Commuting in Chennai....

If you have ever been to Chennai you wouldn't have missed the funny shaped share autos. They look like a box on four relatively very small tyres. They will be taking some 12 people at a time. (some times nearly 15). Though some people find it disgusting to enter the vehicle, sharing the sweaty seats touching other sweaty people; I find the journey in share auto interesting. I have found very interesting people while travelling in share auto, some moments were really funny. its a cheap way of commuting too. I always choose share auto as my primary commuting means wherever possible. Share auto drivers are very mean fellows and they just try to fit in as many people inside as possible. This weekend I was sitting inside a fully occupied share auto and the driver stopped the auto for a very old lady. He asked her to sit some where till it reaches the next stop. She couldn't find any place other than an young lady's lap :) she didn't even turn back to see whether she is ready to take her on lap or not.. I tried hard to control my laughter. The young lady was so confused what to do and the old lady sat very comfortably, and I could no longer control my laughter...

Its not very rare the share auto guys get swearings from other drivers. Driving in Chennai can be absolutely unpredictable. its a total chaos. People never stop at red signal, they don't wait for the signal to turn green to start moving either. They over takes from all the sides and in all driving conditions you can imagine. intersections are very dangerous, the way other side traffic take over the on going traffic is unbelievable. They just keep coming to the middle of the road and makes the space for the coming traffic narrower. And the coming traffic never stops until there is absolutely no space any where to cross. OH GOD. This can never get better, the population and the number of vehicles keep increasing

I just wonder why no one wants to better the way of their living by adhering to traffic rules and keeping surroundings clean....

Time for Test....

Again its time for test. Recession; what is it that god wants from that. I have a clear idea on that. Recently I have become very much spiritual. It helps me rationalize why some things happen; while others do not have a clue about why and what. I have only one thing to tell to atheists; if being an atheist helps you to be calm and better then stay like that, else listen to what I have to say.

Its very very painful to see people loosing their jobs, I happen to be a helpless spectator of what was happening when HR head chose to sit the cabin behind me and started calling those whom he has chose. I couldn't stay there for more time and by that time I felt very heavy and very obligated to the almighty for letting me hold on to what I have for the time being. Some weeks ago, I happened to speak in a small session which is organised by my department. The topic they have chosen to discuss was "how to manage our wealth during recession". Every one spoke about managing money and how to cut costs and everything. To me it sounded nothing about money. Of course its about money, but its about money, more to the corporates. They only cut costs; whatever costs we incur are unavoidable or meaningless when we don't have job right. What wealth meant to me that time was, ourselves. Recession is a teacher, a teacher who teaches the man how dispensable he is and tells how unpredictable the life can turn out to be. In that session I told the people about that. I consider my self as an extravagant person, but I guess (just guess) I could change my spending habit according to my income. Recession is not about that, it is supposed to break the ego, which came upon the software industry or whoever started to get unimaginable wealth due to the globalization and outsourcing. I never have been proud about the money I get hold of. I consider money as a medium to achieve personal luxury and help those who is in need. Do you think those who doesn't spend money are with more light heart? no I don't think so. You would never be remembered for the money you had.

I just think this is the time to think about what we have rather than what we don't have. Time to think what and all we have which can be taken back. Is there some thing which guaranties our own life. Even that's not guarantied. Don't you feel small or smaller? Yes that's what I think god wants us to feel and think about now. Some introspection.

All the very best to those who let go their jobs (even though it was not by choice) to make their company profitable, they are real heroes.

25 Years....

This month I have completed 25 years of my life with God's grace. There was nothing special this year except that my grand father and my uncles wished me. Which was a surprise as they did that for the first time in several years and I felt special. But this year no one wished me in the mid night; and I was curious to see if there is still some one to wish me midnight. Though it made me little nervous I was remembered by many by morning.

But then the speciality is that 25 is a good number and is a good age to think about yourself and introspect. I still don't feel old though out side I look old, I always wanted to be a kid. I have been trying to be a kid whenever I could even now :) which amuses certain people and irritates certain other people.

I still couldn't believe 25 years is gone from my life. It has been a helluva 25 years. I have witnessed many situations which changed lives of mine or the other. I have tried to take a lesson out of each and every remarkable happening in my life. But I think I am happy after 25 years. Many people believed me and trusted me and loved me and called me the best thing happened in their lives.

