I dropped my iPHONE for a 102nd time....

So friends, this is what happened to my beloved Phone Friday, quite a while ago I should add. It was supposed to happen sooner or later as I have dropped it a 100 times till now, every time picking it up with a fearful doubt of its safety. Since then I stopped snapping as many photos as I used to and when I doubted that my screen could get wet from those cracks, I stopped using it. Although its still working pretty fine. Wonder what APPLE uses to make them so durable. Its amazing, still taking pictures as usual, although the quality went bad after having taken a zillion photos till now. Did not get it fixed yet but soon will work on that. Until then you know why the posts got postponed....Im using a CORBY PRO now, chose since it has 3G. Although the touch screen abilities are ages behind the iphone experience...trust me...iPHONE is beyond every other touch screen species!

Caughted...

The other day I was waiting in front of a shop for a friend. Waiting is not really my cup of tea, so I just try to find out some way to not just wait. And you might know by now the first thing that I do when Im bored. Good that I found some reason to snap this shot. Well find it out for yourself. I bet you'll laugh when you do!

Ocean View Terrace

This past week has been quite busy with traveling from coast to coast on roads to rails. The above snap was from the terrace of my bro Pandu's home in Vyzag (AKA Visakhapatnam). His sister got married on Friday. I had to rush back home after that to go to Chennai for Siddhu's interview. The kid passed the written test and got admitted in the Hindu Senior Secondary School, Adyar, Chennai (Sorry, I dont know the pin code!).

 Came back only yesterday. In my travels in bus and on train I met a few interesting people a cloth merchant, a journalist from a news channel, an aspiring aeronautical student from IIT Madras and a CRPF serviceman. They all were pretty interesting to know about.

I remembered my friend Prakash's philosophy of why he doesnt read books...when there are so many people around, why read books!

Tarot Parrot

Chances are you might have encountered atleast one time this scene in India, and probably have been in the hot seat just to see what lies ahead for you. Welcome to the tarot reading parrots of India. From big cities to remote villages one can find men carrying a small wooden cage with thin bars sitting in the shade of a tree on a straw mat. In front are the tarot cards spread in a black jack style, so much that you get tempted to sit and try a hand out. Not for the game though. You sit and give your hand while he tries out your luck. He opens the cage and a beautiful parrot comes out, picks up a card and rushes into the cage as if its too shy to come out of home. I dont know how they train these parrots but they get addicted to those cages biting on a half guava which occupies half of the cage. Its really ironic. Thats the reason I have never been in the hot seat. Although I have seen people trying it out and most of the time the man speaks almost the same stuff about miseries, friendship, betrayal etc. Seems people have unity in something after all.

Repati Pourulu...(Tomorrow's Citizens)!

Good to know that tomorrow's citizens include Swami Vivekananda, Mother Teresa, Meera Bai. The regular doctors, lawyers ( Spidy seems to have some law suit and seeking a lawyer in the corner). Lord Krishna is hiding from Meera Bai behind an Angel while Swami Vivekanand watches. Well Meera Bai herself is an angel. And I guess thats Ms India (may be) talking to a tribal guy or is it the "go veggy" style guy. Mother Teresa is talking to a doctor, probably advising on how to take care of people without treatment. Micheal Jackson is seeking police protection in the corner away from others. Too bad my favorite citizen Batman has been pushed out of the view..can you find him? 

                Alright, enough of "see n tell" class notes. This is from my nephew Siddhu's fancy dress competition in school last year. I wasnt expecting so much diversity (in Unity) and neither was Siddhu, although he seriously wanted to dressup. In the last minute he had a regular tshirt and jeans and his guitar, supposedly a HERO look. Dont know who won the competition, but trust me they were all winners in my jury!!

Walking Away...

Last week I was in Chennai. There was one other person who was more excited than I was. Siddhu my nephew had his first experience of a night train journey, out of state travel, the beach sand .... I mean after all hes only half a decade old. I had to cross more than two decades to touch the sand in the beach back in 2000. It was fun seeing his reactions ranging from uncontrollable laughter to extreme excitement to mild fear to tearful send off (to the exam hall !).  Yeah , he had to attend a test in a school there. It sounds pretty unexciting to hear that they'll be moving to Chennai soon. I'll miss him big time. My day is incomplete with out seeing Siddhu and his sister Vaishu. I might move there too...just to finish my day!

Angels and Gods...

Theres a place in Krishna Nagar near Ameerpet where anything, almost anything can be rented. Mostly house hold items like furniture, lamps, sign posts, photos, idols, sticks...yeah actually we went there to rent a forearm crutch for our short film Panipuri (check it out on youtube). There I saw this sequence of photos. Funny thing is, if you observe, the real people have art photos while Gods have actual photographs(sort of)! Before we left the place we saw a big dagger that weighed a ton made of POP I think, similar to the ones from mythological movies. Im tempted to rent it sometime....

Prime Time Jam !

Traffic is terrible almost everyday during peak hours in pretty much the whole of the twin cities(especially with easy financing options people are buying cars in wholesale!). But one day I waited way too longer than usual and was getting bored. I thought...might as well take a snap. We were still for about 20 minutes in the middle of that bumper-to-bumper traffic near the HPS crossing. If time is the main concern for people, one can not even imagine about the pollution...

Pigeon Pourri..

While shooting for our upcoming short film a few days ago we were in Koti. Behind the Gokul Chat joint theres a nice hang out place for people and pigeons. We took a few shots of the beautiful view of those birds flocking together so close that you could almost touch them. Man they are daring I should say. By the way my short film is releasing this Friday, check it out for more shots of the pigeons..potpourri!

Rock On...

Thats my nephew Siddhu aspiring for a Guitar, not an actual rock star..Hutchoo..! When I gave it to him two years ago, he was younger and did not know it. He was making a drum beat with his hands on the guitar. Too early, I thought.  Although by now he might have ripped off atleast 2 strings from the guitar. Nothing ever stays in his hands as it was handed, atleast for a day. It would be real nice to see him play it one day though. 

Six6Six6Six... [Guest Post]

Friends today is special as I have decided to start "Guest Post" feature here. Every now and then you'll see photos not from my phone but from my friend's as well. Starting off this tradition is a supposedly 'Bad-OMEN' shot that my friend Raju snapped from his dashboard. All Sixes! I wonder where he was at that time. Well, good that he wasnt driving. Just imagine if the speedometer also had sixes....guess I wouldnt have got this photo! Thanks for not driving and on behalf of all the viewers.. Thanks for sharing.

Happy Birthday Shamanth..

I discovered this photo some time ago while browsing through my album. I was surprised to see this coz I have never take this photo. I mean how can you take a picture of the phone's screen. Yeah, this is the screen of my phone when my buddy Shamanth calls me. Then after too many screen shots, one day I found out that when the home button and the reset button are pressed simultaneously , a screen shot is added to the photo album. Hmm, nice!
By the way, Many Happy Returns of the day dude...Happy Birthday!

Freeziest...

Remember how I keep mentioning about winters in Madison, WI. Well, heres an actual picture for proof of how worse it could get (Seventeen below ZERO!). I took this photo around this time last year (I know, can you believe it...Maaaarch!!) just before getting out of my car at office in the morning. I had to run as fast as I can to get into the office before my nostrils froze!

I get too scared to even think about converting these kind of temperatures to centigrade scale. I suppose my wish of going to Antarctica can almost be checked.

Hello, Im Rich!

Coincidence is an act of destiny that Im very much amazed of, especially when things dont go wrong, coincidentally! Office coincidences were pretty common and one of the frequent experience was with attire. One day my best friend, guide, scholar, fun-buddy-across-my-cubicle at work, Rich happened to choose the same exact color of shirt and trousers that we almost looked like factory workers on the same Union membership. I miss Rich the most from my office friends. I remember when I met him first time, he came over to me and said....Hi, Im Rich! I greeted him back saying, Hi, Im Venu, and one day even I'll be rich!!

Discography..

The last time I saw a picture like this was in the news papers when the city police busted some video piracy racket. Ofcourse that was long before DVDs flourished in VCD parlors. Recently my friend Vijay asked me to come to his place to organize his video library and when I saw him, he reminded me of the guy in the piracy photo, surrounded by randomly spread CDs and DVDs, holding one of the discs in hand for a pose! So we started out with an excel sheet and there were more than 100 movies in his collection, a few of them came out twice, thrice. I understood why he wanted to organize!!

Pole Service

I think pole service men are the most daring, especially electric pole people. I cannot imagine myself tangled up with high tension wires that carry some megawatts of power, even though when they are down. Hats off to those daring men who give us light, heat, chill, air, ice, music and you know the rest of the list! This one is from Tarnaka, Hyderabad last year.

ASAP..

ASAP stands for All SAP (in Ameerpet). It means as mentioned in the picture above, all SAP installations are done. Having a cup of tea in front of a software training institute last year, I caught this small poster that was on the wall of the institute. My friend and I couldnt hold our cups laughing . These kind of pamphlets are used to paint the walls in Ameerpet and I saw that even roads are covered up with thousands may be lakhs of hand outs that are given to passersby forcibly in one hand only to be thrown away from the other.

Charminar's cousin

I discovered this looks-like-ancient monument last year when I lost my way back home. I went to my friend Shamanth's house in August last year just to meet his parents. His dad told me a short cut to my place from there and I got confused. From Lal bazar I went too far away crossing Alwal, Bolaram(i think) and reached some place that I forgot the name. I saw this very huge Charminar-look-alike monument with two of its minars missing. I searched for the place for a few minutes online but couldnt figure it out. Keep track of the comments as it might appear there one day.

Wallet Service

 

  Though I was fond of wallets from my high school days, I never used one on a regular basis until I was in US. Suddenly I had a lot of things (credit cards, id cards, license, insurance, reg. card, photos, notes, change etc) to carry with me all the time and so had to maintain a wallet. This wallet was a gift from my seniors on freshers day party in Omaha. I dont know how they picked me for fresher of the year, but I was happy for the gift. After almost 3 years one day I thought of cleaning it. It was surprising to see how many things were hiding in those small leather pockets. It was slowly getting worn out so i had to replace it. The new one did not last six months. Currently I carry one, occasionally and its on the brink of getting out of service, hardly in 3 months time! I wonder when I can get my wallet service back!!

Daddy Day Care

 

On my second visit to the Taste of Madison in 2008, my gang from Omaha came along. Incidentally even on my first visit in 2007, my other gang from Omaha came over. So, I was kind of representing Omaha every time there. Taste of Madison is an annual food festival thats spread around the capitol building in downtown. Almost all the restaurants have stalls there and a lot of bands play while beer is served from taps of small tankers. After making a few rounds exploring stalls we stopped at a bench and just in front of us was a curb on which I saw this small kid trying to eat something expecting his dad to help him while his dad is looking around to see if some lady needs any help!

Rain Check.

After Ramzaan it was time for the next big bigger biggest festival in India, Ganesh Chaturthi.Though I did not go to any temple(s) I had a chance to drive around the most extreme assorted collection of the lord Ganeshas idols in the city. It was after midnight that we started tracing the streets in Begum Bazaar. At around 1 AM it started raining and by 1:30 we got drenched. Luckily I saved my phone and while waiting on a pavement with a few others who were enjoying hot dosas(at that hour!!) I captured this midnight street that got washed off for almost 2 hours that night.

Play...In to the woods!

 

Once up on a time I had a chance to spend some time deep in the woods and up over a hill, far away from the city, until it was dark to almost mid night. The best part was there were around thousand others with me. This my dear friends is American Players Theatre's Play in the Woods. I went there with my close friend and his family. It was sort of a picnic, we first packed up all the food and wine and drove for about an hour away from the city, spread out our stuff and had a nice snack time and hiked over a small hill to witness a play in the middle of the forest, amazing!! Isnt it? The play was performed by some very professional artists and I dint get bored for almost 2 hrs, the play time. I like plays for the fact that there are no retakes for the entire screen/stage time which makes it that much more challenging for artists. Occasionally I observed around just to see the wonderful setting that was made in the middle of the thick green forest surrounded by huge trees. As it became dark the ambiance of the forest was even more wonderful. A definite thing to see in summer if you are in/near Madison.

Memorial Union from Mendota

 

Mendota is the biggest lakes in Madison and is preceeded by its sister lake Monona. Both are separated by downtown Madison. In fact I learned the word Isthmus (land covered by water on two sides) living in downtown when I first moved here. Memorial Union is like the biggest hangout place that I ever saw in a university. Its so big that its open for public. In summer this place is fully busy with water activities like boating, canoeing, kayaking etc. although in winters its walking, running, ice fishing on this lake. So whenever I had some one visiting me in Madison, this was the first place I would take them to. A cool nice chill out place for any season.

Tiramisu

Most of the birthday party recipes (back in US) had 3 main ingredients...cake, balloons and wine, apart from other regular stuff like friends etc. When it comes to a party in my friend Shamanth's apartment, one can be sure whats for dessert that night. Infact he introduced me to this wonderful and awesome cake called Tiramisu. Its an italian dessert thats made of some heavenly mouth melting ingredients that are better known when tasted. I wonder if we get it here in India. When I find out you'll see it here again!

Hyderabadeee....

2009 Ramzaan was very special to me as I followed Roza  for 10 days (almost), before I gave up. Its not easy, trust me. Not eating/drinking anything from morning 4:40 (SAHERI) to evening 6:30( IFTAAR)is almost like a suicide attempt if you do it for the first time and repeat everyday. My friend Vijay also joined me and together we managed to follow this routine for a week when he dropped out.  I have to agree that if done in an organized way, like most of them do, have a complete meal early in the morning and keep eating small amounts from evening till all night it can be done for the whole 30 days of Roza. The main reason  I did this was because I wanted to experience Islam and also because the whole act seemed to be pure, purifying mind body and spirit. The fasting thing also has some scientifically proved benefits I heard. On the whole I fulfilled my wish of going to a masjid for Namaaz in this holy period of Ramzaan.

I almost forgot, this one is from inside the Macca Masjid near Charminar, (of course) Hyderbad!

Green, Greener, Greenest !

Location: Madison, WI.

Exact Location: Central Part, near to down town.

Oh Come on ! : Giddings Park on N Brearly St. !!

With out a doubt, this is my favorite spot in Madison. Though its near downtown, its a bit hidden from the city rush. This place where my buddy Praveen is standing is behind a church and is I think the most beautiful, peaceful & romantic place in the city. Its also secluded which makes it even more attractive. The lake Mendota was almost over flowing to the end of summer and was already getting cold. It was the end of June in 2008.

Pooled..

 

 Of course Im a pooler (or is it pool player?), trying my luck in a different way. Afterall I think that was the third or fourth time I ever took the stick in my hand. This was from a mid summer evening when we decided to stop over at a local bar near office after work. Had to knock down a few glasses to get to this point. I mean the pool is free unless you order "something" at the bar!

Rear Window...

We used to live in the central part of Madison about 2 miles from downtown at a place called Sherman Terrace. One group was on the far east side and another on the far west side of the city. So, every time we had to get together in the city, it had to be in my apartment on the third floor of the building. And more over there were two groups here. So all four groups (Praveen, Shamanth, Subhadra, Me) got together to go Mad in Madison!

This one is from one winter morning when I looked down from my apartment window at the parking lot, our toys appeared to be getting together in snow! The window was my weather forecast. One needs some kind of weather forecast in Madison for sure, trust me.

Wow, Cake..?? I think its my birthday today!

Siddhu(my nephew) is always ready with candles everytime some one brings a cake to his home. So basically he celebrates his birthday almost once every month. This was from one of his countless birthday parties and he dint even care about changing his school uniform. I remember, the first time I ever cut a cake on my birthday, the candles counted 24 and I had to go to US to see that miracle. Not that we couldnt afford it in the family, but we never cared to. So much that we dont know our Mom's birthday even to this date. Although she used to make sure we had new clothes and chocolates to distribute every year in school.

Birdy Garland

 

While crossing a busy road in Ameerpet, I heard a loud flapping sound  from above and when I turned up my head a flock of pigeons have just landed side-by-side on the wires that connected electric poles on either side of  the road. Suddenly I thought on that November cloudy evening in the midst of a busy traffic a few meters above the ground what those pigeons were thinking about, staring down!

Some day I will...

But this was not that day. This was on a winter day when me and my buddy were waiting at a strip joint in Madison. It was very cold and I saw this piano place called Steinway. So, we thought why not get in and wait. There were very beautiful pianos ranging from brands to grands and this one here is a grande piano that was close to... wait for it........
A Million Dollars!!

Free Ticket..

I once got a free ticket to a base ball game. A lot of people from my office joined too as these tickets were given away at work. I mostly went there because my buddies from work were going. Still I was missing my gang. So when I reached the ground I asked around my circle and managed to earn two more tickets for my friends Praveen & Shamanth. They started off, but I did not see them until a few hours after the game when they had to pick me up from a bar and take me home. Guess what ! 
Free Drinks too at the game!!

Bowled Up!

 

Yeah, thats me and probably thats the highest score I ever reached in bowling. Neither me nor my friends believed when I was throwing strike after strike. Ofcourse I never saw this kind of score again after that.

After a long time away from my home town (in US) Omaha, one fine day in the summer of 2008 I decided to drive home. I couldnt hold back my excitement all the way from Madison to Omaha in a 500 mile drive that lasted almost 10hrs. It was as if I was coming back to my real home in Hyderabad, nostalgia wise!

And the best part of it was that I was with my brother and my bro Pandu. I think may be the happiness and the excitement worked up a bit in pushing to the limits of scoring strike-after-strike at Mocking Bird Lanes, our favorite bowling spot.

Atomic Energy Central School - 3 (TIFR)

                 After a long long time recently I went back to my alma mater AECS-III also called TIFR as there were 2 other branches. Located in woods behind ECIL near ECIL cross roads. A melange of emotions run through my heart just to see the state in which the building was. I never would have even dreamt of seeing this great institution in such a state. Once bustling with hundreds of students in the morning and afternoon batches with long prayers, four different groups of students identified by their flaps (green, yellow, red, blue) practicing sports, dance, rangoli, quiz for competitions during weekend spelled Saturday then. Now Deserted, Wild, Locked up from outside world and almost rotting! A few years back they closed our school combining students from other branches into one place. Ofcourse only a handful of students now, with the emergence of many private, so called competition oriented concept schools that have IIT, EAMCET, AIEEE coaching integrated, differentiated what not!! They have all things for the future exams but unfortunately they dont have anything for the present school life like a play ground, sports, cultural activities. How sad. 

              6th class was my most favorite year in school. We used to have a lot of substitution periods as almost every day some lecturer missed their schedule. And most of these were substituted for PT or Library. If ever I had a chance to go back in time, I would definitely go to my 6th class.....

My first Guitar....

As most any kid, in my childhood I had quite a liking for guns and guitars. In my drive of fulfilling all childhood dreams I finally bought a guitar back in the Fall of 2007. I was finally working in a full time job and had time to spend on my hobbies and dreams. So, after searching rigorously, I found a second-hand electric guitar for $120 on craigslist. I called up and the lady delivered it at my apartment. It came with a full packed box including an amplifier, extra string set, a bag and a pick. Me and my friends had a lot of fun trying to play it, but no notable notes ever. I learned that for a beginner you should go with an acoustic guitar which is easy to start unlike electric that has a lot of controls and is a bit complicated. I gave it to my brother when I moved back home. So, the best use I had with it was to have a couple of pictures!!

Over the top and....Over night too!!

Place: Minneapolis
Time: Around 5PM in December 2008
Altitude: Too high to count!

A day after the snow in the city, I had a connecting flight from Madison to Omaha from Minneapolis.  Unfortunately the weather became worse in Omaha due to rain and the flight had to take a U-turn just a few minutes before landing back to Minneapolis and I had to spend the rest of the night in the airport with quite a few people from other flights. It was rough, especially when I remembered my first trip to Minneapolis in the summer of 2006 when I was with my troop having a blast. Little did I know that it was going to get worse in the morning. I missed two flights and had to wait all day in the Chicago airport to finally reach Omaha more than 24hrs delayed to my friends graduation ceremony. I made it to the last round of drinks, just in time!

