In the darkness

After all the pictures of snow and cold I decided its time to put something warm in the blog. And what better place than my room!

Besides being a hill-station Nainital is also famous for its beautiful candles, the place where I bought these. I'll try to post some pictures in my later blogs of candles so beautiful you will never want to light up!

Thanks for all the wonderful comments!!

Around Ithaca, NY : Taughannock Falls

My first attempt at creating a triptych.

Ithaca : NY : Slashes of Winter

After reading an email from a friend I decided to pack my camera bag and head out for a photo shoot. On the way I stopped over for a Marble Mocha Macchiato (yeah, I was a victim to the marketing photograph outside Barnes & Noble). While browsing through some of the latest photography magazines, I came across "Most photographers have frost bites from there expeditions out in the cold and if you don't have them yet, you are lucky to go out and explore the world of winter photography", so I decided to read ahead and there were some tips on how to dress up for the cold weather. Lucky, I had my gloves, 2 layers of winter jackets, warm cap and a heated car, so I am all set!

Finishing the Macchiato (i love the name) I headed to the nearest waterfalls, Taughannock Falls (State Park) about 8 miles from Ithaca. Its one of those places I like to visit once every season. After getting few shots of the falls, my hands were freezing. I decided to drive back and reached the lower side of the falls that has a state park next to the Cayuga Lake. The site was just too beautiful to resist getting out of the car and remember I just read an article on winter photography and thought I was well dressed for the adventure.

After about 10 minutes, I had 3 useful and 5 useless shots and I was running back to the car. I had no feeling in my ears, my nose was frozen, I couldn't feel my hands inside the gloves, it was 12F (-10C) with a wind chill of -4F(-18C) in the open. So was the shot worth the pain?

And I had to read the email on the worst day of winter!

This one is for the Girls!

Bored of all the history lessons, lets bring things back to the real world for a while!


My sister made me wait 3 hours to get her nails painted (yeah there were more crazy girls in line before her), 3 hours in a shop which had no cameras, cars or gadgets to sell!!

India : Ahmedabad : Jumma Masjid

Jumma Masjid built in 1423-24 in Ahmedabad, is considered one of the most beautiful mosques in India. It was built by Sultan Ahmed Shah, also the founder of the city Ahmedabad. It is built with yellow sandstone and is situated in the center of the old city of Ahmedabad.

This is where the hertiage walk of Ahmedabad ends, starting from Swaminarayan temple ending at the beautiful Jumma Masjid.

India : Modhera Sun Temple

Back to some history lessons...

With plans to reach the temple before sunrise, we woke up early. After some adventures on route and traveling through the dusty roads with beautiful fields on both sides, we managed to reach our destination, late enough to miss the sunrise but early enough to find the place all to ourselves. As we entered the compounds of the temple there were lush green gardens to the sides, but beyond those gardens was the real breathtaking beauty, the Modhera Sun temple.

Modhera Sun Temple was built in 1026-27 by king Bhimdev. The chaukidar (watchman) of the temple showed us how the carvings on the temple shows the life cycle from birth to death. The sides are made of 12 sections symbolizing the petals of a lotus. Over the years the temple was destroyed due to various reasons and now it is being reworked using the old pieces from the temple.

The temple structure starts with a kund (an artifical pond) that has 108 small temples on the stairs that takes you down to the kund . In early days this pond was filled with water and everyone entering the temple would wash there hands and legs. Sitting on the stairs we could see ourselves in that era when the priests in there white dresses would walk down the stairs chanting praises for God, when the place was sprawled with beautiful women in traditional dresses, when the kings would come down to offer the prayers. Its hard to imagine what life would have been in those days. Don't you feel you could just go back and experience it for yourself?

Thanks to Anurita, for showing me these beautiful places and helping me create this blog of some memorable trips for life!

Light

I don't know why, but this is my favorite picture!

Dhoka / a cricket bat?

A common way of cleaning clothes, more efficient than a washing machine considering the hard water around the area and fine dust in the air since the place is close to a desert. It is a lot of hard work and I remember my mom cleaning clothes the same way at home when we were kids!

What the lady has in hand is commonly called 'dhoka', its similar to a cricket bat in shape hence finds it second use as a bat. Check out my PAD entry from 2 days back to see the 'dhoka' in action.

Edit : Thanks to Ishit and Trishla for correcting me about 'dhoka' and 'dhokla' ... i believe food was in my mind while writing this post ;)

A Gift from India

A Gift from India

These are different kinds of "After Mints". In this market called Manek Chowk (Gem stone Crossroad, also has a huge jewelry market) in Ahmedabad there are lines of such stores selling a huge variety of after mints. The shop owner had just about finished setting up the store.

This market was orignally formed at times when the city was ruled by kings and even today has one of the most exquisite shops for traditional clothes, jewelry and food.

If someone you know or you are visiting this part of India don't forget to get an assorted pack of these after mints!

India : Nainital

Mom last game !

This shot reminded me of the school days. After school, get home, change, eat something fast and rush down to catch a game of cricket. About an hour later mom would start calling 'Come back and do the homework.' We played just about anywhere, with just about anything that would work as a bat and a ball!

Things haven't changed just the kids have!

The place these kids were playing was a small passageway. The kid bowling was standing on stairs and fielders were scattered all aroun the places. The bat she is using is not really a cricket bat, but its something called 'dhokla' (not sure how its spelled) that is used for washing clothes, in my later blog posts I will show the real use of this made up bat :)

This picture was taken in the beautiful hills of Nainital in India.