In this year I finishes my 4th year in my first job also, during this time my employer had shown the trust to send me to USA for 2 years to work for their clients. That has been one of the most amusing thing happened to my life till now. That trip is unforgettable for many reasons.Whatever I did; I did it with full passion and sincerity. It has found a good photographer inside me. I wouldn't have identified that skill of me unless I have been to the states and had the money to buy my camera.

God knows what is going to happen in the future; but it's my responsibility to learn from the mistakes and thank god for the good things. I am just trying to be humble here. Hope I would be able to make some more people happier with my life. :)

Love you all!!

Cold Play and Mac ...

It's been again a long pause after the last blog. After Hamy's death it took some time to recover from it, I am again all alone. Loneliness have been haunting me all the time. I wonder what could satisfy me. The answer to that is still not found. When I am with the people I am comfortable to talk to, I am very happy. I am kind of getting addicted to people - some people. On the other hand I am having very repulsive feeling to those of whom I don't like to talk. My likes and dislikes are getting strong; I can feel it. I am not sure whether it's for good or bad. But the character moulding of me is almost complete. So love it, like it or hate it :)

One of the most memorable (I would some times feel the most) event happened in US was the Cold Play concert. I don't have words to describe my favorite band in the world. Perfection at it's best, that's what I would call it. It has raised my heart beat just by being there (before even they started to play). On a Halloween (I am not sure whether this was an evils temptation) I am in Verizon center with 20,000 people all alone. I felt so bad that I couldn't tell how happy I felt, to any one else. May be the first time I felt the sorrow of not having some one to share Happiness. I felt the absence of a partner that time. I am a person who loves the beauty of perfection; when it achieves the level which I couldn't imagine it becomes the COLD PLAY show. I loved the music, I loved the lights, I loved the live mixing of video by ultra talented people and I just loved the harmony of all. The satisfaction from a stage show is much more lasting. I feel very proud for being there and able to appreciate the talent. I just wished I could do something like that; at least to be a part of the team.

Another perfection I happened to have is my new Aluminum Apple Mac Book. I just loved the moment when I took the decision to buy the Mac book. I am spending hours just by looking at my laptop and wondering how beautiful it is. It's again a perfection beyond my imaginations. I have been reading a book called 'Shantaram'; it is a big book with some 900+ pages; if I have not bought the Mac I would have finished it by now. Whenever I turn my face to the laptop I feel like touching her. :) Ok let me read the book.

He was Simple... He was Adorable ... I Loved him

My little hamy passed away this evening... I think he suffered so much in the past 3 days. Today he was suffering so much and I wanted him to die sooner some how. I some how managed him a better death ... And I weeped like a child... I loved him so much. He deserved atleast some rolls of my tears.. I knew him better than how much I know about many people here. He never gave me pain other than for once when he bit me - long back on the very next day I bought him. If animals can be in heaven I wish my hamy in heaven. Making every one smile and adore him there also. May he rest in peace forever. Even when he died he was cute and soft like a fur ball which made me weep more!  

Please refer to my post on Jan 2008 for those who don't know who is Hamy! 

Light and Exposure ...

Ayeeee .... here it comes... at the speed of 3lac km/second - yes ideally in the vaccum ofcourse - LIGHT... what a wonderful thing to have; have you ever imagined a world without ligt, something like living in Mariana Trunch or something. ho i can imagine. So here i am writing about light and the wonderful moments it illuminates. And also the moments which are captured for later time; ofcourse thats what we are talking about Cameras. A moment is captured in a film or a sensor through a process called exposure. An exposure is nothing but the process of exposing the chemicals on a film inside a film camera or the light sensors on a sensor in a digital camera to the light. This light excites the molecules and is stored for ever on the film or stored temoparaly on a buffer in digital camera.

Exposure is measured in lux seconds and it is the amount of light allowed expose the film. Its also mearured in Electron Volts (EV) which is the normal photographer term for telling it. In advanced digital cameras we have option to see the image histogram which shows the tonal distribution of light across the frame. From which a person can understand how good the exposure was. If the histogram is distributed across like a bell shape and is concentrated in the middle that indicates a good expoure.

Under Exposure: As you know if you expose a film for less time than the ideal time requred to record the details of the scene we call it as Under Exposure. In an under exposed photo all the details or most of the details would be dark and not properly illuminated. The histogram of an under exposed image will be drifted towards the left of the graph. Normally a photographer does is when there is so much light in the scene, like when you are shooting in the midday or shooting the sun or sky, or greeneries (this is a particular case i will tell you later)

Over Exposure: This is the term used when we have / or camera in AUTO mode has allowed more light than necessary to the film or the sensor. This is some thing which normal photographer would never like to happen as all the detail would have blown out; the term blown out is used since the pixels would have stored the maximum electron volt it could store. So pixels of the picture would be completely white in color, in a blown out picture most of the picture pixel would have store no color or details. An occasion when a photographer does is when the light is not evenly distributed over the scene and some of the subject is under darkness, if the priority of the subject in dark is more important he would prefer to get the correct exposure on that subject ignoring the over exposure of the other subjects. Same situation applies to Under Exposure also.

