167 - 31st - Broken

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 31st May'08

This broken car was kept right in the middle of the tiger park at the Africam Safari in Puebla. I think the intention was to give an impression of a vehicle attacked and destroyed by a pride of lions. Though it looked more likely an escape attempt by animals from a caged vehicle, the creativity of the mind behind it is really commendable.

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166 - 30th - Hanging beauties

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 30th May'08

Hanging like small colorful bells, I found these flowers in a nearby park. Their shiny pink color and a very peculiar shape gave them an utterly attractive look. Not much to write about them as the picture says it all :)

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165 - 29th - A different perspective

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 29th May'08

I saw this bench and I liked the "wooden" look it was giving. Also the way this series of benches was laid out, felt quite attractive to me. I took my camera and thought of clicking it, but I wanted to give the whole scene a different perspective. I tried taking the photo from many different angles, this one being my favorite.

This particular view is giving an unusual depth to the whole image. The prominent foreground somehow pushes you to observe the little things in the background which normally you would have ignored. Tilting your head a bit does make things interesting sometimes.

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164 - 28th - Living in ruins

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 28th May'08

We sometime get so lost in our own little circle of comfort that we start taking things for granted. We don't even realize that some things which come so naturally for us are luxury for many people. The reality strikes (that too occasionally) when we see people surviving in much worse conditions. All they have is a temporary shed on their heads, small hungry mouths to feed and a really tough life to live.

If you see the photo carefully, you will realize many realities of life.

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163 - 27th - On the shore

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 27th May'08

We were having a boat ride on the lake in the midst of Africam Safari at Puebla when I saw this tree from a distance. The tree, with it's perfect shape, eye catching greenery & a beautiful shadow falling on the flowing water of the lake was giving a picturesque view. Though the boatman advised me not to stand without having one hand as a grip on the boat, the result was worth taking the risk :)

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162 - 26th - Hanging in mid air

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 26th May'08

One more from the sky diving trip. It was around 15 minutes after the plane took off carrying the divers when small parachutes started appearing high up in the air. You could see numerous colorful spots scattered all around against the deep blue canvas of the clear sky. Hardly after another 2 minutes you could actually identify those small spots as people hanging on to inflated parachutes. It was really exciting and "adrenaline-pumping" experience to see people descending from such an enormous height. they were floating down towards the earth like small colorful flakes of snow.

I took this photo just 10 seconds before this lady touched the ground.

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161 - 25th - Crash landing

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 25th May'08

I took this photograph almost a month back when we went to a neighboring state for skydiving. These small planes (12-15 seater, with seats made as two opposite, parallel benches), take the skydivers high up in the air to an altitude of 15k feet from where the free fall starts. These planes are capable of taking off and landing on a runway which is not even cemented, rather made up of gravel and loose soil.

This plane was probably disposed off after it reached it's retirement. It was lying in the ruins a couple hundred meters from the actual diving area.

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160 - 24th - Turibus

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 24th May'08

Like most other metropolitans in the US & Europe, most of the cities in Mexico too have their worn open deck buses which take you around for a tour of the city. In Mexico city, this "Turibus" can bee seen jam packed with tourists on the weekends and on public holidays. The fare for a trip around the city is 100 pesos more on these days, thus milking the large number of people who throng to these bus at that time.

It takes you around almost all the important landmarks of the city with a guide commentary constantly being played in 7 different languages.

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159 - 23rd - Staring at me?

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 23rd May'08

This is shot from the window of my previous apartment, Lombardo Suites. Remember the post "Birds of a nest" ? This is a close up of the same bird. I have spent a lot of time observing the activities of these birds during the weekends, as their nest was just in front of my room's window and I could easily just lie down and watch them as long as I could.

In this particular shot, the bird seems to be staring right into my camera :)

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158 - 22nd - Heart of the rose

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 22nd May'08

"Heart of the rose" is a meditation technique illustrated in the famous book "The monk who sold his Ferrari" by Robin Sharma. The author illustrates how you can descend into a different world just by staring at the heart of the rose. I never tried to follow it seriously but it definitely seemed to work when I tried to do it for 5 minutes one find day :)

As for the picture, I took it in a local park. This fully blossomed rose was standing out in the herd of many others standing around it.

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157 - 21st - The lamp

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 21st May'08

This is a lamp hung on the inner wall of our apartment. The place is blocked with a iron mesh and the view is not clear from outside. I was thinking of taking this picture for a long time but never found that gate open. Today morning I got the chance & hence got this considerable decent shot from my mobile.

This picture looks very ordinary and simple. The sheer simplicity in color and appearance somehow makes this picture very attractive for me. I like the texture and the overall completeness of the image.

