The first can be a matter of circumstance and may or may not be up to you.
The second is definitely up to you.
Very few of us are lucky enough to get both 
My good friend Andre Fanthome seems to be one of them
Image via
While walking around NYC, we came across this group of ‘posters’. They seem to have been posted by a group called ‘Concerned New Yorkers’
The basic aim seems to be to gather informal feedback if the mosque/community center should be built…and a majority of the people think it should be.
I guess its one of those things which happen ‘only in New York’.
Interesting comments though.
More pictures here:
The pain seems to have lessened but the memories are still fresh…but this year’s 9/11 memorial wasn’t about 9/11.
It was more about the proposed ‘Ground zero mosque’ or the Islamic Center on 51 Park Place in New York.
Bigots and liberals were both present in almost equal numbers with their placards and megaphones. And while it was disheartening to see some of the messages, it was also great to see the level of tolerance among people.
Of course, the presence of a large police contingent of the NYPD helped prevail law and order.
Take a look at some of the pictures around the WTC site and Chruch street today. Am still not sure what to make of them 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abhikprasad/sets/72157624811333629/show/
One of the reasons, NYC is NYC because the good folks there continue to do crazy (cool) stuff like the Sidewalk Catwalk project.
Created by the Fashion Center Business Improvement District, the project features 32 mannequins dressed by local designers in weather proof material. Loved the the theme by Kenneth Cole (pictured above)
It does add some extra zing to the walk from 34th st to Times Square on 6th Avenue.
More pictures in the slideshow below:
Incase you cannot see the slideshow above, here is the Flickr link.
Not too many great movies going around these days…The Japanese wife is one of them which manages to stand apart from the pack.
Its the story of two pen-pals, one a bengali living in rural west bengal and the other living in Japan. Yes, as the title suggests, the girl lives in Japan.
What starts off as a friendship via regular letters takes a strange turn as Miyage offers herself to Snehamoy as his wife. Though they never meet during their lifetime, they are pretty devoted and behave as much like husband-wife as any other couple… Gives, long distance relationships a whole new meaning.
Detailed synopsis here.
The movie moves along almost poetically with a amazing background score and before you realise it, its the end. And it hits hard. Not something that you would expect.
Dont want to spoil the climax for you so go and watch it if you can. If you don’t understand Bengali, try and get a sub titled version as its interlaced with english and bengali (though you will really enjoy the nuances if you understand bengali, especially the bangladeshi accent).
One thing that did strike me at the end though is, we go through life waiting for something, and in the end when we finally get it, its almost always too little too late….Just goes to reinforce the fact that the journey is more important than the destination.
So whatever super urgent/important thing that you may seem to be doing, take some time out to watch this movie. Might help you see your life from a different perspective.
New York is an amazing city. By night, it gets even more interesting.
So instead of sitting all night in a bar on a friday night, we (Esther, Roma and I ) decided to do some ‘Night Photography’.
After dinner at Cowgirl (which had amazing pulled pork but horrible BBQ ribs) on Hudson st, we spent the next hour or so walking down Bleeker, 8 th Avenue, and ultimately finishing up at 6th and 14th.
Here are some of the pics below… and yes, I did take a picture of a man peeing into a telephone booth. Unbelievable, but i guess its a ‘new yorkish’ thing to do
Most gyms have ’tissue wipes’ for wiping the treadmill / elliptical trainer clean after you are done using them.
Most people don’t bother using them and usually walk off.
Today, the guy on the elliptical finished a few minutes before me and was pottering around as his wife was still on the treadmill. He had ofcourse not bothered to wipe it clean.
After I was done, I wiped up my elliptical and moved to the weights area. The guy had seen me doing it, and i was wondering what he would do next.
Surprise !! He got some wipes and wiped his machine. He obviously was not a regular ‘wiper’ because it was already a good ten minutes since he had finished so I assume he did it because he saw me doing it.
I guess most folks dont do the ‘right’ stuff because either they are too lazy about it or it just doesnt strike them…(another example which is very aptly explained in this awesome ad here.)
So if you want some things to change, lead by example
On a recent trip to the Surajkund mela, was wondering what to shoot when i realised that there was a whole riot of colours all around us.
Now while B&W photography is considered “classic, timeless, arty, etc etc”, i just love the amount of colour all around us, hence this attempt to capture the ‘colour’
Take a look at some more on Flickr here.
To see a slideshow, click the image below.
The Donkey and the Dog- Read and think-You may find one in your midst.
There was once a washer man who had a donkey and a dog. One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house, the washer man was fast asleep too but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson.
The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn’t bark, the donkey will have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly.
Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away, the master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason.
Moral of the story ” One must not engage in duties other than his own”
Now take a new look at the same story…
The washer man was a well educated man from a premier management institute. He had the fundas of looking at the bigger picture and thinking out of the box. He was convinced that there must be some reason for the donkey to bray in the night.. He walked outside a little and did some fact finding, applied a bottom up approach, figured out from the ground realities that there was a thief who broke in and the donkey only wanted to alert him about it. Looking at the donkey’s extra initiative and going beyond the call of the duty, he rewarded him with lot of hay and other perks and became his favorite pet.
The dog’s life didn’t change much, except that now the donkey was more motivated in doing the dog’s duties as well. In the annual appraisal the dog managed “ME” (Met Expectations) .
Soon the dog realized that the donkey is taking care of his duties and he can enjoy his life sleeping and lazing around.
The donkey was rated as ” star performer”. The donkey had to live up to his already high performance standards.
Soon he was over burdened with work and always under pressure and now is looking for a NEW JOB …
Source: Internet fwd via Neetu Mishra
The tagline says, ” You will never look at dinner the same way”.
And after watching the movie, I did indeed have a different perspective on the food we eat.
Its amazing the changes that have taken place in the food industry…and slightly scary too…The movie covers a wide range of issues, ranging from the need to buy locally grown organic food, the ‘factory model’ of farming and meat production, to the global impact which major food corporations have had on the environment…
Highly recommended for watching.
Here is the official website. And if you want to do more, click here.
