Twilight Fairy

Yet another update

This blog will no longer be updated. Please move over to my new arena on the web - http://www.twilightfairy.in where I maintain a blog and would add on some more stuff as well. See you on the other side.
You can subscribe to the new blog feed here.

New beginnings

A lot has been happening of late. I have been a bit "offline" and a tad bit busy with well.. "life". Before people put two and two together and start congratulating me on the onset of marriage or something - No - that is not anywhere on the agenda as of now. There's more to life than marriage and the online world. That remarkable display of profundity aside, I would like to announce the new beginning that I am hinting at.

I have finally managed to shift to my own domain some months back. Visit my new online home here. Please update your blogroll and feeds if you have any, with the blog URL and the new feed. From now on, I would not be blogging on rediffblogs anymore. All my previous posts have been migrated to the new home. Comments have been left behind though. I ended up not doing a lot of things I wanted to, because of the tacky interface that rediff offered. Even if this is the online world, it feels significant and emotional since this is where I started my blogging journey in 2003 (time sure flies by). Before I start on how blogging has been for me, as an experience, and end up blogging even more on rediffblogs, let me redirect you all to my new home.

I had been procrastinating a lot of posts and bloggable bits in my life, to do it all in the new space. Ultimately I ended up procrastinating the "shift" as well. With Diwali and the new beginnings, let me welcome you to this new space, where I hope to be more regular. Grehpravesh. Suswagatam. Welcome... hear the bells tinkling and the spray of cool rose scented water. The wine glasses are waiting, come help yourself.

The mystery

The mystery of where I am, unfolds dramatically. I am very much here. This has been the longest ever gap in my posts ... and an unplanned one at that. Lots has been happening even in blogging terms, but the action has been on flickr since quite some time now. I am a self confessed flickr addict. Here is a glimpse from 20 of my pictures that made it to flickr explore at some time. Flickr explore is a way devised by good old flickr ppl to showcase 500 of the best pictures in a day. The algorithm to do that is a bit skewed up though, but it's fun anyway.

The individual links of the pictures are here as well. 1. Rubies are red, 2. Reflections, 3. Mooning over the sun, 4. Where's the party, tonight?, 5. Hold on, 6. Bala Quila, 7. The Ceiling, 8. Don't let the sun go down on me,

9. The first step, 10. Venus approaching the moon at twilight, 11. Safdarjung tomb, 12. Clouding over, 13. Sway with the sunset, 14. Tootsie!, 15. Flames, 16. The Delhi bloggers meet - XI,

17. Heavens throwing light, 18. Symmetry in the petals, 19. More lighting, 20. And then God said, let there be light.

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Apart from this there have been umpteen blog meets with Delhi bloggers happening. Lots of collaboration being done for lots of things. Sigh, so much to do, such little time. Thanks to all those who have been regularly visiting and reading through the archives. Yes, there's a whole lot out there to keep you busy for quite some time :P. And here's another first - anyone who wants to write directly can write to me at twilightfairy at gmail dot com. I am quite curious to know who has been reading this bloggie regularly from HSBC, Singapore :P :)

Bong connection

In short, "Bong connection" is the wrong connection. Avoid it. Absolutely. Unless maybe you actually HAVE a bong connection and you might be able to relate to it (at least more than what I did). I wonder whatever made some tabloids give it good ratings. As luck would have it, instead of being able to get tickets for the movies we intended to watch (Harry potter or Die hard 4.0), my office team was able to procure tickets only for this unheard of movie which had supposedly been given good ratings by, who else, but Times of India.

To begin with, the whole hall (read the whole team) was very put off with the shoddy camera work which even in my nightmares, can not be attributed to a technical fault of the cinema hall. All we could see in the initial frames were chopped off images, some headless bodies cracking some jokes in Bengali, some faces with the portions above the eyes cut out of the frame, mouthing dialogues. 90% of the movie is in Bengali (with English subtitles) and 10% in English. Hell, no one had even set my expectations right about this :|. Most of the acting seemed very very made up and artificial. A tad too melodramatic at times. The script seems very predictable due to the same.

The story revolves around two parallel tracks. A bong guy settled in India (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) now wanting to explore US and another bong guy (Shayan Munshi who finally got some time off Jessica's case hearings), born and brought up in New york wanting to explore Calcutta and his roots. Thrown in between, apart from a lot of bong dialogues, food and music, are some examples of bad and unnatural acting (Raima sen especially), underutilised actors (Victor bannerjee), a nymphet like starlet (Peeya Rai Choudhuri ), a lot of slipshod camera work and a lot of parallel tracks apart from the two that are already running. Somewhere or the other, as expected, these tracks intersect. (Is this the latest formula in Indian movies or what?)

Both these bongs are in search for something, which they probably find in certain ways and don't find in larger ways and get back to where they came from. Do I sound confused? Well you know what to blame it on. Till the end we were trying to figure out what was the "point" that was being made. Midway in the movie, some of us from the team also tried to make a desperate "team attempt" to get into the audi where the Harry potter show was to be shown only to realise that it had been postponed for some school kids. The lure of a working AC and a comfy seat got us back to our own audi, alright.

