— is the blog of Amit Karmakar about photography & life in Sydney, Australia
Rudra and I were talking a nostalgic walk through Hill Colony in Dhanbad, Jharkhand the other day when suddenly we decided it might be a good idea to go down to Locotank — a pond in Dhanbad. It was very close to sunset & we happened to spot a lady making ripples in the water. Could I’ve resisted the shot… the lady in red literally did the setting of the entire scene for me… all I had to do was frame and shoot. And I did!
We toddled off to Dhakhinapan late morning-ish the next day. It has a few shops and a some good local art emporiums. We browsed a bit and bought a few little handicrafts. Surprisingly the market place looked a wee bit quiet. We had to go through a security metal detector to get inside the market… And there was a guy standing right next to the door frame only to usher people to go through it. All visitors must step through the metal door frame but no signage to clearly indicate that. Of one of the highlights of the day was out of the blue dad wanted to weigh himself. Alright now if you know these public weighing machines in India they not only tell you your weight but also your fortune. Dad weighed himself and blamed the scaled for packing an extra 8 kilos but didn’t mind the fortune. Apparently it read that he was going to marry again… LOL. We had lots of laughter and were gushing with mirth.
There is always something charming about going home. About visiting loved ones and spending time walking down the memory lane. Revisiting those smells and tastes of yester-years that are so natural to ones childhood. Its a walk through a mesh of life that is most nostalgic and filled with a labyrinth of beautiful meaning, confronting, joyous and full of life. You’ll know what I mean if you have been in a situation like mine but I think we all have in our own little ways.
Boarding a flight with 100 other Indians is no small feat and funny only in hindsight! Truly. What makes them so insolent is something I have pondered many a times. As we waited at Sydney to board the aircraft and the very first announcement was made to board the First class and Business class passengers… the whole mass of the Economy class seemed to showed around the entrance to the gangway. A second announcement was made to allow for families or mothers traveling with infants or children under 7 years and also to request the masses to sit down and wait their turn. You think they’d heed? Later the rows 50 onwards unto 60 were called in. I was seated in 58 so I started to proceed. An Indian lady probably in her late fifties cut right in front of me. Pushed me out of the way, bumped over my cabin baggage and walked on by totally unapologetically. I was seething with fury and retorted her demeanor with a assertive look:
For some time now I have been wanting to make a set of iPhone and iPod touch Wallpapers from a collection of my travel photos. And what better time than the present. If you have an iPhone or an iPodTouch do download them and give it a whirl. Here on I’ll try to release a Friday Wallpaper for your iPhone/iPod touch. If you like them do leave a comment.
Download the zip (size: 236 kb)
This was taken at Port Douglas (map), in far north tropical Queensland. We were walking down the mall and came across this shop that had a million different striking colour stone necklaces hanging of a makeshift bamboo strut. I took the shot from an angle keeping the background in bokeh. Pretty pleased with the result.
Sweet success after all this time. I have been watching the polls closely and amazing how much of it is out there on the web. Clicking through myriads of blog posts today I came across one that read: America has woken up from an eight year slumber! How very true!