Vizag (and a bit beyond) diary

That much anticipated "sitting down on the beach with a couple of Beer bottles" contemplation of the past and remembrance of a dear friend's absence that I mentioned here did not happen.

I did manage to get away to what is lately Vizag's best watering hole -- Sandy Lane. For an evening of reminiscing on old friendships, photography, the road, Bullets, etc. all over some very highly priced (but very tasty) Draught. And that was recompense in a way because Sandy Lane is more or less (on) the beach and...

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It was on account of some depression over the seas. Or it was her way of ritually purifying all of us for her ceremony through a ritual bath of rain. Either way, the deluge was spectacular, verging on the torrential for 2-3 hours early in the morning and lasting till around 11.00 or so. Among other things that were thrown out of kilter, this rain resulted in my clothes (which I had dried on evening before) in which I had intended to sit through the ceremony getting an unasked for drenching. But sit through the ceremony I did, in a wet towel, hunched and withdrawn -- the way she used to be on my Grandfather's ceremony. Sit through, I did, remembering the almost ascetic way she lived (for as long as I knew her) "giving" and "doing" till her last breath. Remembering how the drying of a madi Saree was all that worried her during a wet day (like this one) in Orissa because (like me) she had come from one son's place to another son's place and with just two Sarees. Not that she had that many Sarees to begin with. Remembering how I had come very close to "understanding" what such "simple living" bequeaths in the form of valued experiences in the limited number of days I had undertaken Shiva Deeksha and had just two pairs of clothes to "bother" about.

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Lately, I have been wondering about how "easy" photography has become thanks to advances in technology. And lately (after a gap of more than 5 years -- yes, that's how long it took me to make the jump from film to digital), an extension of my eye has been my Nikon D-90. The D-90 and 55-300 mm (AF - VR) lens while not exactly the best "gear" for bird photography has been surprising me (and most others) with the results. Naturally then, I had got the camera (and the long lens) along to have a "go" at the birds that are as synonymous with Vizag as is the sea -- the Black Kites that as numerous (and as omnipresent) as Vizag's more noticed resident bird, the Crow. I was lucky enough to take some stunning pics of the Black Kites (near Tenneti Park) in the days leading to Grandmother's Tadinam and as such I utilized the time that I was rained in, to good effect too. Taking "zoom" shots of water drops. Handheld. Under almost no light. The results surprised me and inspired me to go walkabout (with elder nefoo playing chaperone) on the beach barely a kilometre away.

To curse at the "aankho dekha haal" of what plastic (and other urban shit) does to beaches, and to wonder at how the sea turned almost red from the runoff from the "Hills of Vizag" just behind. Can't say I took any pics of all that gory shit but by and by I did take some more pics of this and that marine. Salt water snails, crabs and such like. And was surprised by how good the pictures were. Is it technology? Or is it me? Will post some pics :-)

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