Speeding Up Together

It was summer of 2008 and my first brother-in-law came to Pennsylvania for a 2 month official trip. He visited us in Madison over a weekend and the first thing we did was to drive to Chicago. It was my second trip to Sears Tower, the third tallest building in the world in Chicago. And while editing this post I realized they changed the name to Willis Tower in 2009 after more than 35 years since its construction. The interesting fact to observe while in the elevator to the top of the building is that it goes up in just almost one minute. I wonder what speed it travels. They should make it a glass door lift just to experience its power. Im sure most people wouldn't feel comfortable to see that.

What, Where, When, How...??????

 Its amazing to observe things around us and wonder if they ever say anything to us. One winter morning I rushed to office, threw my gloves on my desk and went to get a cuppa coffee. When I came back to my desk, I saw my gloves and for a moment I felt they were trying to say something to me and from their body language it appeared they were questioning me. And a lot of questions went through my mind about them and about myself.  I wondered if they were asking me why I treat them so roughly. My gloves were very warm and soft. I never used to take them off  when outdoors and so they got ripped pretty bad after a while. My desire for gloves goes back as long as I can remember. They somehow make your hands more powerful in a mysterious way. Its like not yours, but you control it as if its yours.


PS: A second delay in my PAD and I dont hope/plan/wish to make a third.

On the way from work...

I cant believe I missed my PAD project the very second day itself...damn me! So, just to make it up to you, heres a small hand made bouquet from hand picked flowers that I found on the way home from work one day. It was the Fall of 2007 and the trees started glowing with bright colors and weather was slowly becoming cooler. Its a 2 minute walk from the bus stop to my apartment and I couldnt ignore the flowers and couldnt resist picking them. There were a lot of different varieties and some were abnormally large. I took these home and spent some time trying to make a bouquet. Since there was nobody I could give it to then, I took a picture. They lasted only an hour I think. Of course I sent the photo to one of my office friend's whom I planned to give the bouquet in the first place. I would post about her one day, stay tuned!
By the way PAD expands to Photo A Day!!

Happy Birthday..... 5th Siddhu!

 

This year marked the 5th birthday of my nephew Siddhu AKA Venkat Siddharth on 16th January. Incidentally it was my second brother-in-law (Kishore)'s birthday too, although I dint bother to ask the number of candles they used. Cycle or Bicycle has been a significant object of desire in my childhood life and occasionally even now. All my school days went in dreaming about riding my own Hero Ranger cycle one day. Every time my Dad used to make a deal of getting first rank for a cycle. And every time I won, he used to suffice the deal with a poor compromise like buying me a silver ring with a pearl (yeah, right I loved rings), buying a second hand lady's BSA SLR or a second hand HERO cycle. At that time I decided that I will buy a cycle with my own money one day. So, finally when I got settled in a full time job in 2007 half way across the globe from my home, I started searching for the best deal. To my surprise I realized, Madison, WI seemed to be the bike (US bicycle) capital. Every body in summer set out on bikes during evenings and weekends. Its amazing to see the whole family going beside the road together each on their own bike- one for day, one for mom, one for sister, one for brother and one for the little brother. Obviously there were series of bike shops that had a wide range of bikes. It took me a week to research and convince myself to afford a bike for $230. But when I told this to my colleagues at work, I got disappointed to learn that the winter was about to start and its not worth to spend so much for a bike. Theres no way one can ride a bike during winter in Madison, trust me, I have been there! So I managed to get a third hand bike for $50. It was good too, for those few days during the fall of 2007. So technically I never bought a brand new bicycle until 

Siddhu's birthday this year. Happy Birthday dude and thanks!

Happy Valentines Day and...

A Happy New year 2010. Unlike the past few New Year occasions, I was with family this time. It was my Sister and her cutefull kids.

I promised that I would be there on new years eve with them. Although little after the mid night blast, I had to come back to my place for the never-ending-editing work on my first short film. Incidentally I finished the final editing for my second one today.

Some how we try to make huge plans for regular occasions, yet we miss to celebrate it with regular people. The most regular being Family. I have been missing them for quite a while now, yet it would never be as it used to be.

On the brighter side, this blog is dedicated to a "friend" of mine as Valentines Day present. I hope to make it every day till the next! 
Wish Me Luck!!