Let not your Light be Darkness

Being asked for advice brings with it an onerous sense of responsibility. A person trusts you enough to trust your judgment and makes a decision partly based on your thoughts, your insight, your way of thinking. If they do follow your advice and make certain decisions, does it follow that you are accountable for your words. With your limited experience and probably one sided view of the situation it is very likely that your advice is not very high quality.

Its not a big deal when the advice relates to 'What book should I read?' or 'What camera should I buy?' but sometimes it is. A very big deal indeed.

The Comic Book Experiment

Playing around with photos has rapidly become the thing I do when I have to kill time. While exploring the uncharted corners of Photoshop has its own appeal, sometimes I turn to the web to look for tutorials on a particular effect. While lacking the resources (RAM and creativity) to turn out something really breathtaking, once in a while it does all click together.

On one such stroll around the various sites that I frequent, I came across a tutorial to give a 'comic book' effect to photos. Looked quite interesting and more importantly did not involve any local touching up. Also, after the NC trip, I had some portrait photos to play around with. Some of them waiting for thought bubbles! So, this was the first attempt.

Helped along by the fact that I had a receptive subject whose response was 'Awesome!', I tried it on another one of the NC pictures. The look on their respective faces is priceless and Shrinath had commented on it at the time. So, picked out a random Nobel Economics Prize acceptance speech for Akshay and the result was...

After these ones, I trawled through my entire collection of photos to get some Vivek photos. Vivek is often my target (he still remembers his youtube appearance) and fortunately, he is quite sporty about the whole thing. Always a target of ribbing for his 'targetting' skills, I went along the same lines.

Then there was this, a totally innocent picture taken during the fateful Montauk trip where the four of them are just staring at the ocean.

Meanwhile a friend was so taken by this idea that he came over and talked to me about how we should have a connecting story over 3 panels, like a Calvin strip. However, for this we would need people posing and a storyline thought out in advance. Just browsing through old photos wouldn't do. The day after that, I went to New York for the Photo Trip and this was on my mind. Took a few photos of Shekar that I was able to patch into a sketchy storyline (so to say).

So went the comic book experiment. Still on the lookout for pictures or situations that deserve a thought bubble or two ...

Yield

Yield, originally uploaded by tch....

It seems a sign just like this one is posted at some roads in my life. Just bigger, brighter, festooned with neon, if you will.

YIELD!

Am I at fault if things go wrong with the Universe. I do not have that much pull with the Gods of fate. So why should I accept it. Again, why should I yield? Yield to a point where I snap. Which I did.

I'm done listening to accusations, smiling and saying 'its alright' as if nothing happened. I'm done yielding.

Fade to Black

You were there..
For every joyous kilometer and those tearful miles;
When I was reaching across light years in my loneliness;
When I wished that uno momento would last forever;
When tomorrow couldn't come fast enough;
When today was too good to end;
When a smile needed no reasons;
When sadness existed only for incentive;
When I didn't want to go;
When I was running from my demons;
When the silence meant more than Shakespeare's works;
When four words of French were enough;
When the wind whispered to me;
When Metallica boomed in my ears;
Highways and small lanes;
Aimless drives and road trips;
Boy-racer and Chauffeur;
Six a.m. and Midnight;
The good with the bad..
Thank You..

While we have our separate paths to take here;
And destiny might not let them cross like before;
All I want to do is stare;
Stare wistfully into the rearview;
'Cause the best times lie behind;

Gone Forever.

Focus

Am I being near sighted, not looking beyond my own nose when the signs run off into the distance?

Do I fail to see the bigger picture entirely or do I see it, albeit crippled by my shortsightedness?

Is my way of looking at things, my way of thinking, my logic, my reasoning, my ability to deal with things, to handle people, to defuse situations always wrong?

Why?