2009 in Pictures - March

Before you go ahead and check March photographs, make sure that you have a look at January and February pictures too....

March from the photographs looked like a month with mostly beautiful skies with occasional rain (which meant that the temperature was well above freezing) however it ended with loads of snow!!!

Views from the 13th floor of my office building... I miss this window a lot these days !!!

Like I said, it was a month of beautiful skies....

And I found some natural artwork on the ground too...

The artwork continued to my kitchen with some effort going in cooking food for myself and getting surprised with the tasty results...

This is me behind a record... taken by Preet...

And like I said, it had rained that month too... i remember this day when I wanted to go out, but just could not because it would not stop raining...

March also celebrated St. Patrick's day, an Irish festival... This day kind of marks the entry of spring to Milwaukee too, but it was long before anything related to summer or spring came to Milwaukee... That day though sunny and happy, was very cold!!!!

I think I used to look smart in March too...photograph taken by preet...

and like I said, the month ended with loads of snow... here is a Toyota Rav4 that I had rented for a weekend in March... as you can see, there was something about 30 going on in my mind that time... I have written 30 on the window of the car...

Next is going to be April... the month when I turned 30, the month when 30on30 was launched and it turned out to be a huge success... one of the most memorable months of my life thanks to the overwhelming support that I got for the event!!!

Re-Connect-ed

My source of english music in school till class 10th
The best moonwalker that I know and a huge MJ fan
Amazing writer and poet as I remember
A super intelligent student
and one of my closest friends EVER

Sandeep!!!

and I connect with him after quite a few years of no conversations!!!
I have to say that it has to be one of the best things that have happened to me this year!

And this when I was talking about him regularly to another very close friend of mine!!! I guess while I was talking about him, time and space was making him look for me! Makes my belief in the fact that there are no coincidences, a lot more stronger!!!

I feel that the best thing about connecting with childhood friends is that there is no judging happening... it's absolutely easy to accept that friend the way (s)he is, mostly because you tend to remember all that you can from the yesteryears, and what that person is "now" is of little importance... you tend to rely mostly on the years when you have grown together instead of being close friends because of you liking something about the person! There is a lot that I have to write about the times Sandy and I used to be a two member gang, but sometime later! I am smiling non-stop right now thinking about my good ol' school days right now!!!


Sandeep, if you are reading this! Thank you bro! I can't tell you how happy I am!

2009 in Pictures - February

Its going to take quite a bit of effort to select the images, edit them for CKD and post them here, but I am willing to make that effort... I hope you are going to make an effort to browse those images as well...

If you missed it, photographs from January can be accessed by clicking here (Opens in a new window)

February was a month of a few firsts... and a few seconds and some thirds as well :)

After the freezing months of December and January, Feb brought a bit of sunshine and nice weather to Milwaukee... good enough to get out of the cosy comfort of your apartment and walk around... during one such walks, I went to the Milwaukee Art Museum too...

An artwork in the museum...

Warm morning sunlight....

The ice started melting as well because the temperature went above the freezing point after about 2 months... hence the beautiful reflections on the path above and the road below...

The building with the christmas cap is my office!

Puddles also were formed at places because of the snow melting, giving the kid in me an opportunity to play around the water...

The sun was really shining bright and gave me some interesting photographs to click...

I also went to Minneapolis on Valentine's day....

Took some interesting portraits of friends in MSP... this one is Lakhan.... the bored pilot :)

One of the most interesting and remarkable firsts in February was walking on a frozen lake, and driving on it... Scary and very exciting! This is Pritam's new SUV at Medicine Lake...

Another first.... a frozen Waterfall!

Miss Sapna... not too interested in the camera!

A valentine's day is not complete without a few roses! innit?

Now back to Milwaukee, and the frozen lake Michigan...

People enjoying ice fishing on Lake Michigan, and downtown Milwaukee in the background...

A closeup of how the frozen water looks like...

Deepali and Gaurav trying to walk on ice...

February turned out to a fun filled month... I started traveling out of Milwaukee, I also got myself a film camera... some results from that camera a little later....

See you with March Photographs!

2009 in Pictures - January

2009 started on a brilliant note for me... and its ending at a much brighter one!!!

Just one post is not going to do justice to what a wonderful year this has been... so I have decided to have 12 posts... mostly pictures to relive the time once again!!!

2009 started with a visit to Mecca of bikers, The Harley Davidson Museum!!! enjoy the photographs below...

Starting 2009 with going to see a bike which is 100 years old... pretty cool!

Pritam and gang's first of the many visits to Milwaukee... I am sure they enjoyed it... I loved it... it was having a family around me...

Time Travel

It’s really a matter of time...

Isn't it? or is it?

Imagine a situation where you can move 100 times as fast as anything imaginable... would you be able to walk right into future? theoretical, maybe! because you have moved ahead of everyone, everything... but it’s a li'il hard to imagine.. but imagine a time when what takes 24 hours for the rest of everything you know, can be done in, say, 10 hours by you...A controlled increase in speed should take you to a "relative" future state...

Also if you are able to slow down... like reeeeeeeeeally reeeeeeeeeeally slow down, would you not be able to move back into the past? because the rest of the world has moved ahead! and so has the trees, and the earth, and the snow and everything else too... going by the same example... 24 hours for the rest of the existence would mean, umm let's say, 36 for you...and a controlled reduction in speed should take you to a "relative" past.

if you can switch between the fast and slow at your own sweet will, you will be able to time travel!

This of-course depends heavily on what you consider a constant... because present, past and future are only relative terms... tomorrows' past is today, but today is also yesterday's future... so be a li'il careful with choosing your reference marks! also if the reference moves around then the entire calculation of the past, present and future can go for a toss, and you will land up in a totally parallel world! How about that!

