Ten Cricket : another advertisement channel !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ten Cricket is insult to cricket fans. In past couple of months I've watched more advertisements than cricket.

Ten Cricket's clever (yes!!!) and irritating ploy to show advertisement on screen during each ball and at times full screen add during an over is just too irritating. And your are not even allowed to watch the entire over at times. Say a over with a no or wide ball; commercial is on from 5'th ball itself. I'm not ready to pay just to watch advertisements.

Is there any way to take this channel to court for this ????

Best of Me : 2010

2010 is quite an eventful year for me in terms of photography. Few long drives, few far places, 2 exhibitions. It was over all an interesting journey this year so far. Here is a list of best of my frames [as per me] and a little “behind the frame” of these pics.


I took this shot during my last visit at Kolkata. It was around 6 pm; dusk was setting in. I sat near a Ghat and took this shot hand-held. I like this frame because of its color and lovely mellow mood.





2010 Sindur Khala at Baghbazar Puja. I was here for 7 hours to photograph this very event. With 35^ centigrade temperature, humidity above 80% and scorching sun; it was definitely not a pleasant outing. I was sweating like it was raining and my dressed soaked with sweat literally showed that. Despite all these I was a satisfied photographer at the end of the day … as the candid portraits I captured that day were beautiful and reflection of Bengali joy at its best. Here are few of my favorites.











I took this shot during my last visit at Kolkata. Just before the beginning of Durga Puja I visited the famous Kumartuli. In short Kumartuli is “Land of Color”.








This shot was taken at a place named Narayanpura, somewhat 60 km from Bangalore. Settlements of potters; which still do all the clay work in traditional way.





I had this idea of doing macro in black and white. I dedicated one day for this during independence day Lalbagh Flower show. Many of my friends did not like this idea because; as per them this diminishes the main beauty of flower; its color.








I took this shot at my current office on Women’s Day. Till date this image is the “most interesting” and “most viewed” image in my Flickr Photostream as per flickr terminologies. This image was also selected for an exhibition pEtE maatu





These pictures were taken at Kolkata. I had gone to Kolkata to attend famous Kolkata Book Fair… and ended up with these shots.








Puri sea beach: I took this shot during my visit to Puri earlier this year. I woke up early to spend some time with the fishermen who come back early morning from sea. This is one frame from that day.





Visit my Flickr Photostream for more.

Narayanpura : GOD in making … everyday

I badly wanted to do some pottery place shoot as Ganesh puja was nearby. The obvious choice was the age old pottery town [ which is now close to my home too ]. But eventually Narayanpura surfaced and we all agreed for it instantaneously. I had the picture of a shady old village when I first heard about this place. But this place does not resemble to any village at all. Rather it has become a small town with nice houses and clean road. The life is not as struggling as I thought it would be.

It is not as commercialized as it is in Bangalore Pottery Town. We still found some hand driven clay pot makers being used here.

I certainly fulfilled my wish of capturing artists making clay idols here. The process is quite long. They make the idols and dry them; and after that they paint those. Sadly I did not see anyone painting clay idols though …..

P.S. : All work used in this blog are my original work. For more do visit my photo stream @Flickr

Welcome back

I’ve decided to start blogging again ( yes !!!!!!!). Spend a chunk of the afternoon today to give my blog a facelift. And here is the final result …

As the saying goes I’m not a good finisher. In past 1 year ( the time when I did not blog even a single post ) I started three articles and two poems ………. And still they are in “starting” stage. So what happened to those ? Still saved as draft; and I’m not sure if I’m ever gonna finish those. But enough being said about the past; I’m planning to be more regular on blogger now onwards.

Had to change the name and caption of this blog as I felt like the earlier name [$ukanto’s Blog] and caption [ Me, Myself and the world around me ] was too selfish. Would certainly love to hear your opinion about the new caption and the new name of this blog.

This will be my platform for sharing my photographic ideas and experiences besides the general articles on events and incidents around me. That’s why the caption : “Reflections of my mind and my lenses”

photo shoot

Now I’m a proud owner of Canon 450D; a mid level DSLR. Finally I managed to buy my own. With this I’m able to kick-start ( rather resume ) my interest in photography and more scope to write here too. I’m introducing a new tag “photo shoot” here on and I’ll be using this tag in posts containing pictures taken by me.

