Potpourri Package

Moved...

2007-07-12T08:38:00.000-06:00

I've moved to Flickr here

See you there!

Denver Downtown - VII

2007-05-06T22:30:00.000-06:00

Denver Downtown - VI

2007-05-06T22:27:00.000-06:00

Denver Downtown - V

2007-05-06T22:26:00.000-06:00

Denver Downtown - IV

2007-05-06T22:21:00.000-06:00

Colorado State Capitol

Denver Downtown - III

2007-05-06T22:16:00.000-06:00

Scaling High

2007-05-06T22:09:00.000-06:00

Denver Downtown - II

2007-05-06T22:05:00.000-06:00

Denver Downtown - I

2007-05-06T22:03:00.000-06:00

Bare

2007-04-08T13:21:00.000-06:00

Cotton Ball

2007-04-08T12:28:00.000-06:00

Bonding...

2007-04-07T15:16:00.000-06:00

Summer

2007-04-07T13:20:00.000-06:00

Discussion?

2007-04-06T22:11:00.000-06:00

Bliss!

2007-04-06T22:07:00.000-06:00

Relax - II

2007-04-06T22:01:00.000-06:00

Relax!!!

2007-04-06T21:54:00.000-06:00

Inspired

2007-04-06T21:50:00.000-06:00

Lake

2007-04-06T21:45:00.000-06:00

Fall

2007-04-06T21:39:00.000-06:00

Shadow-Play III

2007-03-23T17:02:00.000-06:00

Shadow-Play II

2007-03-23T16:57:00.000-06:00

Shadow-Play

2007-03-23T16:56:00.000-06:00

Withering

2006-10-24T18:11:00.000-06:00

Summer Day

2006-10-16T20:58:00.000-06:00

Golden Cluster

2006-10-16T20:54:00.000-06:00

Trust - II

2006-08-23T07:36:00.000-06:00

Trust - I

2006-08-23T07:34:00.000-06:00

Feather-touch

2006-08-21T14:03:00.000-06:00

Precious

2006-08-16T12:45:00.000-06:00

T.A.G.G.E.D!!!!

2006-02-13T06:06:00.000-07:00

I have been tagged by Kamakshi

Four jobs I have had:

Software Engineer
Home maker
well, I'm too young to have more :D

Four movies I can watch over and over:

Hum Aapke Hain Koun
Mouna Raagam
Arangetravelai
Few Good Men

Four places I have lived in:

Bombay,India
Chennai,India
Cambridge,MA,USA
Looking forward to moving out of this unbelievably coldddd place :)

Four TV shows I love:
Mmmm, I'm not much of a TV watcher...anyway to answer the question -

Nature programs on Discovery/National Geographic Channel.
F.R.I.E.N.D.S
Seinfeld

Four places I have vacationed:

Bellary, Karnataka, India ( Ammamma's place and my birthplace, very special)
Southern TamilNadu,India
Acadia National Park,Maine,USA
Adirondacks,Upstate New York,USA

Four of my favorite dishes:
This is a very very tough question to answer. I enjoy all Indian vegetarian food :). These are what I don't get to eat here so I crave these the most at the moment -

Amma's Pooshnikka arachuvitta sambar
Amma's vathakozhambu (hubby doesn't like, so I don't cook this one here :( )
Poli
Amma's paal payasam

Four sites I visit daily:

Blogger
BBC News
ORKUT
Yahoo Weather

Four places I would rather be right now:

Home - Chennai,India
Adirondacks,Upstate New York,USA
Grand Canyon, Arizona,USA
On a European tour

Four bloggers I am tagging:

Sindura
Tequila
Tilo
Sathish

Dawn

2005-12-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

View (of a portion of Boston skyline across Charles River) from my living room at around 6.30 am, 25 Nov 05,Friday.

Majestic

2005-11-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

Golden Gate Bridge, SFO

Zig-Zag

2005-11-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

Lombard Street, San Francisco

Bird's-Eye View

2005-10-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

Hip-Hop-Skip..

2005-10-20T12:48:00.000-06:00

Arrangement

2005-10-16T03:55:00.000-06:00

Needles

2005-10-12T14:45:00.000-06:00

Sandwich Fair - I

2005-10-10T14:39:00.000-06:00

Impressed !

2005-10-05T13:10:00.000-06:00

These are the most coveted Green Monster seats in Fenway Park - the ballpark of Boston Red Sox.

World Sanskrit Day - Sep 17 2005

2005-09-29T12:13:00.000-06:00

I've been learning spoken Samskritam (Sanskrit) for a year now. As you might know, Samskritam is one of the most ancient languages in the world and is considered to be root of Indo-European languages. It was widely spoken many centuries ago in India and adjoining modern countries but it slowly became a language found only in texts and scriptures.