In a camera there is a Light Meter which measures the light from a scene where we are pointing the camera. The metering circuit of a camera is one of the most important part of the camera. The camera in auto mode measures the light and calculates how much time the film or the sensor should be exposed to get a perfect exposure. For this what the light meter does is it theoretically dilutes all the light from the scene and you know when you mix all the colors you would get one color. This color is then coverted to greyscale by the metering system and compared with the stored value. This stored value is equivalent to 18% grey card. So what the metering system will do is it will quickly changes the shutter speed and aperture (which i will talk later about) to control the light coming in to get the 18% grey value from the scene. People use a card which is equivalent to 18% grey to get consistant results, they will read the light from the grey card at the scene and this will give the camera and oppurtunity to ignor e the influence of colors in the calculation of exposure.

Check this picture, the bracket shows where the light is read from to get the exposure given; when the light is read from the sun the picture is under exposed since there is so much light coming in. When it is read from the absolut dark areas the picture has been over exposed. And the idea exposure is got from the areas where it is correctly lighted or half of the bracket is dark and half is bright. http://www.easyphotography.info/page3images/histogram.jpg

This is how an automatic metering system find the perfect exposure. The better the calculation and measurement is done by the metering system the better the image would be. In DSLRs we have option to alter the perfect exposure found by the camera using Exposure Compensation. There would be a button which would let you choose an exposure value which is in the range -3 to +3 (varies camera to camera) in steps of 1/2 or 1/3; if we take a negative value the image will be under exposed and if positive it will be over exposed.

So thats all for today, so i think now you wouldnt blink when some one talks about exposures, under exposure, over exposure, image histogram, metering, grey card, exposure compensation etc. You have learned how to read exposure from histogram and even how camera calculates the exposure.

Changing Lives ...

I don't know how to start, but I want to write this blog about this subject "Are we loosing our compassion?"

Today as being a sunday I had gone to the church for mass, going for mass has started being more of a need than a compulsion to me. I am happy for that. There we had a visiting priest from Cincinnatti who came representing an organisation called Food for the Poor. He is 83 years old and very energetic and he has been asking money for food and shelter for thousands in the Caribians and Latin America. He didn't try to question or tried to make a guilty feeling in us, he just said the numbers and needs of those people there. He was proud when he said they could change the lives of the people there. That made me think about the compassion of every human being of this generation - may be in situations where we need it we are showing it but the need for compassion and love is far more.

I have been reading a book of John Grisham - Street Lawyer - its about a lawyer who would have made millions by being in the firm he was working, but an accident in his life made him compassionate about the poor homeless people and he decided to throw the job and his dreams to work for them for their rights and welfare. Hope you have heard of Oskar Schindler who saved hundreds of Jews during the holocaust. He was an industialist and he could have made so much money ignoring those whom he could have saved but he found the lives of people are more valuable than the money. Climax scene of the movie Schindler's list is one of the most touching moments I have seen. In the middle of the people whom he has saved he sobs, thinking he could have saved even more people. That is the compassion he had, may be we dont have any holocaust to deal with to show the compassion. But there are millions of children whose parents can not afford to give them food. And a mere 24$ can give 420 children a meal, yes Four Hundred and Twenty children.

When we strive to achieve our dreams for personal gain; I dont know how much we should be thankful to the god for letting us born on the other side of the world where there is no poverty and lack of food or clothes. I believe its our responsibility to help those who can not pay you back. God once said, help those who can not pay you back, by which you create wealth in the heaven. To tell you the truth after the mass I didnt feel the taste of the food I was eating.

How much ever you earn or how much ever you become successful in life, you can never get the same satisfaction you get by feeding a hungry child. We can never take the money we make in this life but we can take those smiles to heaven. Find a reason for our lives, there are people around us who needs compassion and love. I know we ignore and think we can not make a change in the lives but we can, think about it. May we grow to understand how fortunate we are.

Spread the love around.... bring smile to atleast one person a day!

Please visit the site http://www.foodforthepoor.org and do something... :) Love you!!