Comic book characters

Was always fascinated by comic books.
When you look back, its probably because of the visual treat that you get while reading a story. And I was more fascinated by the quality of the drawings that were produced in these old comic books.

Some of the illustrations that I liked were those of Phantom, Rip Kirby, Tarzan & Mandrake the magician. The illustrations were three dimensional when compared to Tin Tin & Astrix which were two dimensional.

Not that Tin Tin and Astrix were bad. In fact my pseudo name in this blog Haddock is my favorite character Captain Haddock from Tin Tin.

I was so fascinated by Rip Kirby that I decided to draw the character Rip by magnifying it ten times. So I set about the task of drawing grid lines (in pencil) on the comic book and painstakingly reproducing it. Once I was satisfied, I inked it with a simple black sketch pen. This was done about 25 years ago.

Once I realised that I could do this enlargement bit, I tried it out on another character from the same comic book (I don’t remember her name) but it did not turn out so well. So I stopped it at that and dropped Desmond (Rip’s butler) from being enlarged. (poor Desmond)

Now that I started dabbling with Photoshop, I thought of doing the same in the soft form. Tracing my original work in Photoshop took some time and I must say there are many things that I have yet to learn when it comes to these software tools.
After all learning is a continuous process.

Coming back to reading, I think the best thing that happens when you read a book is that you start to visualize the scene in your mind. But when you watch TV that freedom is curbed as you are forced to “see” the scene that is depicted on the screen.

No wonder they say “What a treasure of books” The treasure is not the books but the freedom of visualization.

Bollywood heroes

Saw an ad in the telly. A boy having his breakfast, fiddles around with his poached egg and asks his father "I heard that we are not supposed to eat eggs in summer as it generates more heat" His father replies that he never heard anything like that and counter checks with the boy's grandfather. The grandfather also answers in negative and passes on the question to the boys great grandfather (all sitting at the same table)
The great grand father also answers in the negative with a smile and says that he too had never heard anything like that and has been having eggs through out his life. (the ad was for promoting the consumption of eggs and to say that egg is vegetarian)
What I liked about the ad was the smile of the great grandfather. He was none other than Dara Singh. Yes the famous wrestler of yesteryears who later got into the movies and churned out a lot of Bollywood movies like King Kong and Rustom E Hind.
Talking of Dara Singh reminds me of an old photograph I recently saw in which the Gandhi family was there along with Dara Singh and Randhawa Singh (Dara's brother), but the one on the extreme right is the one to look out for. Yes the evergreen Amitabh Bachan. It's a rare picture I must say. The old bollywood hero and the latest one. Came across this in one of the forwarded mails.

For those who can't read the fine print, they are (L to R)
Sanjay, Randhawa, Rajeev, Indira, Dara, and Amitabh
Talking of pictures, I joined a site where you can upload your photographs which is viewed world wide.
If the photographs/illustrations are good, people buy them for designing web sites, blogs etc and you are paid in dollars. I joined recently and have uploaded 6 of mine out of which one got sold.
For more details click on the icon on the top right (Dreamstime) and read through. If you feel that that your pictures are worth uploading then register yourself and start uploading. (registration is free)

The morning walk

It is good to see that more and more people are concerned about their health.
Went for a walk early in the morning. I think the best time to go for a walk is in the morning. The reason being less vehicles (so less pollution) and the rays from the rising sun is good for health. (far infra red rays) A word of caution is to keep your mobile phones and watches/valuables at home.


You get to see the morning paper vendors busy sorting out the papers according to the delivery. I noticed that they were shoving in a lot of hand bills/ pamphlets in the paper. A slight extra income for them but a little irritating for the people who settle down with their morning cup of tea and out falls a handful of the hand bills when you open your morning paper.

On the way there is a huge open space where I could see a group of senior citizens doing their little bit in the form of exercise and laughter. Probably they are a part of the laughter club as I could hear them laughing away to glory at regular intervals. It was really interesting to halt and watch them. Everyone doing their bit (as it is not easy to bend and stretch at this age) And at the end of it all there is a cake to be cut for David uncle’s birthday or Mr Joshi is distributing sweets as he is a grandfather now.


Young couples go about with their brisk walk. What the experts say is that if you can cover one mile in 15 minutes then you are OK. If it takes less, you are fine, but if its more then your cardiovascular system is not up to the mark.

