No Internet. Just a Getaway.

“We refuse to turn off our computers, turn off our phone, log off Facebook, and just sit in silence, because in those moments we might actually have to face up to who we really are.” 

― Jefferson Bethke

What happens over the weekend stays with the weekend.

I've always wanted to say lines like these when I was a teenager, but even as a teenager, I was a pretty normal (Actually, boring) person who really chose books over anything.

This weekend, I've tried doing things a little differently. For starters, I traveled to a place I love a lot. And I've survived two whole days without my phone and laptop. 

I would not call the experience overwhelming. But it was a much coveted break from my otherwise monotonic weekend.

I read, ate, consumed copious amounts of coffee, watched TV (Actual TV. I do not know when was the last time I actually enjoyed watching TV), played Scrabble on board all by myself. I did all these things without taking pictures for Instagram, or tweeting lame stuff like, "Coffee time!"

Of course, things like eating ice-cream go unsaid. Because I just cannot do without it.

I watched the sunrise and the sunset without any filter. I scribbled a lot of things in my notebook, and read a magazine without any interruption from WhatsApp. 

I made real time conversations with people. I have decided, no more WhatsApp for me. If I want to make conversations with people, it has to be in person. If people want to make conversations with me, it has to be in person or over a call.

Perhaps a year ago, I met this man who suggested me to try not using WhatsApp, but I mocked him in his face, and I still remember he was a laughing stock for my group of friends and me for at least a week. He did not have a Facebook profile or WhatsApp account.

Looks like he wasn't entirely wrong!

Ever since its inception, Internet has been killing our imagination. All I do on the internet is read some good articles (which is a great thing), watch movies or sitcoms, but I waste most of my time on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

And I think, I will stick to enjoying the aroma of coffee rather than posting it on Instagram! (Not all the time, of course.)

I've made a resolution to keep the Internet (My phone and the laptop too) off every weekend; I do not care even if the world is falling apart, I will not waste my time on the Internet on Saturdays or Sundays.

I'd rather live them for the simplest pleasures of life!

P.S. It is Monday. I am on the Internet and I hate it.

An Average Indian Girl!

An average Indian girl! You find her in your neighbourhood taking her dog for a stroll, you find her walking on your street on her way from college, you find her laughing with a bunch of friends, you find her buying vegetables in a local market.

You see her taking pictures of all unusual things around her, you see her walking in the malls with her girl-friend and popping her eyes out at the price of the shoes she loves. She mentally calculates how much pocket money she has to save to buy those shoes. She grew up watching Shahrukh Khan's movies and it is her lifetime dream to meet him. 

An average Indian girl, you find her watching Gossip Girl and wondering if her life would ever be like that. You find her wondering if her life would be safer if she was in a different country. You find her drooling over Matt Bomer and Ryan Gosling. You find her on a call with her boyfriend and giggling. Sometimes, it could be annoying. So very annoying.

An average Indian girl, you find her locked up in a room full of books preparing for IIT entrance exams, a distant dream that would come true in a few months. She sacrifices the fun in high school, and ignores boy crushes for that dream. In the evenings, you find her cooking for her parents, and managing all the house hold work. She pampers her younger brother and buys him goodies with her pocket money.

An average Indian girl, you find her at the pinnacle of success in an MNC. You find her wondering why she is so discontent with the success. You find her wondering why she demolished her social life for this job. You find her unhappy, and moody. You label her as a control freak and a chauvinist. You fail to understand her. You fail to understand why she is disoriented with you.

An average Indian girl, married at a tender age, and sent far away from her parents to fend for herself. She doesn't see the world, and has no life to call her own. She dedicates her entire life to her family and spends some zillion hours in the kitchen. She seeks emotional attachment but never receives any. She lives a rather morose life yet fulfills every wish of her family members. She is the true star of her children and they dote on her. You find her sitting on a couch and wondering how she transitioned from a careless girl to a responsible woman.

An average Indian girl, you find her sitting on a comfy couch and watching a romantic comedy. You find tears rolling down her eyes the moment she sees Julia Roberts in distress. She often treats herself with a scoop or two of chocolate ice-cream. She loves drama, and you find her devouring all the books she could lay her hands on. She has mood swings, let me warn you. She splurges a lot on shopping and sometimes, lives in a denial.

