Todays Topic Is Boredom

    The main reason why we actually attend a class is to get attendance because otherwise the teachers start scaring us in so many ways. Attending a class for attendance is one thing but what to do when you are in a very boring class?.. The teachers always have a problem if a student is found sleeping in the class during any explanation or something. Obviously as a student one will definitely not pay attention to what happens in the class, they are completely lost in their own worlds, ha ha.

    So here is the description of a typical boring theory class. 

    This class is suppose to happen after the first break, a pretty good reason to go late to the class. One by one everyone enter into the class and then the teacher goes all mad saying this that blah blah blah and at that very moment the only thing that would go through any students mind would be "Where do I sit? Hmm... The last row seems perfect for me to sleep or hide my face from her."

    The teacher goes on with the teaching but everyone seems to be lost in their own world, obviously something needs to be done in order to kill their time and not get bored. Of course everyone will be writing or at least half would write and the remaining would simply pretend to be doing so. Out of those who would be writing the notes half of them would be writing complete nonsense in their books and since they would be writing with no interest in the class, their handwriting would be no less than a master piece. There would be straight writing, slant writing, sometimes also dead writing(cannot understand even one word and nothing looks like what has been written, total nonsense) and finally complete lines going slant. Now this is the situation of most of us in any class.

    Have you heard of battles inside a class? Not the serious types between people or groups, the funny ones but with weapons, ha ha... During some serious explanation in the class we can see chalks flying from one end of the room to the other. If they are out of chalks then they start throwing paper balls, erasers, pen caps, bottle caps and also bottles. One would silently be sitting in the class doing absolutely nothing or just some random thing and then suddenly a chalk or a bottle itself goes flying to the front from behind and many heads turns behind looking at the wrong person with laughter all over, lol. The battle would continue till they are out of weapons and once they run out of those weapons they try out other things, sneak to the other person's territory, hit them and run back. They never stop doing all that, at least it is better than the stupid explanation of the teacher, lol.Getting involved in all these battles is so much fun you know.

    During all these things when the teacher says, "I will take all your books for correction by the mid semester", most of our faces go completely blank only because we keep doing everything but writing the notes. Thankfully there are those in the class who sincerely write everything and they are the real life savers because without them we couldn't have such interesting classes. Oh and not to forget all the eating part in the class, no class is complete without food.

    Now who would not want to attend a class like that?.. Ha ha, but do listen to something in the class :)

The Critic

    What is PHOTOGRAPHY? Who is a PHOTOGRAPHER?

    Photography is an art just like painting, sculpturing, etc, and this is an art in which one captures moments, sights, etc, forever in the form of a Picture. Pictures can be used for so many things like to remember moments which are very dear to us, to keep a record(archive) of something and finally to show one's passion for clicking photographs.

   A photographer can click pictures of any possible thing which catches his/her attention, may it be very small things like a pencil, a paper pin, even a grain and it may also be very big things like a building, a telephone tower, etc. It is not the content in a picture that matters but it is the way in which the picture has been composed and in order to get a well composed picture you need to give away enough time just for clicking pictures, no one becomes a photographer over the night just because he/she gets a new camera. It requires practice because Photography is also an Art. But the secret in becoming a good photographer lies within yourself, it is your vision which leads you to becoming a good photographer. 


    A Photographer is someone who has all the above qualities. He/she goes on photo walks, gives suggestions and corrects mistakes of other people, clicks pictures of birds, leaves, etc, uploads some pictures in an album by the name RANDOM because they fill that album with pictures of here and there random things, also clicks pictures of culture around them, the environment in which they live and the most important thing, they finally sit and edit pictures. These are the things which a photographer normally does in his/her life.

    Now this is what photography is and who a photographer is according to me. But some people out there who are not into photography at all and who do not even know a bit about photography, they just sit very comfortably on their chairs and write total rubbish about photographers and their style of working.

    A beggar who was once completely ignored by the people passing by has now become the prime focus of a photographer. People click pictures of the most outrageous or the completely ignored things around them once they get a camera in their hands. They think it is very stupid to click pictures of an old bike or a very old ceiling fan or even a very old floor mat and then categorizing them in an album by the name THE CLASSICS. They raise questions on the names of albums and say how stupid it is to use names like THE CLASSICS, BIRDS, RANDOM, etc, and they also say that photographers put pictures into different albums with completely senseless names.

    Photographers click pictures, go home, do some editing work and finally they put their logos on it and then they tell the whole world that this picture belongs to me and you will be penalized if you use my pictures without my permission. Of course those pictures belong to that photographer and he/she will protest against anyone who uses their pictures without their permission.

    People just sit and talk rubbish about anything possible and they will talk the most about those things of which they have the least knowledge. Its like saying, a doctor judging the work of an architect. As a photographer, I would certainly be offended by anyone talking like this about any photographer and his/her work. So before you say something about a photographer, step into their shoes because only then you can criticize them truly. And talking about how they work, lets just leave it up to them. Everyone has their own style.

An Entire Day With Nature

    We live in a very fascinating world filled with very beautiful creatures. We are always surrounded by different creatures, big or small or even microscopic, and to be frank majority of these pass off totally unnoticed. Human beings are the most busy creatures on Earth and they are always looking to advance in every possible aspects of life because of which we start ignoring every possible damn thing on Earth which may not have any sort of connection to what we want. In simple words, we have become very greedy and because of this greed the entire Earth is in a chaotic situation. We are very ignorant and our ignorance is very clearly visible to all of us.

