On our road trip to my grandfather’s house last year, we were treated to some amazing scenery — palms and plantains; paddy fields and elephant grass; street art and intricate architecture; flowing rivers and the magnificent ocean…
Here are two of my favourite photographs from the trip, shot through the window of our car.
Train Tracks Towards Trichy!
Paddy Fields and Palm Trees
For more images of journeys by bloggers from around the world, don’t forget to check out the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge : On the way
A couple of weeks back, the Daily Post asked us to show forces of nature.
While I did not have a photograph to show, I was inspired to paint something involving as many forces of nature, and a few forces that are influencing nature. How many can you identify? Who’s the strongest of them all?
Many years ago, I saw a movie in which the villain had written a ransom note using letters cut out from different newspapers. For something as evil as what the note said, it sure looked interesting! I am not sure if I tried to do something like that for myself — if I did, it was most likely a terrible failure. But buried somewhere in the deep recesses of my sub conscious brain, was this fascination for mismatched type and lettering.
Today, as I was catching up on email, I discovered this simple, yet wonderful site that turns text into random images. I freaked out. For the next several minutes I typed happily and watched them magically turn into fun image collages. As one reviewer, Keren Phillips, noted “I feel like I’ve been waiting for this FOREVER, I just didn’t know it.”
A little while later, this is what decorated my desktop:
The letters in these images are actual illustrations/photographs posted on Instagram. The images are copyrighted, and the collages can be used only for personal purposes. Check it out at Type to Design and have fun! (works only on desktop) A shout out to Product Hunt, through which I found out about this fun app.
And yes, I typed out my name as well 🙂 Typing into the narcissist in me, perhaps?
My grandmother often says that of the several artistic abilities our family possesses, the ability to throw, is the one that we need the most! At our home, when things break, our instinctive reaction is that of fixing them. So for this week’s photo challenge, broken, I had quite a few options at home! Except, of course, they had mostly been fixed, or have become something else. For instance, the beads from several broken bracelets and necklaces have now become a gypsy-style garland. And all the broken seashells from our collections have now become a decorative wall hanging.
* * *
We were in Old Delhi to meet relatives and decided to explore Qudsia Bagh in the evening. Clean jogging tracks surrounded by palm trees and Laburnums in full bloom, the park was a sight for sore eyes and sun-drained explorers like us. Large pots of water and benches with bird feed attracted birds by the dozen.
“What are you waiting for? Take out the camera!” It took me a little while to react. My brother nudged me as I stared at a kite sitting atop the earthen pot. Before I could take a clean shot, it flew above us and onto a tree branch. Another one swooped down and flew low, before joining its friend on the branch. They didn’t seem to mind the people around them — little children swinging on monkey bars and groups of evening walkers.
We continued walking, and it wasn’t long before we spotted a wall behind a few trees. An old building! After several months, we discovered something old in Delhi. An entrance gate of some sort, with a staircase on the side leading up to the roof; an old locked up lodge that seemed appropriate for some mystery novel; and a mosque under renovation — we hopped from one building to another, trying to cover as much ground as possible in the little time we had left in the day. But with daylight fading and our stomachs grumbling, we had to head back.
As we were returning, I noticed this minaret-like structure. It turned out to be at the exact same place we saw the kites earlier. In our excitement of seeing the kites, I’d missed this one entirely.
Minaret at Qudsia Bagh
I clicked a few more photographs of the park just as a peacock came out for its evening walk.
We may go and visit Qudsia Bagh again. We might climb the gate, inspect that old house more closely, and perhaps, find more treasures.
From Wikipedia: Qudsia Bagh is an 18th-century garden complex and palace located in Old Delhi, India. Constructed in 1748 for Qudsia Begum, this complex was largely destroyed during the Indian rebellion of 1857.
The sky was overcast and a gentle wind greeted us as we stepped out to buy a mango shake.
‘It won’t rain, ma’am. These clouds do not bear water,’ the office boy said.
We were going to return within 10 minutes. But I took my umbrella, to be safe.
As we soon found out, it wasn’t the umbrella we needed, but goggles.
On our way back, the wind grew stronger, kicking up dust all around us. I covered my glass of mango shake with a lid the juice vendor gave.
We couldn’t see much around us. Partly because the air was saturated, but mostly because we could barely keep our own eyes open.
With the dust coming straight at us, we tried to shield ourselves with our palms and narrowed our eyes as much as we could.
Only a short distance to go, we walked as fast as we could with our eyes closed and turned into the street in front of the office building. The dust storm ended a little while later, with a light drizzle cleaning the air.
That evening, we headed home covered by a fine layer of dust from head to toe. The evening sky though, was a treat for our dust-laden sore eyes.
Enveloped
We later found out that the wind speed was around 80 kmph. Tree branches had fallen all over the city. A streetlight had fallen on a metro power line, crippling the public transport system.
An artwork commissioned for newly-weds N and M. Wish you both a very happy married life 🙂
Inspired by the initials of their names and the date of the wedding. Painting for N and M
Musings of an eccentric mind 