Day and night

Some places look marvellous when you view it at night. I tried to get some pictures, mainly monuments and churches and then tried to photograph it from the same place in the night. The latest is the Bharat Ratna J R D Tata bridge, a multi-layered flyover at Nashik Phata, Pune.

The same bridge has a wonderful lighting scheme during the night.

The St Patrick’s Cathedral in Pune (opposite the Race Course) is about 164 years old and was built in the Gothic style.

At night you can’t miss it when you drive down the Empress Garden road.

The Red church is another landmark in Pune. Though commonly known as the “Red Church” it is actually a Synagogue. This picture was clicked many years ago.

Of late photography is not allowed in the premises (due to security reasons) so instead of a night shot I clicked a silhouette of it from my vehicle when I stopped at the traffic light.

The St Mary’s church (built in 1820) is one of the oldest churches in Pune.

Being a garrison church, it contains many memorials of the British soldiers who served in various wars and battles. The church is well lit and looks colourful in the night.

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, the  Fitzgerald  bridge (commonly known as the Yerwada bridge or bund garden bridge) was wide and strong and it had a bund close to it.

It is interesting to know that this bund was financed by Sir Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy and was named as Jamsetji Bund. It was created in 1853 to provide water for the poorer citizens of the city.

The Taj hotel in Mumbai was easy for me to click as I stayed at a friend’s place which was close to the Taj.

The same looked different with the Arabian sea as the back drop during the day time. This was clicked much before the 26/11 terrorist attack in 2008.

Interestingly three of the five examples given above have something to do with the Tatas.

And talking of the Tatas, I saw this Nano (a Tata product)  parked on MG road in Pune.

Catch and release

Fish A to Fish B : “I am off to Norway”

B: "Why do you want to go all the way to Norway?”

A: “Because it is illegal to catch and release a fish in Norway”

B: “Who would want to do such a thing?”

A: “In which water world are you living in? The humans have developed a sport where they do fishing just for the fun of it and then release the fish back into the water”

B: “Oh at least we will be alive after they have had their fun”

A: “Don’t be stupid. Do you know the trauma and agony that a fish undergoes once that hook gets into our mouth? Last week my friend (let us call him Nemo) got hooked by a guy who thought he would have some fun by engaging in this ‘catch and release’ sport. 

The minute Nemo got hooked, he started wriggling and pulling against the fishing line, by which the hook got embedded deep into his jaw. This guy (let us call him Mr X) found it difficult to haul up Nemo and asked two passers-by for help. One of the guys helped Mr X to haul up Nemo with the net.

Mr X was very happy with his catch and kept saying “he is a big one”

He then proceeded to remove the hook from Nemo’s mouth. Not an easy task but he had a curved artery forceps by which he did it, not realising how it tore a part of Nemo’s jaws.

Mr X wanted a picture to be clicked (with his phone camera) holding his trophy.

He later insisted that the passer-by should also hold the fish and have a picture clicked.

All this while, time was ticking away and Nemo was gasping for breath.

Meanwhile the passer-by said “so you will be having fish on your table tonight” to which Mr X replied “No no back in the water, I just fish for fun”

Saying that he released Nemo back into the water.

The passer-by did not say anything but he had a last look at all the tell-tale signs, the artery forceps, the fishing rod, the net.

Later the passer-by told his friend “I don’t understand this concept of ‘fishing for fun’ He looked at the water and said “hope the fish was not injured”

Fish B: “Yes I hope Nemo did not suffer much”

Fish A: “Oh no. On the contrary Nemo had to nurse a badly bruised jaw and his immune system too came down with Mr X holding that cloth against its scales. I used to meet Nemo daily but have not seen him for some days, hope he is safe somewhere”

Fish B : “That is not good news. May be, we should seriously think of making it to Norway”

Fish A : “I too think so. Meanwhile if the humans had a look at this picture (click here), they would understand what Nemo had to undergo.”