The movie has its moments but they are too few and far apart. Some takes do come across as funny. Some scenes are evocative like the one with an outburst involving Shayan munshi and his extended family in India regarding the property immediately after the demise of his grand father. The sound track isn't much to speak of. I liked only one song which was sung in a bar - "Maajhi re". It was given a rock feel and music really has no language. Later I checked and realised why I just had to like that song in any case. It has been sung by Shaan.

Overall very avoidable fare. Out of hall, out of mind. Thankfully.

Wah Taj!

Sometime back I went on a day trip to Agra specifically with the purpose of photography. Yeah, obsessed-lately-with-photography-me does that at times. But then I have some other crazy people with me luckily, who were willing to brave the sun, heat, humidity etc for the love of photography. A volvo full of 41 occupants set out on 17th June for Agra. Since the killing temperature in Delhi was around 46 degrees some days prior to our trip, everyone was speculative about the weather in Agra, which was only bound to be worse. Yours truly just thanked God for providing her olfactory senses more trustworthy than the Met department. The only thing I tend to bet about is the onset of rain and I (almost) always win :). Needless to say when the whole world thought we would be fried, baked and incinerated, I gleefully predicted that this temperature pressure cooker was already at its peak and would not be able to sustain that long. We were to have rains and we did.

The evening before the trip was spent at India gate. The next morning we had to get together at Mandi house metro station at 5:30 am. I could manage just 2 hours of a subconscious state (read sleep). Conducting project hair wash early in the morning wasn't much of a use eventually as I was again subjected to God's shower at 5:30 am in the morning and eventually we left much later at 7:45 am! But then who minds it, when the weather is this glorious! Though we were concerned about the weather being gloomy at Agra. But all turned out well over there too. It was a clear sunny day, with everything bearing a clean, fresh, washed out look.

Here's a glimpse of the rain gods who practically threw an ice cube into the cocktail in the skies.

I clicked this shot from the bus as we approached our first stop on the way - MacD at Mathura! It was raining outside and the rain drops on the window only make this shot more picturesque.

We first headed towards Fatehpur sikri through some shortcut which gave us the full pleasure of a simulated camel ride also. We eventually made it there only after noon. We first went to Jodha Bai's palace and ended up lolling about for a fair share of our time, which eventually left us with no time for Buland darwaza unfortunately, since we had to rush to the Taj (the high point of the trip) after lunch.

Embedded are some shots from Fatehpur sikri.

The complete Fatehpur sikri set is here.

After Fatehpur sikri, we rushed off to have a quick lunch and then headed towards THE Taj Mahal. The last time I had visited Taj Mahal was sometime in bachpan of which I remembered nothing. Once we reached there, it still hadn't sunk in that we were there at THE love monument. We reached there at 5:30pm and it was supposed to stay open till around sunset (approx 7pm). We had to leave our cellphones and other electronic items back in the bus or in lockers. We were anyway more bothered about our cameras, goggles and water bottles - all of which were thankfully allowed. The entrance was choc a bloc full with people clicking the cliched shots of Taj. The moment one enters, one is thronged by photographers all around willing to click ones pictures with the Taj in exotic poses. We felt like flicking them away - did they think we were nincompoops to have travelled all the way from Delhi, with such exquisite camera gear in tow only to get clicked by those ppl :p. We self righteously clicked our own "exotic" poses with "fingers touching the dome of Taj", "plucking Taj out of the ground" and such like. For a change I got my pictures clicked for memorabilia, which I generally tend to just forget when I am indulging in photography. After all one doesnt visit an exquisite monument like this everyday. Symmetry and cemetery both come to mind when one takes a look at this piece of art. Work on this mausoleum began in 1633 and 20,000 workers laboured for 17 years to build it. The most skilled architects, inlay craftsmen, calligraphers, stone-carvers and masons came from all across Indian and lands as distant as Persia and Turkey. Though it was quite apparent that it is exactly like Humayun's tomb since it was inspired from the same, but of course the magnificance of Taj Mahal is insurmountable.

Some pics from Taj follow in chronological order. One can see the gradients in the sky with passage of time. Needless to say I just love skies, clouds and sunsets. I couldn't venture inside to see the tombs as I was trigger happy outside.

The complete Taj set is here.

The last "twilight" shot before leaving Taj shows Venus approaching the moon for a magnificent occultation the next day.

I clicked 343 pics in all and I have of course uploaded only a few of them. I have a lot of stuff but I would rather upload them gradually than congest my flickr stream with Taj pics. We had grand plans of clicking the Taj from across the other bank of Yamuna but by the time we got out of Taj Mahal, it was already 8pm. Needless to say the number of hours aren't enough to capture or even glimpse this wonderful beauty. Another trip would soon be in the offing, preferably with a full moon to give us company.