About my gear; currently I’m using 18-55 mm IS kit lens with my Canon 450D body and will certainly go for bigger and better lens later.

Sedlec Ossuary : The Church of Bones

THE Sedlec Ossuary (Czech: kostnice Sedlec) is a small Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints (Czech: Hřbitovní kostel Všech Svatých) in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. about 70 kilometers east the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague, lies this small town called Sedlec. It might have been an ordinary enough town, if not for its extraordinary church. The inside of this church is decorated with artworks made of real human bones. The ossuary contains approximately 40,000-70,000 human skeletons which have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.

A cistercian monastery was founded near Sedlec in the year 1142. One of the principal tasks of the monks was the cultivation of the grounds and lands around the monastery. In 1278 King Otakar II of Bohemia sent Henry, the abbot of Sedlec, on a diplomatic mission to the Holy Land. When leaving Jerusalem Henry took with him a handful of earth from Golgotha which he sprinkled over the cemetery of Sedlec monastery, consequently the cemetery became famous, not only in Bohemia but also throughout Central Europe and many wealthy people desired to be buried here. The burial ground was enlarged during the epidemics of plague in the 14 th century (e.g.in 1318 about 30 000 people were buried here) and also during the Hussite wars in first quarter of the 15 th. century.

AFTER 1400 one of the abbots had a church of All -Saints erected in Gothic style in the middle of the cemetery and under it a chapel destined for the deposition of bones from abolished graves, a task which was begun by a half blind Cistercian monk after the year 1511. The charnel-house was re-modeled in Czech Baroque style between 1703 - I710 by the famous Czech architect, of the Italian origin ,Jan Blažej SANTIM-Aichl. The present arrangement of the bones dates from 1870 and is the work of a Czech wood-carver, František RINT (you can see his name, put together from bones, on the right-hand wall over the last bench).

THE most interesting creations by Master Rint are the chandelier in the centre of the nave, containing all the bones of the human body, two monstrances beside the main altar and the coat-of arms of the Schwarzenberg noble family on the left-hand side of the chapel.

[Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

http://www.kostnice.cz/

]

Movie review : Transformer The Revenge of The Fallen

THE much talked about sequel of the Transformer created quite hype in its early days of release. But the movie was kinda mixed bag in its overall presentation.

SHIA LaBeouf and Megan Fox ‘s charm has always been a positive point for the Transformer series. Superb special effects, sound and video editing adds more to this movie. But I guess Michael Bay went a bit too far by trying to show a bit of everything in it. Girl robot following Sam ( Shia LaBeouf ) in the college and trying to kill him in bed will certainly remind you of Terminator and Species series and this looked way out o sync. Towards the end the strange ( rather foolish ) sequence of Sam dying and then again coming back to life after taking order from seniors robots in somewhere in heaven ( or should I say heave-tronics??? ) mixed with some very old styled emotions made the movie dull towards the end.

DESPITE all these cons this movie is still good to watch “once” in some good theatre for it’s amazing action sequence and sound effects.

My Rating : Average

When it’s time .... ?

WHEN you start feeling like………….. it’s time? Ahhh... well..... when you see others with their family which seems super happy at a random office party. Or while having dinner at a posh restaurant with your good old friend; you see only couples or families around you. Or while shopping alone you see the couple next to you ( again I must say : happy ....... apparently ) helping each other ( .... in choosing cloths ... only .... in a crowded mall what else can they do ...... tell me !!!!!! ).Or after a long day’s work when you spill milk all over your kitchen while boiling it. Or when you suddenly realize many of your old friends are married now ( Rather I would like to describe this as following ...... “Or when you suddenly discover many of your old friends have forged their own conscious and chose to dive into the deepest well knowing that there is no way out of it ”............... in short “committed suicide ...... but still alive” ). Or .... well this list can go on and on. But you know what I feel; the last one is the strongest one to at least make you think about it though it’s almost like generalizing any misdeed. It’s like saying all police are the wickedest form of thieves, goons and bustards though all under the species are not same. May be a few of them; but not all. What I’m trying to convey here is if you thing a bit deeper what you’ll find is you are focusing on the counting few who committed the misdeed ( well ... committing suicide is illegal in Indian penal code ); in short you are making the mistake of generalization (At this point let me warn you: this piece of information is heavily time and reader’s age dependent. At my present age the above information is true but I doubt 5 years down the line it will not be ).Anyways ... these technical discussions aside; basically these incidents forces every bachelor ( event the most cautious soul like me ) to ask the question ...... is it time . ....?

WHEN someone asks me “when’ll you get married” I generally give this reply ... ( by the way; this reply has become very famous now a days ....... )

“..... I know that nobody is immortal; but I tend to live a bit longer than the average ......”

And trust me .................. I really mean it. But you know what ... at times these things around you does not help much. After all ......... who loves to clean milk bathed kitchen all alone at 1 a.m. in the morning? All this happened only because I felt really really hungry at 12:30 am; initially I chose to skip dinner that night; rest of it ... you should guess. At this very point you might start thinking about the television advertisement about a good looking wife preparing delicious food for her husband though he is late form office. And ...... voila ... she is having good "Jilabi" with her at the movie theater too.... ( ahha; what a lucky dog )

BUT when you think a bit deeper you'll certainly realize about the "other side of the coin". Beneath the silver lining there are sad things which; earlier you realize … is better for you. It’s like so called “big sale” of now a day’s shopping malls. There would be a big advertisement saying … “up to 50% off *”. Now what this small “*” signifies is what you need to do to avail the discount which most of the cases is devastating. Say you jump into the well ……….. and if you are lucky enough you might get a few things which let’s say you could do without in most of the cases; like “home made food i.e. a good cook” ( ahhhhh…. this might not be appealing to all; specially to those who live with their parents; but let me tell you; I stay alone and it really sucks when you realize you have to do with milk and oat at midnight as you have no other options left ) or “a good cleaner / organizer” ( I certainly won’t elaborate on this point ) and few other things …… ( few in the list are beyond the scope of this blog ). But how about the *? What all are you doing to get these things? Let’s see ….. have you ever seen any of your married colleague to go out with you on weekends to checkout the latest trendy bar in the town? Or when did you last able to pursue your married colleagues to go on special Friday night outs? If you were able to then those are exceptions. Remember I told about a random couple in a shopping mall helping each other; I remember seeing the same couple later that day outside the mall. The poor fellow carrying dozens of bags and following his wife faithfully ( like a dog would be a good analogy ).

LET’S analyze the scenarios after the inevitable “disaster”. The best case scenario would be you becoming her grosser, ATM machine, shopping companion, driver, load carrier ( you decided to fall for the saga; you have to pay of course ). And the worst case ? Well …. all of the previous list; plus cook, cleaner ( i.e. forget about the discount and pay double ).

I would like to end this blog with a very nice proverb in Bengali which goes like this :

“There are two kind of men in this world : married and alive …”

And as I earlier said no one can be immortal; but why not live longer than average??????

[ P.S: Needless to say that I’m still “alive” and zero experience might have shown its effect on last few paragraphs. So it would be good to receive enriching comments specially from those who are helpless now ]

The name saga……..A

NAME … your name; have you ever thought about it? How it is; where it came from. I remember during childhood days “what is the meaning of your name” was an obvious question after “what is your name” by any senior citizen (I mean any person senior to me). Even during school interviews I was asked the same question. Principals with very thick specs would have asked it in the most unfriendly manner possible. But do they really care? Who knows…

BEING a Bengali and moreover being form a cultural Bengali family means your name will match some writer, poet or famous personality (famous in positive way; I mean). Mine was not different either. I was named after a famous Bengali poet Sukanto Bhattacharya. Though I could not do justice to my name poetically guess I did enough justice literally by having a good enough physic ( my friends and colleagues may want to comment on this ). But the catch is not here.

IF you are familiar with Bengali culture ( specially with the older generation ) you must be knowing that many of us have a strong affinity for “A”. They want to put “A” where ever possible. And that’s what this blog is all about.

Needless to say I was also a hapless victim of this. Let me clear this … my name is “sukantA”. Most of the non-Bengali will find a feminine touch in this name. Ah …. I can’t blame them. I was warned by few of friends about this. One of my childhood friend “sudiptO” ( not “sudiptA”; because that is a common Bengali female name; though grammatically wrong and has no real meaning ) once gave me this wise advice of changing the spelling of my name to “sukantO”. But then I was turned down by my so called senor citizen saying that …. Well there is no girl named sukantA ( oh … so you can take the advantage of it ….). And alas … I accepted.