    One day a man decided to get rid of all his worries in life, his responsibilities and every other thing in his head which had made him ignorant and greedy in life, just for one day. He decided to go a valley with a few of his friends, actually it was a school located in the valley. They had cameras with them too.

    Lets go a few steps ahead into the trip to that valley. The four friends had entered the valley/school and it was very beautiful at the first sight itself. Small buildings covered by a canopy of trees and the pathway filled with dry leaves and flowers fallen from the trees above, it was just very beautiful and a sight which had to be captured forever.

    That day was really long, walking deep into the valley was a little scary as well but the things witnessed by the four friends were very beautiful and somethings which should never be forgotten. Many beautiful pictures were clicked of very interesting and creepy things, but the thing which caught the attention of this man with his camera the most was a 'Dung Beetle'.

    Dung beetles are those beetles which either partly or exclusively feed on feces. In simple words, these are the beetles which feed on dung as the name tells us.

    This man had always seen Dung Beetles on television and he always found it highly fascinating for some reason. The picture on the right is of a Dung Beetle which he had captured at the valley/school. This picture turned out to be the best among all which he had clicked because this picture shows the daily life of a Dung Beetle. What does this beetle do? Well, the picture speaks for itself, but of course the dung is completely covered by sand.

   Nature has some of the most beautiful things in the world but at the same time it has some of the funniest things as well. As this picture was being clicked, the beetle actually did a whole split which was in fact very funny. But that's the beauty of nature, sometimes you get to see things for once which can never be seen in nature again.

    So as the journey in the valley continued, our man was completely relieved in his mind from all his tensions, his greed and every other thing in his mind. That day he was out there witnessing the nature.

    This was a trip to the Valley School which is located in Kanakpura in the southern region of Bangalore, India.

Captured at the Valley School

It all started...

    We had been on a trip to Coorg, a small and a very popular hill station in Karnataka which is also know for its people and food. Coorg, a place as we know it is filled with widespread dense greenery and so many types of animals. Friends and I stayed over at a friend's aunt's estate, a very beautiful home surrounded by an even more beautiful sight.

    As I can still remember it, on rear side of the estate were really tall and huge trees which was more like a plantation actually and on the front side was a very beautiful scene of a CHAIN OF HILLS which was actually behind a forest like space. The thing which I did not like about that estate was that the fencing of the estate prevented us from going towards the hills which was really sad because it prevented us from doing all the crazy things that could have popped up in our heads if there was a way towards the hills through the forest, but it was obviously meant for our safety. The most amazing thing in the estate was the tree house which was at a height of about 6 meters approximately and it was located just beside our accommodation. Looking at the tree house, I got really excited and a sudden rush of adrenalin that I climbed up and the next thing I could remember was that I was in the air and the very next moment I was rolling on the grass land and when I finally came to a halt, I saw myself in a pit and then moments later I realized that it was actually the gutter of the accommodation building, eewww... Well, the good thing was that it was not like the gutters found in the cities filled with trash or other rubbish, which saved me from taken bath twice, lol... When I try to picture that moment, I can see myself running 3 to 4 steps and then jumping off the edge of the tree house with my hands in the front just like SUPERMAN... That was one of the most silliest or should I say the dumbest but the funniest moments of them all.

    I was not into photography at that time, but I sure wish I had a camera then so that I could have recorded some of the craziest moments we all had then. The scene that I can never forget, three of us pretending to be wildlife researchers running behind a cow inside the estate with a camera and a book folded and using it like a mike. We were talking in front of the camera as though we were doing a show on Nat Geo or some other channel. Ofcourse we messed around with that cow but that was not it, we did the same to a friend also. Another unforgettable incident was CATCHING THE SNAKE.  When a friend and I caught the snake, we took some photos of it. It was a very beautiful brown color snake with a black thin line running from the head till the tail with a very beautiful pattern. That was the first time I caught a snake and that was the time I wished that I had a camera of my own then so that I could get some good pictures of the snake.

    There were so many more moments which I wanted to keep with me in the form of a picture like the weird somersaults which we all did in a very shallow pool, the very scary night walks through the woods and hide and seek (all after 12 A.M.), we playing Jenga, the tribal dance around the bonfire, the funny dares and most importantly the extremely  beautiful sights of the hills, the waterfall, the forests, etc... Before the trip had come to an end, I had made up my mind to buy a camera for myself.

    Back to Bangalore, the capital city of Karnatake, THE SILICON VALLEY of India and my home town. That day had finally come when I went to buy a camera. It was a SONY CYBERSHOT T70 that I ebded up with. From that day onwards I was never seen without my camera in my hands. Ofcourse when some new electronic device is in your hand, you try out all its features. That is what I was doing till I came across this feature called MACRO MODE. My jaw literally dropped when I saw the picture I clicked in the macro mode. That was a very great moment for me because that was a picture which I had clicked. Since then I went on clicking pictures only in that mode and I was very well appreciated for my pictures =) Later on I did explore the different styles.

    This is how I entered into the photography stream. Since then I've been loving it even more and more every time I click a picture.