A click too many

Before I begin this post, I want to pay obeisance to the living goddess of photography. Her name is Moi the Great, a source of unparalleled & perpetual inspiration to me for leading a ‘click’ life behind the constricted world of a photographic lens.

Photography is new to me. In fact, my first purchase was as recent as a few months back! Off course I sought the goddess’ blessings, touched her feet and smeared turmeric on my forehead before stepping out to make the purchase. I bought the most base model available in the market (and pssst.. one of the cheapest). Point and shoot, khallas! For the technically unchallenged hoi polloi (does that rhyme with moi?), it would imply 3x optical zoom, 6 Megapixel. That’s it. I can assure you my cute ass barbeques from the inside when I see pot bellied thickly mustachioed men wield huge SLR cameras up to 12 Megapixel.

However, that is exactly the point! You don’t need a baby worth 30K to shoot those blinding pictures with which you can run up to the goddess’ altar and show your grinning teeth. What you need (apart from the goddess’ blessings) are these four things –

1. A software to digitally retouch your images. I use Picasa. You are free to pluck your favorite flower from the jungle.
2. Go places. And don’t forget the camera! I, for one, haven’t reached that elevated state of the goddess to be able to sit in my morose house and shoot pics pointlessly.
3. Shoot pics pointlessly!. Left, right and centre. The single measure of this parameter is the degree of indignance of your co-travelers. If they are comfortable with your indulgence in the lens – mate, you have a problem. If they are annoyed – yeah yeah yeah. If they are seething red and two way communication breakdown has occurred – BINGO you are on your way to getting those Nat Geo award winning shots!
4. Lastly, a thinking mind. A static, dull, uncreative or disturbed mind will inhibit conjuring ideas and angles and vistas which can prove to be a great shot. In the end, the photograph is just the manifestation of what you thought! So keep thinking.

Just a case in point, on my long weekend I clicked approximately 200 times, which is indeed on the lower side. Out of those 200 pics, about 160 made it to my laptop. Around 80 were digitally retouched in Picasa and form part of my private collection, rest were shift deleted. Then, 35 were selected for public dissemination and finally ONLY 7 made it to this blog (which is obviously my pinnacle platform for self aggrandizement). So let your view of these 7 not occlude the 194 odd gentry.

It’s the classic one in a million sperm analogy.

Formula 2?

I have started following Formula 1 again. Again? if thats a justification at all.
Formula 1 was the second passion (first was soccer) in my life, which I had 'discovered' way way back when I was around here. I was in class XI and my life revolved around studies, studies. For the uninitiated majority who grew up in India's western region, class XI and XII are probably the most wasted years from a 'life' perspective for anyone growing in the states of UP, Bihar. They, their parents, their pets and their maid servants eat, drink and shit IIT. I was no different.

But a beacon from those days over 10 years yore, was the unsupressable passion I cultivated for this sport which no one around me had even heard. Nowadays, Formula 1 is a more of a status symbol of the Gen X. The 'hi fi' junta watches it, follows it, wears Ferrari and McLaren T shirts. When I got hooked, I had no influences or impressions to lay claim to.

So it feels 'strangely great' to be back following the season races, qualifying, race days. What's changed? To tell you the truth.. only one thing. ME.

There is no adrenaline rush, there are no fist thumping, there are no screams. I just watch it like a dud!! This weekend at Silverstone, Sebastian Vettel of the Brawn GP won his second title of the season. He is a young chap, a German (incidentally, those who remember another illustrious German). I guess when I was 17, these drivers were sort of inspiration, role models on the age vs achievement curve. Now, ten years hence, my point of view has shifted forwards and my old ass doesnt see any role models :-(

King of the worrrrlld :-)

Dear Manish
Greetings from IMS!

We would like to invite you to officiate as Facilitator at our Achievers' Workshop, 2009, to be conducted on 25 January 2009 and 26 January 2009. If you accept this invitation, you will be required to orient and observe students who have received calls from the IIM's or Premier B Schools of India, in the preparatory GD & PI exercises that they will be taken through with the objective of enhancing their chances at the selection processes of the B Schools.

You will be expected to participate in the proceedings for the duration of 9 hours on each day of the 2 day workshop. Lunch and refreshments will be provided by us. Remuneration for the services of Facilitators for the 2 day workshop has been fixed at a consolidated amount of ___

Members of the Faculty team are requested to arrive at the venue, St. Joseph’s Commerce College (Map attached) by 9.30 am on both days of the Workshop (the 25th and 26th of January,2009) so that they may be directed to their respective classrooms.

