Baklava Comes To The Supermarket

This is the first time I've seen baklava at a supermarket in the city where I live. In fact, I rarely see this anywhere. A 100 gm cost Rs 40. I haven't tasted it yet.

Unused, Unwept, Unsung

All of them. The block-printed mat in the plastic cover on top is something that we brought back from Khajuraho when we went there in November. All the clothes there, except the whites, are virtually unused, and, I suspect, will stay unused unless I do some more clutter-busting.

An Evening At Home

The aim was to capture the perfect sunset but what really came out in this picture is how worn my old neighbourhood is looking. But home is home.

Sitting Down, Growing Up

The other heritage shots for today's picture were my cradle and my grandmother's Singer sewing machine. She had a fine pair of Singer scissors too, which I'm sure are lying well-preserved somewhere. Every time I come home, I open all the cupboards, search for something that brings back a memory and see if I can hold on to the past, with something physical to make it real and present.

From The Train

I came home by morning train today for a brief visit. I tried taking pictures of the scenery through the windows in my compartment and I liked this the best as some of the 'skyline' is reflected in the water. I liked that the silver lining highlighted the clouds but wasn't too happy to have the electrical lines feature across them in the picture. If you look closely, you can see me in the picture!

Full Of Fruit

These are the handpicked tiles that adorn my wash basin area. I hope for better pix tomorrow.

My Menagerie

At The Movies

A friend and I watched 3 Idiots a few hours ago.

An Old Haunt

The Meal Is Being Served

My dinner companions willingly became "hand models". Another dreary old day, I thought, to be filled with pictures of traffic or the trees by the road or the strawberries I bought on impulse this morning. I hadn't forgotten about the wedding, but I didn't think I could take a picture there. The virtues of being late - we were among the last batches to eat and there weren't too many people, so I made the models pose and took a few quick pictures. Not bad for a semi-surreptitious effort!

To the far end of the banana leaf are the crispy vadams, the ootappam in the centre, the rectangular folded roti close by, and some red curry to go with it. I took it for a mild chutney and used it to accompany the ootappam, only to find out it was malai kofta instead!!! You can see the onion raita that goes with the pulav on the other leaf. The yellow and white sweet at bottom right is cham cham. I didn't notice what was being doled out of the basket. There was quite a lot more, these were just the first few dishes to come.

The Colours of a Sunny Day

Bird of Paradise

This picture was taken this morning, or technically, yesterday morning. I missed the midnight deadline as I was at a movie and have just come back.

Going To Work

The First Time I Cut A Leek

Leather Fish

Abstract

An untidy house, a doctor's appointment and a meeting had me forgetting to carry the camera about with me. I realised that as soon as I came out of the house and hailed an auto but comforted myself with the thought that I'd make do with the camera on my mobile phone. Then work took over and I forgot about the photo for the day. When I remembered, I took a half-hearted picture of my blog stats but worried that they would be visible in the photo. The Spouse brought me the camera when he came to pick me up and I tried a few random shots in the Behind Glass and Night + Scene modes (from behind the windshield). The camera's battery was low on charge and none of the shots were good, save this one - not the result I was looking for but beautiful all the same. No need to go hunting around the house or scurry down to the road in search of a better photo, as I thought I would have to do. This is a picture I took as we when the green came on at the traffic signal.

Watching The Eclipse

I took the safe way out photographing the eclipse, one of the events of the century - and after I emerged from the cool interiors of my home, shot some furtive looks at the sun and suspected I could still see the annulus around it. I do this every time there is an eclipse, look at the sun and wonder if my eyes are going to be okay - it's only been a few minutes since the eclipse, could there be any residual ill-effects? I certainly hope not! Wish me luck!

At The Fair

I knew I should have straightaway said Yes to a friend when she asked me if I wanted to accompany her to a crafts exhibition. I didn't, and this is what I had to endure instead. I went to the trade fair after 10 years and it was ten times noisier than before, there weren't any interesting buys, and it was just no fun at all. I felt like running away. The pictures were the bright side of it, though.

Washing Dirty Linen

Ear's Today's Post!

4F3ZUVXCAD48

It Zigs And It Zags

And so it begins - the failure to find anything photo-worthy for the day, and the quest to desperately find novelty in the quotidian. But novel it actually is - I bought this today.

Steps To Fitness

There were pictures of Dragon Chicken and foliage atop the trees outside the quiet, first floor restaurant where we had lunch. The Vegetable Stir Fry was thoroughly underwhelming both in looks and in taste so no pictures of that. Once we came out, these stairs to the gym above caught my eye.

I drew some pretty strange looks from diners entering and exiting the restaurant, knelt on one knee and taking pictures of the steps.

The Guests Have Gone

Less than a week into the photo-a-day project and I forgot my camera at home. I even forgot my mobile phone which comes with a camera, so I couldn't do anything about the interesting clouds I saw this evening - grey with little puffs of pink topping them.

This scene struck me as a good one this morning - my guests of the past three days just left and what seemed like several sessions of meals came to an end. Much unused crockery and cutlery was pressed into use, this is how it looked after it was all washed and left under the fan to dry before going back into its cupboard.

Two Souvenirs

The wooden frog came highly recommended as a souvenir of Bangkok. Remove the stick from the frog and stroke it across those projections on its back - it goes "krok krok krok". I bought this in Chatuchak market. There were shinier, painted ones at the airport, for a much higher price, which I was warned about.

The camel candlestand is just over a month old, and it has already lost its tail (that's the terracotta bit peeping out of the stand). We bought it on our trip to Khajuraho, on the highway from Khajuraho to Pandav Waterfalls. This was a small workshop that was selling various terracotta objects. This cost Rs 50.

Night Light

Today's images were those of lunch, upholstery with a pattern of red concentric circles against beige and this lamp outside someone's house we visited on the way to work. I did not want the car's roof to appear in the picture but it did. I also liked the way the building 'got caught' between the boughs of the trees.

En Route To Work

This is a rather new installation at a traffic island, part of a city beautification project, that I cross on my way to work. The images are from the traditional Tamil folk art of poikkal kudirai (dummy horse dance). There are a couple of other such figures elsewhere - maybe they'll make it here one day.

The other snapshots for today were one of a clay camel figurine that I bought on a trip recently, the springcleaning of a house that is well likely a never-ending project, and Murugan's spear at the back of an autorickshaw, underlined by a row of other gods and goddesses.

Shadow In Stripes

I've been wanting to photograph the graceful shadow of this rocking chair for a while now. Thanks to this year-in-pictures project, I spent about 20 minutes last night photographing it from various angles and in various modes that my camera provides. The wall on which the chair casts a shadow is only a pale ivory in reality, but the shadow showed up well in this picture, which, I think is in 'night+portrait' mode.

Second Day

I attempted an artistic rendition of my new washing machine, wet blanket draped over its door. The rust stains on the floor from the previous machine showed up and the picture was grainy too. This is the best I could come up with today - the ever-prolonging rush hour traffic in my neighbourhood.

First Post

The shopping trip, at a new mall in the city, yielded only one bottle of (fancy) shampoo.