Samskrita Bharati is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to bring back the usage of Samskritam in daily life. Raju mahodayaH (pronounced as raaju mahodayaha which means Mr.Raju in Samskritam) is the volunteer from Samskrita Bharati who teaches us spoken Samskritam. Under his guidance, a bunch of us (about 10) are learning to speak Samskritam. We have classes of 1 hour duration,once a week. We learn this language the same way a toddler learns to speak its mother-tongue. Listening -> Speaking -> Reading -> Writing. We'll learn grammar when we are comfortable enough with the speaking bit.
Every year , the purnima day of Sravana month (full moon day of Sravana month in the Hindu calendar) is celebrated as the Vishwa Samskrita Dinam (World Sanskrit Day). This year it was on Sep 17 , Saturday. The celebration for the Boston Metro area was held at Sadhu Vaswani Center, Dracut ,MA. Many other batches of different age groups and levels of comfort in Samskritam had come with their preparations.

This is the first VSD our batch celebrated. We practiced 2 skits and one group song for the celebration - all in Samskritam. One was a contemporary skit - an one act play with just 2 characters. An actress was interviewed in a TV show. The other skit is an adaptation of Panchatantra story - Dharmabudhi & Papabudhi (meaning Virtuous & Vicious). It was so much fun practicing them and staging them.

The programs were scheduled betweeen 4.30 pm- 7 pm. It was really refreshing to hear everyone speaking to each other in Samskritam the whole evening. We realised that, even though we dont speak it any more in India, all our languages are derived from it so it is in our blood to understand the language. All we need, is for someone to, wake those Samskritam cells in us and bring them alive.
The songs were so much full of passion for the Indian culture. So much about ancient India is hidden in the Samskritam texts - literary, scientific and religious. We need to learn and know Samskritam to fully understand our heritage, our roots, then and only then will we be able to be proud of our identity and appreciate it.

jayatu samskritam, jayatu manukulam (long live samskritam, long live mankind)

Dense

2005-08-24T07:07:00.000-06:00

Tough

2005-08-23T05:07:00.000-06:00

Rusted

2005-08-22T13:10:00.000-06:00

Rusted - I know thats what my blogspot was for nearly a month :D. I'm back and am hoping I would not take another break for a long time now :) Its good to be back and I'll visit your blogs soon. See ya.

Fenway Park : The Green Monster

2005-07-28T12:47:00.000-06:00

The 37.2 ft wall that you see in this shot is the famous "Green Monster" in Fenway Park. It was not so high when it was initially built. But when the ownership went to Tom Yawkey and he was remodelling the ballpark, he saw that the wall was not high enough. One: the ball when hit by the players was going above the wall onto the street and they had to install a net to catch it. The ladder that is exists till today, was to help someone to pick the balls later :) Two: People were able to watch the game from their rooftops for free!

So, he decided to raise the wall to its current height. It was painted green in 1947. This particular green is patented and is accessible only by 2 persons in the world.

270 seats have been added on top of the Green Monster. These are the fastest selling tickets in the park. They are sold on lottery and who ever wins the lottery gets 4 tickets and he can split the four tickets and watch multiple games or watch one game with 3 others..

We went up there, the view is wonderful. Fans have had the chance to catch the ball or sometimes fans've broken their noses too because of a home run :(

The CITGO sign that you can see outside the park, is a major landmark in Boston Metro and can be seen from anywhere around.

Fenway Park : From the Luxury Box

2005-07-27T09:04:00.000-06:00

This is the view from the Luxury Box. The distance between the Pitcher and the Hitter is closer than we had imagined or saw on TV. It is 60 1/2 ft.

Being Cricket fans since childhood, we immediately compared the distance with the length of the pitch in Cricket which is 22 yards (66 ft) :-)

This was laid newly immediately after the Red Sox won the World Series last year with new sprinklers et al. The old one was completely dug out and relaid.

When the luxury box was built and spectators sat there to watch the game, it was the best silent movie they'd ever seen. Sitting inside the air-conditioned glass cabin with cushioned seats and attached bar, watching the game was not so enjoyable. The glass is baseball proof, about 1.5 inches thick so they did not hear anything. Next, the owners tried various things like connecting speakers to the microphones set up in various places in the field, but the spectators could hear the players swearing! Then they tried editing that and relaying it with 4 secs latency, didn't work, now they are hearing the same thing that we would hear on TV.

Fenway Park : From the Grand Stand

2005-07-26T13:40:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, we went on a tour of the Boston Red Sox stadium - Fenway Park. It was wonderful. This is the first pic, I took as soon as we followed the tour guide into the stadium into the Grand Stand.

Fenway Park is the oldest Baseball stadium in the US, it is also very small. It was opened for use on 20 April 1912 but did not make the headlines then because of the tragic sinking of The Titanic that took place on 12 April 1912.

