Be like the little mermaid who dared to dream. She traded in her fins – and her voice – for a pair of legs so that she could follow her dream. Despite the evil witch’s best laid plans and obstacles, in the end, the little mermaid was triumphant.

Unless she dared, she never would have achieved.

It’s magic when you dream. And poetry when you dare to follow that dream. There’s a sense of renewal…hope…alchemy…serendipity…peace…

Take the plunge. Follow your heart. Take that risk. Just (like Nike says) do it. It will all work out in the end. Trust…the little mermaid!

Culture should be made accessible to the masses. Pricing plays, concerts and dance recitals at an attractive price point is a step in the right direction. Better still is making it free. Like the Battery Park Dance Festival in New York City every August. Held in the open air, on a platform erected outside an office building, the festival is open to anyone who has the time and the inclination to attend. And there was quite a crowd. In fact, a lot of people came down from their offices to have lunch and take in some of the performances before heading back to work.

On the first day that I attended the festival, I was pleasantly surprised to see an Incredible India! poster proudly displayed at the venue. You may think that living in India, I would have had my fill of Indian dance forms. You would be far from the truth. Dance performances in India are, a lot of times, by invitation only, or are held on weekdays when it’s difficult to attend. I’ve seen more Rajasthani dance performances than more popular forms like Kathak. This was my chance to experience Indian dance forms live, ironically, far, far away from home!

In the picture above, the dancer is performing the Ganesh Vandana, a prayer in dance form to invoke the Indian deity Lord Ganesh.

Yay for making culture accessible to the masses!

I’ve always lived in cosmopolitan cities, which is probably why small towns have always held a strange fascination for me. Even as a child, when I went to Kanpur to visit my uncle, I was fascinated by the old part of the city where he stays. I could spend hours wandering the narrow roads, or looking down from the balcony at the street hawkers, who took over half the road, at the melee of humans, animals and vehicles fighting to make their way through what was left of those narrow lanes, the cheery greetings to passers by – everyone seemed to know everyone there. So on a recent road trip to Aligarh, as we drove through the small, congested towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh, I ran down my iPhone battery furiously clicking away.

While we were crawling through a traffic jam, this fruit vendor caught my eye. The pile of papayas kept wrapped up in newspaper, a few of them sliced open to display their brilliant orange color and freshness contrasted beautifully with the dusty backdrop of the town and the dark browns of the furniture in the mud smeared shop behind him. He stood there waiting patiently for customers, just watching the traffic inch along in front of him, while behind him another man was hunched over his work, and to the far right an old man watched over the scene while talking to the shopkeeper (who was invisible from where I was).

The colors and the contrasting actions made for an image with a lot of character, I thought. What do you think?

Sounds wonky? Were you expecting me to say a tripod or storm cover or index cards?

Seriously though, think about it. A lot of times, we spend almost all day outdoors, roaming around in search of picture opportunities. And taking in new places. Traveling around. In the heat (or the cold). All that walking around with your camera in tow sure does take it’s toll!

And when you’re hot and tired (or cold and miserable), with your feet screaming in agony, you sure are thankful to see a cozy coffee shop around the corner. If you’re in New York, it will almost always be the Starbucks mermaid who will greet you and soothe you.

Therefore, I say, Starbucks = coffee = a photographer’s best friend!

There’s something powerful about this image. The angry young man demanding silence, a harried looking woman almost in tears. I shot this during a recent trip to Dilli Haat. It’s a still from a street play on female literacy.

It’s sad to realize that there still are people, especially in rural areas, who see no reason to educate their daughters. After all, they’re just going to get married and look after the home.

I found another startling fact recently. One that cuts across the rural and urban divide. That of stress levels. According to a recent Nielsen survey, Indian women feel the most stress – about 87% of Indian women are stressed all the time. Mind-boggling, isn’t it?

I can only be go down on my knees and thank God for all his blessings and grace in my life.

…a fun-filled lunch with friends – laughter, chatter, good food, drinks…some leg pulling, some advice giving, some experience sharing…and before you know it, lunch has turned into evening tea. That’s the stuff a perfect weekend is made of.

Friends, food, drinks, talk, laughter, shopping…the perfect antidote to the stress of the week.

So, how was your weekend?

iPhone photography is becoming quite a rage, and with good reason. It’s hard to go everywhere with your camera in tow, so most often we have our trusty little mobile camera is the one that gets used most often. With the iPhone, you have the added advantage of having tons of great photography apps as well, some of which allow you to post process, others that let you capture images for some cool effects. This has given to rise to a number of sites devoted to iPhone photography – there are app reviews and giveaways, photography books published using images shot on the iPhone, and even an art show of iPhotos!

The picture above was shot using the The Little Orange Box camera in the Retro Camera app. No other post-processing involved. Pretty cool, huh?

How many times have you come home, uploaded your pictures to your laptop, and found that your focus was a bit off from where you would have preferred it to be?

Sure, a lot of times we can crop or post process to hide the minor focus faux pas, but what if we didn’t have to? What if there was a camera that allowed you to point, shoot and think about focus later? Sounds preposterous?

Tell that to Dr. Ren Ng, the developer of the Lytro camera, which does just that. Basically, the camera captures all the information it possibly can about the field of light in front of it, presenting you with a digital image that is adjustable in an almost infinite number of ways. Not only can you change the focus, you can even vary the light levels. And if you have a 3-D ready screen, you can switch between 2D and 3D views or shift the perspective of the scene!

Impressive, eh? Check this picture out – the flowers in the foreground are in clear focus here:

And with just  a click of the mouse, I got the background in focus in the picture below:

Want to try it yourself? Head over to Lytro’s gallery of living pictures and give it a whirl!

Over exposure and blown out colors are supposed to be a no-no in photography. It’s almost a sacrosanct rule that your shots should be properly exposed. Sometimes, though, it’s fun to break the rules. Like with this image. The whites so startling it almost hurts your eyes tells the story of the tennis court groundsmen who work even in the scorching summer heat to ensure that the lines are drawn on the clay court so the players are never inconvenienced.

Break the rules sometimes. It can be fun!

Do you think this image works? Have you ever over-exposed your shots purposely? Weigh in below!

There’s so much diversity in India. Travel around the country and you’ll come across a variety of cultures, traditions, languages, and cuisines. This shot was taken at Pondicherry in the French part of town. We were walking around in the evening, exploring the different lanes, when I saw this lady making gajras (flower bands that you tie in your hair). I picked up one from her to put in my hotel room in front of the air conditioner – what a beautiful fragrance!