White Landscapes

December was cold but all is forgotten when you have beautiful landscapes to look at...
View my flickr photostream!

Vietnamese Coffee

I love coffee, and it is a quintessential part of my life.  Whether I am stoopin' it, shouting my order down the street (in India) to the local coffee cart on the corner or enjoying a carefully prepared cup in an upscale coffee house... Coffee is meant to be savored and enjoyed to the max.

Vietnamese coffe is not for the rushy-rushy.  A single serving is brewed through a simple metal filter called a Phin, which takes a good 5-10 minutes to produce a cup.  The filter is fitted over the top of a cup or glass, the grounds are placed inside the filer, a small weighted piece is placed on top, and then hot water is ured into the chamber.

The experience is simply heavenly.  The secret, sweetened condensed milk instead of cream and suger... and I used to hate condensed milk before I had one of these.

squared...

Been hooked to instagram for while... not a great fan of squared images, but somehow the app makes it look good on the phone...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

S I L H O U E TT E S

Watch me at the window from your place on the couch,
watch me pretending that I am really looking out.
You say 'come here, I can't see you in this light',
but I'm much safer beside the moon tonight.

'Cause when I'm a silhouette, I have no fear'!

The High Line, Chelsea Market & Chelsea

   



  





The High Line; New York City's linear park built on a 1.45-mile section of the former elevated New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway.

over a decade and still fresh

It's been bothering me for a while and finally thought that I did pen this down.  It's been over a decade now and I think I was at the safest place when the earthquake rocked Gujarat and my city of Ahmadabad.  It's extremely difficult to let go of some memories and this is one of them. 

I knew it was an earthquake, I could feel the ground rumble and the earth roar in all its might.  I noticed everyone running and I stood there standing and telling myself, it is a playground, unless the earth tears apart, you are safe.  Those 30-45 seconds was an experience but what later followed was something that I'll remember all my life.  I think it was about a couple of hours later I realized the magnitude of the earthquake.  Who knew what did 7.8 on the Richter scale meant, I don't live in an earthquake zone. 

I had left home early morning at around 6 AM without telling my mom where exactly I will be at; I think it was the first time I missed telling her.  On my way back home, all I was thinking is "wow what an experience", when I noticed something odd on a route that I have taken for 14 years; I felt something was missing.  I always observe people on the streets while traveling and today there were too many of them and it slowly occurred to me that entire families were on the street.  The earthquake wasn't a mere small one...   

And it hit me real hard... buildings that stood on streets that I have seen all my life that I spent in Ahmadabad were missing.  At that moment I could not think of anything but to get home, but I was scared.  My apartment building was 20 odd years old and was constructed when there was a scarcity of cement.  Every turn that I took that got me closer my mind was getting even more restless.  I just wanted to be home...

As I got closer to my place, I notice my neighbor waiting frantically on the street.  I did not want to talk to anyone, in fact I just wanted to turn and go back.  I stopped for a while, she noticed me and started walking towards me.  I did not move an inch and as closer as she got I noticed her puffy eyes and her expression did not look that great either.  She stops by me and says, go home, mom and dad are fine, they have been searching for you and are worried.  I cannot explain that feeling at that moment, I just went home...

The aftershocks kept us alert for the next few weeks and that made me realize how it would be on the 3rd floor with the earth rumbling and the apartment swinging all over the place.  Over the few days rather weeks, the news kept coming in from friends and family and it wasn't great to be at the receiving end.  It's been a decade and every year I try to get in touch with my friends...

New York!

Call it the big apple or the city that never sleeps; its always exciting when you are visiting New York... alone or with friends.
2011 was a good year and good amount of time that I spent in NYC and here are some clicks...

In and around Times Square
 






The MET


On the way to Staten Island




Union Square & Wall Street
 

Top of the Rock

Fading Colors

Autumn is back... The fading colors, the chill in the wind, the early morning fog, the frosted glass and to experience it all a phone with a decent camera...

The autumn is passing by, the colors have almost gone, the weather is cold, mornings are lazy, and the glass still remains frosted...

Last day of Summer, 2011

I have been away for a while since I have been busy with a lot of shifting; a different place as well as a new job but yes in the midst have had a chance to spend some time on photography - more updates later.

Interestingly while driving down to work I happened to notice the date and I realized that its almost the last day of summer.  Remembering my school days where I studied that the sun's illusionary path in the sky is right over the equator and that marks the end of summer, seasons change in the northern and southern hemisphere and the days get shorter.  Well back in India day's didn't get that short but yes the change in the US is sudden and the days tend to get noticeably shorter.

Looking forward to the autumn equinox and here's something to mark the end of summer 2011.  

Brilliant dark grey skies, beautiful weather, plenty of sunshine and a traffic jam to realize its the last day of summer.

By the way the summer ends on September 23 at 5:05 AM.

Winter

You walk out to your balcony on a chilly morning with a hot cup of coffee and you notice the absolutely clear blue skies and the entire city in front of you covered in a blanket of white soft cotton, the sun beaming down, following squirrel trains left on them and suddenly a chill hits you giving you goose bumps all over.

It's beautiful unless the white color gets over you; but also gives you a lot of reason for colorful mufflers and sweaters keeping you warm and as someone truly quoted "if it weren't for winter the spring would not have been pleasant".  Days are short and when the sun is out the evenings are beautiful with skies filled with shades of orange and red.

I spent an entire winter in Denver a couple of years back and later in Boston and all I can say is there is lot of snow.  With Denver having more harsh weather compared to Boston, both places had one thing in common; they look absolutely beautiful under snow.