Landing

The madness started on Sunday. I got up and tried to take care of the pending things and get packed. I finally got into the city and to B&H to buy the rest of the photo equipment. I ran so late that I never made it to my sister’s in Jersey (where I was supposed to do laundry and pack). Instead, I had her and her husband drive to the airport to pick up my car and I ended up packing at a McDonald’s. Such is my life.

Airport. Benadryl. Knocked out. Woke up. Watched Gangs of New York. Landed. My uncle picked me up and after my cousins called multiple times, he dropped me off at Shilpa’s engagement party. The rest of the night we sat there chatting and watched Shilpa get her Mehndi put on for the wedding.




Photo Tips: This shot was tough, there was only one little lightbulb in this entire room. So I had to shoot with the 50 mm (f 1.8). Her hands were sitting on a newspaper, which I later changed to a white sheet, it took me a while to realize that her pants would act as the proper background for this.


It was about 4 a.m. when Anjul got the brilliant idea of going to the Sabji Mandi (vegetable market) to take some pictures. People told us we were crazy – who the hell goes to take pictures of the vegetable market. We got there real early and took pictures outside for a bit. Here we met Badriprasad at a sidewalk cart selling odds and ends. The man used to be a construction worker, but after a construction accident in which he lost some use of his right side, he had to resort to this and now makes his living this way. The man was dedicated to be out there so early in the morning. Here he is:




Sabji Mandi was in full swing even this early in the morning. It was photography heaven and I got some amazing shots. The new camera and lens are simply amazing. Posting just a couple of samples for your enjoying pleasure (I don’t have a way to process the images here) – rest I will sort through when I get back.







This is by far my favorite shot of the ones I have taken thus far. I had only a brief moment to take this and this was the only shot I took – he became shy and wouldn’t let me take more pics.





We crashed for a few hours at 10 am, but then had to get up to help everyone get ready and off to the wedding. The wedding was fun. We were up again all night and finally got to sleep around 6:30 am but had to get up at 8:30 to vacate the house the wedding party was renting. We drove to Anjul’s house in Gurgaon and crashed for a few hours again. We got up a few hours later, went to dinner and roamed around a bit more to get some more shots of street side café’s.

We were both exhausted – I hadn’t slept a full night for 3 days now. So we drove home, but instead of sleeping, we chatted about photography and what to cover until 3 a..m. At which point, we both crashed and now its about 6 am and I am writing away – refreshed and ready for more. Today, we will head to Muzaffarnagar to see my aunt on our way to Haridwar for the Kumbh Mela.