The twisted life of a steadicam operator!

From Shanker's facebook!

Le voyeur

Aeng couple at Moshe's doing lots footsie and handsie

Mr. Chhaya of the 9th floor hugs the corner of the lift

Hand

Arm and poster for 'Partygirls' on bus

Old friends on a rainy day

Rohan and Chitra on a lovely rainy day.

Met in college, went to town, had lunch and great coffee at Indigo Deli. Saw the exhibition SOAK at NGMA, with Bahaar, Kuntal and Ranjit. Went to Jehangir for the OSIAN exhibition which had already closed. More tea at Samovar. Then got soaked in rain and went to Haji Ali! My first time there in all these years. Then, a 3 hour drive home via the Bandra Worli Sea link in pouring rain! But all worth it.

I am told that this name was a true expression of relief by the inhabitants of this house, refugees from Bangladesh. This was at EPDP, or East Pakistan Displaced People's Colony, which later came to be known as Chittaranjan Park, Delhi.

Rain again!!!

This morning at 7:45!

Dilli art and history tourism, personal and otherwise

The lovely 'Dancing Girl' sculpture of Harappa at the National Museum. It is really small, something I had never imagined, having only seen photographs in text books till now, a total of four inches in height. Somehow, I have always found the description of the sculpture as a 'dancing girl' unconvincing. It is nude, with well-articulated sexual organs and jewellery associated with a courtesan and that amazing posture, but still the one-liner description does not convince me. Mortimer Wheeler and my history teachers from DU may damn me. Sculpture in ancient India has funnily been of a Bunuelesque nature, where women are either goddesses or the prostitutes.

Phallus and terracota figurine.

Vasantsena the courtesan, Gupta period.

Kuber, the god of wealth, Gupta period. Wealth and pot-belly go hand-in-hand!

Map of Banaras.


Map of Jammu with amazing perspective shifts.

Trust GOI to do this in the miniature gallery, making it look like a silly Punjabi restaurant.

And this.. GOI creativity.

Nehru automata at Teen Murti Bhavan. It makes small moves as it makes the 'Tryst with Destiny' speech, in a room replicating the Parliament House.


Dr. Rajendra Prasad and a security guard who seems to be looking at the camera.

Ambedkar and Govindvallabh Pant in the audience.

Nehru's sitting room.

Nehru's office.

The famous portrait of Nehru and Gandhi.

A cartoon in a Marathi newspaper, saying 'remove all dirt from the country'. The dirt is Churchill.

Inside the Red Fort. Small shrine outside public toilet, behind the Meena Bazaar.

The bridges across Ring Road. We discovered the new Freedom Fighters museum, mainly the INA, across from the Red Fort, at the Salimgarh Fort. I crossed these bridges for the first time, having always driven below them.


You cross teh railway line using a bridge that cheaply but cutely replicates the ramparts of the Red Fort.



British interventions.

Lutyens homage trip.

And lunch at our family favourite, United Coffee House in CP.


Guard at the Indira Gandhi Memorial, where they have made a 'River of Glass' on the path she last walked and transparent glass where she fell. Who thinks of all this? The Memorial is actually very well made, also partly because she was way more photographed than other leaders and very incredibly photogenic and charismatic at that. The memorial skips any mention of the emergency, by just talking about her losing the elections and returning to power three years later. All this is way more palpable than the Nehru or Gandhi memorials as we saw all this happen. The memorial becomes morbid as you move through the rooms (and how many tourists, my god, brought in hordes by tour operators), as they display the clothes worn by and bag carried by her when she was shot - a bullet-holed orange saree. And then seamlessly it turns into a Rajiv Gandhi memorial, with his tattered clothes and Reebok shoes too on display. Why?

The new high-tech multimedia exhibition at Birla Bhavan, the Mahatma Gandhi memorial, funded by the Aditya Birla Group, done by NID alumni. Above, a kaleidoscope, with changing Gandhi images. All form and little content. Lots of video projections, lots of interactive displays and all video content sourced from either old DD style documentaries, or Richard Attenborough's film. Surely they could have generated more content? Then, things like a 'Tree of Unity' sculpture, where you stand on either side and hold hands and the tree lights up with blue lights. Its a one-liner fair.

LCD screens in Gandhi's eyes!

Ladakh 2

The Main Market, Leh



Kebab seller and hordes of Bihari migrant labourers in the market

The only cinema house in Leh, just called Cinema house, with no name.


Lobby.


The small and intimate Samkar Gompa. The only women monks we saw.

Courtyard at Samkar Gompa

Tibetan refugee market


Apricot tree in a bylane

Dawa's toy son at the guest house

Stupas at Shey Palace, DD transmitter

Shey Palace, where the king of Ladakh stays


Medieval paintings at Shey Palace

In the prayer room

Hemis monastery

At Hemis

Rivers of sand




Guest House at Tang Tse, near Pangong.

Rivers of snow.

The Army restaurant at Pangong Tso


Pangong Tso. 1/3 in India, 2/3 in China (Tibet).


Crystal clear water. Salty to taste!

On the way back from Pangong Tso Lake


Chang La Pass at 17500 feet! You are advised not to stay longer than 20 min because of the rarified atmosphere. Complimentary apple tea, courtesy the Indian Army.


Chang La.


The way down from Shanti Stupa, Leh.

The highest golf course in the world, Leh.

Twister over Leh town.