I really wish I was able to pictorially or visually represent what I am writing right now! damn it!

anyway!

Happy Marriage Anniversary!

You two are the most important people in my life ma pa! I wish, you are my parents in every single life that I have!

Happy Marriage Anniversary! Love you!

Am I imagining? really?

I was watching A Beautiful Mind after a strong recommendation from a friend. The movie is about John Nash who is a brilliant economist and mathematician. Also suffers from an acute case of Schizophrenia. He imagines people around him, imagines assignments that he is given to complete, and imagines responsibilities outside the normal world. Needless to say they are as real to him as reality would need!!! And there is no reason why he would ever know that they are not real!

This brings me to my thought here… are we all not suffering from Schizophrenia? At some level or the other! What is REAL? Other than the fruit juice brand, it is what we feel is REAL… and more often than not, fail to accept anything which is beyond our own definitions of reality and truth! Some people can call this gradual acceptance of reality beyond our own minds, growth, maturity or evolution (if you’d like to use it in a large picture)

Now I personally feel that it’s ok to have “my own” reality world around me. It is a true reflection of one’s inner self, his/her need/desires, ambitions, and wants… for someone outside this reality, this might be imagination, but for the person who is imagining, this is the truth!

It becomes a disease, or something that needs a cure, when and only when, the imaginator (that’s a nice term for someone who imagines, right?) disagrees to the fact that the world is more than just his her reality, and that the truth when his world integrates with the outside might not be necessarily how he/she imagined!

Heartbroken lovers who cannot give up on a failed relationship, Visionaries who dream of things and go get them, Obsessed people who just cannot accept that the other person is not responding with same feeling as theirs, the leaders who make people burn movie posters, attack out of their geographical state people and so on, these people who follow such leaders, the preachers and gurus who in disguise of showing path to truth only make disciples and followers, all such disciples and followers, women who feel they are looking gorgeous in a rather silly dress, people who day dream, people who night walk…

You!!

Me!!

Are all schizophrenics !!!

Ever wondered if one of the so called schizophrenics is actually looking at the truth, and we living in a reality which is totally imagined?

The possibilities are limitless!

Small Talk!

So! what's up?

Nothing?

YOU! nothing? impossible! Something?

Nothing!

Since when?

About an hour!

And before that?

Something!!

Ah! I see! I know! So what's up?

Nothing!

Oh common! your nothing always means something!

Right! Everything means something! nothing means something too!

Everything is something, and nothing is also something, which kind of means, everything is nothing, or nothing is everything!

Whoa! that is something!

Or may be nothing! or everything! who knows!

Someone!

I think everyone!

or maybe No one!

Everyone has to know something about someone!

Someone would know everything about no one!

But they would claim that they know everything about someone!

No one knows everything about someone!

Someone does not know everything about someone!

What do you know?

Everything!

Everything about something?

No! something about everything!

So! What's up?

Nothing!

Women of my dreams!

Cars for me are like women... and like most men, I have some women of my dreams!!!

I am simply glad that uncle God is letting me be with a few of these dreamgirls... I wished to be with them... I hoped to be with them... and uncle is making those dreams come true!!!

Every time I feel it cannot get any better, he makes me realize it can! Love you for this, uncle...

Jai Shambhu!

Meuzik

is the quickest and simplest way to have an out of body experience!!!!

and I am going for an out of city experience!

ta!

You wouldn't understand!

Pritam : I like it… it’s a nice car!

Prashant : Good! Bring it on… I have always dreamt of driving one! I am excited!!!


7 hours later!!!

Deepak : Saala, itni choti gaadi hai!!! 3 suitcase mein hi jagah khatam!

Prashant: Sach bol! Bilkil bhi space nahin hai?

Prakati : nahin! Baithoge to pata chalega!

Prashant : Achcha :/

Pritam : Bhai mereko kisi ne bola hi nahin… mereko ye achchi lagi mein le aaya!

Prashant : Laal rang ki hai na? mast hai!!!

Pritam : Haan!

Prashant : Aur Jeep hai aur Wrangler hai!!! Mast hai bhai, ekdum mast hai!!!

5 hours later

Prashant : Abe ye to sach mein bahut choti hai be!!! Itni choti jeep to kabhi nahin dekhi maine!

Deepak : Samaan to rakho phir dekho!

Prashant (in his mind) : Two door Soft Top Red Jeep Wrangler, 4 people, close to about 2000 miles to drive, short on space, big on feeling, well! We get some we lose some!!!

Prashant : Itni buri bhi nahin hai bhai! Chalo baitho!!! Thoda bags idhar udhar karo, space banao, gaane lagao, shor machao…

Sometime later

Prashant : Hai to choti, par thoda sa seats adjust karke shayad back seat aur comfortable ho jaye!!!

Some more time later

Prakati : It’s not for a long drive.. it’s good for a day long picnic or something

Prashant : I agree… even the car has not been designed for long drives… the steering is designed to have an excellent grip while turning, and not for holding on to for long hours, there is no foot rest for the left foot, there is no cruise control and so on and so forth! But you see, it’s a dream being fulfilled for Pritam and me!

3 days 20 hours and about 1600 miles later!

I had driven this two door rockstar for about 1300 miles including a 12 hour drive on Sunday, driven in rain, driven in sun, driven in snow, on the plains, and on the hills, driven in the morning, afternoon, evening, night, and midnight, driven in 7 states, and in two time zones…

And like I read on another jeep…

“You wouldn’t understand, It’s a Jeep thing!”