30 December, 2005

New New New New


I have been walking all these days so tired and saw a stream of water. I do not know what is on the other side. I could see a bridge. Everything on the other side seems to be new and fertile. It is full of suspense. All look fresh and new. Let me cross the bridge and see the new side. It is suspense and thrill.

Yes....... I am tired of last year. Last year gave me so many ups and downs. On December 31st (Yes it is 12:01 a.m now) when I look back, I can see the trail I have walked. I have gained experience in many things. I know that I did those same mistakes. But I want to give up on few shortfalls, and look for a better future. I now know which will give me pain. After all I did not walk on bed of roses, also not on only thorns. I saw few roses in the form of blogger friends. Let me dream of walking into garden of roses. H O P E . The four letter magic word which enables all the lives across the world to live for another day/month/year.

The wonderful picture in this post was taken during one of those walks in Wales.

Wish you all a Happy New Year.

23 December, 2005

World is small


Believe it or not. It happened to me. It was a Sunday and I was shopping in the Town Centre, (Malls and Plazas are called as Town Centre in UK) with my family. After a nappy change for my daughter we decided to have some snacks and were walking towards the Samosa shop. Suddenly I saw a Asian family walking towards us at a far distance. Though the entire family did not see us, I had a quick look at the guy and screamed......"Dey........" and the gentleman looked at me for a second and screamed back calling my name. I never knew what happened. Many trespassers noticed our scream and so our wives. We shook hands and were overwhelmed, surprised, hugged each other. He was no one than my school /class mate who studied together along with me. He selected Science group and later became a Doctor. I remembered seeing him 12 or 13 years before in a peak traffic in Chennai like in Movies, and remembered him saying that he was in Germany, doing higher studies in medicine and working. I have never seen him after that. We were excited so much, and took few minutes to realise that our wives may be wondering and exchanged introduction of the families. It was 11.30 in the morning and we never knew anything until 7.00 p.m. in the evening. We had gone to a small juice shop and then to my house and were chatting so long when our better halves reminded us about the time. The children were asleep. We talked so much. What a great surprise! I never thought that I would meet one of my childhood friend in a Town Centre close to my house. I knew that he was in Germany for 10 years and never knew anything about him. So everything was a great surprise. I realised that the World is small. I am sure some of you would have met someone like this surprisingly. I am planning to spend this Christmas Holidays in his beautiful house in a small countryside near Liverpool. He has specialised in Cardiology and is doing very well. I am happy to spend few days and taking my family to his house to spend few days and have fun talking about our good old days. His kids are also well acquainted with my kids and so we are going to have a great time. He lives in a countryside and I am sure that I may get some beautiful English Country side pictures. My Nikon FM2 is getting ready with me and I do not wish to part away without wishing you all a 'HAPPY CHRISTMAS' .

The picture in this post is our Town Centre with decorations for Christmas (but not of this year.. taken couple of years before).

21 December, 2005

Nature and History



MOTHER EARTH is beautiful. She has given us all everything we need to live on this earth. Water, Forest, Land and whatever that is required for our existence. What are we giving back to her? This had been in my mind for long. We had wonderful trees in our house bought by my father. We had a huge Mango tree, Coconut trees, Satukudi(Orange and Satsuma), Neem tree. Our neighbour had huge trees especially badam. During summer days, I have slept in open terrace looking at the stars, and listening to the winds, which used to come from those trees. We had the fantasy of listening to BBC, and other foreign radio stations while sleeping on the terrace. The news and music heard from those foreign stations, used to appear as though they danced according to the tunes of those wind. As soon as we got up in the morning we used to wonder at those leaves which would have fallen from those trees after dancing to the wind blown previous night. Sometimes the trees will stand still. It used to make us feel whether they are on strike. Oh....Nature ! How wonderful it is! I wonder whether we are going to leave all these for our next generation.

Due to the interest in Photography, I have always fallen for nature. The pictures you see in this post were all taken in Aberysthwyth, a small town of Wales. It is one of those coastal town of Wales. I enjoyed each and every moment of my stay in Aberysthwyth. Sea is wonderful part of nature to be admired. Sea, Land and Mountain are great combination. I have tried to capture them in Aberysthwyth.

The picture you see below is of a ruined castle. I heard that there used to be lots of war in those days. This part of castle is what you see today, after many wars have taken the major part. Wars could give us only ruined buildings and ruined Castles, poverty and bad memories. What else can the wars give? When will the world become peaceful without wars?

19 December, 2005

A small road side park

We were just walking after a short bus journey in Edinburgh. WAIT !!!Something in my mind asked me to brake for a break. Took my camera saw this park through the viewfinder. I thought I cannot wait for this light. It is very rare to get such lighting that too in Edinburgh. My friend's wife who was my guide for the city tour was walking ahead. I did not have the mind to call her to stop for a minute. Just clicked after setting the right aperture and shutter speed. This was also my screen saver for a long time. I love this picture very much.