GUESS what … I did not realized the dark side of it till I was in Kolkata. But drama started once I came out Kolkata. Problem started when I started my work life in Bangalore. Almost everywhere I need to explain “ …. though it spells sukantA it pronounces “sukantO ….”. And guess what .. in my new company many have this very doubt “is this a guy or a girl ……….” (Basic doubt …. eh? ). And to add to this recently I discovered a girl named “sukantA” in Orkut (though this name is grammatically wrong it has absolutely no meaning )……….

SO ……… here I am; pretty much stuck with quite a confusing (!!!!!!!!) name….. rather spelling….

Signpost put up by the Army at one of the highest passes in the world.......

Movie Review: “GHAJINI”

A second grade MASALA movie – GAJINI killed MEMENTO

The much hyped movie of this year end. The house full presence at almost at Bangalore theatres reflected that fact. But this movie somewhat failed to impress me.

First of all it failed to keep the suspense of the movie. Though the story was crafted well and Aamir Khan’s acting talent is unquestionable the movie lacked practicality. This movie is a remake of the Tamil movie Ghajini which is inspired by 2000 Hollywood flick Memento, was a disappointment overall. The unnecessary songs, somewhat childish comedy results in a second grade Hindi masala movie which could have been a great psycho thriller. The original English movie Memento is a proof of that.

After movies like “Rang They Basanti” and “Jane Tu Yah Jane Na” the expectation was higher from Aamir Khan. He has certainly failed in that front.

My Rating : Average 

Christian …………… the lion

First let tell you all why I decided to write this blog. One day I found a video in Yahoo of a lion and two men. The video was so moving and heart touching I could not resist myself from finding out more about that video and the history of it. And this blog is result of the research I did on that video after that. This entire happening symbolizes the bonding between men and animals.

One request to all my blog visitors , if you don’t have time to read the entire thing, don’t read, but please don’t miss the video ……. …. … ……….

This is about a lion named Christian, a zoo born lion exported to England for sale and two Australians living in the hip Chelsea section of London bought it. According to published reports, a friend came back from a trip to Harrods and told them that you could buy exotic animals there.

The two friends went there out of curiosity and spotted a 35-pound lion cub in a small cage. The cub had been born in a zoo and sold to the department store, which wasn’t considered that unusual back then.

Bourke and Rendall felt sorry for the cub and bought it for £250 ( US $600 then ) in 1969. The store was glad to be rid of it, as the cub had broken out of its cage one night and wreaked havoc on a display of imported goatskin rugs.

                   ( At home in John Rendall's Chelsea flat )

The two young men kept the lion cub, which they named Christian, in their living room. They became local celebrities of sorts, parading around Londonwith him, taking him to restaurants and even playing soccer with him.

                                            ( Christian enjoyed living in swinging London )

According to Jennifer Mary Taylor, who worked with Bourke and Rendall remembered “Christian used to lie beside me while I did the accounts at weekends. And every so often, if I'd ignored him for too long, he'd sock me across the head with one of his great big paws. He was very loving and affectionate - he liked to stand and put his paws on your shoulders. But he was………………….I mean, he was a lion. Does that sound silly?"

                                     ( Christian, rummaging through the drawers )

Christian the lion ( named by someone with a Biblical sense of humour ) arrived in Chelsea at a time when the King's Road - home to Mick Jagger - was the very heart of the Swinging Sixties. For a year, the Big Cat was part of it all, cruising the streets in the back of a Bentley, popping in for lunch at Casserole, a local restaurant, even posing for a Biba fashion advert.

"He was a lot of work," according to Rendall, "It took all four of us - me, my then girlfriend Jennifer Mary, Ace Berg and an actress called Unity Jones - to look after him. He also ate a lot, four meals (two liquid, two solid) plus supplements every day, which cost about £30 a week - a lot of money back then. And he had a very good sense of humour. ……… Sometimes, he'd see people staring at him through the back window of the car, keep very still on purpose - and then, just when they were convinced he was a stuffed toy, he would very slowly turn his head and freak them out."

But as the 35-pound cub grew to 185 pounds and food bills became astronomical, they knew he would have to be released to a less urban habitat. So they arranged to take him to a wildlife refuge in Kenya. They contacted George Adamson for help regarding this.

