away from watching tennis. For a while I enjoyed watching Djokovic winning, who had also been losing to one or the other champion in earlier matches I saw. Lately as Djokovic is inured and as no other interesting rivalry has come up, I almost stopped watching tennis with interest.

All of a sudden, one fine day I woke up to the news that Federer and Nadal would be playing the Australian open final. That ignited me once again. All over again, Tennis became interesting. Waited for the final desperately and watching it to again witness the reach losing to the class yet again! This time, it was a bit aged class and a bit aged reach! Well, however their desperation to win remained as young and energetic it used to be few years ago. 

I'm truly inspired by the way Federer and Nadal came back to the glory all over again. Now that they have played two more ATP tour finals and on both of them Federer won, the earlier-like wish started in me, and that is to watch Nadal winning. All my enthusiasm is now shifted towards the French open, the grand slam that introduced Rafeal Nadal to the world. The nine-time champion seems to be in right physical fitness, though not physiological fitness yet regained I guess. I will have to wait and watch what this year's French open has in store for Rafa! 

Congratulations Roger Federer for the streak of successes and thank you for making us once again believe that class can make a come back anytime, provides one keeps trying to give his or her best. And Rafa, congratulations for the come back from career-threatening injury. No one knows better than you that reach can beat class given the day and put-in efforts, all the very best for the rest of the season. 

Looking forward to following this ever sportive-rivalry for a few more years! 

The hand that you hold now might never meet you again!

Goodbye is a simple word

That causes more pain.

The hand that you hold now

Might never meet you again! 

I read the above lines approximately fifteen years back in an English news paper and till date they remain to be the most touching lines to my senses ever. Thinking practical, farewell marks just another beginning. Yet it hurts, at times very deeply. Goodbyes that we say during the farewell are few of those genuine feelings we express in day to day life. Saying goodbye is never easy. At the same time, holding back to certain decisions we make is important too! 

I've been on the other side of many such decisions made by my colleague-friends in the past few years. I've been part of close to forty farewells in eight years, taking part in organizing at least twenty farewells myself. The count is unimportant but the amount of emotion involved is humongous. Departing is not simple. It involves a lot of gritty decisions. 

Every decision has its own story. 

Every story has its own importance. 

While organizing a farewell used to feel effortless with the help of a few friends, speaking in farewell used to be the biggest challenge for me. There were few farewells in which I hardly spoke as I broke within to an extent that I could no more put my feelings into words. I had nightmares literally about few other farewells before they even happened in reality. Farewell speech used to be something that I always admired the most yet could not utter one! 

Having seen many of my friends delivering handsome speeches while departing, and having inspired myself with that awesome farewell-message delivered by the master blaster after his 200th test, I decided to make myself bold enough to deliver a farewell message. I've been trying to improvise my capability to deliver the same for many years now, with satisfying success at times.

As I know it within, I've been successful not so fully but to an extent in delivering farewell-message since last few attempts. What I realized is that it needs some preparation, one. And two, it's important to realize the necessity of delivering the message to the intended audience. That's one way, and probably the best way, of showing respect to the gritty decisions taken by people who are departing. The message need not be heart warming by its looks and tone, but must be felt from within in such a way that it comes out to be as genuine as it actually is. After all its something that's remembered the most by many people, and it fully deserves to be true to the core. Good and bad are undeniably subjective where as truth is unique, which must come out naturally. Such farewell speeches are the show-stealers of all. 

Well,  I will continue to practice delivering genuine farewell-messages. I'd like to end the post with my favorite lines. 

Goodbye is a simple word

That causes more pain.

The hand that you hold now

Might never meet you again! 

Lonavala in January - PramsPhotography #104

#2016 Lonavala, Maharashtra, India

On a sunny Sunday morning in a chilling January month we decided to go on a trip to Lonavala. Enjoyed the ghat-drive to the maximum. The mountains that turn green in rainy season appeared to be covered by golden-grass. A reservoir was seen at a distance on the other side of the mountain from a view point. The monkeys were short of food and waited patiently for anyone to give them something to eat. They sat fearless on the edge of a tree next to a deep valley. Just then the first picture posted above was captured. 

Space needle - PramsPhotography #103

#2016 @Seattle, Washington, USA

We dd not have sufficient time to get to the top of the Space Needle but we did make sure to step out of the car in a chilly weather to click few pictures. Same was the case with the giant wheel. We could not get into it but clicked it from a distance. The second picture above was from under a flyover and the giant wheel unexpectedly yet perfectly fitted into the frame! 

Zurich to Mumbai - PramsPhotography #102

#2016 @On the way from Zurich to Mumbai

The frequency of flights has increased to an extent that you can see another flight right behind you as your flight takes a turn from the run way. First picture represents the same! Hats off to the air traffic control teams! Fields can be seen from up above and also the high ways or train routes. In the last picture we can see the road amidst the dry land. Also in the last picture a lake-kind can be seen, not sure though! 

Kashid beach and the sunset - PramsPhotography #101

#2017 @Kashid beach, Maharashtra, India

Kashid is a white sand beach located on the western coast of India. Walking on the sand bare foot at Kashid beach is a must-to-have experience, for every couple especially. On one side the beach has a rocky avatar. One can step onto the rocks and reach the end of the rocky portion. We especially enjoyed doing this as we walked past the rocks to capture the sunset moments. The scenery show in the last picture above is a special attraction for the tourists.  

Beaches on the western coast line of India are too different from that of the eastern coast line. The sand from beneath foot feels as if its drifting fast towards the sea as we stand in water in any of the Bay of Bengal beaches, especially in Andhra Pradesh coast line. On the contrary, be it Alibaug, Nagaon or Murud beach, the sand is smooth and tight under the foot. Well, no beach is less beautiful though! 

The magical Kolaba fort - PramsPhotography #100

One can reach the fort by walking across the sea! The otherwise sea gets behind the fort in the morning to let the tourists walk across. That's the most magical way of inviting the tourists, probably! The sand in the beach is so smooth that walking without slippers appears no more an option but the helplessness. 

When the water level is a bit high, one can have a horse ride to reach the fort. One horse is tied with a six seat trailer. At times the water level could be up-to the neck of the horse and that particular ride could prove to be the most fearsome!

When we started from the shore to the fort this was the water level. We spent 45 minutes inside the fort and came out to start back. That's when we noticed that many people were actually walking across the path and reaching the fort. The water level that we saw earlier could no more be seen. Instead, the water receded to an unbelievable extent. The second image from top gives this perspective better. Inside the fort, we saw the Firangi directed towards the sea; probably to counter the attack from the sea side! 

#2017 @Kolaba fort, Alibaug, India

Berlin and its transport - PramsPhotography #99

#2016 @Berlin, Germany

These are some of the clicks from my official trip to Berlin city, Germany. It's a great place to roam around. The city has amazing connectivity and travel facilities. While on the trip, I traveled by every form of transport service available. Be it trams, metro trains, under ground trains, buses or cabs! A very memorable and cherishing experience it had been. The monuments which had their name associated with the second world war were the special attraction.