Sunday Photo and Update on week

Sky and Leaves

For last one week, I haven’t been quite well! Begin with the symptoms of cold and fever, touched the peak in couple of days to influence me on the routine taking me on its own control and route. I wasn’t interesting on anything rather watching TV (just to defeat boring), and had headaches ever like before and high fever keeps me awake for two consecutive days/nights. I was in medication for more than a week now and continue to have it for some time since my x-ray reveals mucus/sputum in lungs and was also going through some mixed feeling about my health lately. I checked with a cardiologist last week for my difficult with upper body and chest pain sometime... but I was glad to know everything related to my heart was healthy and normal. The doctor also suggested some medication for muscle strength (since my upper body doesn’t get any exercise, the muscles  get lose or tight to feel uneasy) and this is first time a doctor lead a medicine for strengthening muscles in muscular dystrophy and I hope it helps better.

The entire week has been hell for me and I wasn’t suffered that much and was forced to take a nap one afternoon which is something unusual for me and it happens only if I wasn’t really well. Right now doing much better and you might know about the situation from the post itself as I could write blog after a week but still something bothering me to keep not quiet. I hope nothing serious happening with my body and will be completely ok soon. I will try to be active and catching with blogs.

Sunday Photos – Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi is a grand festival in India, devoted to Ganesha – a prime deity worshiped by Hindus. Here I like to share some photos relevant to festival at home and Ganesha procession from our street temples.

 The clay idol of Ganesha, bought for the festival at home

 Feast in front of the idol as a dedication and part of worshiping

 A worshiping process (burning camphor) before the clay idol was put to immerse

Clay idol of Ganesha immersed in tub water to dissolve... to be poured for plants and shrubs once turned liquid. This is a process we have been practicing for last 5-6 years, rather immersing into water bodies that result water pollution.

Couple of Ganesha procession (above and below) from our street temples on the day of Ganesh Chaturthi 

Sunday Photos: Pretty Pansies

Pansies are my favourite fancy flowers, as I find them cute and prettier. My first encounter with pansies was at Kodaikanal, during my 2006 visit to the princess of hills. I saw these flowered bloomed at Bryant Park there and I still remember that they were colored in purple and white.

First time seeing them we don’t know the name of the flowers, even seeing the flowers more than couple of time in Ooty Botanical Garden and cottages we stayed in Kodaikanal, I was null about the flower until doing some research on net. People who referred to these flowers then conveyed it to me as monkey flowers, because of the aspect of the flower that resembles the face of monkey.

The couple of macro shots, here, are capture during two different times of visits to Kodaikanal and the Viola Tricolor (a kind of pansy, in the photo above) was captured from a roadside fence around the Kodaikanal Lake. The flowers usually found in partially shade seems to bloom from April to September and it can be in colors of purple, blue, yellow, white... 

Sunday Photos: Array of drops

 Shot during a recent showering...

Sunday Photo: Intimate

When I shot I focused it as a single flower but at home, later, checking the photos I find it (daises) to be conjoined and showed great intimacy towards each other. The photo was captured at Cloud Mountain and the guest house we stayed there had a long flowerbed with some colourful flowers bloomed to ornate the large courtyard. And daisy being one of my favourite flowers, which also grow in wild as well planted as ornamental flower, it was the first I went to capture among the flowers once I left out at the courtyard.

Being evening and shimmering to glorious sunset, there was a great natural exposure on the daisy to captivate.  But what I find more pretty here was the twist of the two white petals, which gives me a perspective of holding hands i.e. a thought of intimate.  

Sunday Photos: Volkswagen Beetle

There was a heritage car rally happening in Chennai this weekend, where the old cars are drove to and fro to Pondicherry. Being close to Elliots Beach in Besant Nagar, I couldn't visit the venue – where cars are parked in front of the promenade – although I was interested, I wasn't intended to go to be the truth. But I have been to one of the rally held in VGP (Golden Beach) parking lot, few years back on ECR and got chance to capture some of the vintage cars on park, as well as on move. Follows one of the cars I found in rally: a yellow color Volkswagen Beetle, a 1964 model!

The Volkswagen Beetle, also known as VW Type 1 or VW Bug, is a two door come four passenger car with rear engine manufactured and marketed by German automaker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003. The need of this car and its functional objectives were formulated by Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, who wished for a cheap, simple car to be mass-produced for the new road network of his country. He contracted Porsche in 1934 to design and build it to his exacting standards was one of the first rear-engine cars, which was on designing for four years.

The bug on move

With over 21 million manufactured in an air-cooled, rear-engine, rear-wheel drive configuration, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single design platform, worldwide. Although designed in the 1930s, the Beetle was only produced in significant numbers from 1945 was internally designated the Volkswagen Type 1 and marketed simply as the "Volkswagen". The model became widely known in its home country as the Käfer (beetle in German) and was later marketed as such in Germany, and as the Volkswagen Beetle in other countries.

(Source of info Wiki)

Sunday Photo: A monkey peek

Sitting on a Neem tree at the backyard of the home, the monkey looks down at who shoots him alike. Yesterday I come across a bunch of monkeys, wandered around the neighborhood and it was fun to watch their acrobat took place over the cable wires that pass our house. The bigger ones just march past the street with younger ones made a beeline across the cables. 

Sunday Photo: Ice-cream vendor

Here’s a photo of an ice-cream vendor waiting for the customers at Marina Beach, Chennai. It was a common sight at beaches but viewing through the camera lens, I find something special with the light and darkness surrounding the ice-cream vendor.

