2009 through my camera!

by Arul on January 3rd, 2010

Here is the list of clicks I did in 2009. This pretty much tells what I did in 2009 for I carried my camera everywhere I went except during my pilgrimage to Sabarimala.


1. Jan 1 – Bannerghatta zoo with the Moulis
2. Jan 3 – Clicked the finished Tanjore paintings done my Mercy akka
3. Jan 4 – Paintings again plus Vidya’s son’s 5th birthday party. I was the official photographer!
4. Jan 7 – Book release (The Cosmic Detective by Mani Bhowmick)
5. Jan 8 – Book release (Trina)
6. Jan 14 – Early morning trip to Hesaraghatta lake in search of spiders and dew drops. We found neither.
7. Jan 25 – Early morning shoot for Prem at the Besant Nagar beach, Chennai.
8. Jan 30,31 and Feb 1 – Trip to Alleppy and Kottayam, houseboat stay and Babu’s sister’s wedding
9. Feb 3 – Book release (True Dummy)
10. Feb 7 – Early morning BWS shoot at the Hebbal Lake
11. Feb 8 – Intach Parichay at Avenue Road
12. Feb 14 – Book release (Family Values by Abha Dawesar)
13. Feb 15 – Karthi and I clicked a few photos of ourselves at home
14. Feb 18 – Clicked how Karthi eats
15. Feb 19 – At office. The mastermind event where I won a laptop for winning the programing contest!
16. Feb 22 – Visited Babu’s sister at their Chennai home and clicked a few photos for them
17. Mar 7,8,9 – Bike trip to Belur, Halebeedu, Chikmagalur and Kemmanagundi
18. Mar 13 – Clicked the unpacking of Ubu – my laptop!
19. Mar 14 – Did a tabletop try with my abacus
20. Mar 21 – BWS shoot at city market. One of the photos from this shoot made it to the cover of TimeOut magazine
21. Mar 29 – Clicked the IT Corridor at night in Chennai
22. Mar 30 – Tried a small photo documentary on child labour using Steffy and Jeffrey as models
23. Apr 4 – Tried a few long exposures at home with Karthi as the model
24. Apr 8 – Last minute trip to Calicut with Babu
25. Apr 18 – Intach event at the Bangalore Fort
26. Apr 19 – Sankar’s house warming ceremony. Official photographer.
Ahh.. man this is becoming a long list!
27. Apr 21 – Babu’s wedding. Official photographer!
28. Apr 26 – Nagercoil. Johny’s first communion function.
29. May 5 – Clicked the little pretty chocolate wrapper doll done by Poppy
30. May 16 – Met the Muthiahs
31. May 28 – Kids day in office. Official photographer.
32. Jun 6 – Steffy, Jeffrey birthday in Chennai
33. Jun 24 to Jul 10 – the great Ladakh Bike Trip
34. Jul 25 – photoshoot for the Babus
35. Aug 2 – BWS Photo Chase and shot the olive and popeye done by Poppy
36. Aug 8 – Lalbagh Flower show
37. Aug 9 – Profile shoot of Snowy, my first Bonzai
38. Aug 13 – Book Release (If it is sweet by MIrdula Koshy)
39. Aug 16 – Revisited the Lalbagh Flower show
40. Aug 20 – Beer Bash (Oops .. IDC Bash) at office. Official Photographer.
41. Aug 21 – Team photo at office
42. Aug 23 – Dosai’s marriage in Chennai
43. Sep 6 – Clicked my mini garden
44. Sep 8 – Mini shoot for karthi
45. Sep 12 – Oracle Volunteers outing to Banneghatta Zoo with under privileged kids
46. Sep 16 – Book Release (No Money Marketing by Jessy Paul. NRN was there)
47. Sep 18 – Clicked a road block at BTM which appeared in DNA. Went to Bangalore Arts Festival.
48. Sep 20 – Intach Parichay at Devanahalli. Cycled to the destination along with Peevee.
49. Sep 27 – Bike trip to Le Pakshi temple
50. Oct 1 – Few clicks at home with Steffy
51. Oct 2 – Trip to Vandaloor Zoo in Chennai with family
52. Oct 3 – Met Srilatha in Chennai
53. Oct 4 – Trip to Hassan. Visited Ediyoor Temple on the way.
54. Oct 6 – Book Release (The Professional by Subroto Baggchi)
55. Oct 7 – BWS shoot at City Market
56. Oct 19 – Bike trip to Makedatu, Sivasamudram and Talakadu
57. Oct 24 – Tanjore Painting shoot
58. Oct 29 – Team photo for the AN team in office
59. Oct 31 – Intach Parichay at Cubbon Park
60. Nov 8 – Clicked the flooded streets of Thoraipakkam in Chennai
61. Nov 13 – Clicked Snowy who was in full bloom!
62. Nov 15 – Tanjore Painting shoot
63. Nov 17 – Tanjore Painting shoot. Started the Kondhavai project.
64. Nov 24 – Tanjore Painting shoot
65. Nov 28 – Tanjore Painting shoot. Poppy starts learning photography!
66. Nov 29 – Intach Parichay at Begur.
67. Dec 1 – Tanjore Painting shoot
68. Dec 7 – Tanjore Painting shoot
69. Dec 12, 13 – Mangalore trip for Kambala
70. Dec 22 – Tanjore Painting shoot
71. Dec 24 – X-mas shoot at home in Chennai
72. Dec 25 – Shoot for the kids, akka and athaan
73. Dec 27, 28 – Jeni’s Wedding
74. Dec 31 – Tanjore Painting shoot


