I Didn't Eat All Of It!

A blogger friend from across the seas was in our city and I met her along with another friend. We ordered taco for one, potato skins for us, chimichanga for the other and Waldorf salad for me, with specific requests for fresh lettuce and lots of walnuts, both of which I got. The cute and wizened waiter was mighty amused at the request, though, and kept laughing to himself all the time we were there. He kept asking me whether the lettuce was fresh, whether the walnuts were 'lots' and how I liked the salad. I liked it a lot, but for the decorative tomatoes, arranged what they no doubt thought was artistically, around the plate. He laughed more when I said I was very happy with it. I think he was laughing AT me.

An Unusual Flower

I spotted this Sivalinga flower/cannonball tree today. Here are some beautiful pictures of the same tree and its fruit too! And here's some information.


This is the fruit of the cannonball tree. This photo is from my trip to Thailand a couple of years ago. I didn't see any flowers there. It's known as the sala tree there.

Here are more sights from Thailand.

Silk Cotton Tree

There was one, and I took a picture as nostalgia struck. Then there was another, and I took another picture. Then there was a third, and I realised I hadn't observed these trees in all the years that I inhabit(ed) this area!


See a nice post about the tree here.

Doily

Despite a long walk from the main road to a colony that took about 20 minutes in the heat of the summer afternoon, I didn't find anything to photograph. At the end of the long walk was friend V, who is passionate about crafts. We got talking and she was explaining what it takes to make doilies and took me up to her room to show me what a blocking board was. This is one of the doilies in her stash.

Temple

I took a different route to work today and had to stop across this temple for a few minutes. I'm glad for the opportunity because I didn't have to photograph something indoors for the photo of the day.

Summer Beauty

One day, I'll be discovered. I must have been a sight to those who guessed what I was doing, taking a picture without looking at the cell phone while purportedly crossing the road. Rather like the cat who drank the milk with its eyes closed thinking no one would guess if it did so!

Motif

I cleaned the microwave oven today. The turntable was placed on a coir coaster and when I saw it, I knew I had to give it a shot at making it the photo of the day.

Night Scene

On the way back home from work, this is how the scene looked. I liked it for the colours and attempted a picture. I tried some more but we had to move as the traffic light turned green. This was the best of the lot.

Going Back Home

Salad Days

Uncharted Territory

I very rarely deep-fry. And even then, it's something like a papad. Sheer boredom and the fact that I had a packet of besan waiting to be used up made me do this, by trial and very little error.

So I know how to make pakodis! Yay!

Very Berry

This is the stuff of schoolhood. It was the first time I was seeing these 'regi pandlu'(in Telug, botanically called Zizyphus jujuba) with salt and chilli powder, though! Back home, we would always check them for worms first and then eat them. On Bhogi, the day before Sankranti, children are feted with these - they are poured over the children's heads. There is a bigger variety too.

Makeshift

That applies to today's photo as well as the subject of the photo itself. I washed the covers of this chair and The Spouse dutifully sent it off for ironing before I could warn him not to. That's my new dupatta you see wrapped around it. I got the cushion covers at a handicrafts exhibition, from a stall from West Bengal.
I call it a makeshift effort as I couldn't manage anything better after a long day at work. In fact, I had two great subjects, but passed them too soon - one was a kid with a double halo of little green bulbs around his head, and a little later, it was a guy selling headsets of fluorescent red horns (like in the devil's horns) who approached me when I stopped at the traffic signal. He was wearing one himself. I began groping for the camera but he had rightly guessed my interest in him wasn't business, and went away. (I would have attempted to compensate him.)

Remember This?

I shrieked in excitement when The Spouse handed me this when we went to his uncle's house this evening. I had smaller ones, one was red, I remember. I don't remember mine having such big designs, if at all. I'm not sure they changed much by the time kid brother went to school about 8-9 years later, I really don't remember. This was part of the stash The Spouse discovered last month. There is more to come, he promises. I can't wait.

Cooking in Darkness

Remember this? Above is how it is used.

Repairs & Replacements

I go through this road everyday. It's full of auto parts shops and my aim is to capture the display of red you see in the shop to the right. There are too many people everyday and I haven't dared take a picture, but today being a holiday, there were fewer people on the road - and yes, that made it easier for them to notice me shooting them from inside the window of a moving car!

I'm not too displeased with the picture (though I know it's not clear) because I seem to have caught one person actively attending to a motorbike.

Stuck!

When this happened the other day with The Spouse as he raised the bottle to his mouth for a drink of water, I told him to wait and rapidly shot pictures of the fibre coaster stuck to the bottle, thinking it was a rare occurrence. I didn't post those pictures because something else presented itself. But over the last couple of days, this bottle has stuck to whichever coaster it's put on (why was it on coasters anyway) and today, I made it picture of the day. Guess there's something sticky underneath the bottle and it's nothing to do with the scientific reason behind Ganesh drinking milk all those years ago!

By The Loom

As I was taking a picture, one of the people nearby asked if I was interested in all these things (looms and such). I had to tell him no, but I took pictures of whatever interested me. This is a pneumatic loom, or something to that effect, I couldn't follow the explanation and I forgot what was written on the label. A Kanchipuram silk sari is being woven on it - this was set up at a handloom expo I visited this evening.

All Lit Up

Actually, it's been all lit up for quite a few days now! What I've really wanted to capture about this building is the unnatural green on the treetops, caused by the lighting.

I feared the crush of traffic later but I must say it was managed pretty well, at least on all the routes I took. It helped that a lot of people stayed home and didn't venture out.

New Landmark

The new Secretariat/Assembly building, looming large and menacing, unfinished, but all decked up for the inauguration

At Yoga Class

Avatar Accessory?

I really like this little purse, it doubles up as a camera case ever since the suede original disintegrated after my little niece used it to thoroughly wipe the centre table clean. Someone said this looks like Na'vi poop, though. I disagree.

Pretty In Purple

I'm glad I was bereft of ideas, because I found this. Here's another one like this.

Mind Your Language!

Yellow

Rs 22 a kilo!

At The Traffic Lights

At The Hairdresser's

Finally got that long-overdue haircut today!

Simply Irresistible

Not because of what they are, but because they are today's, a rarity in supermarkets!

Shower Head

Glacial Melting, Not Quite Global Warming

Please Give Him A Hand

Ayyanar, missing an arm