Strings Of Life

"Dedication to duty is not a sacrifice but a justification to our existence."






















Busy bee- My favorite photograph (till now). Captured this one while on morning walk.

Note: The views expressed below are entirely personal and not intended to harm any individual/faith.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.” -Said the Jesus of Nazareth.

India hosts a million-dollar industry in the name of religion & god. We have numerous Babas, Pujya Babas, Satya Shris & Shri Shris to name a few. We even have dedicated channels & newspaper columns for these babas/masters.
Morning TV channels, newspaper front pages, offices, restaurants, cabs, busses, market places, cinema halls, rickshaws, Jewelry, books, magazines. ……. Boy! These babas are everywhere.

From those posters and hoardings posted out there they point at you; they stare right into your eyes as if you are the last helpless soul left on the mother earth. They laugh at you, they mock you and in the end when you are convinced of being the last most distressed soul left on this earth you are asked to contact some Mr. Sandeep who seems very much in love with Indian railways; because in 95% of the cases this Mr.Sandeep resides near old railway station or behind new railway station or may be near old railway colony.

Some Babas though have taken an entirely different course. They differ in their approach and are termed as high-class babas and the testament to this statement is that you won’t find their posters or hoardings in public. They are accessible either through some dedicated TV channel or else you’ll have to type “BABA” in your mobile and text it to some four-digit, easy to remember number. After this you are greeted by a reply message and soon their executive (mostly hot sounding female) gets in touch with you and the whole issue boils down to the “Advanced Course” Fees. Finally you denounce this high-class baba for all ill reasons where the real reason being the unaffordable fees.

In the end with no option left you contact some Mr. Sandeep - Near or behind the old railway station.
“No one can serve two masters….” So said Jesus and we’ve chosen these babas over god as the masters of our fate and killed the later.

Last week while traveling to Shimla I was accompanied by an unknown lady in whose lap was sitting this small kid of six years. Quick witted, cute, wearing spectacles like those of Harry Potter he was restless and kept firing rapid questions which his mother found difficult to answer.

When the bus halted for a lunch break this boy was keenly observing the fruit vendor who entered the bus to sell his fruit stock. But he hardly found any takers.
After few minutes the vendor again entered the bus to fetch in some customers this time. At very moment when the vendor stepped inside, the boy screamed: Mummy!! Double role!.
And the whole bus went gaga over the boys comment.

I wonder: How an innocent comment can sometimes lighten the moment.

Since childhood I have been fascinated by cameras but could never afford one till my professional independence.
I pledged during college days that my first salary would be invested in a good camera.

Point & Shoot or DSLR?
The first camera which I laid my eyes upon was Canon Powershot SX1 IS but its launch in India quite disappointed me, it came with a huge price tag of 36995/- INR. Then I started searching web for more options and gradually came to know that a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera is what a serious amateur photographer needs. The biggest advantage a DSLR offers over Point & Shoot is the flexibility of lenses(i.e you can select lens according to your need).

Nikon D40:
I was looking for a DSLR suiting my budget and finally decided to go for Nikon D40.
It's merely three days since I bought this camera and I'm literally in love with it.
Nikon D40 kit comes with body, 18-55m lens, battery, charger & Nikon strap.
The things I liked about D40 are:
Great kit lens: An 18-55mm lens covers most of my general needs.

Great feel: The advantage any Nikon camera offers over any other brand is the feel it gives in your hand.

Great Image quality: Nikon D40 comes with 6.1 Megapixel sensor which disappoints many buyers but the real thing is that Megapixel is related to the image size and not the image quality.

Small size: Nikon D40 does not have a giant looking body like that of a camera in any professional studio. Rather it can be easily carried in a normal V-shaped bag.

Pocket Friendly: One of the best thing about Nikon D40 is that it comes within budget and it is always better to invest in good lenses than to invest in a costly camera body.

And finally it's the technique and knowledge that makes great images and not the camera.
So now onwards I'll frequently post images taken with my Nikon D40 over this space.
Meanwhile you can check my Flickr blog over here.