A lesson in photography

It was then that i had got my first camera.... .. It was a nice 8 megapixel digital camera. I was just experimenting the different modes and options. but then i never knew nething about photography. No rules... All i knew was what focus is and what zoom is... of which the former factor i dedicate to what was taught in school about lenses... all i started was to point the camera at a place, look at the display and click. The enthusiasm of owning a personal camera that too a digital one for the first time ever was overwhelming. But then started the trouble. I noticed that every time i clicked, the photo was different.... i couldnot understand why though. It was then that my left brain (the logical reasoning side) heated up. i guessed that there is an autofocus. I guessed the different modes that were in it as a preset and figured out the working of the macro or the dead focus mode. This went on. I returned from my first ship and was at home chatting with my bro. Once he did mention his interest in photography... He said a lot of things that were more of a googly to me. But his concluding line did make a change.It laid the foundation of photography in me. He asked me to go through the manual first to understand my equipment more. I did that and ever since then i started to gain interest in this subject. I never spared even the silliest of things starting from the housesold black ant , my own hand to the neighbourhood stray dog.. I clicked almost everything that came in way and literally found out that the photo can show the senario in a better way as well as in a worser way. Then one day as i was looking through my desktop folders, i saw flowers and animals that had been photographed probably by some expert. I browsed the net for tricks and tips on photography. I did learn a lot and then i started practicing them. I learnt to shoot pictures of jet planes, the moon, lightning and insects and all that i could manage. My career makes me go places which offers me an excellent opportunity to shoot different photographs. And till now, my bro has been my tutor, critic as well as an assessor of my pictures... i thank him for having made me realise the potential i had in photography.

PS.

If any of you ever see a person desperately trying to photograph a scene of a monument, group, nature etc pls try and avoid storming across at the excat moment that the shutter works out. All we get is a blurr of the whole senario..... neither are u dropping in well nor is the actual subject....

The excavation from the Fanned Dragon Fly

I was racing around in my car at top speed and gear. I could hear the engine roar at every gear shift and at every turn the wheels screeching loosing traction on the tight corners and while  nosing through the traffic and keeping ahead of the other racers... the horizon blurred every time i pushed hard on the accelerator..... i was in position 2 of Need For Speed Most Wanted blacklist, trying to pull down the final race with the blacklist topper... and there was a loud ring admist the roar of the engine and the brakes from the surround system..... i got scared at first, but then with the worst of curses and a foul mouth, i paused the game and reluctantly saw the no on the id.... that was it i knew where the call was from.... it was from my office... 

I was asked to join an lpg tanker... i was so happy that time.. the personnel informed that i require to undergo some special medical and fitness tests and take some specialized training...It was in june end that i got this call and Mumbai was getting nature's waterwash.... the monsoons. it had rained really hard then. All that was running in my mind was that i was joining a lpg tanker. i asked for the name and went online to find the details of the ship i was to board.. i booked my tickets, dragged my lock stock and barrel and rushed to mumbai to do the courses that the company had arranged for me!!! It was then i came to know that i would be doing  HLO (helicopter landing officer ) and HUET(helicopter underwater escape training) courses.. i was at first awed by the fact that i would be signing on and off the vessel on a chopper.in great excitement, i went to the venue of the medicals, gave the tests and went to the venue of the training for the chopper stuff. 

The first course was a little boring. we were made to sit in a classroom and a pilot was hired to explain the working, fundementals and the essentials of the fanned dragonfly!!! The firefighting principles, emergency and contigency responses etc.we were more happy to attend the break time wherein we were served hot tea and snacks that were a treat to the cold humid air. It used to drizzle or rain quite a bit then but to the mariner the weather posted no hurdle.

Then began the HUET. The basic escape methords and the safeties aboard a chopper were shown to us. Then , we came to know that we were going to have a practical session, where we would have to perform an escape from a helicopter model that would be dropped into a swimming pool and turned upside down. the doors had the same type of escape mechanisms and eject pins. The first task is to escape by ejecting the doors as in a chopper. This seemed a plum cake. but on sitting on to the model did we understand that the seatbelts were to be put on and we would be dropped from a height of 20 feet!!! Oh My God!!! was the chorous expression at the sight of the arrangement. the staff were ready there to help in case some gets trapped or for emergencies. 