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156 - 20th - Definitely Male

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 20th May'08

The sheer look on his face gave you a "bullish" impression. As if he is standing in front of you in absolute command with an I-fear-none expression on his face. His large horns and thick beard like hair added to his masculine look. A perfect example of emboldened manhood.

This is from the archives of "Africam Safari", Puebla. I don't know the name of the animal, but it appeared to be some kind of wild goat.

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155 - 19th - Sailing with the wind

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 19th May'08

I was passing by a nearby park when I noticed this old man sitting on a bench. He seemed so dejected and lost in his own world that it hardly looked as if he is interested in doing some business. It looked more like an obligation for him to sit there and try to sell what he had. He somehow induced a sense of sorrow in my heart and I couldn't help myself from just staring at him.

As I have highlighted more than once before, people really have tough lives and they don't seem to have any other choice than to just sail with the wind.

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154 - 18th - The jungle outpost

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 18th May'08

Chapultepec is almost a jungle in the midst of Mexico City. Dense vegetation and the whole area covered with a thick shed of trees. It has spiraling roads penetrating through it where you can see people walking, running and cycling throughout the day. Even after dark, you can see plenty of people roaming around oblivious of the scary haunted look it gives at that time of the day.

This was a security post at one of the entrances of the park. The early morning sunlight was just hitting the place when I took this pic.

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153 - 17th - Spotted charm

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 17th May'08

I took this snap while on my way to office one morning. These bright yellow flowers were planted at one corner of the road under the shadow of a big tree. "Nothing grows under shade" they say, bit just have look, what a beautiful thing has come up under the shade of that huge tree.

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R.I.P

I lost my camera today. I cant explain how I am feeling. It is just a killing emotion striking through my heart. I don't know how I will manage without it. Its like I lost something very important to me. Feel like crying out loud and cursing myself for my f***ing carelessness.

I have no idea how I am going to keep this blog alive till I get my next one, but lets hope I have some decent shots in my archive to post for the next one month or so.

If you feel that the quality if my posts is going down, please keep in mind that I would be posting all the reserves now.

Rest in peace - a piece of my heart.

152 - 16th - The jungle safari

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 16th May'08

This shot is from Teotihuacan, the pyramids outside Mexico city. The place has a dedicated "tram" type travel bus to see the whole place. Since the whole Aztec construction is spread around for almost 4 square kilometers, it is practically impossible to see the whole place simply walking around.

Though I didn't sit in it, I took this shot from the top of the moon pyramid.

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151 - 15th - Spread on the road

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 15th May'08

Though this image looks strikingly similar with the one I posted before, scattered, I couldn't resist posting it because the sheer sight just stuck to my eyes.

You go out early in the morning and you can see these beautiful colored leaves spread all over on the streets and the by-lanes. I love it when I walk through these streets covered with dry colored leaves.

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150 - 14th - Intoxicated

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 14th May'08

4.2% alcohol by volume - standard alcohol content of almost all the beers. I went for some shopping to the supermarket the other day & believe me, the alcohol section was the most attractive among all the various sections in the store. Different brands, different bottle shapes, different colors, really a nice sight for the eyes.

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149 - 13th - Into the woods

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 13th May'08

A long stretch of road, covered with tall green trees. Its not a park, not even something close to it. This is a mid-road divider at the place where I live in Mexico city. Here, unlike India, the width of the divider is more than the combined width of roads on either side. And this broad divider stretches for miles.

Apart from adding to the beauty of the place it gives a convenient and safe option for the pedestrians to walk, far away from zooming traffic on the road.

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148 - 12th - Fumar es causa de cancer

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 12th May'08

"Fumar es causa de cancer" - Smoking causes cancer. Most of us have read this warning millions of times. On cigarette ads, cigarette boxes and in TV commercials. But still, many of us very calmly ignore this warning and continue enjoying our peaceful smoking. "It relieves you of stress and tension" is the most common comment smokers give in their defense.

Many of my friends smoke, being very well aware of the ill effects. But still, its only one life, we have the right to "enjoy" it fully. This post is dedicated to all my smoker friends and to all those who are joyfully enjoy smoking.

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147 - 11th - Strings

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 12th May'08

Their vibration in thin air creates magic. These stretched strings produce a dozen different notes & give birth to ear warming music.

At the local "Office Depot" I saw these guitars kept in a corner. They were kept in the electronic section along with other items such as cameras & laptops. As I was clicking this shot, one of the salespersons of the section came to me and asked me to come with him & talk to the supervisor. They thought that maybe the camera in my hand is one of the many displayed in their store. After 5 long minutes of explaining the entire story (they don't understand English) they finally allowed me to walk away with the camera.

