Reflections

Like the sunshine in the morning, may this brighten your day, and remind you that you're going to have a great day.....

Seeing this picture it is tough to say whether it is sunrise or sunset ... well it is up to you in which way you will take your life...... being a moody person like me i can understand, it totally depends on time and mood..... but i think whatever be the situation one must be positive always to take life ahead ..... and trust me it will make you feel happy anytime ... :)

Looking at the below picture also reminds me about our character....our behavior our way of talking our body language always reflects our nature, our true character....how hard you try to hide your true emotions you cannot betray a photographer's eye....it will definitely catch the true self from you from your reflection which in this case is your behaviour...

By looking at the below snap, we can easily guess the Effective action by seeing a quiet Reflection...

A reflection of a smokey green tree, a reflection of an ancient building on a clam water surface...which clearly describes the actual picture....what else could my eyes ask for?.... to strive my hunger for reflection and another thing that perfectly combined with this view is perfect sunlight.... which did my job much more easier.... :)

Through The Lens

 The Victoria Memorial, officially the Victoria Memorial Hall, is a memorial building dedicated to Victoria, Empress of India, which is located in Kolkata, India – the capital of West Bengal and a former capital of British India

History and confusion related to any place is never ending.... Another thing which is never ending about these places are the beauty.... British ruled India for 200 long years.... they have taken a lot many things from India but also gifted some valuable gifts one of them is Victoria Memorial..... carrying its own culture and historical importance....
When it is about importance ,then i must tell you, these place is quite famous among the youngsters specially  for couples, the environment and the museum inside the palace are the main attraction of this place.....

The memorial was designed by Sir William Emerson using Indo-Saracenic style, incorporating Mughal elements in the structure. Lord Redesdale and Sir David Prain designed the gardens.

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out-values all the utilities of the world.
flowers one of the most beautiful creature in the world which can bring smile to anyone's face instantly...... 

Earth laughs in flowers.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Anne Frank said it right...The below calf has just started getting familiar with this world...and it already understood the rule of living life...

"The weak die out and the strong will survive, and will live on forever"

It left it's mother and started looking for food to survive on it's own...the below snap is so fresh and innocently projected....

Innocence Personified

Victoria Memorial never gets tired to surprise us with it's view.....

Little Girl

 

What is the first thing that you notice in the below picture....The child...I can only see the child and nothing else in it....the way she is standing here is what I feel the specialty of this picture....if the child were not there may be the picture would not have that attraction that it has now.....it is just a common environment of a village...a muddy village hut...few trees....cow dung fuel....and a child facing towards the open sky....I do not know why but while looking at the pic I only get attracted towards the child and nothing else....the essence of the picture is only the child....I feel I am able to relate to the child's thinking.......what is she thinking about...ummmmmm.....may be how to get rid of her struggles...how to go ahead...how to live her life happily and away from all poverty...the complicated life had made her way too matured to just enjoy her innocent childhood....the small shoulders have lot to bear....have lot to struggle for...have a long long long way to go to achieve what she deserves from life...but I am afraid this journey may snatch away the innocent childhood from her...

 

Black Current Cheese Cake

 
I had this yummy cheese cake in one of the oldest bakeries in Kolkata.....as soon as I put it in my mouth it just melted....and it's layered juicy Black Current Sauce with fresh whipped cream topping has created a magic in my mouth.....the black current has it's original flavor in it which I could taste....and with that the whipped cream was an absolute complementary.....Guys...if you do not tasted it already...please go and taste it.....

Crazy Girls...

This is for those girls, who don't wake up with their perfect hair...who don't mind eating a Big Mac instead of salad....who don't wear 50 pounds of makeup....who'd rather spend the day in sweatpants than skinny jeans....who love the comfort of T-shirts...who don't get all the guys....who aren't "popular" but feel like it, when they're with their friends...who stick to sneakers instead of heels...who aren't afraid to break a mail...who don't always get their own way...who don't get everything they want....who don't need a guy to tell them that they are beautiful....Here's to all those uniquely beautiful on their own way, funniest, stupidest and not so popular girls....

Fish A La Diana

I remember when I had bite of this for the first time...I really could felt my goose bumps....it tastes awesome...this is purely made of the sea gods, mushrooms and fresh vegetables....stuffed with delicious prawn cooked in cream sauce....and served hot with boiled vegetables...