To worsen the fears, the rain had increased to a heavy downpour from a shower by then. We were first given the option to do this session the following week. But we acted HEROES and One  hero commented "NO STORMS STOP THY SAILOR  LORD NEPTUNE" and with that we went to the swimming pool and changed into our cotton coveralls. With the cold rain banging our heads, we were drenched to the third layer of skin in a jiffy. Our dialogoe hero was the first person to be made to sit in the model as an award for his delivery of those GOLDEN WORDS. But he needed to have a partner as the model could accommodate two people. I was a good swimmer and was not scared of  water and I volunteered. I climbed the lader and sat in the boot and strapped up and hoisted a thumb to give the green signal.there was a jerk and a slide and WHAM into ther water the whole thing fell and capsized. the floats inflated and kept the boot from sinking but it had capsized.

I gave a tug at the emergency exit and kicked off the door, with all my strength. The door had shut tight due to the impact and the hydrostatic pressure. I slowly surfaced and went to one end of the pool. After everyone finished this, it was our turn to repeat it but this time we had to use the window to exit. We had to eject the windows and escape through that. The same fall, the floats inflate and there we were in water like bats strapped up into a hollow of a tree heels atop! this was a fraction easire than the whole door thing. i managed to slip outta the belt and through the window. but my partner being a more hefty person had to squeeze out his hips with some difficulty.After this round, came the real test

To simulate the ocean waters, the floats were disabled and  had to escape blind folded to simulate the dark ocean waters... our hero started fretting . And it happened all again....wham we hit the water!! The difference being that there was no whizz of the floats inflating now and i could feel the water pressure on my earlobes as the boot sunk to the bottom of the 12 foot deep pool and as i unstrapped and ejected the window, the muffled clang of metal reached my ears. I understood that i was 12 feet below my habitat now!!! I hauled myself out oh the window and went underwater as long as i could and surfaced slowly and gradually near the other end of the pool.This moment was a shock to me.. The cold rainstarted  piercing my face with an even colder wind rocketing along the surface. Moreover there was commotion and people were running helter skelter.

 I was happy that people were bothered about my absence for some time  but then i noticed that they were looking at the direction of the boot. and with 4 people surfaced our hero. That was not all. The best part was that when he was hauled out of the water i did not know how to react.

There appeared a hefty guy with a door around his waist! OH MY GOD! He had tried to escape through the window, got stuck and ejected the whole door!! 4 people surfaced him and 7 of them hauled him up. With some struggle, they got the door out of his flabs!  The rain gave a terrific seriousness to the situation. It was like an underwater excavation. A relic surfaced!

Two hours later we were sitting at the canteen laughing over this incident sipping hot tea and munchung the hot pakoda that were served.

A Tale in Brazil

That was in mid november that we reached brazil. a port maned santos in a country called Rio-De-Grande. It was a break to all the ship staff because the voyage from russia to this place had extended over 22 days and moreever we had an anchorage of more than 28 days to add to our miseries.... as there was nomore provisions left onboard and the water supplies were about to be devasted off as we use an instrument called the flash evaporator which runs with the ship's main propulsion system. since we have been at anchorage there was severe restrictions in water usage as severe in competetion to the chennai draughts ( except that there are no ladies fighting over metro water lorries with plastic pots!). It became a usual practice that we called the port authorities every 3 or 4 hrs to ask if we have the birth, the answer being instantanious that we dont yet!! at one point of time it became so bad that the ort authorities replied directly mentioning our ship's name that we dont yet have a berth allotted at our FIRST CALL even before we finish the usual 3 calls( hey imagine a court scene)over the vhf radio.oooohhhhh.... there ends the trouble when one day the port authorities called up saying that we would be moving in next morning (in fact there was a party that night for the news.)

