In Pursuit of a Camera

Pictures says a thousand words. Or so they say. In that case, some pics can be called short stories while the others can be classified as Novels and yet some, the encyclopedia.
And this is where my mind has been stuck for last few weeks. I am looking for a camera, that will write Novels. really nice novels.
To give a little background, I started my photography lessons on a sony cybershot W150. It was a smooth sail until one day i got a little too near to the sea. I could say, i was not firing on all my cylinders that day. Anyway, shortly after that I got myself a Canon sx20IS. Now that was a really nice camera. Until i got stuck in the Leh, ladakh flood in 2010.
And here am I, Wondering which is the next camera in line for me. An amateur photographer. I am very keen on getting myself a SLR this time. taking my history, i should look for a SLR that is waterproof, impact proof, nature proof and more importantly, Dileep Proof. Now since that is not an option, lets get down to practical ones.
I have narrowed down my search to

Canon D1000 ( cos of the price tag )

Nikon D3100 (Nice feature set)

Nikon D5000 ( I really love that swirl LCD screen. I guess its the impact of my prev cam)

Sleepless nights spent on Google, reading reviews, and more reviews. Comparing prices, vendors what not. One is sure overwhelmed with information these days. Different people, different opinion. No wonder they have so many choices.

Anyway coming back to topic, the cameras, the Canon is ruled out. the basic D1000 is little too basic. its not gonna be long before i out grow that, and the next cam in the series is nearly double the price tag. And by that time, i would have invested in lens and can not move out of canon brand.
That leaves me 2 of the nikon series. One side , i have a newer, 3100, 14 megs ( tho that really dont count), full HD, more hard keys are pulling me to this side. while the swirl LCD screen is a real weakness for me.


But should i be breaking my head on this or on the lens that i will ( read as may) buy.
The battle is still on. I guess, ill decide within a week. Let the better side win.

Maddening People

As I walk through the streets of Dubai feeling the cool breeze of Feb sky, I could not help but to compare just about everything with India. One thing that struck me quite a lot is the road manners that the people here show. Almost (if not all) everyone follows traffic signs. You wont find motorist on the wrong way, nor speeding, nor driving zig zag. But everyone is following the lane, driving at a constant speed, keeping well distance from each other. They will even stop the vehicle for the pedestrians to cross the road. 

Compare this with the maddening traffic in Bangalore. You will have no clue where the vehicles are coming from or when they will ram the brakes. or for that matter, what hit them. but is it not the very same people who was once driving back in India, who came here and became so nice people? How did this transformation happen? why does this not happen in India. 

The answer came knocking my doorstep today. It was heavy rain last night in Dubai and this usually leads to clogged roads and more traffic. And as the traffic increased little by little, i started to notice few people jump lanes, taking the side path to skip the traffic. When one hour of bad traffic brings out this behavior, what will a lifetime of traffic jams make people to do. Now when i think of the same, adding the reality conditions also into perspective, the traffic and the road sense is not really bad. We just need to look at the whole perspective. 

Isn't it funny how the environment variables really change the behaviour of a person. When he has plenty of resources, he is polite and patient. But when the resource gets scarce, the animal in him comes out. I guess this very basic instinct is what really made us the dominant creature in the planet.

Dumbstruck tourist @ Dubai

I bid adeos to the good looking Emirates Airlines Air hostess. The flight had stoped at the main terminal and had a direct duct into the airport. From a air conditioned flight to a air conditioned airport. 

I took my natural instincts and followed the crowd. Its like everyone knew where to walk to. No one is bothered to look for any sign board or ask anyone. Then again, the plane was loaded with good looking girls. So i really did not think twice when i was following them out of airport. they took the elevator, so did I. They took the stairs, so did I. They stood in queue, so did I.

Little did i realise that they all were transit passengers and were walking right into their next flight. It was then the security asked me for my tickets for the next flight when it struck me that i am following them to the transit terminal for the next flight. :) Silly ol me. :)

This time i asked people and found my way out. To the Arabi land. The second i stepped out, i felt the heat. The desert heat struck my face. I guess a preview to what ill be facing for the next few weeks. In short time, I was already in my bro's house and lil more later at a private beach with the sea lashing on my face. Surprisingly, i was feeling cold at 2 in the afternoon. Thats a shocker for a desert. and to top it, we had heavy rain in the night. This was the first time that bro ever had to run his car with Wiper in full blast!! Hmmmm...looks like i have started a storm out here :)

Time Management

Recently I went for a Time Management course. I did not have any particular expectations out of the course, but when I heard that this is being scheduled in the office I jumped in. I would say the primary intention will be that, I can spend 4 hours out of the busy office schedule. Added to that,  you don’t even have to pay for it.

The session was post lunch, and I was half in my own world. I say, a nice yummy biriyanni for lunch can have that effect on your brains. Most of the ideas went bouncers right over my head anyways.

So what is time management really? How can you manage time? Time is certainly unmanageable. Its will always tick on and on. No matter what you do, it will tick. So why is it called time management if you cant really manage it.

But then suddenly, he popped a question as if he was trying to wake me up. How many hours do you have in a day? He was trying to bring out the difference in the attitude “I have ONLY 24 hours” Vs “I HAVE 24 Hours”.

So coming back to the question, I asked myself. In that 24 hours, how many hours do I really have for myself.  Funny, I really had a very low figure for that. After all the efforts I put in to make my life cool, I really aint spent any time to enjoy it??? Strange…