All-time favorites

It has been a while since I was active on wordpress, just as it has been a while since I wrote a poem, or spared a moment doing the soulful things that make me happy. It is amazing to think I have now been on wordpress for over four years! And look how time has flown by…much as it always does. It makes you realize the importance of preserving special moments with photographs and reliving those moments again…even if slightly altered in your memory.

Here is a collection of some of my favorite pictures over the past four years. Don’t tell me you cannot find a couple nice treasures here, even if I am no photographer! Enjoy!

I love pictures of everyday simple things. Beauty lies in things we tend to overlook so easily…and we are the losers for it. I love the spindly canopy of this coconut tree and the sky peering from its foliage.

I love the icy perfection of winter captured in this photo taken by a friend Viraj Thakur.

Isn’t this picture of Walden ponds in Massachusetts, simply beautiful? I mean just look at the vibrant colors. I can’t help but feel a kinship to Henry David Thoreau by being able to enjoy what he grew to love and enjoy so much. I am not comparing myself to Thoreau that would be tall order…just saying that I feel blessed enjoying the same sights he probably once did!

My husband and I had stopped by a random coffee shop one morning on our long walks. We were young, happy and carefree and the picture reminds me of those days.

And how can you live in Los Angeles and not have a few favorite pictures of the beach?

I know people find graffiti ugly and disfiguring, but I actually dig it. I see it as just another form of art. Take these beautiful photos for instance. What’s not to like?

Aah beautiful Sedona. Nothing screams peace, perfection and grandeur like Sedona! I wish I could live here.

So that’s it folks. Feel free to pingback with your favorite photos or articles. I am dying to see what you got!

Evanescent

Life is full of beautiful people and things that come and fade out of life. Some of them are barely perceptible because we are not used to admiring that which is in plain sight and easily available. I love going for long walks with my dog and taking pictures of evanescent objects. Some are harder to capture in a camera like the chirping of birds, the crispness of a sunny day, smell of barbecue, the laughter of children. But other things are easier to capture and preserve with camera.

Here is an attempt to capture that which is evanescent yet not lost.

IMG_0238 (1) — An old house turned into an office

IMG_0226 (1) — Sunlight playing peek-a-boo through the thick trees

Look closer there are turtles soaking in sun

Photo Challenge: Alphabet

Inspired by Weekly Photo Challenge

Garage

Photo Challenge: Now

Here is wishing you all a very Merry X-Mas and a Happy New Year. Since this week’s challenge is all about the “Now and here” I thought it only be appropriate to catch a little of the Christmas cheer on lens. The Sleepy Hollow Christmas Lights in Torrance California are famous for streets and streets of decorated lights. Hundreds of cars pass by the neighborhood every hour to check these lights out and one has to be really talented to be able to drive and aim for pictures.

Since it is really cold and breezy outside, some houses even sell hot chocolates, popcorn, water and even churros! I am sure many of your neighborhoods do something similar? I tried to catch some of the holiday cheer driving past the neighborhood, though it was hard to do justice. Enjoy!

DSC_0343_up

Gathering: Photo Challenge

Gathering of birds

…dogs

…people

…fishermen

Inspired by Photo Challenge: Gathering

(Extra)ordinary

There is so much beauty in the ordinary and so much ordinary in the Beautiful. Beauty lies in the perception of the beholder. But finding the “extra” in ordinary is what makes life beautiful!

Dirt path showing the hilly neighborhood in Palos Verdes, CA

Walking path on hills of Palos Verdes, CA

03082015 027 — Another sunny day in California, Santa Monica Beach, CA

03082015 019 — Egret enjoying her lazy afternoon whilst eyeing fish?

03082015 014 — Aah the beautiful Canals in Venice, CA

One Lonely Palm tree against the silhouette of the ocean and the skies. I always feel so sorry for these lonely trees stranded so far from their family…

03082015 021 — Slightly lost local or a curious tourist? Who knows? But where better to be be lost than here!

Photo Challenge: Natural Boundaries

Man has set so many boundaries; be it the barbed wire protecting one’s private property or the well patrolled country borders. Even the houses we build are meant to set boundaries from our neighbors. No matter how strong these human boundaries maybe, the boundaries that nature sets are insurmountable.