All the formalities were completed and it was evening by the time ( birthing finished cargo holds prepared for cargo disagarge and the customs had cleared the ship and crew ) ( hey that means we can go out) It was not surprising that everyone were more or less more intended to go out after their duty.people swarmed out of the ship to see some land and other faces. people were checking their onboard accounts to take necessary cash to do their shopping , to roam about etc. Then came my movement. I had got off duty ran up to my cabin, had a wash , had a quick dinner and , scrapped up all the cash i cud out of my bag and stuffed it in my purse and caught up with a few of my senior officers to go out with. we went to the santos meuzeum of history first

Wow what a place!!! was my first impression, though small but cozy, well potrayed and maintained. then we went out for the shopping part.purchased some stuff. here comes the shock of my life. we were 3 of us ( hey i remember my granny tellin that never go in 3s or that thing does not go about well) and were strolling around the electronics section. opposite us came two men in wierd dresses noone expects people to wear violet or pale majentha  robes unless there exists rowling's wizaring world as in her harrypotter. but we just thought it could be a tradition out there in that place! But next hit the lighteneng bolt. one of them spotted us standing came up to us , caught my senior who was looking smartest by his hand , looked at us winked and said " hello sexy!!!" OH MY GOD. these are  g#ys ( ok ppl u know what!!) MY first instinct was to run away but wait..... my senior was being held back by his hand!!!! oops what should we do? then picking up some courage i spoke "arrepentido nosotros no somos interesados" which in spanish means"sorry we are not interested" Now that fellow ( if i can call it so) gave me the most dirtiest look a person could ever shoot at an other person, turned away and bustled off angrily into the crowd! yuck what an experience? but an unforgettable one! and since that day i  understood that knowing an other lang even a little bit does no harm!!!

really true one!!!!

This is not a piece of my own creation. This is by a very good, brilliant friend of mine. named mahesh. but i thought the "JUICE" in the message "IS WORTH THE SQUEEZE"

 

Culture.....Follow ??

Yesterday night, around 11, I was ambling back to my hostel sipping hot chocolate along with a dear friend, Mr.Ass, my neighbour in the hostel. We love to talk about all sorts of random topics and one such topic that ignited our idle minds was - "Are we really proud of following our culture in the hostel or do we just try to seem to follow some culture to please our peers?"

It all started when we noticed our batchmate making a weak attempt to adopt a western accent to impress a group of acumen freshers to whom he was giving some advice. I remarked - "Why do people tend to adopt or imitate some other culture by forsaking their own?"

With a nod, Mr.Ass aceded - "Yea, many of us have actually transformed and adopted a random culture with a false idea that it is a more "cooler" culture and that makes us a real "college dude" ".
The point is, many of my batchmates, have after coming to the college, seem to have forgotten their inherent culture and have started to emulate, adopt and follow another culture that is seemingly more cool. In most cases, that culture is actually "no culture". There are a set of students in our college, they follow no tradition, culture or philosophies, that is because that is how they have been brought up and that's how the life is in their native lands. They find that life natural and are comfortable with it. There is nothing to blame them for.

Now, many students, who astutely followed their religion, culture and tradition till their 12th, seem to have forgotten those and have found an attraction to this life of "no culture" and living a care free life, sticking to no rules. They seem to have forgotten their daily rituals, their beliefs and started ridiculing their own culture. Instead, they praise this new "no culture" and seem to have forgotten of God (in whom they once so severly believed that they even went to the temple thrice a week). Being a brahmin, I found many fellow brahmins losing their traditions. They stopped applying the sacred paste on their forehead, stopped praying, stopped believing in God, stopped taking bath daily (they think its cool to stay without bathing for days on end), tend to adopt a heavily accented way of talking by frequently absurdly using obscene words (another factor that makes them think its cool), tend to walk and behave like western teenagers with that slight swagger, tend to stop studying thinking being a cool dude means one should study the minimum etc., There have been many such people, some my very dear friends, they have completely changed in their lifestyle, their attitude, their way of speech, their behaviour, their way of life , a complete transformation in everything so that they can be a part of that so called "no culture" group. The sad part is, not many succeed in this "transformation", it results in such a weak profile for that person that it is very pathetic and seems that that person is very desperately trying to imitate someone. The end result, they lose their identity, they lose their originality and they lose their personality.

You would have been referred to as - "Mahesh?, oh the guy who plays the mridangam ?, they guy who wears the white paste on his head daily? they guy who plays the flute ? the guy who has a neat room ? the guy who has a beard . . .. so so "

Now, if you adopt some other culture, you will be referred to as - "Mahesh ?, oh the guy who roams with that gang ? the guy who smokes a lot ? they guy who tries to be like an NRI ? they who says "f*ck" for every 4 words ? ....so so "

Now,

On the other hand, there are quite a few who proudly exhibit their culture, show off every slightest property to claim that they strictly follow their tradition and culture.

