You Came!

I waited and I waited and just when I had given up hope, you showed up!

Thank you.

Life gives you lemons... to prevent cancer?

Don't know how far this is true, but seems like good advice anyway.

 

Hi All   *Friday is world cancer day, I'd appreciate it if you will forward this requests. A small request.. Just one line. All you are asked to do is keep this circulating, even if it's only to one more person. In memory of anyone you know who has been struck down by cancer or is still living with it.*   *A Candle Loses Nothing by Lighting Another Candle.. *  *Please Keep This Candle Going*   *!!! Read carefully the surprising benefits of lemon !!!*   Lemon (Citrus) is a miraculous product to kill cancer cells. It is 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy. Why do we not know about that? Because there are laboratories interested in making a synthetic version that will bring them huge profits.   You can now help a friend in need by letting him/her know that lemon juice is beneficial in reverting the disease. Its taste is pleasant and it does not produce the horrific effects of chemotherapy. How many people will die while this closely guarded secret is kept, so as not to jeopardize the beneficial multimillionaires large corporations? As you know, the lemon tree is known for its varieties of lemons and limes. You can eat the fruit in different ways: you can eat the pulp, juice press, prepare drinks, sorbets, pastries, etc... It is credited with many virtues, but the most interesting is the effect it produces on cysts and tumors. This plant is a proven remedy against cancers of all types. Some say it is very useful in all variants of cancer. It is considered also as an anti microbial spectrum against bacterial infections and fungi, effective against internal parasites and worms, it regulates blood pressure which is too high & an antidepressant, combats stress and nervous disorders. The source of this information is fascinating: it comes from one of the largest drug manufacturers in the world, says that after more than 20 laboratory tests since 1970, the extracts revealed that: It destroys the malignant cells in 12 cancers, including colon, breast, prostate, lung and pancreas ... The compounds of this tree showed 10,000 times better than the product Adriamycin, a drug normally used chemotherapeutic in the world, slowing the growth of cancer cells. And what is even more astonishing: this type of therapy with lemon extract only destroys malignant cancer cells and it does not affect healthy cells.   *!!! Spread the word!!!*

50 reasons for not dating a Photographer

1. They rather hold their bulky camera, than hold hands with you.
2. On a romantic date, you'll watch the sun go down and think "Wow this is gorgeous" and they'll go "mirror lock, tripod, and stop down f/8 at 1/125."
3. You'll never be able to enjoy tv, movies, or magazines because they'll point out all the visual flaws.
4. They like to sit in obscure coffee shops and voyeuristically watch people for great lengths of time.
5. If you're taking a walk outside and you come across some "interesting light" they will make you sit/stand/pose in public so that they can take a photo.
6. You'll never get to enjoy freshly cooked meals because they'll spend 15 minutes taking 20 variations of the same dish with their iPhone.
7. They get angry when your friends go up to them and say "I am interested in photography, can you recommend a good camera for me?  Nothing professional I just want to take pretty pictures."
8. You'll wait longer for them to finish analyzing art in a museum than you'll wait at the dmv
9. Same goes with old used bookstores.
10. When you think they're giving you their undivided attention, they're really wondering how they could fix you with a little Clone Tool and Patch Tool.
11. Or they are actually using you to not look so creepy as they people watch everything going on around you.
12. They rather drop $1,000+ on new glass than a purse for you. 
13. You can't take a photo with them without taking at least five more.
14. If you ask them if you look fat, they'll say "don't worry I can photoshop you later."
15. They'll never photoshop something simple for you if the content is not up to their "standards."
16. That photo they randomly took of you yesterday?  Good luck getting them to send it to you.
17. They spend all their time on the computer (and not for porn.)
18. They can't have a normal conversation with throwing acronyms and random numbers.
19. They still use film cameras.
20. They spend a lot of time with people cooler than you i.e. models, actors, musicians, successful rich people.
21. They'll be fussy over the position of a common household object, like a coffee cup.
22. They won't return your calls or text messages, but you can bet they're still posting pics on Instagram.
23. They like watching old films that you've never heard or will ever understand.
24. They like looking at weird things in general.
25. Instead of having penis-envy, they have camera-gear-envy.
26. If there's a natural disaster in a far away land, they're already on a plane going over there.
27. Everything is watermarked.
28. They think everyone else's photos suck.
29. They want to color correct a lot of scenes from Twilight and Jersey Shore.
30. They hate rainbows, especially ones spinning in a circle.
31. Whenever you're in a group talking and the conversation goes deep, they're taking notes in some form of Moleskine.
32. They use over priced Moleskine notebooks.
33. They like trespassing into old abandoned buildings filled with health hazards.
34. They always want to show a new photo they took, but don't really care if you like it or not.
35. They hate your n00bie friend's new artsy profile picture.
36. Bright, sunny days make them sad, but cloudy, overcast days are apparently great!
37. They'll take you into places that have "culture" as well a high chance of getting mugged.
38. Your birthday present will be a portrait that they've taken of you.
39. You can't go anywhere new without them stopping to take a photo of everything and anything.
40. They will always bug you to be a test subject.
41. Nothing can ever be naturally pretty, everything must be fixed in Photoshop.
42. Bringing their camera means, bringing 50lbs of equipment.
43. If you break any of their things on accident, you'll owe them thousands of dollars.
44. You can't get them a birthday/Christmas present without spending at least $500
45. They are natural hoarders, collecting and keeping piles of old newspapers, packaging, magazines, and other things that "inspire" them.
46. They are weird and geeky.
47. They have hard drives of photos, but probably have printed 10 images.
48. They are always secretly judging your creativity.
49. If you're ever in auto mode, they laugh at you.
50. They orgasm every time they learn a new lighting technique.

