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  • Taking a step back !

    I had mentioned it a few weeks back that I was seriously thinking of getting a film camera and after a few initial thoughts, I finally got myself a Canon AE1 Program along with a Canon f1.4 FD Lens…


    No longer in production ( for obvious reasons) the Canon AE1-Program was introduced in 1981 and has been one of the more successful cameras Canon has in its kitty !


    I have bought it to click some B/W film and do more street photography… Call me strange or crazy or whatever, I am pretty happy that I got it !

  • Sasural Genda Phool in Minneapolis

    Here is another one of the many conversations from the Minneapolis trip !! Suman Vaddi , on my right is a flat mate with Pritam, Lakhan and Deepak… He was not too sure of the meaning of Sasural Genda Phool song and I decided to share the details with him… looks like it was more funny than it seemed to be at moment… I enjoyed looking at this video !!!
    oh and I managed to watch the movie as well over this weekend. I was dissapointed to be honest… very weak transition of scenes, not sure if the title has much to do with the movie, strange inclusion of songs, and mostly below average use of the brilliant set of actors…
    – Vijay Raaz (Inspector Chaudhary; very bad dialogues… someone really needs to know how the Delhi Police guys in Delhi talk, specially the ones from Haryana) and
    – Divya Dutta (another useless attempt at trying to have an accent); there was an uncomfortable pause in her sentences…
    – Another big dissapoint was the role given to Atul Kulkarni… he is such a brilliant actor and he given the character of “gober” !!! unbelievable !

    For all I know, this movie could have been named Ghaziabad -8 or Lucknow 12 or Kanpur 21 or Bhopal 44 or Kala Bandar if not anything else !

    But don’t take my word for it… watch the movie… It would still show you a “few” glimpses of the beautiful walled city !

    Oh, and apologies for a bad video quality of the embedded video.. it was the darker corner of the room where we guys were sitting and chatting… If the above video does not work for you, here is the link for YouTube.

  • Blogged by Chaibaaz Chandan (चायबाज़ चंदन)


    Blogged, originally uploaded by Chandan Dubey.

    Please welcome a new member to the Chaibaaz Family.. Chandan Dubey (चंदन दूबे )

    She is from Banaras and currently based out of Hong Kong and has a blog called Girl About Home. Go to her blog and you would be able to effortless wander around all the text and photographs that she has there… Something to look at whenever you need to view some refreshing colors ! Needless to say, the same thing is true about her flickr stream too !!

    Welcome to the Chaibaaz Family Chandan 🙂 I kind of like your name like this :चंदन चायबाज़

    And, finding members for the Chaibaaz family is something that I really like to do.. .Random thing number 1 🙂

  • कविराज प्रशांत भारद्वाज

    You’ve read what I write… here is a chance to hear it too 🙂

    Apologies for a bad video quality… It was taken using a regular point and shoot camera and in the darker side of the living room !

  • (a)Roundtrip in two days !

    I had aimed for a good weekend, and I hit the bull’s eye if not anything else 🙂


    So Friday night i took the bus to Minneapolis and reached around midnight…


    Happy Valentine’s day had started 🙂

    On Saturday all we could do was hit on the dartboard instead of some hot girls around, because it was kind of snowing and very cold…


    But the sky opened up, and it was bright outside… Pritam was excited about the shoot I had promised him of his new car !


    No, not the one above… its the one below 🙂 The one above was just parked where we were shooting…

    What yummy tires his SUV has… Tires and the lights are the first thing that I like to notice in any vehicle and if they are not attractive, I am usually not going to give the car a second look… and Pritam’s Nissan is a nice mean beast !!!


    We went around driving for a sunset point and reached the Medicine Lake instead… Realized that this was our chance to drive on ICE and without much deliberation took the car on the lake as well… Now this was some crazy experience… driving on the frozen lake….

    Waiting till sunset there and then headed back home…. The evening saw some lovely Indian music with an overdose of Delhi 6 numbers, specially Gainda Phool and ended with a lot of RD Burman music… not to mention the repeat of Umrao Jaan songs over and over again… so finally slept around 0300 hrs after finishing the conversation quote for the night…

    The next morning… 0830 hrs and some hot ginger tea thanks to Deepak woke me and the rest of the gang up !!!!


    Suman still did not want to get up and he just got up and went into a different room to catch up on his sleep 🙂

    While the rest of the gang was getting ready, I took a few pictures of the customary roses to mark the Valentine’s day celebrations 🙂


    The day was sunny and nicely warm !