Talking of cardiovascular, a lot of people are joining the Gym and that could be the reason why Gyms are sprouting up everywhere. Some observations that I made in the Gym are that many (especially the young) come with their mobile phones. They are busy either talking or texting. I think no one is going to miss them if they are off the phone for an hour. So leaving that instrument at home would be more helpful to them (and less disturbance to others)

Then there are some who insist on taking the elevator to go to the Gym (even if it is situated on the second or third floor) I mean if you are going for a work out and sweat it out, why not start from the ground floor and use the staircase? It will definitely add up to the warming up (and save power too)

Coming back to the morning walk, passed by the basketball ground and felt good to see these boys engaged in their game. Incidentally this is the second fastest game in the world, the first one being ice-hockey.

Saw a father trying to teach his son football in one of the school grounds. (they are in the middle of the ground and far away)

As the day progressed, the number of vehicles kept increasing on the road.

Once upon a time Pune was known as the city of cycles. Then it gradually got replaced by the mechanized two wheelers. Now it is a mad frenzy of four wheelers and no roads to match.
Talking of cycles reminds me of an article I read where Mr Joe Simonetti of New York cycles down to his work place twice a week. The distance ? 44 miles !!

15 Paise per hour

Some people have inspirations. But to bring that inspiration to reality is the real hard part.
But once you have the zeal and determination and passion, you can make it happen.
All this sounds like some pep talk isn't it.
Well I have seen one person who has that passion. He is just like a child when he is talking about his project. Full of animation and enthusiasm.
His idea was very simple. We all take our food carrier to work. (well most of us) But by the time its lunch time and we open the Tiffin we find that the food is cold, and nothing like putting you off food when it is cold.
Not everyone is equipped with a microwave or hot plate at office. So he came up with this idea of how to keep the food hot and that too at the right temperature.
His ideas were simple and he knew that it had to be cost effective. He and his team worked at it in his workshop and finally came up with his product. Mainly two variations of the same product.

The first one (above) was the Ecoline Power Lunch where in you just plug in your Tiffin for about an hour before you have your food. And the cost of the electricity consumed is just 15 paise per hour. (Power consumption 20 Watts)



I liked the second variation better. It is the Electric Modular Buffet System.
To put it in a better way, when we go for a buffet lunch (or dinner) we have seen those skilled cooks making Rumali roti and throwing the dough in the air and expertly catching them. Every time they throw it, we find it getting bigger and bigger.

Frankly speaking Rumali Roti has got nothing to do with this but we have seen those fancy looking containers kept in a neat row with the waiters standing behind “madam would you like to have Dal Makhni or Nargisi Kofta?”

You take your pick and also make a note of the small spirit lamp that is burning below the containers. Well our friend here has managed to do away with those spirit lamps.
He has serially connected those containers and one end is plugged to the mains. The food remains hot at the right temperature.




The construction is a double walled thermal insulation which retains the heat and conserves energy. The result ? Zero pollution with no carbon emission.
Care has been taken while designing, that a spoon holder is attached to each container.

And you can punch in the name of the item in the container which is finally displayed digitally. So there won’t be incidences like “Hey this does not taste like Gobi Manchurian”
“Sorry madam, the display cards got interchanged” !!

The design has also taken care of the need that this can be stacked when not in use.

The present size of the Electric Modular Buffet System is suitable for having parties at home.
In a recently held exhibition in Pune (Utsav) he had put up his stall and it was no surprise that his stall had the maximum response as it was a totally new concept in this city.

Before the exhibition was over he was felicitated by the Governor of Maharashtra for ‘Innovative Ideas and Business Excellence in Small Scale Industries’ which was held in Le Meridian Hotel, Pune. He was one of the 14 recipients from all over Pune.
A web site is available wherein you can get more details and contact info.

And here is the man responsible for this. Mr P G George

The flying fantasy

As children we used to gaze at the clouds and try to give some shape to what we saw. It was fun and you can allow your imagination to run wild. My Dad was good at picking up shapes: “Do you see a man smoking a pipe sitting on a cliff”
Well, today you can see the clouds from above, thanks to the Wright brothers.


Whenever we flew from Bombay to Cochin we used to take the early morning flight and it’s a wonderful sight to see the sunrise from high above. ( window seat is a must for me )
The diamond ring effect (usually seen in an eclipse) was seen here with the sun behind the wing of the plane.

That is another thing that always fascinated me. The wings of the plane and the flaps. We take it for granted that the pilot is doing a good job and the take off and the landing went smooth. But if you look closely you can see the ends of the flaps going up or down depending upon the take off or landing. And they are in turn controlled by numerous hydraulic shafts and cables. Those flaps are real huge when seen up close. Going into technical jargon would be, out board flaps, Inboard Aileron, Slats, Spoilers etc.