I say, we should silently and humbly follow our culture, be proud of our culture and tradition, be proud to be whatever you are, always withold and support your culture, never unnecessary boast of your culture and at no cost try to dump or shadow or bring down your tradition.

There is yet another small group, that has been wooed by this "no culture" and tried to imitate it and underwent this transformation. Then, they decided that this new culture is not suited for them and it was a mistake!, this group was in a fix ! they din't know what to do , they had made a mistake and chosen the wrong culture. They finally realised the beauty and the scantity of their older inherent culture and tradition and reverted back to their older lifestyle. These people are the ones who have completely understood the norms and meaning of culture and tradition.

At birth, you are involuntarily made to follow the traditions of your family, whether you accept or not, you follow it till your 12th. When you enter your hostel, you are a free bird, your mind tends to wander and ultimately you might end up transforming. The transformed people are one set, some benefit and some lose due to the transformation. Now, those who lost, tend to return back to their own lifestyle, this time, they voluntarily return back, they know that their old methodology was the best and now realise its full potential and from then on, their life becomes a smooth ride !

So whatever tradition or culture you follow, pray follow it throughout, or if you want to imitate or adopt some other culture, do so with utmost devotion and do not take up any temporary change. Only when you lose and return back to your own culture, do you realise its true potential.

-----------------------------

Whatever culture the students follow in the hostel, back home they are the normal, astute kids and they follow their family tradition to the last letter ! So, in the hostel, it's only an attempt to impress people and give an false impression.

Always uphold your religion, never lose faith in it - The Maharishi

Be proud of what you are, never tend to change your beliefs and life style so that it may impress others, that is a false identity and is of no value, people appreciate and respect a person who follows his own lifestyle and upholds his ideals - The Maharishi

HATS OFF TO THAT MESSAGE MAHESH

The Pukes Law

We were goin from turkey to france during mid march. "Ok a beautiful month ahead - the begning of spring and well away from the freezing -42 of canada" was the total idea in my mind. And thus started the sail. One day gone second day gone... third day started i mean my 3rd  day after sailing out of turkey with my navigational watch.Recieving a weather fax (as my usual practice, i noticed a low pressure depression south west of our course. the weater report analysis clearly indicated that we were heading into the storm, in the bay of biscay , a place known for rough weather and seas.

Slowly the wind started to grow stronger. Hour by hour wind kept growing stronger as we reached the bay of biscay.Then started the rolling and pitching of the ship (rolling means .... imagine a toothpaste box.... the movement of this box in semirotational way about the axis along its length... and pitching is the pounding of the box along the axis over its length errrr like the wheeling of a bike) and increased gradually.

Then came a point that the movements became so severe that things had to be tied to place and well secured to prevent damage. Infact the sleping part too was very difficult. all work on deck was suspended. people started becoming pale. cooking became difficult. but the fact being that people stopped eating food at their usual amount. a view from the navigation room (known as the "bridge" of a ship) clearly suggessted why. waves banging with huge force on the hull . Waves of height greater than 5 m. There was water all over the deck. After a sleepless night( you see things keep falling everywhere there is toomuch rocking and the jerk that comes when a ship goes head on into a swell of 6 mt is more than enough to throw a person off foot) unlike the first few hours that appeared like a roller coaster ride, but without an end point, this went on and on and became worser.

The next morning watch was pathetic. people were tierd, pale, with faces begging for mercy from the lord of the seas. a sight of the sea gushing on deck admist the rains and wind could scare the wits out of an inexperienced person. the ship was being manually steered with the officers on watch instructing the crew steering it as the auto pilot could not cope up with the drastic changes in the course due to the strong wind and moreover the swell. then in my watch i heard a thud suddenly and "oowaaaaaahhhhkk...." a sound came the man at the steering controll had disappeared .It then struck me that he was getting sea sick. i hopped over to the steering controll and desperately tried to bring back the ship under controll. and slowly she began to respond. But by then our heading had already changed by about 30 degrees. In 15 minutes the ship was brought on to her course but the rains had intesified. And then we were slowly poceeding along the course admist more "wuaaaaaaakss" from people. That was an experience i would defenitely not forget. that continued for 2 more days but the effect on the ship reduced when we had altered course so as to have the winds on our stern that is from beind.

