Life Unpacked

I have been experimenting lately, with street photography. And as I just shoot with a point and shoot camera (Canon SX150 IS) on Aperture priority or Shutter priority, and without any device to achieve a blurred background, I am trying to incorporate other moving things to give the background a slight blur. You must have seen that in the previous blog post's picture "Anticipation". Here is an extension of that concept with more objects in the frame. Feedback and criticism would be appreciated. Thanks. "Frozen" taken at Fort, Mumbai. ***** Disclaimer: The picture used here is the copyrighted property of Aditi Pathak. Use of this picture anywhere else for any purpose demands permission to be taken by Aditi Pathak. Failure to do so will involve a legal action against the defaulting party. 

I had been itching to go on a photowalk and do some street photography as soon as summer hit Mumbai. But honestly, my love-hate relationship with street photography paired with the soaring temperature (harsh enough to give a friend of mine a sunstroke!) kept me pushing the plan to another day. Finally I managed it last Monday.  As I said, I have a love-hate relationship with street-photography, mostly because I think people will dismiss me as a freak or a media student and I don't want to offend anyone by clicking their pictures discreetly. On my Monday's photowalk, I did coax myself into taking some pictures with human element in it but frankly, it was hard! Primarily because women wouldn't stop staring at my camera (might be concerned).    About the final edits part; I actually didn't find any picture good except these two, basically because they lacked that drawing in factor. Also, this is the first time I've used photoshop to edit the pictures. So yeah...

Lately, I have come across various articles on the web whose title begins with "Date a girl/man who..." and the only thing I find myself wondering after wasting a few precious minutes reading such article is "why?". Well, why happens to be one of my favourite response for almost everything, but the why I ask in the above case isn't out of my curiosity, it is out of the cringe-factor. I cringe every time my eye catches that title, not because I'm fed up of it, but because of the generalization that such articles do! I've highlighted it before too that stereotyping is restrictive, that a person can never have a one-dimensional personality, in other words, personality is multi-faceted. Then why this stupidity? Why generalize that every girl who travels would have a job in "creative" field, or that girl who reads "understands",or that girl who writes "has chipped fingernails", or the one who drinks beer is "strong and i...

Italian food has always been a synonym for good food. Remember the movie Eat, Love and Pray? Wherein Julia Roberts travels to Italy to attain gastronomic nirvana. Think Italian and the first thing that comes to mind is the humble Pizza. California Pizza Kitchen -a pioneer in Californian-style pizzas- has been serving delicious pizzas from quite a long time. I myself am a lover of their thin-crusts, so when I got the opportunity to try out their new star-studded "Hollywood on Your table" menu especially designed for this award season (available only till 16th March!) at their Phoenix Mills outlet located in Lower Parel, I didn't let the opportunity pass by. The first thing one's eyes look for in the menu are the drinks and the "Hollywood on Your table" menu doesn't disappoint in that regard. The menu comprise of three cocktails and two mocktails. As usual I sided with the mocktails and tried both the available options, namely, the Pineapple twister a...

When deciding on a place to chill at with friends over some good food and drinks, honestly, there aren't many options available in Mumbai and out of the ones to choose from, the damage they inflict on the pocket is pretty huge (especially, a student's). Enter Trader Vic's Mai Tai, a chilled out Polynesian themed lounge. A lively casual place perfect for almost anything; be it a brunch with family (yes, this lounge is family friendly!) or hanging out with friends over some fun drinks. The open air seating paired with tropics-inspired tracks being played in the background adds to the already festive ambiance. And the best part? The food is excellent and decently priced! I discovered this lounge after receiving an invitation to try out their new "Sensational Sliders" which are on the menu till 24th March across all its outlets. I decided to check them out at the one at Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel. Tucked away in a breezy corner, away from the frenzy of the mall a...

I went there...not once, not even twice, but thrice. Each time with a different set of people but the experience of the exhibition remained almost the same; a sea of people flowing in a direction and carrying everyone along with it as a tide does. The scenario was the same on every visit; people hanging on the exhibition, trying to capture a perfect shot for their next "profile picture". The vibe was less "art festival" than it was of a "fair". The only thing that made the festival worth it for me was  the classical music concert about which I wrote some days back. Maybe the fault lay in the days I chose to visit the exhibition, still, the way most of the public treated the art installations was pathetic!  Nevertheless, I did take pictures of some art installations (and not of all, thanks to the crowds of people swarming around them like bees). The bottom-line is, although Kala Ghoda Art Festival is worth goi...

Just like every Sunday morning; it was a battle she had to endure to crawl out of the comforts of her bed, the worn-in cotton sheet rubbing softly across her cheek made her drop back on it after a few seconds every time she attempted waking up. A long struggle and a growling tummy finally did the trick, and there she was grabbing her breakfast, or as she put it, her Sunday "brunch" along with the thick stack of Sunday newspaper. She settled down on the giant flower-printed maroon carpet spread in the center of the living room and quickly fished out the copy of "Brunch", the weekly magazine that came with the newspaper every Sunday. It was the year 2008.... That Sunday's "Brunch" was abnormally thick, hence she decided to check whether it were just more advertisements or there was some real content inside. Instead of the glossy colourful pages, a huge portion of the magazine was plain white with long lengthy paragraphs on it, and that too without an...