Mr.P and before: A year

Hi,

I had thought of no more posting in this year and so did Mr.P had decided to observe some more stuffs around before jumping on to his next snapping mission. But even this momentary retirement was proving itself unbearable (after all retirements are for those overworking cricketers, not creatures like Mr.P). Moreover Mr.P was getting to realize that he is turning one gradually and considering me as a person who jumps from one thing to other so often (in short, impatient) he wanted a little "something" to remember. So, this post.

This post has got a few pictures from different times in this one year and also a few even before Mr.P knew he was born. Here they are. Hope you would like them.

It was 2008 and Durga Puja in Kolkata (yes... Kolkata yet again.!!). I was out with Soumalya, my friend (the one with the bike in the post: Aadi Kolkata below), on that Saptami. Please note that Mr.P was unaware that he had started to work then.

This was one of the dozen artworks in the entrance of a pandal in south (Kolkata). I could not help myself from appreciating the person who planned the lights and colours there. This picture I simply call RED AND LIGHT.

The next one is one of my favorite pictures that I (as Mr.P was still working without his own knowledge) had taken in Puja 2008.

The purohit (priest) here is in just the correct place with just the correct gestures and objects. The fumes have filled the entire pandal creating just the correct haze with just the correct colours around. Its as if the Goddess herself is decorating the studio for my snap. It was SIMPLY DIVINE.

That was Saptami. On Navami I went out with my bro, Bishan, for just a morning long pandal hopping. As I said, I was a hopping, most of the pictures are not that good (as Mr.P was still not working consciously). But from whatever I could grab, here is a better chunk of it.

In this puja of Kumartuli, apart from the Durga idol, this Shiva sculpture was worth an admiring look. No limit of the count of arms he can have, neither of the purity nor strength he possesses. He is an INFINITE MAN, yet so calm. (Again a loud round of applause for the pandal artists.)

Oh! Before the Navami, I had a day long hopping on Ashtami with Bishan (we call him Biki) only. Though I don't think a vast majority of the pictures are worth posting, but this one I could not resist.

It was a little jhaarbaati (chandelier) hanging from the ceiling of Sen Baari (Sen's residence), at Behala (Sourav Ganguly's home locality at Kolkata to be precise!)where their own Durga Puja was going on. We two went inside the residence. No body stopped us. Took a few pictures of the idol. But this STILL BLUE souvenir was unavoidable to return with.

On the Navami night, we cousins went out to see the Salt Lake pujas. I don't remember the name of the place exactly, but there was a good open space where that puja was being held. Some cultural programs were also being held in a little stage there.

Frankly speaking, I am one of the worst dancers alive but I, at times, do find myself appreciating this form of art. After looking for some time at this performance, I could guess the story in it. I just waited for the moment when the boy will ask the girl "WILL YOU?" (the kneeling down of him was bonus.!)

Puja 2008 was gone with the yells (and sms) of aschhe bochhor abaar hobe (next year it will be there again) all around. Now it was almost this time of the year last year and a "someone" called Mr.P woke up to its own knowledge one afternoon. As soon as it did, it went out.

This church has featured in this blog even before (in the post Bitten by the Clickbug) but not in this mood. Gives me a vintage look when taken away from its true colours into plain black and white. An OLD CATHEDRAL holding a belief much older than itself.

About Digha also I have told before. But in this "revisit" type of post, I could not leave it out completely. The picture below is one of those which I wanted to but didn't publish in "Mr.P is out again" post but told about.

The reason being that its no different from what already was there. Yes, you got it right. Its YET ANOTHER SUNSET on the beach. Have my fingers crossed if you would like it.

2008 was over. My elder sister got married in January '09. I witnessed the preparations, the pressures and above all the fun of the ceremony. I did take all the family pictures but there also the highly thougthful Mr.P was looking for his "subject of interest". (c'mon man.! I was there to enjoy, not to waste time in whatever Mr.P calls his "subject").

But when I saw this lovely artwork, I shutted my big mouth and let Mr. P work. The fair hands with the scarlet MAHENDI, surely makes a wedding party looks so complete.

In April, I went to Mayapur, the headquarter of ISKCON with two of my friends. It sure was a hectic day but the company made it worth.

It was yet another sunny day of the hottest summer in the last decade. But the faith that one of my friends was holding in her then, made us carry on even in that UNBEARABLE heat. That belief was of the peace when you sit near the foot Krishna. After all ISKCON stands for International Society for Krishna Consciousness.!

Now there was a big gap for Mr.P. January to July went by. In the middle there was a rainy season. On some weekend evening at that time, after a quick but refreshing shower, I went to my terrace.

While checking different modes of taking pictures in my camera, Mr.P was randomly shooting whatever he could find nearby (or far away, in case of zoom tests). Basically, I myself am very less interested in gardening but to breath in a CLEANSED evening air is itself a very satisfying sensation.

After roughly a week I guess, Mr.P was again testing my camera. Again in the same terrace but this time with no rain. I don't know what came to him, he shot the frame below.

Thanks to the camera settings, only the outline of the 'earthly' objects of the snap came with a dark filling. Other than them, I could see that not only the birds (and other earthly beings) but the sun was also going to be NESTED.

Before my holidays in October, Mr. P was desperate to take a few snaps of the Ganga at Howrah (and he did that too... check out the post "5am on a Sunday... Thats not me"). In that little walkathon (word contributed by one of Rashmila's comments), Mr.P got this snap below.

Although its not a very old construction but this NEXT BRIDGE is as nostalgic to me as the first one (yes the Howrah bridge itself)... considering the fact that I have spent the majority of my childhood outside the Kollolini (a bengali adjective used by many for Kolkata)

Rules of Photography says that if somebody wishes to publish a picture of someone, the publisher needs to have the permission of that person (even if she is family). This rule made me call up the person below today.