12 December, 2005

The Mountain I climbed













Atlast we climbed the Mount Schiehallion. My friend's wife had prepared wonderful Lemon rice, Vegetables mixed rice, and Curd rice. After finishing them (only reason that we should not feel the weight of the carry bags) we started climbing my first experience of mountaineering. I had my Nikon FM2 set with me. I was fully confident that I may not fall down because of my new Nike shoe. After a great struggle I reached the top. My friend Varadhan and his family had reached before. They allowed me to stay only for few minutes since they were already waiting in the cold for my arrival. It was getting colder and we were worried that it may get to freezing temperature shortly. I took few pictures from there. Looked around and took the neigbouring mountains. Took another picture of the top of the mountain. It is really breathtaking experience. I have produced below few information about the Mountain which I found in the internet. I want to climb more hills. Just cannot wait anymore......

The conical Mount Schiehallion ("the fairy hill of the Caledonians") has long been considered a sacred and mystical mountain by the gaelic Highlanders of Scotland. Its topographical features are somewhat reminiscent of Mt. Shasta in California, USA, which is held sacred by the North American Indian tribes. In his classic work Cuchama and Sacred Mountains (1981 USA), the Buddhist scholar Dr. W.Y. Evans-Wentz comments: "In the scriptures of mankind, certain mountains are considered sacred; and they are referred to as being sources of inspiration and revelation to prophets, saints, and sages. Mountains rising on high and merging into the invisible depths of space come to be looked upon as being the abodes of heavenly beings, the repositories of wisdom, and the founts of spiritual illumination." He goes on to say, when speaking about Mt. Omei, a sacred mountain in China: "Phenomena of most unusual character are associated with this Sacred Mountain, and at least some of them may merit a more than purely mundane explanation. The monks and pilgrims who frequent Mt. Omei believe these phenomena to be self-evident proof of its sanctity."
Geographically, Mount Schiehallion is located at the very centre of the Scottish mainland. In his work entitled Schiehallion, published in 1905, the Rev. John Sinclair, M.A., B.D., Parish Minister of Kinloch Rannoch, Perthshire, writes: "Schiehallion is distinguished as a widely known and very beautiful mountain. It was on its sides, in 1774, that Dr. Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, made those famous observations on the attraction of the Pendulum by a large but determinate mass of matter, which afforded the data from which the weight of the earth was approximately ascertained; and, accordingly, wherever there is an association of scientific men throughout the civilised world, the name of Schiehallion is familiarly known to them in this connection." The Rev. John Sinclair who, as the Earl of Caithness was the head of the Sinclair Templar family of Rosslyn Chapel fame, also writes: "I envy not the man who can climb Schiehallion without experiencing certain emotions of reverential awe, which raise the thoughts of the heart from earthly to heavenly things. I can truly say that in my climbings of the dear mountain, I invariably felt myself, as it were, in a sweet atmosphere of Bible imagery, thinking of Moses, Elijah, the Saviour, and others, when they climbed those sacred mountains in the east, and there held communion with the great Father of spirits....The poem entitled, 'The Second Sight: A Rannoch Mystery,' has got at least this one merit that it is an attempt to picture out a form of belief in the superhuman which has probably existed among the people of the district for many hundreds of years. In former times it was the males that were the seers of the Rannoch Israel; but in our day the Deborahs and the Huldahs have taken up the role of revealing the mysteries of the present, the distant, and the future."

11 December, 2005

Hill Climbing

This picture was taken in a place called Queen's valley on the way to Mount Schiehallion in Scotland. This is known for its isolated, tranquil, clear clean lake. I have little interest in Hill climbing. The Mountain you see at distance(left side of the picture), almost touching those clouds is Mount Schiehallion. I decided to join with my childhood friend and his family to climb the Mountain. My ever first mountaineering experience in Scotland. (Please do not ask in comments whether I climbed anyother mountains). I admire this picture and had it on my computer screen for long time.

08 December, 2005

See you tomorrow

The best time of a day is the above picture. During childhood I have always wondered where this Sun goes. I have nagged my mother daily about the sun's departure. I believed that the sun will go and hide or take rest and come back in the morning. But something I wondered during my childhood was why it is so hot when it comes up in the morning and it is so cool when it goes down in the evening. Thought Sun also used to get tired while going home.

I am sure everyone would enjoy seeing this picture. It brings back beautiful memories. I could remember women from Villages returning back from forests with firewoods on their head. Sheperds returning back with flock of sheep was the usual site whenever I crossed villages in Tamil Nadu. How many of you know that you cannot see the clear sunset everyday. Also, sunset may look as though they have been for long but the actual sunset is very quick. Sometimes within 5 minutes it will disappear. Before I realise what a beautiful sunset it is, and go home and take the camera... it would have gone.

This particular scene was in a place called Carlisle. I clicked this from a train while travelling from Scotland. I love nature and got addicted to it.

04 December, 2005