A true Sagittarius

No one other than 'Om' could be a better example of true Sagittarius... The dude posing with his favorite coffee mug for my lens.

Bhubaneswar to Delhi by road Conquered

A recent update is, I just finished the much awaited Bhubaneswar-New Delhi road trip. It was a fantastic road trip and some 2000+ kilometers was covered in 35 driving hours. The Gypsy above was the companion.

Merry Christmas

Wish you all a Mery Christmas.... Hope this festive season will add tonnes of happiness to your life.

Dhauli Mahotsav 2011

Organized since 2003, on the foot hills of the heritage site, Dhauli, the mahotsav, has created a place for itself in the cultural map of the country. The aim in organizing this mahotsav is to keep alive the ancient Odishan culture and create awareness amongst the young generation. The objective is to preserve, promote and popularize the heritage at the national and international level. At the backdrop of Dhauli's rich historical and spiritual base, attempt is made to bring together artists of diverse discipline in the spirit of cultural solidarity. The ambiance is enchanting, performances enthralling which captivate the audiences by a true presentation of artistic excellence.

(Source: Dhauli Mahotsav Invitation card)

Touring season starts...

After 14 months since I last tried my hands on a mechanized two wheeler, this so called biker got promoted from the Unicorn to a first generation Scooty. All thanks to my study session and the bicycle I own there in UK, I hardly realized any difference in riding the Uni at 100+ kmph when compared to the all time 0 kmph in later one's speedo. But it was quite noticeable from the travel time, I could have reached US of A earlier than the time this usually takes from Vanivihar Square to Bapuji Nagar. All the credit goes to my little sister for being kind enough to hand me over her Scooty keys which perfectly was in its shape. After torturing that tiny little vehicle around the city of Bhubaneswar for more than 45 days, I did try my hands on a friends new Activa and it was with me for few days, how this happened is a complete different story altogether. The 1 and 1/2 month city scooty ride helped me a lot in increasing my carbon-footprint though, but it is still manageable if I'm calculating previous years fossil fuel consumption. Anyways.

This 110cc and 8 bhp honda machine forced me to hit the road to get the glimpses of Odisha state and to get the blessings of Maa Sarala. The thought made me ride this vehicle 200+ kilometers in 6-7 hours including the darshan time and all photo sessions, also interaction with some villagers and kids.

And thus the touring season starts... :)

Harvesting Gold...

Paddy being the prime corp of Odisha, is often compared with Gold. With the start of winter months, the paddy fields start to ripe and often resembles as bright gold with the early morning Sun shine. This harvest actually fulfills the whole requirement of rice throughout the year and some extra income to the village farmers with the sell of excess and acts as the economical backbone.

This photograph is shot somewhere in Jagarsinghpur district of Odisha.

Kathak @ Konark Festival

An artist's perspective

Baladev Maharatha is quite a whispered name in the artist society here in the town. Despite of being a celebrity artist from the state of Odisha and with many awards and exhibitions around to complement his tallent, he also is the principal of  BK College of Art and Craft. 

On the inauguration evening of the Konark Festival, this renowned artist placed his canvas just beside the performance stage and transferred the lively performance happened on stage to it. My roaming eye could not fail to freeze his creation with the brushes and a pallet of color.

P.S. Finally this blog counted until 300... Cheers.

Konark Festival 2011 (Day I) Odissi

The inaugural dance on Day I of Konark Festival was by Guru Sharmila Biswas and troupe from Odissi Vision and Movement Center, Kolakata. It was a fantastic performance divided in to 4 different parts or performances. The mesmerizing hour long performance was started with Ganesh Vandana, a prayer to the elephant headed God and was followed by Gativilas, Katha Surpanakha and lastly, Murchhana.



The ambiance and stage of Konark Open Air Auditorium...

Ganesha Vandana: a prayer to the elephant headed God, the remover of all hindrances.


Gativilas: It describes the attributes of an ideal performer, comparing her gaits, stances, energies and expressions with those of different animals.

Katha Surpanakha: It portrays the many contrasting emotions that exist together in a person. In this presentation, the dancers move away from the grossness of Surpanakha's appearance and mind, and attempt to create a more convincing character.

Murchhana: This dance highlights the special features of Odissi Mridanga, and the form of Odissi dance that emerges when accompanied by it.



The troupe and Guru Sharmila Biswas after the performance...

International Sand Art Festival 2011

The famous Chandrabhaga Beach of Konark also is the venue for 2011 International Sand Art Festival. As I experienced the same by person and sharing few photographs from the event.




The star of Odisha, renowned sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik...


The crowd on Chandrabhaga Beach to experience the event...



Artist Rrmy Geerts from Holland and her creation...




Artist Sridhar Dash from Odisha, India
His theme was based on preserving the heritage.



Artist Anupam Mohanty from Odisha, India
He wanted to showcase the car festival of Lord Jagannath.



Artist Gowri M. N. from Mysore, India





And here comes my personal favorite... by Artist Jitendra Kishore Jagadev from Odisha, India
A lively presentation of Buddhism.

There were 30 participants in total and they will be changing there themes everyday for five days to be judged. These all are from the inauguration day and few more will follow soon.

Konark Festival 2011 Inaugurated

Konark Festival, the annual classical dance festival has its reputation beyond the world. Performances by the celebrity classical dancers around India every year in the Open Air Theater in Konark has its own charm with the infamous 'Sun Temple' as the back drop to the stage. This year the festival is scheduled from 1st to 5th of December.

Inauguration ceremony...


Guests of honor... and the famous Sun Temple in the back drop.


The hosts for the first evening...


Venue
Open Air Auditorium, Konark, Odisha

Dates
1st December 2011 to 5th December 2011

Konark Festival 2011

Calendar 2011, December

Finally the year 2011 is approaching towards its completion.


Download high resolution HERE.

This photograph (the last one of London series 2011) is dedicated to the awesome weather I experienced during my stay in the country. Being a avid lover of snow, I enjoyed the extreme weather to its fullest. Dear God blessed me again with loads and loads of snowfall. Britishers even were literally astonished and explained that this is the heaviest snowfall in last few decades... nothing could be better than this for me!!
This particular photograph was taken just before the Christmas day in the year 2010 somewhere in the outskirts of Slough, a suburb of London while walking to Windsor on extremely slippery road and cold weather but the white layer around everywhere was a GOOD enough reason to take a stroll around ;)