Another Evening

I'm counting my days here in Bhubaneswar and the last evening could not better than this. After long I was seeing a beautiful shade of cream-son red and could not resist to frame it from roof top.
This view you are seeing here is a very typical one here in coastal part of Odisha with coconut trees around.

Architecture: Sirpur House, Gurgaon

When I got to know first that I do stay very close to Gurgaon's only Art Gallery, which is probably also the very first private Art Gallery in the country then I could not resist to visit it. On the very same day I landed there directly from office. 'Oh God, I have seen this building. This one is by Architect Aniket Bhagwat' was my very first reaction. How could I miss this creative creation being so close, I read about this built form long back. And this unusual structure by the Ahmedabad based Architect is something to stare at and then going mad to admire it... Yes, I do mean it.
I was not carrying my camera on the very same day and it allowed me to read the building to a different level though for a very small time span, let me tell you the Art Gallery closes at 7 in the evening and I only roamed around for an hour or so. Being mesmerized, I decided to frame it. Lets see the building now as I already have spent a lovely time there over a weekend, roaming around and framing it :)

'Sirpur House' is the registered corporate office of 'Sirpur Paper Mills'. If you are not aware of then for your information, 'Sirpur Paper Mills' is based in Sirpur, Andhra Pradesh and is one of the largest paper makers in the country, mostly popular for their colored and textured papers. This building partly houses some offices and a major part is 'Devi Art Gallery'.

Let the photographs explain it better ;)








'Corten Steel' as you are seeing as the facade of the building actually is 'Weathering Steel'. It is an alloy with a rust like appearance. This particular material has an increased resistance in exposed weathering conditions due to its chemical compositions. When exposed to the atmospheric conditions, the material creates a rust like appearance which almost looks like corrosion. The material was especially used for external sculptures and the best one I have experienced by myself is 'Angel of North' in NewCastle, UK.





This railing/glass parapet detail below looks so simple to normal eyes but I personally do appreciate the Architects thought behind it to make things so simple and easy. The roughness and toughness of steel has been brilliantly exploited here in this building to an extent.


God lies in detailing.

And if you think that basements can not be neat, then here is the answer. For me probably this one is the nicest basement I have ever seen in my country.



You can notice here, how very small and minute details are added here by the Architect to give the space a feel. Starting from the textures of the exposed concretes or the structural beams or artistically shaped sprinkler pipes, everything seems to have a thought behind it... I personally just loved it to the core.

The only thing which I wonder about is how the building reacts to the current climate conditions. The environmental strategies like cooling, lighting and also insulation. I also do think, how skilled were the people who worked on the project to deliver such neat work!!! Applause...

Am I a BIKER anymore!

This was the first thing which came to my mind when I was about to ride to Puri from my hometown Bhubaneswar, roughly 60 odd kilometers starting from my doorstep. Honestly, I was hesitant to go for the ride all alone and in the scorching summer in this coastal part of India. Damn! How it can be! I was missing a good and seasoned bike and then my riding gloves, and at the same time I was also wondering when I rode last to the core in last 2 years, starting from mid-2010. Should I count the only touring I did for some 200 kilometers on a Honda Activa when I was back to India or should I count those test rides of bikes like KTM Duke200 or Yamaha R1-5 V2.0 or the Hero Impulse!!!

