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Sticker bindis (bottu)for sale on the pavement

Out Of The Closet

We went out for a quick lunch and saw this on our way out. I knew it had to be the picture of the day!

Night Reading

Lone Mango

This picture has spring written all over it, doesn't it? The mango tree's leaves changing colour as the tree prepares to bear fruit, the sprays of buds/tiny fruit (inflorescence, is it - please pardon the technical ignorance and concentrate on the beauty of the writing), small, raw mangoes maturing into graceful green ones. Our neighbour's tree is really a sight for sore eyes that are preparing to go back to the computer no sooner than they came unstuck just a few minutes earlier.

Demolition

Some pieces that are hacked off always look like they are hanging by a slender wire.

Medical Advice

The Spouse was unwell and was advised a light dinner of soup. Dragon chicken can only speed up the recovery, even though it wasn't part of the prescription.

Just Another Manic Monday

I was going to title it Just Another Day but then I remembered this song because it had indeed been a manic sort of a day for me - the blues, a binge, no wish to get on to the Internet, and a packed day at work, perhaps the best part of the day.

At The Library

Much Nostalgia ... And Guess?

The Spouse found this 'sticker book' of his in his Uncle's house this morning. Along with this, he recovered several pencils, a geometry box and other little objects from his childhood.


I used to have sticker books too, much like this, small and pocket-sized. Sometimes a few pages in our rough notes would serve the purpose. We also used to put stickers on the outside and the inside of our metal school boxes, compare notes and swap stickers. Bruce Lee was quite famous. Even now whenever Enter The Dragon is on TV, The Spouse watches it.


Another iconic figure of the times was the Air India Maharaja.

Who didn't love Richie Rich? I like the turtle too, though I don't recognise him, but going by the colour scheme, wouldn't be surprised if he came out of a Richie Rich comic!

A typical sticker book page, or at least this is how I remembered mine looked. Lots of small stickers, stuck in rows on each page/inside the aluminium school box.

Notice the stylised numerals, the Victory sign and (actor?) Rajkumar on the guitar!

I suspect this thing above is at least 60 years old, if not older. Can you guess what it is? No prizes for guessing, though ;)

One Day ...

I will get a proper shot of this. Everyday, I try to capture the heritage building on my way to work, always catch it at the wrong point.

Going For A Walk

Beads & Ballerinas

Decorations at a wedding I attended today. The caterers/wedding planners do this with their business cards placed close by. They also do ice sculptures and animals and birds carved out of vegetables. I saw a dolphin carved out of a bottlegourd.

My Favourite Blog

When My Soup Came Alive

Bookrest

I saw this at the sale yesterday and didn't know what it was. I was very impressed when the salesman told me and asked him to show me more such interesting things. Then he showed me a kitchen paper stand, which I'm familiar with, and one more contraption which had little steel wire circles welded to a central stem. That, he said, was to keep fruit!!!

It's one of the newest and more useful things I've seen in a while in these stores, considering that I've seen useless stuff like banana stands and a small cast iron pan which is painted on the cooking surface.

Jumbled Sale!

Murals Finished

When I posted these, some of you said you would like to see the finished ones, so here they are!


This time, I was inside an autorickshaw and asked the driver to slow down when we came to this spot.


As he reluctantly slowed, I clicked these pictures in a minute or two.


When we finally got to my destination just a few feet away, he said, "Give me a little more, Madame!" When I asked him why, he said I had "nicely done some shooting for 10 minutes", I said, "Can you hear yourself speak? Do you really believe in what you're saying?" he grinned. Then we both laughed heartily and went our separate ways.

Clothes!

But these weren't what I got. I got a pair of trousers and some napkins in different colours.

Sweet Treat

I surprised myself by craving ice-cream, I rarely do. I had a Choco Cherry sundae, disregarding the delights of the psychedelic menu above for the staid one which was handed to us when we went in.

Fungus

The Road Ahead

Naturally, the profundity in this picture will not be relevant to the Muggles among us.

You will only think it is something she has put up just so she doesn't miss a day in the photo-a-day project.

You will only think she must have done that when her autorickshaw stopped at a traffic signal.

You will only think the other choices must be such duds that she could only post this. That is not without its ring of truth, but the truth also remains that the Muggle world's imagination is, alas, limited.

The Day's Cooking

In exasperatingly familiar fashion, I followed a recipe blindly and ensured that Sunday's lunch would last us the entire week, but there is hardly any fibre in that. So I made cabbage-carrot-beans mallum, chaaru and a batch of idlis for The Spouse's breakfast this week. He, however, very untrue to self, is fantasising about a white bread-mayo-sausage sandwich.

Dining Table

This is the 'dining table' at an Uncle's house. Over the years, it has become a repository for everything he believes is important 'at the moment' - it contains newspapers, magazines, leaflets, fliers, assorted stationery, and many of Uncle's lost possessions. Right now, his address book - the hard copy, not the electronic kind - is missing, and we think it's somewhere there, under the debris. The Spouse clears it every once in a while but it's back to square one in no time!


I caught sight of this tangle of typewriter ribbon in the dustbin near the dining table. I thought its form, and the red and black made a striking picture against the greens and other pastels inside the dustbin. You can see the typewriter in use in the above two pictures.

I should have titled this picture Bless This Mess!

Murals In Progress

I couldn't bear the thought of yet another lunch at the canteen, so I hauled myself and my bags over from the gym to a cafe nearby. They were about 10 minutes apart. I crossed the road and began walking on the pavement towards the cafe, only to find that these figures had come up suddenly - I had eaten in the same cafe last week.

I worked on getting rid of my inhibitions (to photograph these on the main road, amidst trafffic) through lunch, and on the way back (to work), I quickly took a few pictures. Earlier, two men had been painting further down this wall. Their models: a newspaper picture of some performance which had a troupe of women performing something with loaded pots atop their heads.


I first photographed the end nearest to the cafe, where there were only outlined figures and not too many passers-by, but two young boys, aged about 10, came up to me, pointed to the women and said, "Go there and take pictures," and went on their way. I knew what they meant, of course, because I had seen it earlier - "There" was where the women were taking form, colourfully, carrying out the balancing act with ease and grace. Here is one more picture!

Working Lunch

Such a perfect specimen has never been had in the recent past. It was just the right amount of ripe, and nicely chilled too - I had carried it with me to the gym, which was freezing, and it spent an hour inside my bag there. By the time I went to work and settled down, it was just the right temperature. There was another, smaller guava that was not so good, but all in all, I had a nice lunch.

Going Bananas!

Literally! Shot from inside the auto I was taking to work.

Breakfast For The Next Few Days

For The Spouse. Or so I hope. I hope he will eat it, I mean.

Bless This Mess!

The end of the day. Well, almost. Three hours later, TV and Internet done, it's tidied up, mostly. The bags go back to hanging on the chairs, the leftovers go back inside the fridge, the water bottles stay on the table.

A Study in Shadow

That is perhaps a grandiose headline for a photo that is not of great quality or finesse but I impressed myself with even the mere idea - the actual sight was more yellow than is reflected here as there's a big yellow light just nearby, captured earlier in this post. And yes, you can see me in this photo too!