Panaromic Roma

Aerial shots of the city of Rome

British GrandPrix 2007 - Who am I cheering for?

Isn't the joy and glow on my face obvious?

Random clicks at Edinburgh

Moto GP

My first time at any motoGP or any international level motorbike race for that matter, was exceeding my expectations. To add to the fun, I had the chance to ride up to Donnington with 3 friends from work. In the fleet were 2 cbr 600’s including mine, one hornet 600 and one brand new gsxr. I recorded my fastest time ever on a motorbike but that was 20mph less than what my friend on another CBR clocked. He was 4mph below the top speed of CBR 600 on road!

However the ride back to London from west midlands was worse than ever, with rains that’s flooded the whole island in the last few days and of course, the traffic from hell.

Spot the fumes from this Kawasaki

Stoner celebrating

Dave is presenting a series of updates – so watch his space for more.

Lost in music

This is a pic of Dr Jyotsna Srikanth’s lighting speed fingering in action on the violin

I felt rejuvenated like never before by Sindhu Bhairavi raga on violin. Is that a particularly well-loved combination?

Context – Carnatic Music
Artist - Dr. Jyotsna’s myspace - the link contains an embedded piece of music by her.
More about this eclectic, multitalented, renowned artist and an inspiring individual in another post.

a pigeon in focus

Vatican city

Scottish wallpaper pics

Venice

My guess is most of these pics are self explanatory. A few things that just the pics themselves don't necessarily say

• Water water everywhere, not a drop to drink.
• Obviously Venice is truly a wonderland. If you don't fall in love with the place the first time, well you're really one critique who’s out of his mind - but go again, you'll deffy love it. This is exactly what happened with me.
• Vegetarians not catered for - well almost.
• Indians not welcome - in most posh pizzerias! Surprised? Furious? Well yes even I was. Yes I am saying there is some racism unless I got it totally wrong basing things on few incidents. Hear you say that can't be right in a tourist hot spot like this?? Well, it is in the posh riverside pizzerias. Here is one possible logical explanation I have. Most Indian tourists are vegetarians or not famous for meat eating. Venice is known for sea food (?) and the pizzerias serve just Margarita on their veg. menu. So Indians turn away most times checking out the menu exhibited at the entrance. The waiters in most occasions pounce on the tourists checking the menu's out almost making it an obligation to go and try something. But they fail to persuade vegetarians. Seems like they’ve developed a culture of ignoring Indian (or Asian may be) tourists instead.
• See the lobsters in that pic up there – they were alive. Moving! Waiting to be killed! FFS! How is that appetizing?
• Venice is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l in rain and after dark. Romantic is the only word to describe how it feels.
• Venice is one expensive place
• The glass industry deserves a special mention. The pic of the glass bird in focus may also need a special mention, only because it may not be clear – that is a picture of glass art factory in function.

We then traveled to Rome – my favorite European city as a tourist – but only until then. Coming up next.

love icon

Canada Goose Family

In other news

• I feel saturated shooting random stuff, mostly in my local park and have hence eased my frequency of blog posts here. I need variety...
• Speaking of which, I am for a week to Italy. So coming up next are some travel pics.
• Dave has beautifully narrated an anecdote on his blog about his trip to Nepal and a trek to the base camp of Mt. Everest. I enjoyed following his posts... they don't feel like 'yet another travel blog' (read bottom up now). It's made me wanna go there earlier than planned now.
• The digital SLR market has changed so much since I bought the first popular model 3 years ago. My 300D feels stale! An upgrade beckons...

Tranquility

...brought to us by..

Bluebells

The Namesake

What about it? And why in my photoblog?

Couldn’t but ensure I spread the word somehow that Jhumpa Lahari’s novel is now illustrated in this wonderfully made movie by Mira Nair. For it’s a great movie that’s left me floundering as it relates in many ways to me, as it would to the masses of Indian immigrants across the world. The novel’s on my list on the top now next to read.

A thought provoking, intense, rich and at the same time a at-the-heart movie this one, is a must watch for Indians and Non Indians who’d like some understanding of Indians abroad in certain dimensions of their lives. It is full of goodness and good intensions I thought. But is it one way? I am not sure – I’d like to hear from you non-Indians what you thought.

Came straight from the cinema walking past 2 white ladies who were wiping their tears out gasping with a Oh-my-god sigh at the end of the movie, thought should blog to get as many people to watch it.

Last few winter shots