Tag: Dragonfly

The Wild Armenian Beauty

Bonus post : ‘The World’s Greatest Swordsman’

Sometimes, it feels so funny to read your messages. I was away for some time, and after I came back I found someone write me a funny message. She said,”I like your posts so much. But, it seems you live in a cave and come out only once in a while to make us happy.” Hehe, now of course I am not a Neanderthal 😀 I was travelling the last few days and so I had little time to post on the blog. But anyway!

This gave me an idea. The idea of a ‘Bonus Post‘. So from now on, every once in a while, I will show some Ankur-Love, hehe 🙂 I will post something bonus, maybe a bonus picture, a story, a video or something that makes you hobbits happy! 🙂 As for today’s bonus post, there’s a funny story I found some days ago. I think you will understand the story better (more of a joke, actually 😛 ) if you look closely to the picture below. Read on!

A young man climbs a mountain to a ledge, where there sits an old man with a sword in his lap. The young man says, “I seek the greatest swordsman in the World.”

Without a word, the old man draws his sword and flicks it in the air at a passing fly. The fly falls to the ground in two pieces.

The young man says, “Surely you are the greatest Swordsman in the world!”

The old man says, “No. Further up the mountain is a swordsman greater than I.”

So the young man climbs up the mountain to another ledge where there sits an even older man with a sword in his lap.

The young man says, “I seek the greatest swordsman in the world.”

Without a word, the old man draws his sword and flicks it in the air at a passing fly. The fly falls to the ground in three pieces.

The young man says, “Surely you are the greatest Swordsman in the world.”

The old man says, “No. At the top of this mountain is the greatest swordsman.”

So the young man climbs up to the top of the mountain, where there sits an even older man with a sword in his lap.

The young man says, “I seek the greatest swordsman in the world.”

Without a word, the old man draws his sword and flicks it in the air at a passing fly. The fly buzzes away.

“What’s going on,” the young man yells. “I thought you were supposed to be the greatest Swordsman in the world. You couldn’t even kill that fly.”

“No,” the old man says. “That fly is not dead. But that fly will never again father children.” 😀

THE WILD ARMENIAN BEAUTY

Does it also sometimes happen to you that you come across someone and instantly recognise his/her talent and start believing him/her to what first came to your mind?

In New Delhi, I had gone to visit a Kyrgyz friend. She brought along two of her beautiful friends. One of them was Nara. Now, when I first saw Nara, I thought she must be some Armenian actress. And, to add to my doubts she exuded a high level of confidence in whatever she did. We went to the Lodhi Garden and since I had the DSLR with me, I thought why not ask if I could take some pictures of her. It seemed a bit cheeky to ask but once I gained half of her confidence, she willingly smiled and started dancing 🙂

Now, I have never actually tried photographing models, so I didn’t know what I was really doing. Add to that, this wild girl dancing here and there, and playing around and making it hard for me to focus my 50mm. You know, she’s one of those girls that always seems to be posing. It seemed I was trying to photograph a dancing dolphin, hehe (I know that sounds a bit stupid, but that’s how I really felt! 😛 ) But, finally thanks to my Kyrgyz friend’s help, I finally got some keepers!

by Categories: India, New DelhiTags: , , , , , , , 6 Comments

The Miracle

Before I start this post, I have some questions for you. When was the last time you think a miracle occurred in your life? Another question that I would ask, at times when you are highly annoyed by this or that in life, which is that place you go to? In other words, what do you really do to cool off your head? The terrace-top has always been one of my favourite places that makes me feel comfortable and feel free. Maybe because there’s only the open sky above my head and it reminds me of free thinking and freedom, or maybe because there’s always air blowing there, and the feeling of air hissing on my hair with my eyes closed gives me a Zen feeling about life.

Now, let’s travel back to the summers of 2010 when a small incident took place. I had gone home on one of the semester breaks after my Engineering studies. My grades in one of the subjects hadn’t come out very well. Not that, that I was a topper whole of my life, 😛  but parents have heavy hopes from their children (and I think it’s true all over the World, isn’t it?), and so I got a good scolding from my mom and in the process I had lost my temper and I badly needed to go somewhere away to cool my head off. A cultural cue here: In India, youngsters have deep respect for their parents and so, it’s very unlikely that someone will shout back at his/her parents. As the terrace was the only place I could go and have some free thoughts, I went away. I sat there for about an hour, when suddenly a “Miracle” happened.

Beautiful dragonflies started circling over my head and gradually the terrace was filled with hundreds of them. For all those people who might have read Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist“, will surely understand what I am about to say. All these beautiful, tiny creatures seemed to be good “omens” to me. I was more surprised because dragonflies, which otherwise are skittish and fly away the moment you try to make a connect, had started playing with me. And in the process, I had forgotten everything about my altercations with my mom. I quickly ran downstairs and brought my sister’s DSLR. These jittery angels were still there, although quite curious about the newbie, the black-bodied instrument on my other hand. I finally managed to make a wonderful connect with one of them and get this shot.

And as they say, patience and timing are two key things you need to get good shots, I tried my best to give my best. You will be quite amazed, or maybe even shocked to know that I was on my toes for a continuous 8 minutes to get the above shot. More-so, I was standing on the top of a stack of shaky bricks, which would at any moment send me to the hospital with a fractured leg. I am sure, I somehow acquired the tenacity of a Yogi during those 8 minutes. 😀 But, as they say, some things are just worth it!! I just hope my mom doesn’t read this because I am sure, this time it will be her who will want to send me to the hospital, if she gets to know the behind-the-scene story 😀

For all those still wondering why I named this post, “The Miracle“, I think a day that was so worse and it changing to a day where you felt bright sunshine come into your life, I think that definitely has all the ingredients for it to be called a miracle. Moreover, you must have noticed in all my posts until now, I try to throw-in a cultural cue. Hehe, maybe today I would like to end by saying that most of the Indian moms are very strict (and, you definitely have to score some really good marks to keep them happy all the time. Damn!) 😀

by Categories: Guwahati, IndiaTags: , , , , 81 Comments