Please note that while our students need to be provided with an honest and comprehensive assessment of their performance in the GD and PI, they should also be motivated to face the real challenge. Faculty members are humbly requested to desist from making any statements or comments that may accrue as damaging to the self-esteem of students.

Looking forward to a fruitful interaction on Jan 25th and 26th,

Regards,
IMS Team

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much Nilya for recommending me. You are THE BEST.. :-)

Misr

I am reasonably erudite in Greek Mythology. During college, remember cracking 7 out of 10 hard core greek myth questions at a prestigious lone wolf quiz circa 2001-02.

However my fascination has always been directed towards two other mythologies - the Egyptian and the Incas. Needless to say, Peru and Egypt are two places I am desperate to travel. Caveat Emptor : Travel is strictly meant for academic purposes marked by fervent on the field notes scribbling and theme photography.

What attracted me to Egyptian myth is very weird to explain. Since I am the epitome of weirdity, it would not surprise readers that I was attracted to the phonetics of the names in Egyptian mythology. I just love the god names. Short words but sound so impactful if pronounced with intent. Heres a list, read aloud each one.

Amun, Anubis, Set, Bast, Bes, Dua, Geb, Hathor, Ka, Maat, Nut (noott), Min, Qetesh, Selket, Shu, Sobek, Thoth, Wepwawet

My fav are Amun, Nut and Thoth. If I had never heard that Iron Maiden song one lazy afternoon in my filthy hostel room, this blog would have been called Book of Amun-Ra published by Thoth.

Songs for 'We Men'

Inspite of desperate attempts by a dear friend at carrying out a brazen gender assassination attempt on yours truly, the manhood flourishes. Perhaps the only thing non-abstract about my existence is that. Seek .. and thou shalst find.

Anyways there are two songs I have been listening to lately. The first one particularly deserves a strong mention, dedicated to all men out there.

1. 'Just like you imagined' by Nine Inch Nails. The soundtrack for my beloved movie 300 ( read this, this and this ). God what a song... unfortunately no lyrics but well its just like one imagines!. Those drums make blood rush in all hitherto numb and forgotten corners of my body. The score is so inspiring that I honestly feel like slitting a few Persian throats even as I feel the cold hard metal pierced in my chest. Real men. Born out of real women.

2. 'Poison' by Alice Cooper. One band which I completely missed growing up was Alice Cooper and I regret it. There are two lines in this song which deserve a mention on a post for men. 'Your skin so wet, black lace on sweat'. Its just the uncanny weird way in which he sings. Amazing song, that apart.

Two completely different thoughts. I guess the pristine manifestation of both in one frame is the classic black knight in the shining armour myth.

Semantica's Phoenixation

A Fire has three essential life stages – initiation, sustenance and extinction. If you ever ask it which part of its life is the most painful, it will begin serenading – ‘staying alive, staying alive eh eh eh eh ’.

The infernal fires of Mordor smolder in my heart for perpetuity. Their number ranges between ten to fifteen, each having sparked as I understood myself better. And then some extinguished, leaving behind vestiges in my persona (non) grata. Often I come across old friends who point me to them. The message has metaphorical allusions -- “666 remember there is a small growth at the end of your large intestine which was once your tail, an object of proud possession and swagger!”. Anyways these fires have burnt out, but mind you they were one helluva inferno when they blazed.

This brings me to the case in point. Before I throw any elucidation on this crazy-rant-on-some-fires-and-dragons, allow me the use of euphemism – lets call these ‘fires’ as ‘passions’. So read over the post afore with the following macro running on your neural compiler

(Find) ‘fire’ (Replace with) ‘passion’

I shall wait allowing for different processor speeds of my readers. (Whistling while you re-read)

Ahlan wa sahlan. Welcome back. NOW I shall talk straight :-) All this while I have been talking about my myriad pied passions. How they began, how they died and the problems I face sustaining them. One such passion is etymology – word origins. A little bird told me that my off sprung blog ‘Semantica’ lies in a state of neglect. Mea Culpa.

Let me fix some SLAs here (Service Level Agreements). Semantica will be updated every Sunday. Would request interested readers to take cognizance and insert an interrupt in their compiler routines :-) My immediate goal is to achieve 6 sigma quality in compliance to set SLA.

Ok then .. let me resume what I had fondly embarked on some moons ago. All of us have heard of the word ‘posh’. Posh Spice being the word’s celebrity endorsement. Have you ever wondered where did this word come from. Voila! You can outsource the thinking to me, sit back and read the fascinating albeit apocryphal tale of the word ‘posh’

And oh.. thanks little bird!