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146 - 10th - Thorny

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 11th May'08

Standing alone, under the heat of the blazing sun, devoid of all greenery, this dry, thorny tree gives a more impressive look in a yellow tint. Compared to the one with natural colors, this photo seemed to have a stronger effect.

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145 - 9th - Fruity delight

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 9th May'08

Though this image has striking similarity with the juicy lemons, I couldnt resist myself from posting it because I didn't want my blog to miss this fabulous shot. Macros are, believe me, the toughest things to get straight & I was very happy that I got this one right.

Nothing much to write about this one, except that these fruits were lying just besides that heap of green lemons which I posted earlier. :)

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144 - 8th - What's the name?

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 8th May'08

I have seen these flowers all over the city. Growing in frontyards, in road-side shrubs and in front of my office too. They are very elegantly shaped and have a very eye catching color combination of white and yellow. They have a light coating of wax like material on them and look magnificent when covered with fresh morning dew.

The only question in my mind regarding these flowers is, what is their name? Does anyone know?

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143 - 7th - Ancient artifacts

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 7th May'08

Such small stalls are present in abundance at all the historic tourist places in Mexico. You can find small pyramid models and some pieces of art emulating the ancient Aztec art forms. The people selling them know nice English as its important for their business to survive & at the same time quote all the prices in USD. 10USD obviously sounds much better than 100 Mexican pesos :)

I bought many of these during my first trip to the country. Some of them really give a very different and authentically "tribal" look. Worth spending some money to have some memories for a lifetime.

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142 - 6th - Red Hot

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 5th May'08

The sun was just going down the horizon and spreading the reddish orange light all over the place. It is really amazing that how many different shades of the same sunset you can see from different angles and different elevations. At the same point in time the color of the sunset will look different from the ground level and completely different from a terrace. As you reduce the elevation, the color starts getting darker and more on the red side.

I saw the same thing while landing in Mexico city. When the plane started its decent, I could the see the bright yellow sun at the horizon. Within seconds as the plane started descending, the color of the sun as well as that of the sky started changing. In the next 1 min as my plane landed, I could the horizon covered in a blanket of dark red light.

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141 - 5th - Teotihuacan

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 5th May'08

Teotihuacan is an ancient Aztec city on the outskirts of Mexico City. This place is host to a bundle of temples built by the Aztecs. The main attraction of the place and actually the prominently visible constructions at the site are the Sun & Moon pyramids. These were considered to be the temples for the Sun & the Moon gods. Though most of the temples and pyramids no longer exist now you can see the architectural remains of them spread all over the place.

I took this photo from the Moon pyramid, because that is the place from where one can see the complete panaroma. The pyramid which you can see on top left is the Sun pyramid, which much higher and bigger in size than the Moon pyramid. I am providing below, some more shots of the place.

View from the Sun pyramid
Sun Pyramid - 1
Sun Pyramid - 2


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140 - 4th - The wooden bench

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 4th May'08

We were passing through a park on our way to a museum when we decided to have some photos sitting on these wooden benches put all over the place. I took some nice group photos before I started thinking how exactly the picture would look without people sitting on it.

It was then when I took a couple of shots of the empty bench and got this one. Getting the people out of the frame, specially when they think its a foolishness you are doing, believe me, is a tough thing to do :)

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139 - 3rd - Messenger of death

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 3rd May'08

This figure which you can see the picture is the messenger of death according to the ancient Aztec civilization. The Aztecs believed that these messengers of death are responsible for transporting the human soul between the two worlds. According to them, they are the intermediaries between the supreme power and the humans.

These figures can be prominently spotted at almost all the Aztec temples and pyramids. I took this photo at the Teotihuacan pyramids near Mexico city.

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138 - 2nd - Chariot of darkness

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 2nd May'08

She is the Mexican goddess of darkness & she is believed to ride a dark chariots pulled by ferocious lions. Mexicans, like all other faiths in the world, have their parallel embodiments of good and evil.

This particular idol installed at one of the road roundabouts in Mexico city was looking simple awesome with lush green surroundings and fountains splashing all around it.

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137 - 1st - Spring onions

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 1st May'08

I was cutting some spring onions for dinner the other day when it crossed my mind that these green fresh leaves will make a good photo. I just left everything as it was on the cutting board and clicked some photos from different angles. The ones taken from the top were not looking any special and didn't impress me at all. But this one, came quite well with a lot of depth and the focus nicely sitting on the few pieces just in the front.

It feels really nice when I am able to see beauty and of course some 'clickable' material in small things around me :)

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