586 - 29th - My world inside a bubble

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 29th Oct'09

509 - 8th - The sweet shop

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 8th May'09

508 - 7th - Facing the dusk

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 7th May'09

428 - 26th - China street

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 26th Feb'09

I was wandering about in the streets of downtown Mexico city, enjoying the late night breeze and the peace which descends upon the place once it is past 11. From a distance a saw a place unusually lit up as compared to it's surroundings. When I asked my friend about the place, I came to know that it was actually the "China street".

The place has like a dozen Chinese restaurants and the whole street had a cover of these orange lanterns hanging overhead.

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303 - 14th - In the crowd

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

I was walking through a crowded side-walk in downtown Mexico City when it struck me that maybe a photo here would look good. So I took out my camera, leaned against a lamp post and started clicking arbitrarily. Of all the shots I got I somehow liked this one the most.

Only after transferring the photos and seeing them in full size, I realized that this man on the left of the image was giving me such a what-the-hell-are-you-doing stare :)

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300 - 11th - Xochimilco

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

Xochimilco is a small tourist attraction near Mexico City. It has a stretch of water in the form of small river-like stagnant lake. You can hire a boat with seating capacity varying from 10-25 people. People usually go there with proper "partying" arrangements like music, food and beer. It takes around 2 hours to take a full round of the lake and you can see numerous boats floating around with each one hosting a small party.

Apart from the boats carrying people, there are other smaller ones which offer a variety of other services like food, flowers and even music. carefully looking, its a small business model in its own.

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242 - 14th - The bubble man

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

I remember my time as a kid when I used to be really fascinated by these soap bubbles floating in the air. I precisely remember one instance when I had to cry for more than an hour to convince my mom for buying one for me. Later me and my friends started experimenting to make the thing at our home itself. We dissolved some soap powder in water & took the body of a sketch pen as the thing to blow in. It was such a joyous moment when we did it ourselves for the first time, because now we didnt have to run after anyone to buy the "bubble toy" for us :)

I relived those moments through a child who was running through these bubbles, trying to burst any many as she could. Now I think that a photo of her running through the bubbles would have been better than the one I am posting today ;)

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241 - 13th - The pink flower

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

I love taking closeup shots of flowers, specially the ones which do not have much complexity in their texture and design. The one you can see in the picture falls under my favorite category of "clickable" flowers. I really like going right up & close to them and shooting them in entirety, with the flower occupying the whole frame. I have posted a couple more of such shots previously on this blog. I hope the regular visitors remember that :)

If you see the full image, you can actually see the fine grains on the those black things at the center, which I suppose is the pollen of the flower. I enjoy observing such minute details in pictures.

BTW, anyone knows which flower it is? Lilly?

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240 - 12th - The tribal dance

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

Mexico has a rich ancient cultural heritage in the form of the Aztecs. Aztecs were the indigenous people & the original inhabitants of the country before it was influenced and transformed by Spanish colonization.

Almost everywhere in the country you can see this cultural heritage on display. It can be seen in the form of pyramids, gastronomy or even minute expressions like tribal dances. You go out for a trip on a weekend and you can see groups of people dressed in huge tribal attires, dancing to loud thumping music of drums. A typical dance troupe has them all; men, women and children. The atmosphere has a sort of enchanting effect and you just can't help yourself from standing there and enjoying the dance for hours.

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239 - 11th - For the sake of living

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

Everyone expects their share of a peaceful rest after a long tiring journey. But for some the struggle of the journey never ends. They have to toil hard even when the end is near. They just don't have the option to relax even when they know that this may be the last phase of their struggle with life. Because even if its some handful of moments left, they have to fight to survive through them. They cant stop, they just have to move on - for the sake of living.

I saw this old man on one of the pavements in downtown Mexico City. When I first saw him, his fingers were striking against the chords of his guitar just to make some sound. As I got nearer to him, his movements became slower. By the time I clicked the photo & went near to him to put a coin in his bowl, we was already sleeping. He looked so tired and stressed. Even the sound of the coin striking against the bowl didn't wake him.

Just observe closely the things kept around him & you will realize how hard he has to struggle just to survive yet another day. I thank him to provide such a meaningful image to my blog and to teach me a lesson or two about life.