Didi was not at all willing to get it published, but later on she said,"Okay go ahead if you like it so much." Well, I didn't know what to call this picture but the smile, the gaze, the comfort and the shade somehow gives me a nice feel of WARMTH. (It has been taken in my mobile on the way to Kerala, in a moving train, so please excuse the clarity.)

If you go right below this blog page (across all the photo posts), you will find what I used to do (when I did nothing.!). Scribbling, doodling etc on the pages left out of my old notebooks.

Well, nothing of a high magnitude was ever done by me but I can say that I have been more that what I had been (yes, Mr.P is assisting me a hell lot). And the best part is it has been a wild party of enjoyment (oh God.! I am talking as if I am dead.!). Anyway, the picture above is of ONE OTHER P.

Frankly speaking, these pictures I could not fit anywhere and were like leftovers (I know, some better word should have been used). But I thought, seeing them, they deserve a little better treatment. So, this post.

Anyway, if you liked them, please do let me know through your comments.

Till then,

Cheers :)

Mr. P and my Mobile Phone

Hi,

Many of you have also asked me: Who is this “Mr.P”? Well, he is the crazy photographer inside me who is often philosophical and can go to limits for a good snap (born in the post “Bitten by the Clickbug” in this blog) .Sometimes I hate him for ruining my weekends but I believe some of you seem to love him for what he does.

"Thank you" [says Mr. P :) ]

This time, he gave a rest to my cybershot and used my mobile (which has a 2MP camera in it). Until very lately I never though that I will ever post these pictures taken from my mobile camera here but it was a few work by Mr. P which made me think otherwise.

The clarity of these pictures is pathetic as they are from a mere 2MP mobile camera. So now you know what not to expect from the pictures of this post.! (the pictures here have been made a little eye friendly and also have been made to throw out their best)

Well, here I go.

One evening (probably in June), when I came back from my office, I turned to my right in the entrance passage in my house, through the window of my grandpa’s study.

Mr. P snapped three pictures, but my grandpa was so engrossed in the subject of that page, he didn’t notice. He still has no idea that he has reached you and you also have seen him when he was busy with HIS HOBBY.!

Coffee in my office is one of the rare few free entities. And another best side of the pantry is that it is in the fourth floor and has large glass walls.

In that July evening, the sky was looking very welcomingly red. Mr.P and I, both, just love this time and decided to call the picture above what it meant: SIX P.M, FINALLY.

At Kolkata July was fairly rainy. The picture below is of one those days when I hadn’t brought any umbrella to my office (yes... its a snap from the same pantry).

I took it to show one of my colleagues how badly it is going to rain IN A FEW MINUTES and how even more badly I needed an umbrella. You can see the reflection of my mobile’s camera here in this pic.

The picture below is of the LANE WHERE I LIVE.

There is nothing so special about this picture other than a fact that to take this picture, Mr.P (and my body) were standing OUTSIDE the terrace boundary railing, over the shades of the windows of the second floor (which means a slip, and my body falls like a rock from two storeys). Please don’t tell my mom about it.!

Kolkata is growing, both horizontally and vertically. Sourav da, being a boy from BaghBazar (a typically north Kolkata locality) chose to take a home at Garia (the southernmost tip of present Kolkata). I had gone to his place that afternoon.

When I asked him about his such a choice, Neogi Aunty (his mother) took me to the roof and gave me this breathtaking and peaceful view of their NEW NEIGHBOURHOOD. The reason became clear.! (can you listen to the birds chirruping?)

The holidays of 15^th August, I try to spend them with my parents at Jamshedpur. And this year also I was successful. While going to the place, I went and stood near the train COMPARTMENT DOOR.

The morning rain had just finished and the smell of wet soil was... just so... fresh (a brilliant understatement for what it actually felt like, forgive my vocab.)

Came September end, and my workload in office increased ten folds. Four of us colleagues had to stay in the office 24x7 for five days (and nights). The office guest house was booked for us to stay.

That morning, at about six fifteen, I was coming back after my longest nap of two and half hours when I looked up to see my OFFICE AT SIX AM. May be its not that bad a place after all.

After that hectic phase in the office, I was to leave for Kerala (as you might already have known by now that I really had gone to that place). The journey was of three days two nights.

After the first night was gone, I woke up and Mr. P again ran to the compartment door to catch the RISE FROM SLEEPER CLASS.

All the ‘bloggable’ pics that were taken in Kerala are in the post just below this one. While coming back, I had slept in the topmost bunk and when I woke on the second morning in the train, this is the first thing which caught my eyes, just across the commutation passage.

I don’t know who she is or what she does. All I knew was, Mr. P took out my mobile, checked the surrounding for any watchful stare, and Click.! Sorry MISS. WHOEVER-YOU-ARE for not informing you about your picture in such deep expression, I just couldn’t.!

And finally, when I was back in the battle of survival (called work life), I was amused to learn that it hardly matters to Mr. P if I am on my way back home at nine thirty at night or not. He is ever enthusiastic as ever to borrow a moment from the time and space around him.

I used to notice that this man (yes, the lump in the footpath is a person) rests at the same place every night. Mr. P was a little hesitant to take a snap of him from a crowded bus... but he did it anyway. The person is in his COMFORT ZONE in spite of such a rushing and complaining world around him.

I hope it doesn't end here. Mr. P is even more desparate now for better pictures. Dont worry, I will keep you informed of whatever he does.

Do let him know all what you think about the pictures through your comments below. It will help him.

Till then, cheers.! :)