 

Just an another view from a different angle...hope this already started kicking you foody instincts and itching you taste buds already...happy eating guys....:P

Nature At It's Best

Monsoon

Have you ever heard the sound of rain???...The pattering on the tin roof...in an empty bucket...on the tree leaves....If you have not, you are missing one of the sweetest music of all...
Have you ever tried singing in the rain or dancing in the rain???...If you have not you are missing one of the most glorious feeling..the feeling is inexplicably beautiful....
Have you ever tried smelling(don't be shocked..I am saying it correctly...smelling rain!!!!) rain???...If not, you are missing the sweetest...powerful, fresh and most evocative smell....
Have you ever tried looking up in the rain rather than lowing down your head and hiding behind an umbrella???...If you have not, you are missing one of the most beautiful scenic beauty....
Have you ever felt the kiss of rain on your eyelashes???.... 
Have you ever felt when the drizzles caresses your face with the breeze fingers your hair....If you have not yet...just try it...I bet you are truly missing the most amazing feeling in the world...

The first drops of rain always bring a smile on our faces....the smell of wet soil, the damp grass, and the slosh of puddles under our feet make us want to dance with wanton joy.....Rains make a heart go romantic...

Rain is like blessing of God which helps you to wipe out the bad from the good...sorrow from happiness...pain from joy....I bet drenching in the rain can bring the true emotions out from the most unemotional person....it brings out the child inside you, it brings out a totally different person from you...it gives you the freedom to enjoy nature at it's best...

Sherwood Smith said it so correctly..."The only noise now is the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans."

I really feel rain helps you to express the unexpressed emotions, it gives you the inner strength to fight back and live life in a new way...so like Langston Hughes said "Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby."

As Roger Miller said.."Some people walk in the rain and others just get wet"...it is your perception how you take it...I walk in the rain but not as Charlie Chaplin said "I like walking in the rain, so no one can see my tears"...well I like walking in the rain too but it is not because of tears, but because it gives me immense joy to feel the rain...

I remember a poem that I read on some poetry site written by some unknown poet BeeJay...

Little droplets startle parched earth
Lips cracked, dry blood form spreading stain
Somewhere a few strains of music
Drifting over a tea –stop bridge
Heat, wind and the rocks…hot
So too mind, body & flock
The guardian without a staff
The rain a distant thought
Now smells of waste and good earth
Mingle with fire, smoke and grey clouds
The gathering of the first rain
As much drama as on a first date
Will it or wont it
Humid , sweaty , grime lines below chin
Hands outstretched, waiting….
And then the downpour
With the wind playing with the leaf,
The vein lets bathed with water drops, overflowing
With the freshness of green
So much of the mind no longer mean
Arms outstretched, staff fallen by the wayside
The shepherd and his flock
In awe of the lashing rain, pure are the faces
Of man and beast,
In the midst of my first monsoon rain...

I could visualize the same after seeing the below snap...

Prawn Cocktail

 

 Guys/Gals....can you guess which dish is this?...this is what we call Prawn/Shrimp Cocktail...a delicious appetizer for which I would love to die for...a tangy taste of the combination of mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, tomato, cream and lemon juice which is also known as Marie Rose Sauce, titillates my taste buds with a fresh taste of prawns or shrimps.....I had this in one of the best continental restaurants in Kolkata....
 

Life Goes On

Let me ask you one thing about the below snap before I express my views...what is that comes to your mind immediately after seeing this picture....okay I heard it...may be a dead branch of a tree lying down on the ground and a vast blue sky....but doesn't it say the eternal truth of life???...let me clear myself a bit....we know human beings are mortal but life can be immortal....we take birth on this earth with empty hands...we live in this world...as we grow up we create our own surroundings...we make friends...we make relations....we make wealth to live a happy life...we always think of living in the best way that we can and to get everything that is required to live a healthy wealthy life.....but in all this, we forget one thing...life is not endless...human being is mortal...there is an end that is yet to come and which is not in our hands to decide....it will come eventually....and when it comes we will not be able to help but heading towards emptiness....we came empty handed and we will leave empty handed.....and we will be alive only by the moments that we create during our lifetime.....we will be alive by the relations that we create....so the moral of the story is dream as if you are going to live forever...but live life as if you will die today...live life to the fullest and create lots of memorable moments which will make your presence felt even in your absence....because that's the only way you can be alive in this world while heading towards emptiness....