The birds too must be using the same technique to navigate.
Once while landing at Cochin there was a thick layer of cloud very low and the pilot had made three sorties trying to land. Every time at the last minute he (the pilot) used to pull up and take off again. It was scary. But most of the passengers were not aware of what was happening (including my wife) It was only before the third try he announced “there is a slight problem in landing and if we can’t make it we will be landing at Chennai”
But thankfully he made it at the third attempt.

One of the Airlines that has really impressed me in India is Kingfisher. The rates may be a little steep when compared to others but its worth the money. There is no room for complaint. And to top it I won a Zodiac Shirt by just filling in those forms they keep in the magazine pouch behind the seat. So next time when you fly don’t miss that opportunity, who knows when lady luck will smile at you.



Cochin airport is one of the cleanest one I have seen in India. It is a rare sight to see all the seats vacant at any airport, at the waiting lounge. I had to click it.

The sunlight coming in from the airplane window can make a good silhouette. I looked up this word and came up with this:
A silhouette is a view of some object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior. The word is an eponym named after Etienne de Silhouette, a finance minister of Louis XV who in 1759 imposed such harsh economic demands upon the French people that his name became synonymous with anything done or made cheaply.


I pity those who just sit tight and wait for the plane to land, and grab their bag and make a dash for their next meeting.
The things they miss while flying .. . . . . .. . . .

Candid

From the time I started clicking I realized that there is lot of life in pictures taken candidly.
This is a picture of the “boy” (with his uncle and aunt) coming to see the “girl” A poignant moment where the elders are giving him the last minute advice as to what to do and what not to do (or say) when he is with the girl’s family.

The Black and White  frame above (clicked in 1974) was appreciated by all the three in the picture. The “boy” is now a grandfather and this is a picture of his daughter and grand daughter (again a candid one)

The picture below may not fall under the category of candid pictures as the lady is posing. She asked me to click as she pretends to post a letter. But just before I could click her husband accidentally walked into the frame. And that gives this a different dimension. What better way to show the contrast between the good old way of communication with the snail mail and the modern day communication through cell phone (both in the same frame)


Weddings are a good place to click candid pictures where everyone is enjoying, except may be the bride and the groom who are sweating it out. The dance floor is a good place to capture some real good moves.

And if it’s a wooden floor then some foot movements in synchronization can be captured. What you see below is a father and daughter duo doing the Boogie Woogie.


The photograph below is of one among the seven Jewish families left behind in Cochin (Kochi) in South India.
I managed to click this as she was narrating her life, and how each one chips in for the upkeep of the Jewish synagogue in Cochin. It was interesting to see how she was sewing the sequins on to a skull cap.


Here was a lady who first refused to climb the slide. Then she reluctantly agreed and gingerly climbed it to give it a try. But once the deed was done she said “ good you made me do it, I really enjoyed it”
It is obvious that all of us has done this in our child hood, so I thought the apt title for this would be “Aaaaaaaaaaah, I can still do it”.



Children are the best subject for photography. They may feel a little awkward initially but after some time they loose interest in the camera and tend to be their natural self. Compare the pictures above and below. The kids are the same, the only difference being a gap of 18 years.


Some times photographing the photographer is fun, especially if you can keep the subject in the frame. We had been to the zoo (in Pune) and my colleagues were busy shooting the white tiger which was the center of attraction.


Took a picture of some ants having a gate meeting. These guys have a daily conference here on the gate during the day time. They just gossip and hang around. I am still trying to find the reason of their fascination for the gate. Once its dusk they slowly slink away to the nearby mango tree.

I wonder if this falls under the category of candid shots. Maybe the ants were discussing “look at that guy, he is going on clicking, if only he would get a little closer”
Those who have experienced the sting of these "mishir" ant, will know what I mean.

A novel way to protest

Today is World water day.
And that reminds me of some banners that I saw recently in a famous housing complex here in Pune.
The banner read “we drink well water in space age”



Another one "After 15 years we don’t have conveyance, good water, car parking, playgrounds, tennis court, sport centre"


I think this is a novel way of protest.
I mean we have builders and builders and then there are good builders and not so good builders.
Some do up the whole place with beautiful huge gardens to attract customers and when the flats / bungalows are filled up they dig up the garden to build up a multistory building. And the hapless residents just look on as nothing can be done because they have already paid for it and moved in.
But wait a minute, nothing can be done ?
Look at these banners. I am sure that these are a good deterrent for future customers.






This was even published in a local news paper.