Interesting messages

by Arul on January 2nd, 2010

Over the last week, while watching movies, I happened to notice the following dialogs that have stayed on in my mind!


1. “Accept the pain” — in a Tamil Movie
2. “I’ve got to keep breathing. Because tomorrow, the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?” — In ‘Cast Away’


Kambala calendar 2009-10

by Arul on December 8th, 2009

Kambala is the traditional buffalo race held in Coastal Karnataka region. Have been wanting to go and see this sport for a long time. Will not miss it out this year.


Wikipedia has done a good job explaining this spot. So I won’t do it again! Here’s is what wikipedia says:



Kambala is traditionally a simple sport. The ‘track’ used for Kambala is a paddy field filled with slush. The contest generally takes place between two pairs of buffaloes, controlled by a whip-lashing farmer. In olden days, the winning pair of buffaloes were rewarded with coconuts and a bunch of plantains. But, Kambala today has become an organised,professional sports. People place massive amounts of bets on the winning buffaloes and one can witness more than 20,000 spectators in a well organised Kambala, egging and cheering the buffaloes to complete the race. As of now, more than 45 races are held annually in Coastal Karnataka. Nearly 18 kambalas are held under the banner of Kambala Samithi and the rest are held under the auspices of temples and political patronage. Kambala still remains a hugely popular sport in Coastal Karnataka.



Here is the calendar of events for the 2009-10 season. Thanks to Sowmya for getting this.


5-Dec-09 – Shirva – Udupi
12-Dec-09 – Baraadi – Karkala
19-Dec-09 – Katpadi – Udupi
26-Dec-09 – Mulki – Mangalore
2- Jan-10 – Ikala Bava – Mangalore
9-Jan-10 – Miyaru – Karkala
15-Jan-10 – Nandhikuru – Udupi
23-Jan-10 – Moodbidre
30-Jan-10 – Barkuru – Udupi , near Kundapura
7-Feb-10 – Venuru – Beltangdi, near Dharmastala
13-Feb-10 – Pilikula – Mangalore
20-feb-10- Pajeer – Bantvala
26-Feb-10 – Eedhu – Karkala
3-Mar-10 – Puttur
10-Mar-10 – Uppinangadi


Moodbidre, Karkala & Puttur Kambala’s are very famous and are supposed to be good.

Heritage India Magazine

by Arul on November 10th, 2009

Spotted this wonderful magazine during a random scan of the magazine stand last time when I was at the bookstore. It really stood out from all other run-of-the-mill magazines.