The Greatest Bengali Festival - Durga Puja

Durga Puja is one of the largest celebrated festivals in the world. Let me begin with a brief description of the festival.

Durga Puja (‘Worship of Durga’), also referred to as Durgotsava(‘Festival of Durga’) or Sharadotsav is an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It refers to all the six days observed as Mahalaya, Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and Vijayadashami. 
Durga Puja festival marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura. Thus, Durga Puja festival epitomises the victory of Good over Evil.
Durga Puja is widely celebrated in the Indian states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tripura and West Bengal, where it is a five-day annual holiday. In West Bengal and Tripura, which has a majority of Bengali Hindus, it is the biggest festival of the year. Not only is it the biggest Hindu festival celebrated throughout the state, it is also the most significant socio-cultural event in Bengali Hindu society. Apart from eastern India, Durga Puja is also celebrated in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. 
Durga Puja is also celebrated as a major festival in Nepal and in Bangladesh all over the places of Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Bogra and other major places and all the villages of Bangladesh where the 20% population is Hindu.
Nowadays, many diaspora Bengali cultural organizations arrange for Durgotsab in countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Singapore and Kuwait, among others.
Durga Puja also includes the worship of Shiva, who is Durga's consort (Durga is an aspect of Goddess Parvati), in addition to Lakshmi, Saraswati with Ganesha and Kartikeya, who are considered to be Durga's children. Worship of mother nature is done, through nine types of plant (called "Kala Bou"), including a plantain (banana) tree, which represent nine divine forms of Goddess Durga. Modern traditions have come to include the display of decorated pandals and artistically depicted idols (murti) of Durga, exchange of Vijaya greetings and publication of Puja Annuals.

  
The entire process of creation of the idols (murti) from the collection of clay to the ornamentation is a holy process, supervised by rites and other rituals. On the Hindu date of Akshaya Tritiya when the Ratha Yatra is held, clay for the idols is collected from the banks of a river, preferably the Ganges. 
 There is age-old custom of collecting a handful of soil (punya mati) from the nishiddho pallis of Calcutta, literally 'forbidden territories', where sex workers live, and adding it to the clay mixture which goes into the making of the Durga idol. After the required rites, the clay is transported from which the idols are fashioned. 

  Many Pujas in and around Kolkata buy their idols from Kumartuli (also Kumortuli), an artisans' town in north Calcutta.
As usual, we, with our hungry camera  lenses, had reached to Kumartuli to catch some glimpses of the idol making in process. Here we present some of our captures, hope you like it.

Here we are seeing an artisan is busy in the process of cutting bamboos to make the structure of the idol

 Here we can see the idol structure prepared at a very initial stage

Chicken Sicilliene

 

Now this is what I call a cheese lover's paradise...breast of tender chicken sauteed with mushroom and asparagus in cream sauce and baked with mouth flatteringly delicious cheese....mmmmmm....just love the taste....

Just wanted to give you another view of the above dish...enjoy your food....:P

Sunshine: New hope of life

You can hide yourself in the darkness but sun will never let you down to show the true color of life....

               World is full of color you never know where when how you will get in touch with true essence of it. Our surrounding is full of surprises.This photo may be a great piece to you or may not be. This depends on your own perception, but one can not overlook the pure golden color of sunshine, when you wake up in the morning this sunlight always brighten up your face, you can not ignore the positivity of that ray, which is telling you come on, get ready for the new challenge for get away from the negative things and move on...... This is life..... this is what life is all about.....start everyday with a new hope, leave behind all your bad memories and have faith to start a better tomorrow....

Now being a true culture and tradition lover this snap signifies the world of our tradition.... this is how a typical bengali traditional house looks like..... still there are numerous hidden history to tell ..... as you can see the wooden work over the table or the art of the window cum door is carrying the essence of bengali culture for over one fifty years or more. This snap is a perfect combination of life- color- hope - and finally history.... I can see the life ,color combined with historical thoughts ..... odd combination but encouraging me to get out of my shell.....looking at it...it says hidding is not a solution, face the challenge, face the happiness of life..... enjoy the sunshine like you never did before.... \m/

I remember a story that I read in my childhood, Sun and Wind was arguing on who was the strongest...they both saw a man walking on the road wrapping a shawl around him....they both decided that the one who would be able to make the man remove his shawl would be the winner and would be called the strongest....
1st, Wind tried....it blew heavily again and again...again and again...again and again...everybody was scared...people were running here and there...the man was also very scared and he wrapped his shawl more tightly around him...the wind blew again heavily..but the more it was blowing heavily the man was wrapping his shawl more tightly...ultimately Wind gave up..
Now Sun's turn...it just came out and started shining brightly...after few moment the man removed his shawl on his own and went away...and hence sun was declared the strongest....
            Although it is just a childhood story but my thought on the above picture is somehow related to it...more specifically speaking related to the way Sun has shown it's power....how hard you try to shut the window of truth and hide it from the outside world...it will still come out and will show it's real self to the world...