An average Indian girl, deeply in love with her husband. She reminisces over all the memories of her college sweetheart (now her husband), their goof-ups, the secrets they hold, the honeymoon, and the first flush of their wedding. She is comical and dotes on her husband. She is the princess of his world and he reminds her that every moment. She believes in love and fairy tales. 

An average Indian girl, she goes around in a pair of denim shorts, black chipped nail paint, she listens to Punk rock, and holds a fancy camera in her hand. She looks at the world with her kohl filled eyes. She has a friend or two, and goes to a local place to have a drink occasionally. She writes a diary, and on odd days, she cries to sleep in the nights. She doesn't like discussing her trauma. She pretends!

An average Indian girl, she goes to the temple every Saturday and believes in God. She is feminine and beautiful. You find her day dreaming about her Prince Charming and she absolutely has no idea about her future. She smiles a lot and has a lot of friends. 

An average Indian girl, you find her in your vicinity, smiling at you, sharing an anecdote with you and laughing loudly. She is lively and she makes your life extremely delightful. 

Fifteen Priceless Moments!

1. Receiving emails from strangers appreciating your work. Lately, I have been receiving a lot of them and they simply make my day. 

2. The food your mother makes on your birthday. I believe nothing can beat that. No restaurant can ever match up the taste.

3. The warmth of your bed after a long, tiring day. And the aroma of coffee wafting through your room. 

4. Fighting with someone and realizing that you were smiling throughout the argument. 

5. Walking down the road with your four year old cousin and listen to him talk about his friends at school. Everything is just so perfect in those moments. Your little cousin, his laughter, his teeny-weeny dimples and the friendly banter. You don't need anything more. Gold!

6. The bittersweet emotions you feel on the last day of your school, and college. That feeling of happiness that you are finally free but oh-oh, you don't want to grow up yet. Wearing a back-pack, holding a book in your arm, walking with your friends and talking senseless things somehow make a lot of sense than reading Paulo Coelho. No offense!

7. That awesome feeling of walking on cold, wet grass!

8. The arrival of your father from a long official trip. And digging his bag open to check if there are any goodies. Gold!

9. That lovely moment when you find old, battered pictures of you, your family and friends. So many memories!

10. Bunking school to watch Pokemon. 

11. First love! 

12. That cute moment when you see the person you love the most after a painfully long forty days and the world around you ceases to matter. 

13. A pillow fight with your brother!  :D

14. A night out with a friend and telling horror stories to each other. 

15. That amazing moment when you are going on a long drive in rain and your favourite song plays on the radio.

Vizaaaaaag!! :D

It almost seems like ages since I logged into Blogger, and everything looks so new and different. You know, like..like...okay, I am exaggerating. I logged in just fifteen days ago.

Anyway, I wanted to update my blog for some very useless reasons today. And I could not think of anything better than a picture post. And this picture post is totally related to one city- Vizag or Visakhapatnam or 'The City of Destiny', depends on how you would like to call it. There are other names too but let me not bug you with those intricate details. Or not so intricate.

Vizag is a metropolitan city located on the port of Bay of Bengal and it is beautiful. Very recently, it has been named as the 'Goa of the East Coast'. Simple people and simple life, that is how I would define Vizag. A very addictive place. You stay there for a week, and it grows on you. 

And now, the pictures. All these pictures have been clicked in Summer 2011. :-)

The beach! :-D

Ignore the clarity, I had rookie editing skills back then. :-P

Tenneti Park

This is one abandoned park near the beach. *Sniff* I loved this place.

The following picture is at Tenneti Park, again. A pretty awesome place, especially in the mornings.

I feel like a total idiot for not taking pictures at other places too. :-|
Vizag is a place that always leaves me nostalgic. I had few best days of my life in this city. The days I spent with my cousins, and few friends are just priceless.
I love this city but not more than Hyderabad and Calcutta. And oh, Bangalore too! ;-)

Pitter-Patter!

"You know your day is going to be awesome when you wake up to the sound rain-drops hitting your window pane."
Ah! Such bliss, if you ask me.

I slept in the afternoon with this thought "I need to update my blog in the evening" in my mind. And yippee, I wake up to see the beautiful rain out of my window and oops, not so beautiful rain drenching my jeans in the balcony. :-|
My mom asked me if I wanted coffee and of course I wanted it. (Duh! Is that even a question to be asked? I would love to have coffee all the time. When I say all the time, I really do mean it.)

