Ghumakkar's Diary

Rajmachi has been one eluding dream ride for me. Every time it had been planned by the Inddiethumpers , the guys I ride with, for a reason or two - I couldn’t make it. So, this time when it was planned on a Saturday night, I took no time to confirm my attendance! Map to Rajmachi Rajmachi is a small village, some 15 km from Lonavala – a famous tourist destination. It’s a well-known 15km easy trek. But, the real adventure is to ride to the village, and so Ride to Rajmachi has always been a dream ride for the Riders.

And, as it comes to an end with an apt Theme: Night, I am publishing my attempts at Star Trail, these are not perfect but still. Each star is dedicated to the participants of PADE and the biggest stars are obviously for Sfurti and Ritu .   This first pic was shot at Padum, Zanskarr Valley . It was my first attempt at Star Trail and clicked it with a 30 minutes of exposure. Star Trails at Padum This second pic was shot at Lonar Crater . Some 45 shots of 15 seconds

After posting Sunset at Arabian Sea , Goa for yesterday's theme, I realised it could have been posted for today's theme - Water too. :/ This pic was shot near Sonamarg when we were returning from Kargil to Srinagar. It was drizzling and I was lazy enough to set the tripod. It was a moderate energy stream and we thought to take a chance to click the silky flow of water . An attempt to click the silky flow of stream water This shot was taken by handheld camera at F/25 and 1/6sec exposure. A better background would have done wonders :) This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

My idea of vacation is: “ What I like doing best is Nothing ." " How do you do Nothing ," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time. " Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin? ' and you say, ' Oh, Nothing ,' and then you go and do it. It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering ." " Oh! " said Pooh.”  (Thanks Goodread for the exact words of story) I love doing Nothing on Vacations, but end up doing a lot of things. Sunset at Goa This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

Not much thinking again, for this Special theme I am posting a pic from my collection that first came to my mind reading the Theme. Inspired by levitating self-portraits of a Japanese  photographer   Natsumi Hayashi , I tried this picture with a friend at Rangdum, Zanskar Valley. This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

" What will you like to have on your birthday? A book!  Few months back I got this reply from my 10 years old niece. I gifted her Alice and Wonderland much to annoy her younger sister. It hasn’t got any pictures! Who reads these many words,   was her reaction to one of the Best children book ever written. Now this story had everything, a cute girl, an   out-of-this-world   set, extra ordinary league of characters – complete wow and awe factor! But, where it failed my younger ( 6yrs old ) niece? Definitely, problem wasn’t with the story, but the book – it was all just words, negligible cartoons and no color ( except the cover page ). This tells the story that though the kids like and devour those stories which have creative characters that may bring a wow affect in the story – it’s not worth reading if it’s just words! Not so sanely, but yes it could be analogues to the fact that kids tend to eat a sandwich or a trendy   roti-roll   stuffed w...

Months back I started posting Smiles through a series Smiley Saturdays . So today I am publishing  a collage of the pics ( few of them ) I posted as Smiley Saturday. All of it :) This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

No philosophical interpretation of today's Theme: Signs, just what I love to read and click - Sign boards. Colorful, meaningful and informative Signboards! This first pic was shot at the  NH9, Maharashtra-Karnataka Border while we were riding to Kolkata to attend RM East 2011 . Raaste pe Nahin Jaati Kisi ki Jaan--Mera Bhaarat Mahan! :)  Another Kala Ghoda shot, a click of the world famous Street's sign.

Shapes have always attracted mankind, the affair started way back when the Circle was discovered and realised as the best crafted shape ever ( as a wheel ). Squares, rectangles, other polygons would have later being discovered and praised. One of the best example of human-admiration of Shapes is the Pyramids and a lot many other architectural marvels! And, what Shapes could reveal about astronomy is not unknown ( Mayan temples to Jantar Mantar ). For today's theme, I would like to post a Shape that is quite unique in all its characteristics - the Shape of an Ice Crystal!  Shot these falling crystals (animated) at Telus Spark Science Centre of Calgary . With varied falling speed on different screens they created awesomeness out there... Falling Ice Crystals Pic had that wood-yellow feeling owing to wooden frames, but I thought to post it in monochrome! This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more ...

Till a few hours ago, PADE was Picture A Day Experiment, and then it got rain-washed to make me realize that it has always been Photo A Day Experiment. Anyways, Rain has always been my favorite season ( of course after Winters ), and living in Maharashtra it means a lot! Not just for the drought affected areas like Ahmednagar, but also as it paints just every region Green  as soon as it reaches the state. So, for the today's theme I would be posting three different pics.. This first pic was shot while descending from Naneghat by my Olympus mju waterproof camera. Our recent trek was the Best trek ever with waterfalls following the course made for general people :) You should see the rain drops in pic... Trekking down Naneghat On our recent  Lonavala-Karla trip, I found this drenched bottle-brush flower. It's a favorite flower and luckily with the P&S Olympus mju camera, I could capture the droplets! Mission accomplished :) 

Last year, we learned about a very day-to-day  yet very different kind of photography. It was Sports Photography.  Matches were scheduled in late evening, under flood lights. Under these type of artificial lighting, it's a real tough job to get a pic rightly done when the player is in action. My 55-300mm tele lens couldn't help me much and so I went back to reading and came to know about high speed low f-stop lenses - that are specialized for sports photography. For today's theme I am posting these two best pics I could manage to take, you can see the ghostly blur owing to the motion of subject. Yellow color came out brilliantly in contrast with the background Fortunate enough to capture the emotions :) This is my entry to  PADE Day 23 Theme of Play . This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .   ...

There was a time when Writing Letters  was more of  a necessity and also passion, and then it became to show real affection . I still remember how I wrote my first letter to my sister and was amazed to receive the reply. Difference between postcard and an inland letter was realised later. For today's theme of PADE: Letters , my first entry is one of my favorite piece of letter, shot it minutes ago and edited it on PixlrExpress. Written on LetterPad, this novelty came much later to my cognizance. A conventional Letter And, then came the era of Emails - which pushed everything from postcards, inland letters, treasurable designer letter pads and just a days ago - telegram to backyards.  Here's a screenshot of my eLetters - which I hate and love simultaneously..

As Ritu pointed out in her post , this PADE is challenging our creativity to come up with newer and better interpretations of the theme, we are falling short of it every other day. So, today again owing to a lot of writing already going on I surrendered to the challenge. publishing this conventional frame  that I shot last year on my Zanskar trip. This Commemorative plaque was presented to the Late Manoj Pandey Kargil Memorial by Abhishek Bachhan and signed by Amitabh Bachhan. It's the famous poem written by one of the most known and my favorite Hindi poet Shri Hariwanshrai Bachhan ji . Angee Path by Hariwansh Rai Bachchan ji (Click the pic o see enlarged version) This is my entry to  PADE Day 21 Theme of Frame . This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

Goa is a place with innumerable offerings. So, handpicking the few best things is tough. Still, I would take the risk and offer my silly little tips (which, by the way, are not at all silly). So, here are my top 10 things to do in Goa ( I mean these are the things I would be doing there, provided my father-in-law finances my trip): i.                     Parasailing: Parasailing is a sport which is in my bucket list! You may have heard of it too and it won’t be a bad idea to try it out in one of Goa’s popular beaches . It is an aerial sport where you are propelled to midair via a makeshift parachute-kind-of-a-thing! It will cost you somewhere around Rs 800-1500! Parasailing at Baga Beach ii.                   Checking out bikini-clad girls: Yes, if you thought that you cannot check out bikini...

Though I generally put disclaimer at the bottom of the post, this one needs it right now. I am putting watermark on the picture, but the art it is depicting is not created by me. All due thanks to the guys who made this nice - cartoon art - that I could capture and reproduce here. This was one satire we saw in Kala Ghoda Festival over the Noise Pollution. Loud speakers are agitating a tired ear and at far left corner there is white saint like  Ear that's meditating. Message is clear, isn't it? This is my entry to PADE Day 20 Theme of Cartoon . Right now I have this feeling that how much more I need to travel and shot to have a real diversified collection. Or, is it better to have a niche collection? A thought worth some precious time... This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

I had a few pics for the subject, I tried to write down a few lines that could rhyme ( or at least be read like rhyming ), then honoring my limits I took recess to Google search and could find what I had in my mind at BrainyQuotes .  The truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So if I can't have those things then I feel like a caged animal and I'd rather not be in a cage. I'd rather be dead. And it's real simple. And I think it's not that uncommon   ~ Angelina Jolie  Let me be free... This is how I ended up saying I'd rather be dead  impromptu when asked what I want to do in my life. :)  Well, this pic was shot at ghats of Ganga (Ganges) in Varanasi with a telescopic lens and is my current Whatsapp DP. Not just the kid's mood, I love the mood of complete picture which has absolutely no relation with what the kid is up to. Also, I am in deep love with Angelina's lips , but that's another story. This picture post is an ...

A late entry to PADE: theme Bridge, I wanted to submit something rather meaningful and not just material, but still. This one bridge is somewhere between Rangdum and Padum, in Zanskar valley. Not much significant, I liked this pic for its composition and color of sky that adds value to it. The sky is brighter, cleaner and blue'er ( if there's such a word ) in this side of World! This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

Bliss is to have A Life you always wanted to... Blessed are thou If live that... Another mobile-camera shot, somewhere near Belgaum on NH4 almost a year back. This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .