A Christmas Outing

Hi,

The last post was somewhat not-in-a-usual-state-of-mind type. But, even if mistakenly, the idea got conveyed that the bunch of half a dozen of amateurs were all serious like Uncle Sam, you might like to reconsider the conclusion.

To start the day, we got these beautiful Christmas trees from Rashmila (the one behind the snapathon plan and its successful exceution).I call this tree... aaa... mmm... FREE TREE. (ya! I know that name stinks, but did you see the number of 'E's here? did ya? huh?... oh! forget it!) Rashmila, if you are reading this, please don't throw me out of your upcoming plans.

Oh! Must warn you all that the amount of colours in this post is noticeably less. One of the reason being the time when the picture was being shot. The perpendicular and overly bright sunrays were making the colours appear dull, so I and Mr.P agreed on removing them from more than just a few places.

Passing though the market place, at not less than eleven thirty, a few things caught the attention of Mr.P. One of them is this one.I had heard it somewhere that in India, anytime is tea time. I don't disagree I have seen people having tea at 4am, before breakfast, after breakfast, at 11am (some also have it after lunch), after the post lunch nap, before/during sunset, after sunset (for sure) and even at 2:30 am in teh morning (ask those engg. college students!). I call this picture TIMELESS BEVERAGE.

Again, in the context of India, spices are something that make our country different from others. Continuing on the market place, this one could never skip the eyes of Mr.P.

I call this one TASTE OF SCARLET. Wont be wrong in calling our country the 'spiciest' land of all. eh? :)

I don't know if the next pic should have been a part of the last post, but, for some reason I didn't put it there. Although, you might not disagree that there are a few elements in it that might qualify more for the last post.

I am highly unsure, but the first look at this man and I could reverse engineer a story about him. He might have come out his house early, might have pulled a goods loaded cart, then he got a break and now is BASKING in the sun. (okay, no questions please, these are only assumptions in a few milliseconds).

I too was planning to stand in the sun for a few moments more, but some of your company went inside the gates of an old red and sold building. Mr.P didnt want to miss anything out. He too went in.

Have anyone of you ever noticed one thing? Even though the residences of people are clubbed together in a single multi storied building, still that building is called APART-MENT. (oh! by the way, he is Sounak).

After walking on the road which runs parallel to the tram tracks, all six of us now found a door completely ajar, with noone standing, sitting or watching it. (No, we didnt have any ill intension)

We all stepped inside and I am sure we all got quite nice pictures how the structure of the of the house of the middle class of old times used to be in the city. Mr.P calls his catch ONE STEP.

Then, we all went inside the locality of Kumortuli (for the second time in the same calender year) but this time, Mr.P was not at all planning to shoot anything in particular. He thought of relying on the moment which may put something in front of him.

I had no idea, which god is this, but I wont be surprised if the artist had Lord Shiva in his mind. The backdrop was something that Mr.P didn't want to put in his frame, so I had to bend down my not-so-athletic body, to get the angle he wanted. (I think, this is a NATARAJA).

But after this, it was Deepak who found out something quite interesting. All six of us were so excited by it, that we sometimes were blocking the other person's camera.

All Deepak said was "Boss... take a look at this." and we six took really good looks at it. It is part of the necklace that a big graffiti-ed goddess Kali was wearing. It was something that made a name come out at that very instant LIFE FROM DEATH.

Inside the studio of Nepal Pal (yes, the same one), I went in again. It was looking like one of those aircraft hangers after the airplane is out of it, so empty. Mr.P didnt take the picture. the largness (and hence, the emptyness) of the studio didnt fit in his screen. Deepak, Chandrika and I went in.

I showed them the staircase from where Mr.P had taken one of his little admired pictures of Kumortuli. The place had nothing there now. Will it be unfair if this picture is called USED UP?

We didn't know the roads of the locality. Luckily, Sewoti expressed our concern (that if that lane to the left leads to the Ganges) in a bit louder voice. Suddenly, a boy on a bicycle passed her, saying a "yes". We concluded that, here, we just need to make it audible, the answer will surely pop up.On our way to Ganga, this temple got spotted. And thanks to the auto focus settings of my camera, Mr.P got what exactly he wanted his snap to be. I call this picture BARRED BELIEF.

Oh! almost forgot to post this one at its proper place. As I have mentioned even earlier, the artists hardly care who is taking their picture, and who is not if you are not drawing too much of their attention (or its a secret for a theme puja).

This young sculpture was no exception, a few occasional questions was being asked, but his father was the one to answer them. This artist was completely FOCUSED in every stroke he makes in that clay.

And this one now was a find by Mr.P himself. We already had a footprint on a door, and now we had a palm print on another door.

Actually, I dont know if Mr.P was audible enough for others to hear about his discovery, but I am sure that he knew, he needed this picture (why?? I don't know!). He calls this one BRAKER (dont like it? me neither!)

At the Ganga, Mr.P was just enjoying the sun and I was getting a chance to be a part of other photographs :) The day was done now. Time to get back. Sewoti took us to her home. And the most remarkable part was the elevator ride. Let me try putting it in a compact way. Two and half feet by two and half feet, four people maxxximum, speed...mmm... I could see people using stairs... and when it has reached the second floor, it was at 1.75th floor, good lighting makes it easier but still not for claustrophobic. But if someone asks me: how is it? I would say: It was singularly thrilling :). And also those fish chops were superb!

Then we all took our own ways back. At Park Street, Deepak and I had our lunch and then went to the Music World store. (Nyah! we just admired some of the album arts and cursed some of the album prices and came out). Then we (me and Deepak) went to the St. Thomas Church.

It was Christmas and hence, it was not unusual for us to find the church to be a little crowded. Mr.P and Deepak took many pictures. I also took a few pictures of Deepak that he wanted for some profile pics! :). But, not being an expert on religious texts, I dont know what exactly they call this event depicted in this beautiful glass painting, but I, we, called this THE CRUCIFICATION.

Huh..!! well, that more or less how the daylight of December 25th, 2010 was for me. (the evening only has memories of a pain in my feet, probably from the walk that I had since eight thirty in the morning).

Anyway, sorry,I didn't notice that the post is getting huge. It always is great to share time with you. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this post. We will be waiting :)

Cheers :)