Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Rajan Parrikar on October 31, 2013, 09:07:36 pm

Title: Diwali
Post by: Rajan Parrikar on October 31, 2013, 09:07:36 pm

Scenes from the Festival of Lights in Panjim, Goa.  From my post, Diwali 2013 (http://www.parrikar.com/blog/2013/11/01/diwali-2013/).

(http://www.parrikar.org/images/LL/Narkasur-Goa.jpg)

(http://www.parrikar.org/images/LL/Diwali-Lamps.jpg)

Title: Re: Diwali
Post by: francois on November 01, 2013, 07:48:23 am

Could also have been called the Festival of colors! I particularly like the first photo.

Title: Re: Diwali
Post by: wolfnowl on November 01, 2013, 07:41:53 pm

Quote from: francois on November 01, 2013, 07:48:23 am

Could also have been called the Festival of colors! I particularly like the first photo.

He's a handsome dude, alright!

Mike.

Title: Re: Diwali
Post by: Isaac on November 01, 2013, 07:50:52 pm

In the US I suspect that Diwali begins a little earlier and now embraces Halloween.

Title: Re: Diwali
Post by: Rajan Parrikar on November 02, 2013, 12:26:38 am

Thank you, all.

Mike, yes, quite the looker he is (was).

Title: Re: Diwali
Post by: Rob C on November 02, 2013, 02:32:28 pm

Quote from: Rajan Parrikar on November 02, 2013, 12:26:38 am

Thank you, all.

Mike, yes, quite the looker he is (was).

Rajan,

It was a terribly dangerous time of year; we used to get fireworks and explode them in Brylcreem bottles. Empty ones, of course. How dumb was that for early teenagers? But then since we never found the glass again... If you're up in Ooty at some time, watch your feet if you go to the Government House Gardens. We were imprisoned up the hill alongside, where all the eucalyptus trees are/were. (Do those trees survive for about 60 years?) When the bark came adrift, we'd use it to make toboggans on which we slid down into the fence beside the Gardens. I wish I could say happy memories, but that place never made any.

The country and Ooty were wonderful, but the establishment where I languished and dreamed of freedom and Hollywood and Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell and Susan Hayward was the next best thing to hell! The folks running the place I had to stay in were religious bigots/maniacs whom I thank for turning me into a photographer of girls. I bet that had they known that, it would have made them eliminate me. Be careful what you do to young minds. That's one of the reasons I say folks shouldn't give young snappers 'artistic' advice: you don't know what it might do to their development in the future.

Thank God some things don't last, even if the damage does!

Rob C

Title: Re: Diwali
Post by: Rajan Parrikar on November 02, 2013, 03:08:06 pm

Rob,

That was one hell of an excursion down lanes long gone. That India exists no more. You may well have seen an Ooty few Indians alive today have seen.

Title: Re: Diwali
Post by: Rob C on November 02, 2013, 04:55:09 pm

Quote from: Rajan Parrikar on November 02, 2013, 03:08:06 pm

Rob,

That was one hell of an excursion down lanes long gone. That India exists no more. You may well have seen an Ooty few Indians alive today have seen.

I believe you; it was a great place, Ooty, if you were not a kid trappd in a school, had pots of money and liked racehorses and Toda buffaloes. We used to do an annual cross-country race (on foot) up Dodabetta (?) which was over 8000 ft. There was a wooden hut on that mountain called The Sheilling, and we used to go up and smoke cigarettes we'd manufactured from old ones... ye gods! There used to be a shop there in Ooty called Spencers, which would take orders from other parts of India and we kids could collect delights from the local branch, courtesy our parents.

Then, at the end of the year, it was the train down to Mettapalayam and the night train to Madras, where we'd spend the day and catch the night train towards Calcutta. Last time there, I bought a monkey in a market in Madras and thought I was going to take it home. It spent its time sitting up on the luggage rack of the compartment, snarling at us. I abandoned it in the train - terrified of rabies. Had I had any sense I would have had that thought before I parted with a couple of Rupees! My wife didn't know about this until after we were married; I think she might have preferred to know first, but there you are, you should never show all your cards right away.

Rob C