Something from my archives. I almost always post portraits in b/w. But there was a certain harmony to the colors in this photo and therefore I refrained from converting it to monochrome. Hope you will the feel the same once you look at the photo!
The Indian government is obsessed with comparing itself to China for most economic issues. But the recent blanket ban on popular blogging services like Blogger.com and its blogging arm blogspot makes one wonder whether the Indian government is seeking to emulate the Chinese when it comes to net censorship as well. It is always a dangerous ploy to restrict access to information, especially in an open democracy like India. And this time the Indian government, with its ill thought out and badly implemented blanket ban, risks losing face. Most bloggers are up in arms and the story has already done the rounds in the Western media. If the government doesn’t move fast and limit the damage already done they will have another headache to deal with.
Although one can understand the reason behind the government’s order to block access to certain blogs in the wake of the Mumbai blasts, Indian babudom moved in its typically inefficient way and made a mess of the whole issue. In my opinion, they need to do three things immediately. First, the government must move fast and give a clear explanation about what happened. Second, it should take the necessary steps to resolve the issue. And finally, they should have a mechanism in place to see that this is not repeated. Even though blogging is still a niche activity for Indians, the number of Indians blogging (or blogs dealing with India) will continue to increase. So it is imperative the Indian government recognizes that blogs are a legitimate way to express one’s opinions and allows unrestricted access to them.
Electricity
Slaps his yellow thigh
Looking at his World
Of light and glass
Circuits twitch
In his topaz eyes
Insulators hum
In his platinum mind
Electricity
Pats his coppery stomach
Watching his silvery tentacles
Caress a few billion stony hearts
Plastic smoke swirls
In his metallic innards
Wet blue fire pulses
In his golden nostrils
Electricity
Extends his hollow hands
Enveloping the universal dark
In packets of star flame
Strung out like electric highways
I spent a delightful weekend with some friends in Wurzburg, which is in the south of Germany and therefore could not post anything new for the past few days. As usual I came back with a bunch of photos which I now need to process. So until I can post something from that trip here is something from Cologne instead, taken about 10 days back.
This was shot wide open in very low light conditions, at high ISO and inside a dimly lit, Cuban themed pub. Therefore, it is a little soft in terms of sharpness and has some noise. But inspite of all that I quite like the way this looks. Has a certain mellow mood to it. Almost like the way one feels after two drinks-reflective and melancholic, thinking about past good times with a nostalgic smile playing on one’s face!
Something from a few weeks back when we had gone to see a World Cup match.
Once upon a time
In a land faraway
There was a man that time forgot
He aged but backwards
The wisdom of age giving way
To the passionate anger of youth
He fought with gods and fairies
To reverse the flow of time
To set right all that was wrong
But alas! destiny denied him
His just victory
He is but a faint memory now
In the eye of his beholder
An extremely common flower photographed a billion times by a million photographers! But it still makes an interesting subject. Perhaps, the very reason for its popularity? I shot this handheld and so the focus is not exactly spot on. The photo is also cropped from the original.
This had been sitting in my folder of photos from Heidelberg for a long time as I was not satisfied with the results I had obtained. But today I finally managed to come up with something a little more to my liking. However, I still find the photo to be a little too ‘busy’ in terms of subject matter if you see what I mean. I’m a minimalist at heart and therefore I guess I find the scene to be too chaotic!
As for the photo, it is a part of Heidelberg as seen from the Philosopher’s Walk on the other side of the town, across the river Neckar.
So in the end Germany’s dream came to an end in the semis at the World Cup. But they did play such exciting football and managed to convert a football-sceptic like me into something of a fan! Hope they will build on what they achieved so far.
Coming to today’s photo, nothing much to say here except that the high key look was a result of processing.