... a waste of time.

A few days ago, continuing the sporadic exchange of songs me and Sudnya conduct, I was asked to listen to 'Viva La Vida' by Coldplay... the title track of their new album. Apparently, she has shifted focus to another track on the album because she asked me to listen to 'Strawberry Swing' and I also spied this.

But it so happens that I've been listening to that song for a couple of months now and its been in the while(1) phase several times. The part that most stuck in my mind was the conclusion ...

Now the sky could be blue
I don’t mind
Without you it’s a waste of time
Could be blue
I don’t mind
Without you it’s a waste of time

Well the sky could be blue
Could be grey
Without you I’m just miles away

Well, the sky could be blue
I don’t mind
Without you it’s a waste of time

Darkness

All that you touch and all that you see
all that you taste, all you feel
and all that you love and all that you hate
all you distrust, all you save
and all thatyou give and all that you deal
and all that you buy, beg, borrow or steal
and all you create and all you destroy
and all that you do and all that you say
and all that you eat and everyone you meet
and all that you slight and everyone you fight
and all that is now and all that is gone
and all that's to come and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon

~ Pink Floyd

It seems they are trying to say that whatever you try to do, accomplish, work towards, sometimes the goalposts might just move a little bit further away. When you are engulfed by darkness, all the joy and happiness you can muster from within and all the good that is to come will be eclipsed.

And of course, in the end, it doesn't make any difference at all. Matter of Fact, its all Dark.

Tunnel Vision

Sometimes the tunnel is so long and winding, you cannot tell if there is light at the end of the tunnel or if you will emerge in total darkness - lost - not knowing where to go or what to do.

What one can hope for, however, is that there are tiny specks of light along the way to show you that you are on the right path - that you aren't lost yet. Just a little bit of reassurance.

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 ...