Photo Challenge: Connected

Sailors pulling a boat filled with fish out of water

Photo Challenge: From Every Angle

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/from-every-angle/

Beauty can be blurred

Blurred Beauty

Photo Challenge: Descent

Relic

Here are some pictures of the famous St Xavier Church of Goa. The relics of St. Xavier are kept at this church in a silver casket and brought down for public viewing once every 10 years. The next exposition is planned for 2014.

Ubecute believes and respects the sanctity of all faiths and is not affiliated to any one religion. http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/relic/

Weekly Photo Challenge: In Between

‘In Between’ …
Is the difference between the ‘living’ and the truly ‘alive’,
It’s the boundless expanse of human emotions stretching between the two ears,
It’s the time spent sowing a seed to the reaping of corn coyly veiled in silken hair,
It’s the seconds passed between a glance to the sudden recollection of days gone by like an old love song,
It’s the fortitude in waiting for the downpour of rain nuzzling the sharp bark of an angry summer,
It’s the victorious heartbeats hoisting a white flag after a long battle in purple skies,
It’s the black & white words on a love letter and the long sigh that escapes a pair of Fuchsia lips,
It’s children screaming and dancing wildly celebrating the end of school after a grueling semester,
It’s the distant view of the marines on the flickering TV screen aiming their guns ready for battle,
to the newspapers celebrating their safe return home.
It’s the loud argument two people have punctuated by their silent agreement to part,
It’s the orange ball of sun leaking its color on the Red Rock country in Sedona,
to half a dozen American Haiku’s penned in memory,
It’s the lessons learned from a thousand mistakes highlighted and circled in mind,
It’s the angle of the arc drawn by a pendulum as it ticks from left to right and the tiny world it orbits within that arc. ‘In Between’ is the space above an open palm that holds everything and nothing.

Inspired by Weekly Photo Challenge: Containers

Picture of woman holding the sun courtesy of

Work of Art

Thresholds

We find ourselves on the threshold of life changing moments, at least a few times in our lives. Thresholds may be subtle or more pronounced “aha” moments when we experience life with the full realization that life as we knew it has changed irrevocably, and that we have stepped into the realms of “no return”. We all experience these moments during the natural transition of life; moving from infancy into adolescence, and then again into adulthood, and so forth. There are other moments when we experience a sudden loss or a deeper life altering experience that changes the direction of our lives forever.

Life’s major thresholds such as: graduation, marriage, birth, divorce, death etc bring feelings of anticipation, anxiety, trepidation, joy, anger or loss. But then there are thresholds that are so obscure and possibly unrelated; we do not even know we crossed them until much later. These could be Historic moments that are out of our control, and change our world for the better or worse. Examples include; landing of man at moon, Reunification of Germany, Assassination of JFK, bombing of the World Trade Center and so forth. We may as well have been a part of these momentous times as they happened, but the full effect of such incidents is truly understood only in hindsight.

Although change is a continuous process, thresholds are distinct points in our lives that open a floodgate of change, awareness and awakening. Because the only thing constant in life is change, it behooves us to look at change in a positive light and with the stoic acceptance that everything happens for the best. Each change no matter how uncomfortable, opens in itself a pandora’s box of opportunity, learning and wisdom. Inpired by Weekly photo challenge

Reflections

Tethered to life by a flimsy lifeboat,
Like a fetus bound to the umbilical cord,
Desire to survive; to stay afloat,
Under the devouring heavens, prayers soared,

Haplessly marooned on an ocean blue,
Long nights and merciless days,
Hope wanes, life plays peekaboo,
Rations dry up, strength decays,

Left a goodbye note inside a glass bottle,
A note to loved one, an apology colossal,
“I wish I had never left you my love, for this journey ill fated,
Wish I had stayed back, in your arms satiated,
A single hope implores me on,
To see your face once more, my beautiful paragon”,

A speck of lifeboat this, lost on the farthest echelon,
Of the blue earth, slowly dwindling…until gone.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/prompt-moments-to-remember/

A Specious Blossom

Who will understand abandonment better than these specious blossoms that thrust out from the hardness of mother earth, only to enjoy life for a day or two? It’s unfortunate that most of the passers-by will pass by, without ever stopping to glance at their fleeting beauty.

We all swoon over the beauty of the roses and the tulips, but here’s to celebrating the Specious!

Inspired by weekly photo challenge post