Serve hot with roasted chilly

For a change, I am posting a recipe given by a friend of mine. 

Her reminiscence of spending the summer vacations at her aunt's place in Hubli.

The art of cooking made easy.

The last part says it all "serve hot with papad and roasted chilly"

You can read it all here:

http://thezestyensemble.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/bhisibaelianna/

Twenty three years at Keukenhof

The picture that you saw last time was a Street Organ being played in that canopy.

This is the 26th year the organ is playing at Keukenhof. As soon as you enter the main entrance, the music from the organ greets you. I was intrigued about the whole setup and how it is played. Spent some time observing the mechanical aspect of it.  Built in 1978 from old organ parts, this was named after an old windmill from Harlem.

The Adriaen plays on the perforated book system invented in 1897. Something similar to the perforated cards used in the early computers.

There was a time when these holes were punched by hand, a tedious and laborious task.

The first step was to make a paper template with all the markings on it by placing the paper on a table with a ruler system on it.

After marking, this paper was glued on a carton (card board). Then the holes were cut out as per the markings with chisels of different sizes.

Percussion notes of 6 mm holes, the bass drum of 8 mm holes and so on. The longest holes sometimes require several punches to get the desired note length. It was really laborious as this video will tell you.  

Later Mr Francois created a machine. The idea was to create a machine to cut the boards.

In their own words “we are not carpenters building instruments, but we are musicians making wooden constructions to make music”

Coming back to the Adriaen, looking at these clappers, one can imagine how perfect the timing has to be to get the perfect beat on the bars or the drums. 

They have a collection of old as well as new songs in those perforated books.

I purchased one of the CDs that they sell, but I feel that the visual (and the audio) effect is much greater when you stand close to that organ.

You can watch and listen to the organ here:

Imagine these four ladies standing here and ringing the bell year after when new flowers bloomed in the garden.

 Tulipa Mascara

 Tulipa Madonna Geel

Tulipa Cartouche

Pune Art Hop

Wildlife photography is something many are passionate about, but to explain it in simple terms and how to go about it is what Ishmeet Sahni is good at.

I was observing him and listening to him and most of the things that he said made sense.

One from the audience asked him about workshops to which he replied “Its better that you start off on your own than going for workshops. Focal length, aperture, ISO, one third rule. . . . . all this is going to get you bored even before you start photography.”

One advice that he gave for bird photographers “never stand up when you are shooting a bird. They will simply fly away. A big bus can pass very close to the bird and it will stay put, but a human being stands up and it flies away” 

Some of his work were on display.

You can see more of his work at his Flickr site (click here)

Ishmeet was one of the artists who took part in the Art Hop held by Pune Mirror in Koregaon Park last Sunday.

I tried to cover as much as possible of these 14 locations.

For example when I located and reached the venue for drum circle it was all over and this is what I got:

Personalised cakes by Mohena Ahluwalia. 

Something else that took place at the Art Sphere was the belly dance performance.

Then there was a solo play by Hina titled “Mujhse Shadi Karoge?” (Will you marry me?)

This trio (below) gave a swell performance. While the two girls enacted their part, the boy did a good job on the keyboard. There was a good rapport between them. They were good enough to pose for me (sorry I did not get their names)

There were dances in various forms:

This guy had some photographs from the daily life of Delhi for sale.

Selfies are the order of the day

Young artists tried their hand at painting

While other got themselves painted

Craftwork with rolled papers by Nupur.

Digital art work by Filomina.

There were many paintings and art work on display (and for sale)

This one below was made from audio tape reels by Pooja Kamble. 

There are many more photographs that I am not putting up here.

I think Pune Mirror did a good job in arranging the whole event which included transport from point to point.

I have compiled all the artists and their presentation into a 16 min video (when I say all, I mean what I could possibly cover on that day)

Those who want to see the complete Odissi recital can click here

And for those who want to see the Salsa, click here

Enjoy the video J