I'll post more shots of Fenway Park this week. Enjoy.

For those, who are not aware - Red Sox are the World Series Champions of 2004.

Rainbow

2005-07-25T09:39:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone, I have not been around for about 10 days and it was just one of my mood swings :) Now I'm back and will be around.. Hope things have been good for all of you.

This was shot from our living room window sometime back. It was really strange to find partial rainbow and for a long time we waited for it grow but it only faded away. I have not done anything to this pic except cropping and increasing the saturation a bit..

I will visit your blogs soon. See ya.

Very Busy

2005-07-15T09:30:00.000-06:00

Wearing out...

2005-07-14T07:50:00.000-06:00

I experimented with Selective Desaturation in this picture. Kams had written about it in a forum elsewhere and I wanted to try it out. :)

A Hearty Affair?

2005-07-13T09:54:00.000-06:00

Heavenly

2005-07-12T09:07:00.000-06:00

I tried to delete the date from this pic using Photoshop but I couldn't figure out how.Is it possible? If so, how? Thanks :)

Lofty !

2005-07-11T13:07:00.000-06:00

Sorry I'd not been able to post for the past 2-3 days. I was kinda tied up. Now I'm back! Will catch up with your blogs soon.

Divided !

2005-07-07T07:17:00.000-06:00

Zoom...

2005-07-06T08:28:00.000-06:00

Missing Blocks..

2005-07-05T06:33:00.000-06:00

A while ago I had posted Checked & Striped. This is the same bench. Which is better?

Well parked

2005-07-04T08:00:00.000-06:00

Looking Up !

2005-07-03T07:27:00.000-06:00

Sprawling

2005-07-02T07:02:00.000-06:00

I remember Rock and Ian had posted an Ivy shot sometime back.

On a Brick Wall

2005-07-01T06:02:00.000-06:00

Stairs -VIII -Winding Down

2005-06-29T05:53:00.000-06:00

Check out my previous posts on the Stairs series here.

Summer Evening - 2

2005-06-28T07:02:00.000-06:00

This is a cropped version of the previous post as per Kaleidoscope's suggestion. Thanks K.

Summer Evening

2005-06-28T06:07:00.000-06:00

I know the pillar is slightly slanting in this shot but I'm posting this because I liked the reflections on the floor and the light streaming in from the doors.
This is the pillar that you saw in Patterned Pillar.

On a Windy Evening

2005-06-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

Yes, that's me.

Barred !

2005-06-26T05:38:00.000-06:00

There is a Children's Mela (Children's Carnival) today for the Indian kids (aged 5-15) in Boston area. I am conducting the India Quiz for them. I'm so excited, its going to be a lot of fun. I'll be gone until evening. I'll visit all your blogs today evening.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

Through the Window

2005-06-25T09:01:00.000-06:00

Stairs - VII : Multi-storeyed

2005-06-24T06:04:00.000-06:00

I've also posted Stairs 1 , 2 , 3 , 4, 5, 6 earlier.

Bent

2005-06-23T06:46:00.000-06:00

Moon

2005-06-22T07:44:00.000-06:00

This was taken yesterday on the Charles River bank at about 9.30 pm. It was amazing to see the bright orange full moon rising from behind the buildings while we were having our dinner in our 9th floor apartment. I quickly gulped down the rest of the meal and rushed to the River bank. There was this whole crowd of photographers with their tripods and SLRs..I wanted to take a pic of those people too but the Moon was a dominating presence and didn't let me. I neither had a SLR camera or a tripod so this is the best I could capture...

Light

2005-06-21T06:34:00.000-06:00

This is our bedroom door and the light is coming in from the living room.

Checked & Striped !

2005-06-20T06:39:00.000-06:00

This was taken in the MIT Campus itself. I pass by this bench very often but it caught my attention only last week.

Hay Market - III :Stacked

2005-06-18T06:37:00.000-06:00

Hay Market -II

2005-06-17T08:02:00.000-06:00

Hay Market is a vegetable,fruit, flower and meat market that is open every week - rain or shine or snow - on Friday and Saturday in Boston. The produces are fresh and a lot cheaper than in the grocery stores. The quality of the produces goes down as time passes, they open up at about 6 am and go on until the stocks last. I've already posted one shot from Hay market before.

Invasion..