"I think George Adamson got quite a shock when he met us," said Rendall. "Straight from the King's Road, in all our gear - flares from Granny Takes A Trip, and with hair everywhere. We looked rather different from everyone else in Nairobi. But then so did Christian. He'd come from winter in England, so had a very thick coat - he was almost as hairy as we were."

                               ( Christian ............ in Rendall's furniture shop)

                                    ( Christian with George Adamson )

Adamson introduced Christian to an older lion 'Boy' and subsequently to a female cub Katiana in order to form the nucleus of a new pride. The pride suffered many setbacks: Katiana was possibly devoured by crocodiles at a watering hole, another female was killed by wild lions, and Boy was injured, afterwards losing his ability to socialize with other lions and humans, and was shot through the heart by Adamson after fatally wounding a man. These events left Christian as the sole surviving member of the original pride.

Adamson continued his work, and over the course of a year the pride established itself in the region around Kora, with Christian as the head of the pride started by Boy.

When Rendall and Bourke were informed by Adamson of Christian's successful reintroduction to the wild (reported in some newspaper articles to be in 1971, and by George Adamson to be 1972), they travelled to Kenya to visit Christian and were filmed in the documentary Christian, The Lion at World's End. According to the documentary, Adamson advised Rendall and Bourke that Christian may not remember them. The film shows the lion at first cautiously approach and then quickly leap gently onto the two men, standing on his hind legs and wrapping his front legs around their shoulders, nuzzling their faces. The documentary also shows the female lions, Mona and Lisa, and a foster cub named Supercub welcoming the two men.Here is the famous video.....

Rendall details a final, un-filmed reunion that occurred ( reported in some newspaper articles to have been in 1974, and by George Adamson to have been in 1973 ). This reunion occurred without Bourke, and by this time Christian was successfully defending his own pride, had cubs of his own and was about twice the size he was in the earlier reunion video. Adamson advised Rendall that it would most likely be a wasted trip as he had not seen Christian's pride for nine months. However, when he reached Kora, Christian and his pride had returned to Adamson's compound the day before their arrival. And that was the last time Christian was seen alive ……. Though the no further details was found about Christina afterwards it is believed that he lived for a few more years after he was last seen.

My Favourit Sarcastic Quotes....................

Here are my favourit sarcastic quotes ............. 

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake"

- Napoleon Bonaparte

 

“Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything“

-Josef Stalin

 

 “I won’t say ours was a tough school, but we had our own coroner. We used to write essays like: What I’m going to be if I grow up”

-Lenny Bruce

 

“I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it’s such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her”
-Ellen DeGeneres

 

“I’m a psychic amnesiac. I know in advance what I’ll forget” 

-Michael McShane

 

“If you love someone set them free. If they come back, set them on fire”

-George Carlin

 

“A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing”

-Emo Phillips

 

“Condoms aren’t completely safe. A friend of mine was wearing one and got hit by a bus“

-Bob Rubin

 

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

-Edward Abbey

“I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here.”

-Stephen Bishop

 

“Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence”

-Ashleigh Brilliant

“The one function that TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if it were.”

-David Brinkley

 

“I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you don't like?”

-Jean Cocteau

 

“History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives”

-Abba Eban

 

“If you can't live without me, why aren't you dead already?”

-Cynthia Heimel

 

“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted”

- Aldous Huxley 

 

“Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome”

- Oscar Levant 

 

“Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, especially if they are worthless” 

-Sinclair Lewis

”Not even computers will replace committees, because committees buy computers”

-Edward Shepherd Mead 

“The trouble with a kitten is that it eventually becomes a cat”

-Ogden Nash

 

“Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary”

-Robert Louis Stevenson 

 

“Progress was all right. Only it went on too long”

- James Thurber

 

“Honesty is the best policy -- when there is money in it”

- Mark Twain

 

“He has Van Gogh's ear for music”

- Billy Wilder 

 

“There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot”

- Steven Wright 

 

“I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought jewelry”
- Rita Rudner

 

“Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence”
- Ashleigh Brilliant

 

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends”
- Oscar Wilde

 

“There will always be ifs and buts, but it’s always be our butts which will be kicked”

- One of my colleague regarding recession and salary hike

 

“Loss in Share Market is stepping stone to ……………. more loss”

- Me on Share Market