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.