Endings and Beginnings

Hey WordPress. It’s been 5 years.

I started this blog in 2010 (over in Blogger and then migrated here), to pen my thoughts into this white void. It was supposed to be a place for me to be really me, a place where I can make the pictures in my head a reality. Many friends from school jumped in on the idea to write blogs. In 2010-2011, this was seen as a cool thing to do for us teenagers. We banded together, a rag-tag group of boys and girls, specialising in riddles, short stories, poetry, graphic design. Creativity bursting at the seams within each of us. And we created. It was truly one of the highlights of my college days.

By 2012, the hype died. Academics and other interests took over the need to create blogs and blog posts. I trudged on because I loved to collaborate. Some of my personal favourite stories, like Through His Eyes were made during this time. But the future was uncertain. The break-down of the ‘writing community’ we had was a blow on morale. When 2013 rolled around, the frequency dropped, but I had not given up. I still wrote stories and poems. End 2013 would be the last I really blog. A gruelling few years in college drained me of any motivation to write. I took up Graphic Design and Photography and consoled myself by saying I’m still creating (which, was not false). 2015 was when I wrote my last short story, Echoes, on this blog and well, in general.

In 2015, the blog transformed into a photography blog. Posting pictures I had taken accompanied by a short description of the picture. It did not feel the same. It was not satisfying.

I quit in 2015.

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Life moved on. I graduated and started work in Mumbai, eventually moving to Bangalore. In an impulsive decision, I chose to study management and went to the Netherlands for the same. And that is where I am now, working and quite happy. I had honestly not thought about writing too much in the last five years. Until COVID19 and the quarantine.

I had never given up on reading. In fact, I warmed up even to non-fiction. I binged on articles online and kept loading my Kindle with new books. But the lockdown now has forced me to introspect. I realised I still wanted to write. And I will write.

But not on this blog. This blog is me, stuck in the past. It’s nostalgic, it’s cringy, and it’s me. I have grown as a person, and I would like to leave this behind as an island in the sea of my experiences.

So I bid adieu, to all that have read my blog and commented and wished me well. Thank you for your support 🙂

Doubts of a Wild Mind will always have a special place in my heart.

Love,
Sree

PS: I did say I still write! I aim to be more consistent there. Follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/@sreedeep.

Onam

Happy Onam folks 🙂 Click the pic and zoom for a clearer view.

Perhaps a little too late in the day, but just wanted to share a pookalam (rangoli) design I made for Onam (a festival celebrated in Kerala, India). It had been a while since I did some design since Saarang and it was quite refreshing to do some now.

Artwork in Illustrator. Background work and text in Photoshop.

Glow.

Light is beauty. Beauty is light.

I’m sure you all have done this before. You have a camera (be it a fancy SLR or a cameraphone) and you are bored, perhaps you are supposed to be studying for your test (because let’s face it, that’s when you are really the most bored!) and you start focusing your camera at the light bulb and your fan to see if you can get the least light or the individual fan blades. And when, after trying 10 times you finally find the right shade and the setting, you get a shot that makes you quite pleased.

This is exactly that. Me, a camera and a boring day at home. The lights seeping out through those folds and the shadows created, all with the backdrop of the false ceiling carvings created aa amazng gradient. It is surprising just how much you could do just being at home. Perhaps I should do this more often.

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Lines.

Lines, crosses and intersections.

Good architecture is just something anyone an really appreciate. Just like any other art form, it is a work of the heart and capturing such works is an equally heartening process. This one was taken at The Mall of the Emirates in Dubai and I’ve tried to bring out those curves and lines as much as I could. Satidfying shot? Yes. Could it be better? Sure, I do wish I had taken it a bit more on center to truly get the symmetry.
Next time perhaps 🙂

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Journeys.

Click on the pictures individually for a better view. The past few posts were mostly from the UAE and the sights there. Time for a change? Definitely! I shall be back with newer pics of the UAE later on. These pictures were taken at Pichavaram Mangrove Forest near Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, India somewhere around October 2014. The second-largest natural mangrove in the world and quite a treat to the eyes (and lens!) to boot. If you go down south, do not miss this place. — — — Please like my Facebook page here or from the menu on the right if you feel it is worth it. I am on Instagram too, here.

Fire and Blood.

Winter (And Season 5) is Coming.

Time to restart those discussions, brace ourselves for spoliers and steel our hearts for the deaths. Yup, Game of Thrones is back !

And to celebrate I took this pic from my room, using a small pen flash as the light source. The light was passed through a GoT branded shot glass which projected this onto the wall behind the glass. Very satisfying indeed 🙂

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Red Moon.

Like the moon, most of us are alone and scarred by our own imperfections. But unlike the moon, most of us do not shine in the darkness. Why don’t we?

The moon is one my personal favourite objects to capture. The detail on its surface, the contrasts in its topography and the various hues it acquires; a total delight. This was taken during the recent lunar eclipse where it acquired a slightly reddish hue (the ‪#‎bloodmoon‬ as they call it).

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Balance.

The key to acquiring balance is to recognise when you’ve lost it.

So this one was taken at the same show as the one I had posted earlier. I admit, it is quite daunting to fiddle around with a zoom lens when you have (almost) no idea what you should be doing. Each vibration is exaggerated, each movement whizzes away faster than you would imagine. Makes seeing such pictures come out all the more sweeter.

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Golden Eternity.

As the sun sets over the eternal desert, golden dunes of sand shimmer as far as the eye can see. Beauty is everywhere.

When you ask people, ‘Think of the most desolate, boring place you can imagine’, most people would have the image of a barren, hot desert burning in the summer heat, with the comical foreground elements of a gazelle skeleton.
On the contrary, as someone who has lived in a desert for 2/3rds of his life, a desert can be one of the  most beautiful landscapes around. Miles upon miles of gentles dunes, shaped by the winds that blow, given hue by the sand carpeting its floor and the clear sky overhead. It truly is a sight to behold.

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Pride.

The Majesty of a Falcon.

So this picture was taken in Dubai right before the start of a desert safari. This beauty was perched on the wrist of the falconer. The depth of its feathers; the sharpness of its beak; the texture of its tongue.I had to take a picture. So, I asked him if I could click a pic and he gladly accepted. From the looks of it, this falcon was also glad to pose patiently as I fiddled with the camera settings. It was a good day 🙂

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