Smart Women (as if there is any other sort!)

Read this one in a forwarded message and really enjoyed it…

Barbara Walters of Television’s 20/20 did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.

She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands.

From Miss Walters’ vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further back behind their husbands, and are even happy to maintain the old custom.

Miss Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, ‘Why do you now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?’

The woman looked Miss Walters straight in the eyes, and without hesitation said, ‘Land Mines.’

Moral of the story is … (no matter where you go)

… BEHIND EVERY MAN, THERE’S A SMART WOMAN

 

Rediscovered Treasure: Buddhas in the Bowery

 

Thank you!

You probably don't even know that you did it, but you made it better.

Thanks for the lift! 

Dearest Wave Upon the Shore

Missing you all the more now since I know it'll be a while before I see you again. 

Of course, you wouldn't know how much. Or at all.

There is a strange pleasure in not telling. In staying away.

In not confessing what I can barely contain within me.

My love for you is built on so many improbabilities, things unsaid,

Thoughts never revealed, I love you because I can.

Not because you might. Or might not.

I sing you songs you'll never hear and write you poems you'll never read.

The songs float around and lose themselves in the wind.

The poems are scattered on the water and they gradually dissolve into oblivion.

Do fish appreciate rhythm? Or cadence?

What worries me is the forgetting....

The gentle wiping out of all memories dear...

I may forget the colour of your eyes, but not their kindness

Your words but never the tone...

I'll remember the gentle cowlick and the down on your hands

And that joke you made when I was bleak... or even what you never said

But I thought I heard. I wished I had heard. 

And remembered.

Dearest Wave Upon the Shore,
I guess it's time for you to return to the ocean

And time for me to face realities and life.

Pepsi Ads

 

Sentiments

 

Some unusual Bangla flowers

 

Judgement Call

4 days of Durga Puja, 2011

Shubho Bijoya to you and your loved ones.

Wild Things

By the side of the road

Or down in a drain

A cranny, a nook, a pavement crack

Up against a mildewed wall

Or poised against a cornice

Between flower beds

Or paved graves

And that one behind the door hinge

A chink in the roof

Old dusty rooms

A little earth and some damp

The worst possible places

That’s where the wild things grow

Straight from the muck and into our hearts.

Trinayani - by Bratin Khan

Beautiful charm bracelets

Reflections

deep within

·         I thought I heard your whisper in the wind

·         But when I turned around, you were gone

·         I looked for you in the darkness under the brightest lamp,

And in the sweet sadness behind a smile...

·         I followed you round a corner

·         But lost you in the crowd

I thought I saw a glimpse in that reflection

So fleeting I never noticed until it was gone

I looked in the eye of the beholder

And found just a vague impression

I looked for you and never could find

Except in that brief moment between dreaming and hurting...

I looked till I could not anymore

And just as I had given up hope

I found you inside me after all…

A Photowalk around Kumartuli

Sweet Nothings

What is better than a deliciously cold ice cream sundae on a hot summer evening?
Sharing it with good friends of course!
Last Saturday, the three of us managed to meet up for a long awaited chat session and lunch at one of Kolkata’s oldest restaurants, Peter Cat. Many giggles, yummy steaks, shreiks and disapproving glances from fellow diners later, we realized we were just in time for a matinee show of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.
Fuelled with visions of a ripped Hrithik, curly haired Farhan and Abhay’s dimples, we zipped across to New Market to catch the 3 o’clock show at the Roxy. On the way, we encountered a good natured (I suppose) cabbie who seemed terribly amused by us on the whole and insisted on laughing aloud at everything we said (none of which was of course, addressed to him!).
Anyway, we managed to grab our seats just as the film was beginning. Now the Roxy had its heydays in the 70’s and 80’s when it was THE place to host premiere parties at and what not. In its present seedy state, it doesn’t compare favorably to the super-plush multiplexes but it does have a certain old-world charm. The seats are the creaky wooden variety with moth eaten upholstery. There are still a few art-deco murals here and there and some old framed posters. The classy curved wooden bar now stocks just chips and pop corn. The old soda fountain lies forgotten. The hall retained the old creamy marble floors at some places and sported crass mosaic tiles at others. In fact during the interval break, we were startled to discover bamboo scaffolding on a part of the ceiling just above our heads!
The movie was entertaining, but that was about it. However, when you have friends to joke and comment about the excesses on screen, you don’t really need Oscar-winning material! Oh and on top of that, we managed to catch some super cheesy trailers of Thai (yes Thai!) movies dubbed into Hindi (called Maaro Ya Maro!) and some local production starring B-grade Hollywood actors about a father looking for a miraculous cure for cancer for his ailing son, in the middle of …(wait for it)… the Sunderbans!
At the end of it all, of course it was time for ice cream!! We hopped over to a small café at Shreeram Arcade, plopped ourselves on the spindly wooden and steel chairs, and ordered from a dog-eared list of misspelled goodies. As we waited, the skies outside changed to a lively canvas of pink, purple, gold and dark blue. Our colorful sundaes arrived in tall glasses with bits of jelly, candied fruit, syrup and dollops of ice cream!
Pic Courtesy: Dessert Minis