    So we decided to go out for a short drive around Minneapolis…

    Went to the Minnehaha Park…


    and saw the frozen waterfall @ the Minnehaha park…


    The stairs that would take you to the bottom of the fall were closed and that saved us some time… so me and Pritam decided to take Golu, Lakhan and Sapna to the Medicine Frozen lake….

    This time around, there were more people on the lake, and ICE fishing was at its full swing…


    Lakhan got adventurous and decided to take some rest on his makeshift ICE bed…


    The rest of the people were more intelligent, and had small cabins which they we spending time in…


    And then we tried another game… sit on the pillow push ! but this did not work well… either our subject (Pritam in this case) was too heavy for the pillow to slide on ice, or the ice was not that frictionless… anyway, before we came out of the lake, we decided to do some wheelies and Pritam did take some nice complete turns in the car… very very interesting… i am sure they would have looked more interesting from outside !!!

    With not much time left, we then rushed to Perkins to have lunch… i love Perkins by the way… the Granny Omlette (without any meat) and the Pancakes with honey are the best combo !!! mmmmmmmmmmm….

    With just about 30 minutes left for my bus, we rushed to the downtown stand…

    Took the bus at 1530 hrs from Minneapolis and was back home around 2200 hrs….


    And did I mention that during these two days, we managed to take some crazy interesting portraits too !!! enjoy 🙂


    Like I had said in my earlier post… Had a very refreshing weekend… Frozen lake, Frozen Waterfall, Umrao Jaan, Ginger Tea, Crazy Face Making Photo Session, Hunt for a Pineapple Cake, were just some of the few things that happened, not to mention the non stop talking !!!

  • Refresh Complete !

    Had a very refreshing weekend !!!

    Hope you enjoyed too !!!

    And sincere apologies for not being able to respond to any comments on the last few posts !! Have been crazy busy at work and was out for the weekend ! Will write soonest !

  • Tandem Random Tags ! (for the Old Love for Old Delhi)

    Bindu tagged me sometime back and here are the rules :

    1.pick the 6th picture from your 6th photo folder (I chose to pick it from the 6th Set on Flickr. Here are the rest of the sets)
    2.tell the story around it. (sure… below)
    3.pass it onto 6 other people. (umm… I would let the people chose if they want to do this)

    so here is the photograph :

    And here is the story:

    The flower market in Fatehpuri, near Chandni Chawk, Old Delhi is a daily market where loose flowers are sold… The market starts around 0400 hrs and does brisk business by 0730 hrs… post that there are less buyers and the flower prices also start coming down… and, some of the flowers get spoilt as well after being there for a while… mostly these vendors have to sell everything the same day, because of the lack of storage, and the life of the flowers.. What you see in the picture, is one of the vendors throwing away the not so good ones so that his bunch still looks fresh and he can sell it at a decent price !

    Chandni Chawk and the lanes and bylanes and the whole place has something that attracts me to it… I can’t really put my finger on one reason, but it can be anything between the food that I get to eat there, or the old Delhi Character I see, or the warmth of the people that I meet while walking around on the streets, or the integrity of the place even though there is so much varied which happens all around… Not to forget the fact, that he has one of the largest Spices market, Trophies Market, Dry Fruits Market, Cotton Market, Wedding Cards and Paper market, Hardware and Sanitary Market all in the viscinity !!! In addition to this flower market offcourse !!!

    And here are a few more photographs from the same place…





    I have another tag to finish… Chandan has tagged me to write some random things about myself and I have a few more friends on facebook who would like me write 25 random things about myself !!!! So that is coming up sometime soon !!!

    Oh, and this valentines, why don’t you go out with your loved one and do something for the not so loved ones !!! I am sure spreading some love can have a completly new meaning if you can afford to spend your time and money for people who really need some love !!! I have nothing against the roses, and cards, and other natak’s that happen on this day ( ok, I have something against them :P) but mostly I feel that this one day can be utilized much much better in many many more ways… unless Romance with each other is on the top of your list 🙂

  • दूरी (Doori)

    Wrote this as a comment on Swati’s blog… liked the words and thought of putting them on Chai Ki Dukaan as well !!!

    एक कुआँ है
    एक प्यासा है
    प्यास का एहसास भी
    ज़रा ज़रा सा है

    थोड़ा आगे बडो ,
    प्यास भी बढेगी
    दिल से हटाओ तो
    दूरी भी हटेगी

    पर सिर्फ़ एक कदम चलोगे
    ऐसा तो नहीं बोला है
    वहां तक कैसे पहुंचोगे
    राज़ नहीं खोला है

    तो चलते रहो
    बड़ते रहो
    दूरी ज़रूर ही कम होगी
    कुछ ही देर में हर खुशी
    भरपूर और हरदम होगी !!!

    ek kuan hai
    ek pyasa hai
    pyas ka ehsaas bhi
    zara zara sa hai

    thoda aage bado,
    pyaas bhi badegi
    dil se hatao to
    doori bhi hategi

    par sirf ek kadam chaloge
    aisa to nahin bola hai
    wahan tak kaise pahunchoge
    raaz nahin khola hai

    to chalte raho
    badte raho
    doori zaroor hi kam hogi
    kuch hi der mein har khushi
    bharpoor aur hardum hogi !!!