Puri, always was a special place for me, in-fact it is. Reasons are many; being a Jagannath devotee I used to visit the temple with family as a kid and then a good and extended play session on the golden sandy beach before ending up with getting wet throughout in the sea water. Ah, nostalgic those memories are. Once started growing, especially after getting a set of wheels, Puri was THE destination. At an age of 15, doing this 60 kilometer ride and back was heroic (that is what exactly the whole friend circle used to think), who cares if you are on a 65cc moped like ‘HeroPuch Shakti 3G’! I literally have lost count on the number of rides I had. Along with time the gradual progress carried on, from a moped to a 100cc bike then the first wing (read Honda Unicorn, 150cc decent monster) and then behind the steering wheel with a proper and valid Driving License, a ride to Puri never needed an occasion. A compulsion of riding/driving on Puri-Konark marine drive was just an icing on the cake. My core friend circle mostly remained constant, though we all had a different stream/profession, we always hanged out together. Most of them being close to others families’ broke almost any restriction from parental side, another added advantage which made us to do some crazy ride to the place even in mid-night. As I mentioned, a ride to Puri never needed any reason and most of the times, out of nowhere we used to land somewhere in the holy town. Anyways. Soon we moved out one by one to different parts of the country (even world) to make our carrier but the home-sickness was always there and those occasional visits even had a reserved day for Puri, though it mostly was restricted to get the blessings of lord Jagannath. The life is still continuing in the same manner and this time I’m here for some social occasions and  all these golden memories flashed back in some nook of the brain only when I started thinking to use the public transport to reach the place, especially when there was a HeroHonda Hunk in my service.

10 minutes of fight between the mind and heart before I revved the throttle of the bike, flat 60 minutes and I was there covering 55 kilometers and in the year old biking avatar. I did came over those feelings of not riding in hot summer, riding among crazy people who think the NH even is their ancestral property (as I had not ridden a bike in such conditions in last two years, it was bit difficult to take a call on it, I am not a white collar guy but at times the profession has its own shade) and also riding without the gloves. I should not lie, it took me 15 minutes to get set on the road and to the weathering conditions before I started riding crazy. Little less than 200 kilometers including lots of city riding after 24 long months was absolute bliss.

After all; Once a biker, always a biker ;)

Ride hard, ride safe.

Travel: Sandown, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

On South-East coast of Isle-of-Weight and pretty close to Shanklin is this small town on bay. Popular among tourists as a sea side resort and one among the 7 beaches to fly 'Seaside Award Flag' for clean sandy stretched beach and quality of water.









In one of the previous post I mentioned about 'Isle of Weight'. As it is a small place, you have the flexibility to choose a place to stay, either country side or close to the sea. where ever you are, it hardly takes 10-15 minutes to reach sea shore.

Rath Yatra 2012: The Making

Only 5 days away from the World famous Rath Yatra (Car Festival) of Lord Jagannath, and as I visited the place, just sharing few frames from the making of the Cart for the deities and the people behind it.
For your information, the making of a Carts is not as simple as it looks but has many rituals involved.










P.S. The rituals of the making of the carts will be in another post and in detail.

Confidence

I was far away from the shore and got see this father-daughter duo, the little gurl being taught the very first lessons of surfing. Our parents do add so much of confidence just by holding our hands.

Forbidden Fruit

;)

Summer Fruit

I literally had my first mango of the season today. Just before dinner could not resist to frame this royal fruit... Just a random capture.

Painting the city Blue

Graffiti artists hardly revile their name in public, reason is obvious, still it is considered as a crime of vandalization. Anyways, it is a different story all together.
It was around 11 in the night and I was driving back from NFC (New Friend Colony) to Gurgaon back home, and just before Kalka Jee flyover, I got to see this. The easy Sunday late evening traffic allowed me to push the brakes hard instantly, within seconds I was out with my camera with parking lights of the car on. Thanks to the occasional vehicles with brilliantly bright light, it absolutely was not a task to get a such picture just before mid night ;)

DAKU is quite a famous name among the graffiti artists in the Capital City. I already have framed 3-4 of his work and personally do love it as he writes in Hindi. There also is a big one of his logo there in Hauz-Khas Village, also a small one in-front of Al-Bake, NFC. Hope to frame more of his work sometime soon, let Sun reduce some of his glow first.

Beat the Heat

40+ degrees in the month of June should bring no wrinkles on your forehead. This is the period when Sun always do show it's best but alternatively we do feel our worst.



Last weekend, while roaming around Hauz-Khas Village, I found this lad serving utter coolness with a backdrop of some beautiful graffities. After all a desi and sustainable jugad this is ;)

Where we all are heading to!!!