My sister too wanted to have coffee and since, she is a tenth grader, she considered herself too young to have coffee and made cold coffee for herself. Well, I don't see a point here. I mean, coffee is coffee, right? Hot or cold, it is coffee. :-D

I have been wanting to do a picture post since two weeks and couldn't write anything. Thank you, The Royal Laziness!
But hey, I have so many pictures on rain. Why not write a post on rain? And this thought dragged me from the balcony to my bedroom and here we go, the pictures. *Excited!*

This is the first picture that I have clicked at Inorbit Mall, Hyderabad and this is my all time favourite.

My friend Asisha's palm. :-D

This picture has been clicked in Chandanagar, Hyderabad.

Yet another rainy day picture clicked last year. The following picture was clicked on the same day.

This has been clicked on the same day. :-)

This picture has been taken on my way to the college. Last year, again!

This is one of my favourite pictures and please ignore the clarity. My Corby has clicked more than 3000 pictures in the past one and half year and still is managing to click some wonderful pictures.

And this is it. I am done and going back to enjoy the rain

Hyderabad!

It has been thirteen days since I have updated my blog and hell, it took me almost ten days to realize that writing a blog post on my most favourite thingy is the best thing to do. Yes, another picture post! And this time, I am updating a post on pictures of various places in Hyderabad.

Warning: Please do not expect pictures of Charminar as I haven't been to that place since I was in fifth grade. :-D

Okay anyway, the first picture is

The first thing that comes to our mind when anyone says Hyderabad is "The Hyderabadi Biriyani" and Paradise is all about yummy biriyani. I don't know if Charminar signifies Hyderabad or not but Paradise sure does.

This picture was taken in Durgam Cheruv.

Oh yes, the famous Buddha idol and ignore the clarity, my mobile couldn't do anything better. :-)

This picture was taken on one of the most hilarious days of my life. Apala and Asisha, remember?
Place: SR Nagar

I clicked this picture somewhere near Madinaguda, Hyderabad. And I love this picture. :-D
Whaaaaat? I can't love my own pictures?

The above and the below pictures were clicked at Safilguda Lake Park.

How much I love shopping and how much I adore Inorbit Mall. The following picture is a view of Inorbit Mall and iLabs(I guess) from Durgam Cheruv.

This picture was taken in December 2010.
Place: Pragati Nagar, Kukatpally.
I miss those days of trekking and fun! :-D

And with this, I come to an end of the post. I will probably come up with another post on pictures of Hyderabad after my photography excursions. :-)

Of Summer, fun and Pictures!

Summer is striking right over my head and I think twice before stepping out of the house. I hate Summers. The heat takes a toll on you, and hell, you cannot have any fun at all. Monsoons are MY favorite and Monsoon 2011 reminds me of many things, but Lotus Pond remains to be the most favorite one. I dragged my friends to Lotus Pond early in the morning saying-let's celebrate our Friendship Day here. I know, I am weird but I wanted to see that place so badly. One friend almost exclaimed, "You know what? We had a better Friendship Day last year by watching Twilight-Eclipse." Yes, they felt that was better than MY idea of hey-let's wake-up-at-5 AM-and-visit-Lotus Pond till they saw Lotus Pond. And hello, I was so right. They loved the place. Unfortunately, the park is closed by 10. (But trust me, the guards run behind you from 9:15 asking you to get lost!) :-(

And for people who do not know Lotus Pond, here are the details- Lotus Pond is a part of an Eco-conservation project situated in MLA colony, Banjara Hills. It has been designed by an Italian Designer and is a home to 21 species of birds. (If you want to see these birds, reach the place by 6 AM) Every morning, you can see a lot of photographers capturing a lot of photographers.

And here WE go, a lot of pictures...

This is the first picture I clicked in Lotus Pond. :-)

This mushroom wasn't there when I visited the place the next time. :-)

Now, this is one famous spot in Lotus Pond. Whenever you google about Lotus Pond, this picture clicked by several photographers appears in your search list. But this picture has been clicked by ME. :-D

I consider this picture as one of my best pictures I have ever taken. And it is the cover page of an album that consists of the hard-copies of my photographs. Yay!

If you like MY work, then follow me on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunainapatnaik/