The Order of the Crutch

Cousins are one of the best things that have ever happened to me in life. Not having much of personal friends during childhood cousins were everything to me. When time passed and we all graduated out of college, thanks to Caste Based Reservations, the highly intellectual gold medal scoring, school topper ranking cousins of mine never managed to find college admissions in India on merit. Thanks to this deep shit system, simply because we were born into a caste that is deemed forward by the government, discrimination was our fate despite the hard work. So one by one all of them stepped out of India and got admitted in universities with almost 100% scholarships just as they deserved, in the USA.

While this was good for them, I felt quite messed up in a way, only I can explain. I hardly passed math exams and the ones I topped were science, computers and English. Rest all was below average scores, not that im ashamed of it but this meant there is no way I could go abroad to study graduation school, so I stayed put, away from cousins whom were now not with me.

It was at this time I finally finished college, started working and brought a digital camera. Primary purpose -> take pictures of events back home to email it to cousins in the USA. This kind of knit the broken gap and made me and my NRI half bloods in the USA happy. Not for long though, since a known traitor in the family stole that camera on a family occasion. As i always do, I decided to prove this bugger wrong. I googled for specs blindly and brought 2.5 times as expensive a camera as I had before to let him know that nothing would stop me, not a petty thief. Now that I had a bazooka in hand while I merely needed a pen knife, I started experimenting, when I met this gentleman on flickr by accident. He taught me several things and the story started.

While I was on an office day out I had these pretty girls who were a part of the Event Management group pose for me fun. Suddenly, this bubbly character comes from nowhere and I don’t even remember how it all started but hey, we were shooting now. What happened afterward’s is something this set will clearly explain in detail while taking you through a crash course in the history of Shan & Dilip’s photography adventures.

It all seems like yesterday when this little kitten meowed at your feet and you picked it up but then time flies so fast, like all good things this must come to an end too. As she leaves for Dubai to move up and live with her hubby I think this will be another system restore point to the window of my life, only thing is this restore point is merely a marker and not a functionality (apologies to Apple fanboy’s). I feel sad, I will be losing a wonderful friend. I feel depressed that the best model I could ever shoot in life is not gonna be around no more. I mean it when I say it, give me all the babes of Hollywood and Bollywood and all the money for it. I may like it all but I doubt if it would bring the same fun and frolic it brings driving down to ECR with Shan, holding on to dear life while she whizzes through like Schumacher and thank the heavens for seat belts and brakes (if she had ever used them) and start shooting in the middle of the road at random places.

Through all of that in the worst & best of times, birthdays, layoffs, celebrations, random useless time pass, a wedding I guess there is much more for me here to celebrate than feel selfishly sad about. Like I always say, thank you is not for friends. So I will say "love ya loads" and yes, now there is a calendar to keep a count on when this kitty takes a vacation and comes visiting India. Meow!

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Erin on Stage
Originally uploaded by Richard-.

Sometimes its quite hard to make the right decision because it is never the most easiest. Decisions which are complicated and the ones that are never easy and will never make you feel nice. These decisions must be made for your own good and for others since it affects each of you in a different way.

I decided to bring this topic up here today since i’ve been wanting to speak on this for quite a while. Photography is something that i cherish a lot and taking pictures of people is the most fascinating and interesting for the people person that i am.

Many a times people do not like to be photographed. For example a few friends of mine and some of my cousins do not like to be photographed all the time, whilst all i want to do in life is click. The camera is an area of concern to some of them when we are together.

I respect that, i feel the same too. For example, I certainly would not like to be photographed when im eating. Similarly can others feel. Its hard to do this because the camera i have has a long zoom and i can steal shots without flash in available light (and yes i’ve done that a few times successfully and i stopped doing it) and the mind is evil. It wants to do what it loves the most.

I remember someone in flickr requesting permission from me to post a picture of vidya’s on a blog to talk about call center stress. I refused it and forwarded the email i sent to that person to vidya and she was happy. I was glad that she was glad, i believe that at the end of the day and ounce of understanding and empathy as to treating someone else like how you would like to be treated yourself goes a very long way in any relationship.

I decided to Blog this picture, im not really into blogging much and i do it occasionally. This picture talked of similar things and my good friend on flickr richard wanderman brought this up on his stream. I thought i might well discuss it here since there cant be a better opportunity to bring this up.

Thanks to richard, for the picture and the message.

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Jewel Macro
Originally uploaded by Dilip Muralidaran.

I’ve been longing to do a Photo shoot on a Traditional Setup. The long waited Opportunity finally gave away when a cousin got married. What you see here is a classic example of a Macro shot in available light.

I sometimes feel bad looking at such pictures. There were so many tonnes of people around the world who were fascinated by the details of her jewelery and the henna design but we being Indians most of the time do not realize the value of this tradition and culture that we have.

May be the proverb ‘too much of anything is poison’ is correct or maybe we have forgotten to value things that are more important that trivial things that we tend to hug into.

Many a times i feel this proverb becomes so right…

“The root cause of all confusion on earth… people are supposed to be loved and things are supposed to be used. Instead things are being loved and people are being used”

Just a random thought that came up working on a sunday at office. Thought i’d blog it since i had nothing better to do.

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Special thanks goes to Mamen’s Picture of a Cart Puller picture in India, I was motivated to post this one even though this is not really a great exposure.

I’m an aethist. I don’t believe there is an entity called god that exists but if that is what it will take to convince you to be kind to people like her then I’m a believer.

Every time i see people like this I’m reminded of the Michael Jackson song (They Don’t Care about us) lyrics “You know i really don’t wanna say it, but the government don’t wanna see…”

Screw the government, the politicians don’t care. I have started with me, the man in the mirror. I work for these people in my weekends. I don’t expect you to do the same but think, brainstorm what you can do in your own small way. The love we give is the love we save for ourselves.
Stop! Think Twice, Its Another day for you in Paradise
Originally uploaded by Dilip Muralidaran.

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History
Originally uploaded by Dilip Muralidaran.

Shri Nathuram Singh Godse. This very word spells disgust, anger and hatred in the minds of people all over the world. How funny History is selectively twisted to make a hero out of someone and villian out of another. Nobody ever talks about the shit Jawaharlal Nehru did by bringing in the mandal commision. Nobody talks of Indira Gandhi’s High Handedness by declaring ememrgency in the country unnecessarily. No one cares about Gandhi’s blind eye to Pakisthani Soldier’s raping and killing innocent women and children in 1947 shortly after freedom in sindh.

Its quite funny sometimes how we declare communal and secular opinions. Anything HINDU in this country seems to be communal, Anti-Hindu seems to be secular. Anti-Brahmin more precisely.

The day is not far away as i see it when we will see a second rate india. This day we declared reservations on the basis of caste and creed compromising merit, this day we set the future of india to the darkest deeps of mankind.

I do not know the authenticity of this speech but if at all this is true then its worth the read.

http://ngodse.tripod.com/defense.htm

Read on, be enlightened. History books dont always state the actual facts.

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