                                                           Thats a sample

But one thing i learnt in this voyage was what a chain reaction is?  You see"For every whuaaaaak that is seen on a ship by a person in rough wether there is an equal and defenite whuaaaak by the person who observed as long as he knows the art of motion sickness." Named as the PUKE's LAW

THE RADIOS....

The ship was in port.. pretty cold then in end of september... not iced up yet as we were still hopefully in mid autumn....we were loading and then came the final part of loading the cargo in such a way to keep the ship upright.... my first cargo watch was was in progress...i was taking regular rounds ...(i was familiar coz it was my 4th day on the ship).... for the first time in my life ... i was given to operate anUHF-two way-common channel-half duplex transission radio handset..  (hey... come on thats just a walkietalkie operating in the uhf frequency range.) it felt like i had been given some rare gift... i cud contact the ship's officers from the spot i was in... i cud hear all the conversation goin on between the heigher ranks... it just felt great..... but that lasted for only a few hrs....i then realized.. it was more of a headache than a boon coz people keep calling u all the time for minute details ( technical wrt ship only)...cud not stand in a place peacefully for 15 minutes... u give them the details... then think... phew... ill take a break....and there cracles the set.." shriram come in"ooooohhhh!!!!! "yes sir come in" being my immediate blast for a reply... then shri gimme this... gimme that value.... and so on....an as time passed i started dreading the radio set .... u never know when u r goin to be called (of course not in ur rest time unless in an emergency but thats on ur cabin phone over the intra communication system on board).... i remember more than once of having dumped it into someone elses hand at the first opportunity i got..( say when someone needed it temporarily) and just boooshh vanished from yhat place just hoping that that person wud not return untill he finds me....but... people, u see, are smarter than that...they just leave it in my cabim or give it to one of the crew on duty to FIND ME!! and return it.so there comes a new phobia for all the juniors in shipping "THE RADIOPHOBIA". 

Joining ship for the first time...

The day started as I was boarding the plane to St. petersburg russia via paris... the flight was smooth.... it was abt 13 hrs from here to there in.... that part was comfirtable....then was the 4 hrs waiting in paris.... then to st.petersburg..... ok all went good till then....we got our luggage ....(i say we becoz there were 4 more coleagues of mine coming along to join the same ship).... the moment we stepped outta the airport i had a slight shock....NO ONE SPOKE ENGLISH.... we were like ducks waddling in middle of a dark lake.... id not know where to go...

Then suddenly an elderly woman appeared from thin air jabbled somethin in her lang. and pointed a finger to a corridor showing 3 fingers on the other hand...we took that she wanted us to go to the 3rd room in that alley.... ok good till that.... we entered that room and atlast found 1 man who could gather some english words....we then explained him and ok he contacted our agents and merrily we went past the immigration and into the street .... that was the time i realised what chill really is...september end.... dry... 74 deg north latitude... phew.... shivering we looked around for an agent to come in a suv to pick us up... but out of a corner i noticed 2 women staring at us and then one of them gathered up some courage and asked .."indians" and mentioned our ship's name and said "I agent".... ok

then was the shock of the life... in zoomed 2 matchbox cars....i was sure that only we people will fit in there not our luggages.....but squeezed into them with great difficulty...the ride was among an xellent scenery but we cud not enjoy it coz of all the jam packing in the car....

we reached the port and when we were near rhe ship was the next shock... the ship was about to start loading... means she has the least of her hull under water... that means we had to climb all the way up the gangway...(the access point to the ship from the quay).... with all that luggage...oof...but luckily the ship's crew hopped out to help us and in no time we were standing on the deck with all our luggage....we went to our allotted rooms and setteled then had a bath and then were accompanied to dinner....

one look at the table, my mouth started waterin..it was a self serving system... with abt 11 dishes....i being a veggie took all the veg items an had a stoumptous dinner and retired for the day worked out fully due to the travel and dozed off in no time...