Not a Typical Fall

When I “googled” – fall – the search images came up with tons of vibrant colored photographs. Amazing and heart-warming. I know very well that I don’t live in a place where I can find those kind of trees. And being a person who loves nature and colors, it is kind of sad that I cannot photograph one of the most beautiful phenomenon on Earth – Autumn Leaves (To be honest, maple leaves are my favorite of all!).

But then I thought why not to capture the colors that are around me, even though I had to look for them. After all the season is the same here too. So here are some of the shots I captured of fallen leaves. Enjoy – not-so-typical fall photos!

This one is my favorite – 

There is a lot of variety in the leaves if you notice. HEHE.

Indian Monsoon Gallery

 

“When you go,
if you go,
And I should want to die,
there’s nothing I’d be saved by
more than the time
you fell asleep in my arms
in a trust so gentle
I let the darkening room
drink up the evening, till
rest, or the new rain
lightly roused you awake.
I asked if you heard the rain in your dream
and half dreaming still you only said, I love you.”
― Edwin Morgan, New Selected Poems

 

Monsoon is not just about the rain, or is it?

Anyways, you take care!

3G: Gracious Green Gulmohar

… Gulmohar from top on a party cloudy day …

. . . Black & White Closeness . . . 

. . . Like an umbrella . . .

Well, Instagram is something hard to avoid.

. . . Gulmohar’s Shadow . . .

. . . …………………………….. . . .

Oh, by the way, Gulmohar is Hindi (Urdu) word for Royal Poinciana or Flamboyant (Scientific name: Delonix regia). In India it is known as Gulmohar (Hindi and Urdu -‘Gul’ means ‘Flower’ and ‘Mohr’ is ‘coin’.

It had lot of flowers – bright beautiful red flowers – but till June/July. And now is the time for it to be just green, which is fantastic too! I did share a photo of a petal which fell from this very tree. You can click here to check that (It looks like a sting-ray!)

……..

Hope you are having a nice and peaceful time.

My Mother’s Pixels

Last month, my Mom visited her parents’ home, which is located in a very beautiful place. It is almost plain, with little hills and plenty of tea gardens and is completely surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Since, I couldn’t accompany her (sadly), so she took the camera with her so that she could later show me what she saw. So sweet of her! And tea gardens used to be my favorite place to play and hide during my early childhood days. Aaah, the aroma!

She doesn’t have a blog, so I thought I would share those pictures for her. The photos were quite good, and for some of them I simply did some editing in Picasa.

Location: Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India. (Now, this place is literally sitting on the lap of Himalayas - Dhauladhar Range, lit. the White Range)

“Oh the White!”

“Bamboo”

 ”Classic Red and Green“

“A Perfect Capture”

“My Mom’s Mom (i.e. my Nani ji (grandmom))”

“Geraniums are from my Mom’s garden (originally pink)”

Love you Mom, missing you!

“Tom” & “Jerry” Memories

This is for you, my friend “Tom” @Moments Clicked (http://momentsclicked.wordpress.com/)

Location: Tiruvalla, Kerala, India. Her camera, my eyes, and a great time together.
(Dated: March 2nd, 2010 – Yes, 2 years ago!)

“If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right”
~Bob Basso 

It’s so good to be back here, and posting, on WP. Will update more very soon!

Out in the Green Wheat Fields

A sunny winter day,
splendid colors around,
cool breeze combing the fields,
a perfect blue sky,
some clouds trying to hide the sun,
Well, then who needs to go inside?

I got shrunk! But, I had a really good time.

Blue Mountains + Green fields = Perfect happiness

Trying to hide in the shade? Hehehe

Date pf photography – 26th January, 2012 (Republic Day of India). Now, celebrating India is better this way, isn’t it?

What a joy it is to feel the soft, springy earth under my feet once more,
to follow grassy roads that lead to ferny brooks
where I can bathe my fingers in a cataract of rippling notes,
or to clamber over a stone wall into green fields that
tumble and roll and climb in riotous gladness!
~ Helen Keller

It’s really sad that snowfall has caused havoc in many places, like in Europe. I hope it gets sunnier there soon… … “Praying”

Now, My Updated “Guest”

Sharing is one of the best things to do. I have always believed in it and now I do more.

I shared one bird’s photo yesterday, whose identity was a mystery for me since Google honestly didn’t help me much. I did put up every related detail of that bird there – Green, brown head, striped neck, India, patient, bird-size, but nothing good came up, at all. So finally, I shared it here on WordPress, and now I actually know what it is! I have found several websites/blogs which show that bird. And lucky for me it was on Wikipedia too! How cool is that.

Ok, so now ending up the mystery, I would like to update those of you who still don’t know what it (he/she) is [I read that both he & she look similar..].

This bird is called – Brown-Headed Barbet. Nice name, don’t you think?

I would like to share the names of my fellow bloggers who did their best to search for it.
Bindu John (who shared the links, even though he had just seen it once and knew its name in Malayalam, which is – ‘pachilakudukka’) and Cornel Apostol who successfully (unlike me) found it on the internet. Thanks a lot to both of you!

Later, I also found a Wikipedia page on it (I think I mentioned that earlier). You can click here to read more about this beautiful patient bird (Yes, “patience” is the quality I myself assigned to it). Also, there are hundreds of images on Google! Well, I just had to get the name right at the first place, I think! Haha!

Here’s one more photo I would like to share - Enjoy!

And that day when the Barbet surprised me with its presence, it had come for the food which I had kept to invite other birds I wanted to shoot (which I did too). I forgot to mention that yesterday.

Thank you all for your comments on my yesterday’s post!

Revisiting the Himalayas

Why revisiting? Here’s why – All these were captured in 2010 using a mobile camera. It’s good to check the old photos sometimes. It might surprise you.

Hope you will enjoy the simple and fascinating Himalayas!

………………………………..

“The good shine from afar
Like the snowy Himalayas.
The bad don’t appear
Even when near,
Like arrows shot into the night.” [Buddha]

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Simple and Pretty -

The water is quite less but the Ravi River can be seen in the picture below -

I would definitely try to revisit the exact places and capture them again with my camera.

Old Patiala Fort (Quila Mubarak) India

This fort is around 300 years old. And at present, it really is in bad shape, as you can see in my pictures. But once upon a time, it belonged to Royal family of Patiala. It must have been beautiful then. It still is beautiful to me, at least in an old heritage sense. History is always fascinating, isn’t it?

This is the entrance gate, very very heavy and huge -

Lots of pigeons flying around from here to there -

Entrance gate building as seen from inside -

Simply Art  :) -

Silhouetted view -

Windows or doors?

Goodbye Sun -

Click here for the other picture I took at the same location. I visited this place during my travel to Punjab at the middle of this month. My friend brought me here to show me the “old” Patiala. She told me that she so much wants to work on the restoration of this fort. But if not her, some one should definitely start some serious work to prevent further damage to this ruining Fort.

Shadow and Mysterious Stairs

Shadow and Mysterious Stairs . . .

Location: Patiala Fort, Patiala, Punjab (India)

Will upload more on the “Fort” soon.