2005-06-16T07:06:00.000-06:00

This was shot in Schroon Lake, Adirondacks. This spot is very close to the spot where I shot Stillness / Stillness - Original

MerA BhArat MahAn - My India is Great

2005-06-15T12:53:00.000-06:00

This picture was taken in the gift shop @Natural Stone Bridge and Caves, Adirondacks. Most of Adirondacks is untouched by any kind of civilsation. From what we experienced, it is a one on one date with Nature -not much tourists, not much commercialisation and it is soooo huge.
We were so pleasantly surprised to see a very popular and familiar brand of Agarbathi (Incense sticks) - Cycle brand Three in One Agarbathi - from back home, India in this gift shop. It is amazing how a product of India (which is somewhere near the equator in the East) is being sold in a gift shop in one of the northern most part of US (which is somewhere near the N.Pole in the West), practically in the middle of nowhere... It was like seeing someone from India :)

Framed !!

2005-06-15T08:20:00.000-06:00

An Insider's Viewpoint ?

2005-06-14T07:29:00.000-06:00

This was taken in a Castle that is built in the parking lot near the summit of Whiteface mountain. This is next to the tunnel that is shown in the Exitpoint.

Curved..

2005-06-13T04:55:00.000-06:00

I know I should've written this description today morning when I posted the picture but I've been really very busy today.
This photo was taken while driving up the Veteran's Memorial Driveway on Whiteface Mountain, Adirondacks. There were 8 spots marked by the tourism department on the driveway which were significant in some way or the other - could be the kind of view one could see from there or some kind of noteworthy natural/man-made wonder. This was taken from one such spot.

Rain

2005-06-12T06:13:00.000-06:00

This was taken inside the car in Lake Placid town,Adirondacks. We had gone for lunch to an authentic Italian Pizzeria - I must say the Garlic Bread and Pizza were the best we ever had. After lunch we just went for a walk around the place. Lake Placid has hosted Winter Olympics twice 1912 (I am not sure,sometime around that) and once in 1980s. It started raining and we rushed to our car, This is what I saw, liked it so clicked it :)

Impressions !

2005-06-11T05:45:00.000-06:00

Exitpoint

2005-06-10T05:35:00.000-06:00

This was taken near the summit of Whiteface Mountain, Adirondacks. There is a scenic driveway which goes up this point, which is 200 ft below the summit. There are two ways to reach the summit from here - hike up a rocky steep path or reach the summit by an elevator built inside a column that has been cored vertically through the rocks. I had cramped my leg during the hike we had done the previous day so we thought a rocky climb was not advisable and took the elevator. This is the tunnel that leads us to the elevator. This has been cored too, to lead the tourists to the elevator. And that guy is my husband..

Stillness - Original

2005-06-09T09:16:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to share the original version of the photo"Stillness" that I posted yesterday. This is the unaldurated/untampered :) version of the picture. The only thing I did here was to add the Copyrights text. Which is better?

Interlaced !

2005-06-09T06:38:00.000-06:00

Stillness

2005-06-08T09:37:00.000-06:00

Peep

2005-06-07T05:46:00.000-06:00

Vanishing Point

2005-06-06T06:36:00.000-06:00

Counterpart

2005-06-05T05:52:00.000-06:00

This was shot in Natural Stone Bridge and Caves, Adirondacks. This is Echo Cave.

I Am The Cutest

2005-06-04T19:54:00.000-06:00

Orthogonal

2005-06-04T06:30:00.000-06:00

I found the shadows, the tree and the wooden railing very interestingly placed. Any two you look at { (shadow, tree), (shadow,railing), (tree,railing) } would be perpendicular to each other.

Streaming in...

2005-06-03T05:26:00.000-06:00

This was also shot in Adirondacks, while we were hiking through the Natural Stone Bridge and Caves. It was the first thing we did in the morning and this was around 10 am.

True Blue

2005-06-02T14:08:00.000-06:00

This shot was taken from our car when we were just driving around and getting acquainted with the place. The lake is Schroon Lake, Adirondacks. It was about 5.30 pm, I loved this blue feeling...

Stairs - VI

2005-06-02T07:07:00.000-06:00

Adirondacks - natural stone bridges and caves.

Stairs - V

2005-06-01T06:16:00.000-06:00

This picture was shot in Adirondacks,New York state. These stairs are built in the middle of rocky area to facilitate tourists to traverse around and see the Natural stone bridge and caves. The bridge and caves have been formed due to the activity of water..its amazing!!!

A Rearview

2005-05-31T11:25:00.000-06:00

Hay Market

2005-05-26T20:36:00.000-06:00

I have posted this and the Stairs - IV today itself as I am off on a vacation until Monday...Happy weekend.

Stairs - IV

2005-05-26T20:25:00.000-06:00

I know the perspective in this one is similar to Stairs-II but I liked the sunlight in this one.

Stairs - III

2005-05-26T08:04:00.000-06:00

Stairs - II

2005-05-25T08:19:00.000-06:00

Stairs - I

2005-05-24T06:44:00.000-06:00

I will post some more "Stairs" shots this week ... watch out for them :)

Chit-Chat

2005-05-23T08:48:00.000-06:00