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238 - 10th - In the name of the God

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 10th Aug'08

Have you ever realized (only the religious & faithful among you) that your head bends down by itself as soon as you come in front of God or to say literally, in front of any of his material existences like in a temple, mosque or a church ? Some may explain this as a mere habit we have developed, but I really think otherwise. For a not-such-a-firm-believer like me - who is still struggling to find out whether he really believes in God or somewhere deep inside he is an atheist - its really surprising to find myself standing "head down" in front of the almighty before I even realize that I am actually doing that.

I've been to many churches lately & observed the above mentioned phenomenon closely. Whether God exists or not, people who are really devoted to his existence surely find tremendous peace and solace in his so called abodes.

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194 - 27th - Birds of love

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

Love is one pure feeling in this world which binds one and all; humans and animals alike. There is no better view of nature than to see two souls entangled in the magical strings of love. Love someone & you find yourself living in a completely different world, where all it matters is how you can love more.

I captured these love birds in my camera from my apartment in Mexico City while they were busy singing the love song :)

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193 - 26th - Colorful chillies

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

I was walking through a local flower exhibition near Zona Rosa, Mexico City when I came across this colorful display of tiny chillies. A combination of Red, Yellow & Green spread across the floor was a fabulous scene to look at. One small pot of these colorful chillies was sold at 50 Mexican Pesos, which is around 200 Indian rupees.

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192 - 25th - Photographing the photographer

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

Its really amazing how a photographer looks while taking a picture. He becomes completely oblivious of his surroundings and all he has in his mind is the scene he is concentrating on. We usually find them in awkward positions; sometimes half bent, sometimes leaning backwards, sometimes almost lying flat on the ground :) Thats the magic photography does on serious pursuers.

I knew what the lady is aiming at, but I am still not sure what the guy sitting below is up to :P

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191 - 24th - Sun dried

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

This flower resembled a "multi-shoot" gun barrel of a military warship when I first saw it. Numerous empty barrels in concentric circles, ready to spit fire. Actually it is an empty dried shell of a flower which was baked by the heat of the sun. But it certainly doesn't look any less attractive after its death too. Beauty they say, is in the eyes of the beholder & certainly in the lens of my camera :)

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190 - 23rd - The drowning olive

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

Though the image is not clear in full size & contains a lot of noise, but I really wanted to post this one due the sheer interest I had in the way it actually looked. A green juicy olive dipped in a chilled glass of bubbling sprite. Though the olive doesn't really go with sprite, but on my case it had to, cauz I am not into hard drinks :)

The bubbles rising out of it were the one which caught my attention and made me click this one. Due to the lack of proper lighting I couldn't get a clear shot, but i was pretty much satisfied with the overall look of the image.

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188 - 21st - The green flower

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

Matching with the all the green color around it, this flower was not looking that magnificently colorful, but it had a sense of beauty and attraction of its own. Made of tiny little "flower-lets" it was giving an appearance of "scene-within-a-scene" with numerous small flowers hidden inside a bigger entity.

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181 - 14th - Adiosito

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

I have spent around 9 months in Mexico, 3 trips, 3 months each. But this time when I headed back towards India, my heart was heavy like never before. The way I got attached to the place and the people during this trip was something very special. I felt as if I am leaving something precious behind and that I am going to miss it forever.

Sometimes you have things for ages and you feel no attachment & sometimes a mere touch makes you remember something forever. Thats the magic of life.

Though nothing special in this photo, I just wanted to post it, to mark the day.

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177 - 10th - Gnarled

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 10th June'08

I was sitting on a bench, waiting for the bus to come. Just near to me this fat root of a nearby tree was bulging of the ground. It was surprisingly fat and gnarled and had a wonderful wooden texture. A close up was definitely a nice one to shoot.

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175 - 8th - Size matters

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

I was walking past this flower shop which had hordes of different flowers kept in huge buckets just outside it's entrance. Though there were around 30 different types of flowers, all unique in their own way, these huge sunflowers were the ones which caught my attention at the first sight. Their bright color contrast and obviously the enormous size compared to other flowers kept around, definitely makes them stand out in the crowd.

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