Astrovelo

Sporting her new tie-dyed night dress.

What do Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Vivek Oberoi and Bipasha Basu have in common other than their pathetic displays in movie theaters around the world?

They all got to carry the Olympic torch, which represents excellence in sports, when it went through India for the first time 40 years.

What the hell do these bollywood idiots have to do with Olympics and sports? When will this obsession with filmstars end? I guess…. never!

Read more here.

In the house next to us lives a typical American family: husband, wife, two daughters, a dog and a cat. Yesterday, they were struck by a horrible tragedy. It was one of the hottest days of this summer. Due to miscommunication, one of the daughters and her mom forgot to let their dog out of the car after they came home in the afternoon. The poor dog was left in the car for a couple of hours and died because of heat. Our neighbourhood is always so quiet, there probably wasn’t anyone around to notice if the dog was struggling and barking inside the car.

I was playing with Ashwini in the yard when they found the dog in the car. She was with the family for years; almost their third child. The lady was devastated. She started crying so loudly that I thought her daughter or herself got hurt. I ran over to help and found out what had happened. It was just so sad. I still can’t erase the picture of that dead dog in her arms.

My plans of getting a dog are postponed indefinitely. Should concentrate on taking care of Ashwini before thinking about taking on responsibility for another living being that would depend on me for its care and safety.

This joke is very crude but funny. Consider yourself warned before you click on this following link…

Why do women and men have two hands?
    Thanks, Mayuresh!

This joke is very crude but funny. Consider yourself warned before you click on this following link…

Why do women and men have two hands?
    Thanks, Mayuresh!

This will be a shock to germ-phobic clean-freaks.

Every healthy human being has about 150 different species of bacteria living in their gut. These bacteria can account for about 2% of body weight, i.e., 1.5 Kgs in an individual that weighs 70 Kgs.

Bottomline: We are all walking talking bags of bacteria.

Finished reading ‘Da Vinci Code’ by Dan Brown yesterday. It is very gripping and fast paced. Enjoyed reading a thriller after a long time. Reading the disclaimer on the first page stating that all the references to artwork, secret organisations and rituals etc. are real, makes it hard to figure out where fiction stops and reality starts. This very fact makes it the engrossing best-seller that it has become.

I am not giving away anything from the story here, but one claim about the ‘extra hand with knife’ in Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ is definitely false. I saw the original fresco in Milan a couple of years ago. It is pretty hard to make any judgment if that hand with the knife belongs to the man next to it or not by looking at it from the distance that is allowed in the museum. The overall condition of the fresco is pretty bad because that whole building except this one wall was destroyed during WWII. I bought a book at the museum that has closeup photographs of different parts of the fresco and it clearly shows that the hand with the knife belongs to the man next to it.

Considering the controversial topic discussed in the book, there is no wonder that a slew of books was published during the last year as companions to the Da Vinci code or countering the claims of Da Vinci Code. Here is a short list…

• Da Vinci Code Decoded: The Truth Behind the New York Times #1 Bestseller; by Martin Lunn
• Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code; by Dan Burstein
• The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code: A Challenging Response to the Bestselling Novel; by Richard Abanes
• De-Coding Davinci: The Facts Behind the Fiction of the Da Vinci Code; by Amy Welborn

  
Today, Ashwini is 15 month old.

Ashwini:
• can walk and run freely anywhere she wants. Doesn't need to hold her hands out for balance.
• likes to climb stairs these days. Coming down the stairs is still left to be mastered.
• likes to go out for walks in the stroller. But, wants to walk and push the stroller herself.
• knows a few more animal sounds like elephant, snake, duck, etc.
• enjoyed looking at animals especially monkeys during her first visit to the zoo last weekend.
• knows a few more body parts like tummy and hair. Can find her nose in the right place on her face.
• has to pull her hair out to show where they are and has to put her finger inside the eye to show where it is. Don't know how it doesn't hurt.
• still prefers books over toys. She is going to be a bookworm. Brings books to us to read to her.
• now has 4 teeth (2 top and 2 bottom). Can bite pieces of food like bread or fruit.
• has started eating more solid foods like pasta, khichadi, daal, etc.
• loves all milk products. Will live on yogurt and cheese if we let her.
• loves all kinds of fruits. Recently, she tried fresh apricots and cherries for the first time and liked them both.
• loves to be in the bath with her duckie and froggie.

Announcing a new version of my Photoblog. Many of my posts contain photographs anyway. But, this blog will be exclusively photographs and nothing else.

Thanks to Rajesh for inspiration and many aspects of the design.

The story behind the lj-cut is really gross.

Lately, Ashwini is into fruits, all kinds of them. She wants us to cut small pieces that she can pick up and eat herself. Her method of eating is to suck on them to get the juice, then try chewing to get more juice and finally just swallow whatever is left in a rush to reach for the next piece. Given that she has only 3 teeth, her chewing is not very efficient. A few days ago, she had cherries. They were really nice sweet big Bing cherries. She went through quite a few of them quickly. While changing her diaper, V exclaimed “Ashwini made some Cherry Garcia*”. It really looked like that with chunks of cherries. I guess I’ll think about this everytime I reach for a pint of Cherry Garcia in the freezer.

*Cherry Garcia is our most favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.

I just hate it when people keep on saying ‘I mean’ or ‘you know’ in a conversation as a habit. Just spent an hour in a meeting where one guy kept saying ‘I mean’ and the other kept saying ‘you know’. My head is still spinning.

Comet Neat (C/2001 Q4) was visible to naked eye for the last 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, I could observe it only on one night (May 19th) due to consistent cloudy skies. Took out my old trusty Pentax K-1000 and loaded it with ISO800 speed film. Took several 10, 20 and 30 second exposures. The image below is a composite of 14 such photos combined using Registax. It is not the greatest, but, am happy with the amount of time I had to take the photos and atmospheric conditions.

The greenish blob in the center of the picture is the comet. There is a faint tail going up to the left side. If you look at the right edge of the photo, the tail will appear brighter. I hope to make better scans from the negatives to make this picture less grainy.

Her favorite place in the house is this window, where she can stand and watch the cars, dogs, cats, squirrels, birds and people go by.

Her favorite book is ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle. She loves to read it by herself.

I was a poor graduate student. One of the best bands ever came to town in Winter of 1994. Didn’t have money to buy any more concert tickets as I had already attended two Pink Floyd and two Hindustani Classical concerts earlier that year. Decided to give up on the opportunity to see and hear Jerry Garcia and the gang live. Later in the Summer of 1995, Jerry Garcia died. There will be no more live Grateful Dead concerts. Missed the only chance I had to see one of my most favorite bands perform live. Will I ever forgive myself?

Ripple

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung Would you hear my voice come through the music? Would you hold it near, as it were your own?

It’s a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken Perhaps they’re better left unsung I don’t know, don’t really care Let there be songs to fill the air

Ripple in still water When there is no pebble tossed Nor wind to blow

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty If your cup is full may it be again Let it be known there is a fountain That was not made by the hands of man

There is a road, no simple highway Between the dawn and the dark of night And if you go, no one may follow That path is for your steps alone

Ripple in still water When there is no pebble tossed Nor wind to blow

You who choose to lead must follow But if you fall, you fall alone If you should stand, then who’s to guide you? If I knew the way, I would take you home

ISO 100; F/8.0; 1/60 sec. Adjusted brightness/contrast and cropped in Adobe Photoshop


ISO 100; F/8.0; 1/100 sec. Adjusted brightness/contrast and cropped in Adobe Photoshop