Two weeks back and while coming back from my dad’s friend house in Chetput; we landed at Marina beach for sometime before head to home. Being Sunday it was crowded. But in front of the Vivekananda house, in Kamarajar Salai, where the rain water stagnant into the beach sand restricted people movement. Usually I used to check marina beach after rains to watch the fun happening with the stagnant water along the service road aside the beach sand. Vehicles wade thought the water make wonderful splashes and few times we too have made through it but never in a way of threatening others.

The darkness behind the ice-cream vendor is full of water, so I was glad to shoot the photo without any hindrance at background distracting the view. Though there were few kids playing in the water doesn't interfered in anyways. 

Sunday Photos: Bowl of Flowers

Being Onam today, I thought of sharing some photos on our flowers bowl… since Onam is a festival related with floral designs, called Pookalam, here is my mom’s arrangement of flowers on the bronze bowl filled with water.

These pictures where shot last year, while staying at our apartment house.  

Sunday Photo: Austin Classic

Shot at a heritage rally on vintage cars, couple of years back held at the VGP Golden Beach parking lot on ECR.

Sunday Photo: Gate

A wood planked gate of one of my neighbors… actually it is a gate of a construction office situated on our house lane, opposite to our side entrance. 

Sunday Photo: Stanley Reservoir

Stanley Reservoir is one of the largest fishing reservoirs in South India, River Cauvery as its main source of water. The water is retained by the Mettur Dam, which has a capacity of totally 90 Tmcft!  The creation of the reservoir means submersion of two villages, all of whose inhabitants were relocated to Mettur.  

PS. Right now its celebration time at Mettur Dam, hence dam has touched 110ft of water on the total height of 120ft. Thanks to the heavy rainfall across Cauvery catchment, which forced the dams of Karnataka to release surplus water from the KRS and Kabini dams to rose to nearly 1,00,000 cubic feet per second from less than 40,000 latterly. The shutters of the dam are opened for samba rice cultivation from today. ( Photos composed while the level of water was about 75ft , while taking a drive on the dam few years back)

PowerShot Sunday - Bright in colors

This is a hotel in Yercaud serves homemade Biriyanis… and while waiting outside, I find the colors painted on the hotel was very bright and catchy! It was slighting drizzling then, which are the drops on the image (as I shot it from inside the car) and the rain that last from previous night had added glorious to the green trees behind looks stunning.

Ready for immersion

Every year following Ganesh Chathurthi, immersion of idols takes place at Chennai’s seashores on the first or second Sundays, that depend on the celebration of the festival. Here are photos shot at our nearest beach (Palavakkam) which is allotted for the idols kept around south Chennai to get immersed and on this day, the idols kept flowing into the beach front following number of processions. A Sunday back we tried to check the beach to see the immersion, but we couldn’t make it possible and the roads to the beach were blocked by row of vehicles standing for a km. The picture above and below are few years old, showing the idols kept on the beach before cranes uplift them into the sea and a fishermen taking an idol in the catamaran to immerse into the sea.

P.S. Posting under the series PowerShot Sunday

PowerShot Sunday - Dashboard Ganesh

Dashboard Ganesh is the name I given to this pretty little idol that embellished our car dashboard before it broke away a year ago. The idol was made of marble and about 2 inches in size!

PowerShot Sunday - Fossil Tree

The fossil tree trunk displayed at the Ooty Botanical Garden, is from 20 million year old rocks. The trees carried by rivers and deposited in inland lakes were transformed with replacement of the woody matter by silica give rise to fossil tree trunks.  The fossil tree was presented by the Geological Survey of India, from the National Fossil Park in Tiruvakkarai, Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu.

PowerShot Sunday - Fresh Carrots

Here are a couple of photos I shot at Kukkal, a terrace farming village on Kodaikanal hills. We find few farmers washing their unearthed carrots dumped near the Kukkal Lake and after finish washing using the lake water that exit though a small shutter. The carrots are loaded into jute sacks and left on the road side for loading in a truck. These photos are shot last year, when I visit Kukkal first time and even we visited this place in June there was similar showering. 

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PowerShot Sunday - Lush Green Field

This picture was shot near Krishnagiri while riding on NH 4 - Chennai-Bangalore highways. It was about 5.30 pm, the sun that was supposed to settle down illuminates the already enrich in green paddy fields, background to palm trees and mountain. I edited this picture to wide angle to avoid the roadside barrier but I couldn't keep away the wires and I think it doesn't bother much.

Powershot Sunday - Green Marsh Hawk

Green marsh hawk is a very common dragonfly I shot not so long ago but I thought of sharing it now. It is one of a difficult shot I shoot, while the dragonfly was hopping from stem to stem on the rose plants potted at home.  It is a yellow dragonfly with a green face and eyes mottled with black, transparent wings with tinted yellow and thorax in greenish yellow with black stripes and broad black rings on green abdomen.

Powershot Sunday - St. Stephen’s Church, Ooty

“St. Stephen's Church in Ooty is one of the oldest churches in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Stephen Rumbold Lushington, the then Governor of Madras, who keenly felt the need for a church in Ooty exclusively for the British, laid the foundation for the church on April 23, 1829, to coincide with the birthday of King George IV. St. Stephen's Church, consecrated by John Matthias Turner, Bishop of Calcutta, on November 5, 1830 was opened to the public communion on Easter Sunday of April 3, 1831. It came under the Church of South India in 1947.” - Source Wikipedia.

Footnote:

The picture was taken in 2011 during one of my visit to Nilgiris and I haven’t gone inside the church, but just shot it while waiting at Ooty collector’s office parking lot to get permission to drive through Avalanche forest. St Stephen’s Church is on the road to Mysore from Charring Cross.