There's supposedly lot of speculation in the blogosphere regarding whether we should vote for the Taj or not and if the voting REALLY makes a difference to its national importance. (I quote the MSM for I hardly saw any such speculation myself). Though I have voted for the Taj, and it would certainly help with more votes if we want to keep it there in the final seven wonders, it's everyone's individual decision at the end of the day. All I would say is that even if it doesn't matter to us as a country, (we would anyway visit it if we want), it would definitely matter to the outside world from a tourism perspective and eventually the effect would percolate down enough to make it a matter of national importance. It is one of the most flawless architectural creations of the world. Since the 17th century, travellers have crossed continents to come and see this ultimate memorial to love, and few have been unmoved by its incomparable beauty.
So please go ahead and vote for the Taj before 07/07/07.

Anniversary!

It's the first anniversary of the lovely association with my "gentleman". Those who may feel disinclined to clicking the embedded link, here's how I feel about the gentleman (taken from my first post about the same).

"My hands taper gently and effortlessly. My feet come into motion ever so lightly as if things work on feather touch. I glide as we dance to the symphony of the magical music that we make together. I get intoxicated with the handsome facade and the smoothness of noiseless movement. The gibbous moon stares at us from above as we waltz together, the waltz turning allegro at times. But stopping gracefully was never a problem. Not a sweat on my brow, not a hair out of place. The litheness is remarkable. My head is still giddy with the vitality. There's a jig in my step and a song in my heart.

If I can nestle comfortably in the lap after a long day, get wisps of my hair blown out of my eyes, get mesmerized by the dazzle of lights when we are together - why would I even agree with a darling friend of mine who insists that a brand new car should be treated like a newly wedded bride? My brand new car oozes gentlemanliness."

With my gentleman I have indulged in many a "bondgiri" sessions and whisked across many a highway. I have also been aided a lot in my latest obsession - photography. A lot of sessions would never have been possible without the gentleman in tow. Needless to say it has been a smooooooth ride so far and I look forward to many other such times to come.

Pictures that speak

I tried my hand at portraiture recently both in terms of photography and writing. Here are some of the results. Apologies to those who have fed both my blog RSS feed as well as flickr RSS feed to their feed reader. :p.

Look into my eyes

Look into my eyes!
And you will find,
memories that linger,
and ties that bind.

Hold my hand

Hold my hand,
for I seek comfort.
Be with me right here,
don't let me hurt.

Psst!

Who's that dude?
Who's now being so prude?
Does he think we don't know,
that we were being viewed?

Speculate

I notice of late
I rather speculate
on a lot of things surreal

But it's better to ideate
than to vegetate.
Is it such a big deal?

Companionship

We trudge together, careful never to peer into our shadows.
(not really a couplet, but what the heck, I like the pic)

Reflections

"What happened?", I asked, having received an unexpected call.
"I called just like that", she said, making me feel an instant twinge of guilt. But then I couldn't be blamed for being startled.
"Where are you?", I asked, hearing the unusual noises in the background.
"I am out in the park, taking a walk".
Pause.
"A walk? In the park? You?", I asked incredulously.
"Yes", she said almost sheepishly. "I even went for a walk in the morning."
"That's something!", I added
"And I even had milk both times in the day", she added in a school girlish voice. It was a rare first when I had heard her talk like this. My next impulse was to tell her that she could tell her mom - she would be so pleased to hear that!

Thankfully I curbed that impulse just in time before blurting it out impulsively. For I realised with a pinch yet again, that my nani, her mom, was not around anymore. She had passed away last year. In the absence of a maternal figure, the school girlish glee of my mom had got directed to her daughter. Me. It unsettled me a bit.

I had been maternal with her on other accounts when I had lightly chided her for not taking her health seriously, for not pampering herself, for not going to the parlour regularly like all others in her "age group". But I had barely been faced with situations like this where school girlishly reported activities are meant to be applauded.

Some years back, one fine day, it had suddenly struck me that my mom had already been married and had had me at the age that I was then. Suddenly things fell into a very different perspective altogether. A life full of tribulations whizzed past, clear as if crystal. How it must have been to adjust into a family that was huge, joint and difficult, how it was to be married to an army man who would mostly be away on postings, and all this in days when the world wasn't even a mesh of the densely connected dots that it is today. All this at the age I was then. Suddenly I felt as if under her skin. I could relate to her much more, understand her more clearly without having to communicate anything. But I guess that's natural. For I am her reflection, my mother's daughter.

Magic paint

He cleaned the canvas thoroughly before starting. I watched on. Taut. Eagerly. Waiting to see new fresh colours. Bright ones. To go with the summers. To repel heat. He asked me my choice of colours. For a second it seemed like a million dollar question. Then I came up with the answers. With my assent, he dipped the brush in the paint. With deft strokes, he meticulously spread the paint. Once. Twice. Tweaking the spills and the deficits. Glorious results. He looked at me for approval. I nodded. Glee bursting inside me. The paint felt cool. Seeing the colour, tingled me further. Ah. Summers here I come. Mocking you. I danced my way out quickly. Eager to share the colours with the summer. And that's how came about this fantastic end result. It so tickles me pink.

Ponderable Pink

The colour of the petals,
the bright glittering light.

The pink that settles,
on the black granite.

In my memory eternally nestles,
this wonderful sight.

Clicked the orchids, the last of a bunch, by placing them on a black granite breakfast counter, with the bright summer sun filtering through the curtains.