A simple house simple place can actually tell us a lot about life, a lot about situations.....A small opening in the window tells me to take it as a small chance in life which you actually have to grab...you do not know what is waiting for you inside...but if you do not grab it you will loose the chance...it may or it may not be the big chance that you are expecting but it will give the way to go towards your big goal...to take you one step ahead to fulfill your actual dream....
For me this is what creativity is  all about comparing myself ,my situation with this dead creature which can only be achieved by some foolish(am I saying myself foolish...oh yes..I am!!) creative people like me..... :)  we always search for these simple things where we can relate ourselves...... :D for me it is a  path of life.....

Messy one

Now this is funny....you might be thinking what I was trying to capture in this snap with the focus on a pair of earrings....Truly speaking I did not take this picture keeping any theme in my mind....the elements of this picture are all simple things that I use daily...which I couldn't think can be arranged in such a way to give me a good catchy frame...a pair of earrings, a rubber band, a hand purse, a wrist watch and on top of that the card which says 2013....I just saw all those and was just trying my way to capture a unique frame from it and see I got this.....though it does not have any specific meaning but still I feel I can relate to this with my daily life.....these all are my everyday needs though I don't actually realize their importance until I miss any one of them...it makes me uncomfortable to carry on my regular life...and when they all are at place they make my day as usual and without any hassles...similarly our near and dear ones...when they are around us we do not give any importance to their presence...we do not realize what is their importance, what purpose actually they serve in our life...but when any one of them goes missing for a mere small time, we start feeling their absence...their importance...and our dependency on their presence...Now that's what I call an abstract frame....

Morning Raga

Midnight...when we all are sleeping peacefully and roaming on our dreamland...there is one man who has to wake up...who has to shed all his laziness and start his day to earn his daily bread and butter...the morning sun rays has not yet touched the earth but the man has already started his full fledged day......a morning can be so different for different people...

Hand-pulled carts are still commonly used for hauling cargo short-distances around Kolkata. Despite the exertion of the pullers, the always bear a warm smile and capture the friendly spirit of the city.

It may be a matter of surprise that the the City of Joy (Kolkata) still manages to retain the Hackneyed Rickshaw along with the present day modern transport systems.

It is estimated that there are 18,000 rickshaw pullers who earn a meager living on the streets of Kolkata – with 6,000 registered with the city government. Many people see hand-pulled rickshaws as symbols of inhumanity and want that they should be banned, but I feel these rickshaws still carry our old tradition on Kolkata roads and which make us remind those old days. Kolkata is probably the only city in India where hand-pulled rickshaws are still plying and that's what make Kolkata different from other cities and make me feel proud of being a Kolkatan...:)

This Hand Pulled Rickshaw is one of the oldest vehicles of Kolkata, India

New Journey To Begin

When life seems to have come to an end...there are no where to go...there are nothing new left to gain from life...that is the point where you need to stop and think...what you are exactly missing from life and what you actually want...you just need to sit back and look into your heart...there must be something that you really want to do which you never did in life...or which you have never thought of doing in any of your wild imagination...a new start to your monotonous life...yes, that is where you need to change your way of life...you have to start to a new path....

The below snap has given me an impression of taking a new path...everything is ready to start over...I just need to take the path...Wonder where I'm going, what I'm going to do. Its time for a change and start over. New life, new place, new me.

Picture was taken at Dhanyakuria, West Bengal, India

When I saw the below old heritage building standing without any proper maintenance I could only thought of the below lines of a song...
I was Without Hopes and Dreams....
I Tried to Die in a Scream....
But You Saw Me Through....

We do not know how long it will carry our heritage, how many times people look at it with a proud eye...but it still does it's work and proudly holding Kolkata's tradition with it...

Picture was taken at Kolkata, West Bengal, India