  • Workout need identified !!!

    My left thumb is swollen today ! It probably needs a regular workout !!!! the bugger is just getting fatter by not doing anything at all…

    I type with both my hands and mostly use all my fingers and the right thumb (for the space bar) but the poor left thumb is left out except for the ocassional left click or a left button press (I use keyboard for most of my shortcuts)

    Or maybe I just slept on it !!!

    😉

  • The journey begins !

    Fill up the reservation form… look at the train numbers, plan your start and end or midway points and refill the form
    Stand in line at the reservation counter hoping to get the tickets for the train which is your first choice

    Those 10 minutes at the counter talking to the person at the other end getting the best route

    The lack of change… how on earth am I supposed to get the three 10 rupee notes, and the two 5 rupee ones, and the other change !

    Anyway, the ticket is in my hand now ! The white grey dot-matrix printed Indian Railways ticket ! Hey, but I cannot read it properly… what time is my train? and from?

    oh wait, it has been printed on the line just above !! OK, well, the information is there… Coach S4, Seat 30 (wonder who would be sitting next to me)

    I wish its a beautiful girl 🙂 and without her parents or the boyfriend!

    Last minute Auto rush !!! and the bugger is driving so slowly that I could walk faster to the station.

    Anyway, I am here now… which platform? The board is not working, hey, the Kuli ! Let me ask him… they always know !!! Yes sir I am right… its platform 12, darn, the other side of the station !!! Run !!!

    Sir ji, late hai train !!!

    Oh thank Gawd !!!

    take it easy !!!

    A nice stroll up the stairs, on the overbridge, with people and more people and some more in the space left… walking, looking around, rushing for their platforms, anxious because they are late, or early or excited about meeting someone, or just being…

    But hey, where is the train?

    Oh, they are still shunting the bogies… will be here in a few minutes… and there it is !!!

    A1, A2, …..A4, S14… what the fkk… now run !!! S4 S4 S4 S4 S4… uncle sambhal kar zara…

    S4 S4… haan yehi hai s8… peeche likha hai…

    S4 S4 S4… saali itni lambi train…

    S4… kaash ye wala S4 hota.. this group of girls would be sitting somewhere near me then…

    S4… arre auntie jaane do…

    phew !!!

    The reservation chart finally….

    So lets see.. how many girls in my compartment today…

    F
    F
    F
    F
    F
    ah !!! F – 56 — darn !!!

    F
    F
    F
    F F6… sweet…

    F
    F
    F
    F
    23.. ah… Vaijanti Devi !!! crap !!!

    F F
    F
    F
    F
    24 Kalpana Arora… hmm…
    M27 Aakash Arora… inki to !!!

    F
    F
    F
    F
    F…

    uff.. sabse sada hua dibba mera !!!! CRAP !!!!

    anyway !!!

    Lets just get on the train !!!


    Auntiji ye meri seat hai !!!
    Oh !!!

    Wahan baith jaoge beta?
    umm… ji…

    Mera bag hata do wahan se… idhar de do.. aaram se baith jao !!!
    ji auntiji

    bleddy hell… inko kaise bolun I wanted the window seat !!!! I WANTED THE WINDOW SEAT !!!


    anyway… that probably means I will sleep better at night.. the top berth is not that bad afterall !

    So the bags are sett, the walkman is out !!! the tapes are out too ! what do we listen to? Wait… save the battery !! aise hi baitha reh abhi…

    Magazine !!! haan.. get some !!!

    Chai? haan ek cup wo bhi ho jaye!!!


    Auntiji main abhi aaya…
    haan beta

    ok… , chacha chauhdhary, billu, pinky, archies, apna bhavishya badlein, kismat aapke haath mein, competition success review, manorama, sarita, manohar kahaniya, limca book of records, reiki kaise karen, phew.. too many… just pick up a few random ones…

    oh.. paani ki bottle… ek wo bhi… aur biscuit? haan parle ji… do packet…

    chalo beta bhago before auntiji calls the police thinking you left a few bombs in the train !!!

    back on the seat… all set with magazines, food, music, a lost window seat, people…

    A Journey Begins….