Gopal is a photo-blogger friend from Bangalore, India and his blog Which Main? What Cross? showcases excellent street photography from Bangalore. The nice things about Gopal’s pictures is that they capture ubiquitous city elements in a very different and rather interesting way – such as the example above. He carries his camera, a modest Canon A530, with him all the time. I am a big fan of his pictures and it was kinda inspirational for my weekly Toronto Tuesday series.

So if you happen to be in Bangalore this month, do visit his photo exhibition, and maybe you’d like to have a photograph in your collection.

There are 30 selected pictures from Gopal’s blog.
Duration: Monday, May 4, 2009 to Sunday, May 31, 2009
Location: F & B Restaurant, Papanna Lane, St Marks Road, Bangalore, India

And thou shant be lonely ever again….

There are some things in life which are priceless. This piece of paper with that message scribbled on it by my best buds V & R is one of those things.

So this one day (29-June) we were returning from some place after doing some shit. And for some reason, despite not having taken any caffeine (in the liquid form), the testosterone levels in the group were running high. I don’t remember how, but as natural as it would sound for three 24/25 year old guys to talk about the ‘feeling of closeness‘ (you know what I mean ), we drifted to this topic.

After talking nonsense for a while and almost to the point of getting bored, suddenly at the next signal this car drew up next to ours and there was a pretty lady in it. When I mean pretty, I mean an ideal candidate for giving the feeling of closeness mentioned above. Needless to say, a car chase began. However, the fourth buddy, who was driving the car was too diligent a driver and conveniently ignored our provocations to chase that blonde bombshell (cliché).

Damn! we lost her.

So again, as natural as it would sound for three 24/25 year old guys, we started planning our next move. Also, as natural as it would sound for three MBA students neck deep into school load, we started talking about identifying the target, optimizing the process, increasing the efficiency, communicating concise message, blah blah blah…

Then something happened, I don’t quite recollect (or I’m simply lying because I’m too embarrassed to post it here). My friends fished out a piece of paper (which was actually an assignment graded a day before) and scribbled those words on the back of it. For those who are fussy about bandwidth and surf the internet with images switched off, here is the complete text:

Lonely Tonight?
Contact Puku At:
[my telephone number]
And its free !!!

Before I knew, another potential candidate to give that feeling of closeness appeared and this newly created banner, aka personal ad was waived at her.

Predictably, we lost that car too, and we were nearing the student residences. Shit!

I was being a bitch that day, and V & R were determined to victimize me. Again something happened and I don’t quite remember it, but my buddies threatened that they’d post this ‘ad’ on the bulletin board of our apartment. Since I’m extra smart, I challenged them to do it anyway.

They did it. They actually did it.

This advertisement was posted on the bulletin board of my apartment, without me knowing about it.

So, dear V & R, after say five years when we will be in different places doing different things, this will be one of the memories we’ll always cherish. (A melodramatic dialog pops out)

Vaarun adds:
Its just fun to grind your bud’s so called societal status into the ground, isnt it? And a challenge is a challenge is a challenge…

Rahul and myself, we put this poster up on the main entrance to Puku’s massive apartment building. We then pinned him to the ground, cause he was trying to get the poster off. In a matter of moments, a girl came toward the building with her guy, looked at the poster and burst into peels of laughter! She din’t know that the “Puku” from the notice board was the same guy that was pinned down, and looking completely red in the face! The fellow got rid of the poster that night, but I wish some folks we knew from school had seen it.

Rahul would have loved to add but currently he is busy with Porter’s 5 force model, which is instructing him to ignore trivial stuff like this.

Notes:
1. Puku is my popular name, but you wouldn’t know that unless you’ve read this post
2. I appeal to female chauvinists or self-declared moralists to hold their breath. This wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

That’s right. I’m referring to Dr. L. Subramanian, popularly known as L.S.

I first heard LS live at the Nehru Centre auditorium during the Malhar festival. Already fascinated by his wonderful music which I had heard only on radio or cd’s, watching the maestro perform live was a thrilling experience altogether. I heard him play next at Sawai Gandharva, and the audience went crazy. It is believed that the audience at Sawai Gandharva festival is most difficult to appease. A harsh Pune critic cheering an artist playing Carnatak music is indeed an achievement. His third performance was at Vile Parle, at the Prabha Atre festival. Wow again.

To learn music from the maestros is a rare privilege indeed. I’ve seen people struggle for getting accepted as a shishya (disciple) by particular gurus (teachers). This is because the Indian tradition of education calls for extreme devotion to the cause and the disciple is expected to sacrifice a lot.

My friend Hari from Bangalore is now a student of t h e Dr. L. Subramanian. Hari also writes poetry (see his blog) and my infrequent chats with him are always insightful.

I’m very proud to know him.

The bus journey started with the cries proclaiming victory for Lord Mahavira one of the 24 Tirthankars of Jain religion, followed by the Namokar Mantra and some other devotional songs. Scene changed next to antakshari and other entertainment.

On reaching Baramati in the evening, the bride’s family welcomed us and ushered us into the Mahavir Bhavan ceremony hall – which was a square building with accommodation rooms on east and north sides, kitchen and dining area on south and wedding stage to the west. Central area was not constructed and was simply covered with colorful, decorative piece of cloth.

After brief rest and cleaning up, the ceremony of Introduction, called bheti-gathi was initiated. Family members from the two sides met each other, exchanged pleasantries and embraces. Members from each family are officially introduced at this point.

After this, the priest setup the holy kalash, the Engagement ceremony began. The bride arrived, dressed in bright saffron saree and the bridegroom in white sherwani. They exchanged wedding rings accompanied by cheering by the guests and chanting of mantras by the priest. The couple were officially committed to the wedding.

The Haldi ceremony began. Here, a turmeric paste is applied to the bride and the bridegroom by the guests. The significance of haldi ceremony is that the aspiring couple is not supposed to go out and expose themselves. Haldi is also an antiseptic and nourishes the skin so that it glows. This paste was later washed in a separate ceremony.

The next day, the groom and his guests left in the morning in a procession accompanied by band, music and dancing. They took a small path and arrived at the wedding location as a symbolic gesture which marks arrival of the bridegroom to the village of the bride for marriage. The groom and the barati (marriage party) were welcomed and Simant Pujan, or puja at the boundary was conducted by bride’s mother.

Maternal uncles accompanied the couple to the wedding stage, where they were separated by a piece of cloth and showered with blessings and good wishes in the form of poetry, called mangalashtak. At precise auspicious time (mahurat), the cloth is lowered and the bride and bridegroom exchange flower garlands. The boy tied the manglsutra or the wedding necklace to the girl and while the priest administered the oath. The couple was officially declared as married.

The rest of the rituals followed. The couple took 7 rounds around the fire symbolizing the cosmos. Following this and some more intricate customs, the marriage ceremony was completed and the guests were offered lunch.

On duty as unofficial wedding photographer, my task started right from taking pictures when departing from Dombivli till we arrived back, 37 hours later. I took approximately 220 shots, of which I guess around 20% are experiments and repeat shots. I’ve seen the results and they don’t look bad!

This was my first Jain wedding. In India, rituals and customs being flavored by local traditions are never the same everywhere – Gujrati Jains and Marwari Jains for example may have different rituals altogether.