This is a quarterly magazine on various heritage topics and all the topics are well researched and illustrated. I liked it so much that I’m now planning to order all the old issues!


Take a look at their website:
https://www.heritage-india.com/index.php?activeTab=1


They have an interesting blog:
https://www.heritage-india.com/blog/


I carried this to Chennai during my weekend visit. Amma flipped through this and commented that the photos were good – actually better than what I click! Honest and as-a-matter-of-fact comment from Amma as usual. It will be interesting if I can manage to get my photo published on this magazine and show that to Amma! :-)


In DNA newspaper

by Arul on September 23rd, 2009

The Bangalore edition of DNA carried one of my photos on Tues, 22-Sep-2009 in their iPic section:


In DNA ...



The actual photo:
Whose road is this anyway??


[Book Launch] ‘No Money Marketing’

by Arul on September 16th, 2009

Was at the launch of the book “No Money Marketing” authored by Ms Jessie Paul, CMO of Wipro’s IT business. The special thing that pulled in the extra attendance for the launch was the presence of Mr. N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys. Girish Paranjpe, Jt CEO IT Wipro was also present for the launch.


The lighthearted attempts by NRN to claim that Jessie is an Infoscion and by Girish that she’s a Wiproite was enjoyable!



Here are some snaps from the launch:


Ms Jessie paul


NRN


NRN


Here’s the books website:
http://www.nomoneymarketing.org/

Author’s blog:
http://www.jessiepaul.com/


[MyChipper.com] Personal expense manager

by Arul on September 16th, 2009

Came across this simple but very effective website called www.mychipper.com which helps you to manage your personal expenses.


Best of all they have a gtalk interface through a robot buddy. Once you add this robot as a buddy in your gtalk you can just send a chat message to update your expenses. A message like “lunch, 50, at office” will add an expense item for category ‘lunch’ for 50 Rs and with a note ‘at office’. There is a mobile (gprs) interface as well.


Link: http://mychipper.com

Give it a try!

[Parichay] Heritage walk by INTACH

by Arul on September 13th, 2009

INTACH Parichay


The Bangalore chapter of INTACH is organising a heritage walk at the Devanahalli Fort on Sunday, 20th Sep.


Date: Sun, 20th Sep, 8:30 AM
Place: Devanahalli Fort


Following is the official communication from INTACH:

Intach’s next Parichay will take place at Devanahalli fort on Sunday, 20 September, 2009. Devanahalli is famous for the airport, of course, but it is also where Hyder Ali began his military career and where Tipu Sultan was born. The fort here is interesting from the point of view of military architecture and also has some very interesting stories to tell.

We will meet at Devanahalli at 8:30 am on Sunday. As always, we will provide a light snack. We should wrap up in about three hours.

There will be a fee of Rs 100/- for this Parichay. Please register in advance with Meera (99860 23014) as seats are limited.



Cycling!
This place is about 40 KM from the city. Peevee and I are planning to cycle to this place! We haven’t done any long rides. So want to give this a try. This will be a stern 40+40 KM ride!


Lalbagh flower show

by Arul on August 18th, 2009

Here are the photos from the Lalbagh Independence day flower show:






Event: Lalbagh Independence day flower show
Dates: Aug 7th to 16th, 2009. Happens every year around the Independence day.
What can you expect: Expect a fine collection of flowering plants all placed in one place. Expect nice thematic flower arrangements. The kids will love this. Normally there are various stalls related to horticluture. If you have a garden at home, small or big, you will find the stalls useful.

‘If it is sweet’ – photos from the book launch

by Arul on August 15th, 2009

Was at the launch of the book, “If it is sweet” by Mirdula Koshy. Here are a few clicks from the event:

If it is sweet

Mridula Koshy
Mridula Koshy, the author of the book

Novelist Usha K R
Novelist Usha K R. She participated in a book reading/discussion session with the author


Links
Mirdula’s Blog

Here is an assortment of reviews:
http://www.ultrabrown.com/tag/if+it+is+sweet

An interview with the Author:
http://www.toothsoup.com/blottingpaper/?p=782#content