Whiskey Glass

This one was captured on my Cannon with an 18-55 lense. A random photograph of what looked like Whiskey Glasses while sitting at this joint called Galloping Gooseberries in Chennai.

Details:
F-stop : f/5.6
Shutter: 1/6
ISO: 100
FL: 55mm
Flash: No
Dimensions: 3561 x 2592

Good ol times

This is the era of the www, cell phones, emails, social networking, media, and so on, we forget our past. There was a time when we could do pretty much everything we do now, without all this technology backing us. I still remember the days when we managed to meet a friend at the movies, or for a wedding, or arrange a birthday party without emails and cell phones.

This was a time in my life, not too long ago during our college days, when even owning a cell phone was a luxury. Sometime around this is when I first met scatterbrain, and we didn’t have the proper means to stay in touch. We couldn’t afford cell phones, but yet managed to live to tell the tale of a long distance relationship, while I was living in Chennai and she was studying in Hyderabad which is almost 800kms or 500 miles away. We used to speak to each other using the landline. I was fortunate enough that my father had the landline with an STD facility. Scatterbrain on the other hand was living in the college women’s hostel that had only one pay phone that was used by probably 50 or 60 other women staying there. We used to have these whispering conversations over the phone in a way that people in the other room wouldn’t know that I was on the phone. The fans and lights were switched off, and only then we could clearly hear each other clearly. Trust me sitting in a closed room devoid of a fan in Chennai is not a very pleasing experience. We used to speak for about 3 to 4 hours every night. Those were some of the moments I treasure till date.

The flip side to this story was when the phone bill came at the end of the month. I still remember my father opening that fatal envelope, and to his shock the bill was around Rs.15000/- Believe me when I say this. 15k for a phone bill during 2003 was not a joke. I still remember my father had this angry expression with some tears in his eyes when he saw the bill. :) His expression was priceless. Well of course as soon as that expression was over he looked at me and my brother to find the culprit. Obviously we didn’t know what a phone looked like ;)

No sooner than later my father had subscribed to this thing called itemized billing, where the bill shows the details of the numbers dialed and the time the call was made. By now I know that my grave was being prepared for me. My father notices that a lot of calls have been made to one particular number every night for about 3 to 4 hours, so he decided to call the number and realizes that it’s a girl’s number as soon as scatterbrain responds to the call. So by now my father has confirmed that the delinquents’ were either me or my brother. This is when I was determined to own up and confront him before he brings the lamb to the slaughter.

To my surprise both my parents were happy to know about my relationship with scatterbrain and were eager to meet her and take things forward. The rest is history. Thinking about this incident reminds me of the fun times we’ve had in the past, even without technology.

In the present day, I think the cell phone, email, the internet and all that is has to offer is a basic necessity and it would be really hard to survive without it. As the saying goes - Technology does not drive change, it enables it.

Green

This one was captured on my Cannon with an 18-55 lense. A random photograph of leaves from a branch outside a friends house.


Details:
F-stop : f/10, Shutter: 1/100, ISO: 400, FL: 55mm, Flash: No.

My new hobby

As far as I can remember, I’ve always loved taking photographs. The most I love, is taking pictures of people and objects. Regrettably I never had the money to buy myself a high-quality camera. During my school and college days, this thing called “digital camera” was unheard off. I really wish I had one of those during my early days. There has been so many good memories of long-ago, which I managed to capture only in my head, optimistically for long.

Last year when scatterbrain and I found out that we were expectant, I made one significant decision. Well apart from “I’m going to be a good dad” & “I’m going to be a good husband”, and etc, etc… I was determined that I will buy myself a reasonably good camera and capture everything I possibly can, and before I knew it, we were already saving money to buy it. More or less a year later, we managed to buy ourselves a really cool SLR camera. I can’t remember the amount of intense analysis up and reading up I did to comprehend how to operate it. Finally after lots of suggestions and opinions and advices from friends and playing around with the cam, I think I’ve got the hang of it. This is one of the pictures that was taken on my SLR. She’s my little angel. Her name is Nanma and I call her “NJ” short for Nanma Jacob. Click the Photograph for a better view.


Most of the photography blogs I’ve seen, have a mentioned the details of the photograph like f/stop, metering, aperture settings date, time, location and such like. Quite frankly don’t remember the camera settings for this snap, but hopefully I will do my best to give you those details for the next few snaps that’s going to be uploaded in my next post. God knows when that will be bearing in mind the frequency of my posts :)

Those who read this, please give me some suggestions and tips that I could use for my new found hobby.

How sweet to hold a new born baby

It feels like it was just yesterday, but it’s been 6 years since we, Scatterbrain and I were college sweethearts and madly attracted to each other, spending hours in the coffee shop sipping on one cup of coffee, just to keep the table occupied and gazing into each others eyes, dreaming about getting married and about our unborn children. And now we finally have our little angel to call our own. Now it’s just us and our little family. It’s the only thing that matters to me the most.

Scatterbrain is “The Worlds Most Amazing Person”. I was in tears while I watched her in pain in the labor room. All I could do is hold her hand, kiss her on the cheeks and pray that the pain would go away. That one hour of watching her hurting in agonizing pain was the most painful experience I probably would ever go through. In the end the result was amazing. The pain and the agony, it all went away in a blink.

It almost felt like all my troubles and worries had been wiped clean from my memory. It was like time stood still. The feeling was indescribable. I sure most people feel the same way when they hold their newborn in their arms. I have only heard what it feels like, but only now I know. She is the most beautiful creation I have ever seen. With those sparkling eyes and dainty fingers and toes so delicate she feels like a drop of heaven in my arms. All I could do is look at her and not notice the time going by. All that seems to me as a passing dream, since I got only 2 days to spend with my baby and now I’m back to work :(

Nanma Anna Jacob. That’s what we’ve named her. Nanma – means “Goodness” in Malayalam.

It’s been a long day, and you’re tired of play,

Your little eyes look sleepy, go to sleep little one,

And smile as you dream on, cause you are loved.

As you sleep tonight, dream of things that you love,

Tomorrow is a new day full of promise for you,

So smile as you dream on, cause you are loved.

You are our greatest miracle, God’s “Goodness” taken form,

Each day as you grow older our love only grows stronger,

You bring such joy, such love, such happiness.

Only God could love you more than us.

The world outside is scary, so much you don’t know,

And though life isn’t easy trust god he’s always there,

So smile as you dream on, cause you are loved.

– Scatterbrain & Paunch.