Congratulations to Naveenkanth and Shailaja

My buddy Naveen tied a knot today, Guys:

May you find every day, sweetly lying awaiting
All you're dearest sweetest; dreams yet come true
While sharing a lifetime jointly, forever on today
May endless happiness ever pursue the two of you

Did someone ever pull this?

Click on the picture for a bigger view.

I have been traveling in Indian Railways from the time I was born and was always intrigued by a red chain hanging around in every aisle. it says, to stop the train , pull the chain. Not to forget, it has a disclaimer 'if we pull the chain unnecessarily we may be fined up to Rs.1000 (Around $20) and can also be sent to jail for 3 months'.

But in all these 29 years I have never pulled it or never seen some one pulling it. Apart from hearing the talk among the passengers that 'someone might have pulled the chain' when train stops abruptly. I guess this talk raised my curiosity even more.

However, I wish no one should land up in such an emergency that they would have to pull the chain, of course when traveling in the train. Fortunately or unfortunately there is no such chain for life! :-)

Global Warming - The man-made natural disaster

Go Green!!!

Please, Please, Please do Vote!!!*

* I am re posting my earlier post of July last year by adding more additional thoughts, as I think its appropriate time now to spread awareness/message.


Hope is the one which keeps the soul alive
And where there is no hope, there is no soul
And what good a body is without a soul?

After seeing how sick the politicians and politics can be, if we take a back foot during the elections thinking that what matters if "I" do not vote, please think again. 'Cause at the end of the day, we are the ones who are going to crib about the government for the next five years.

I over herd someone saying the other day that politics is trash and that person do not want to get involved in it or participate in it by voting as he/she does not want to get into that trash. My question to all those who have this reason, If you have garbage in your house, do you keep quiet doing nothing about it ignoring, thinking that anyways that trash is going to come back? Think...So.... that's clearly not a fair reason.

I even heard someone saying, that they stand in long queue's in hot sun, they do not have any amenities there and its too tiresome. My question to such people, I am sure all of us at some point or the other stood in a queue for movie tickets / for getting into a bus/ at the loo / at cash counter in the store / boarding a flight ... and so on, this list is unending. So, having stood in all such places with patience, can't we stand at this one place, once in 5 years to cast out vote for the future of our country?

Come what may, do not miss to vote.

Be unreasonable and vote for our country, for ourselves and for every ones future

Again, I thank you for your time. I request you to please spread this message if you think it makes some difference, copy/paste, forward in an email, put this link on your messenger status do what ever to spread this message.

~ Bharani Surineni

Walls...

“Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”

... and sometimes it's left to time to break them.

'Happy Days' Re-visited...

It's been 10 years that we joined college and 6 years past we left. Uff.. to refer, 10 years seems to be a long period of time and when we think about the incidents/accidents ;-) happened in our lives, the same 10 years look like ages. But when we think about the college days, the memories are so fresh as if they have occurred a 'month' back(I am not exaggerating this) and I am sure all my friends agree with it.

Yesterday few of my friends visited our college "Sri Venkateswara Engineering College" at Suryapet. It was a great trip, we visited the college, met the Principal and all our Professors, went out for lunch with a few, took lot of photographs, spent some time in and around college getting nostalgic. We missed our buddy "H.A.W.K.S" and all our other friends. We talked to our Principal for a arranging an Alumni Get Together and he assured that he will make that an event in the decentennial celebrations along with Mechanical Branch Building opening sometime March/April this year.
Sri Venkateswara Engineering College:

(The above picture is the result of combining 20 pictures into one, covering the entire building. The resultant picture was 31 Mega pixel and 15 MB is size. Of course the above is scaled down a lot for the blog.)

Every step and for every nook and corner we had a story to tell. Happiness, Joy, Tears, Anger, Forgiveness, Love, Hatred, Ambitions, Dreams, Passions, Strength, Crushes, Entertainment and Support - we got and had it all here. And one thing which tops all the above things is we got to get "Great Friends".

Naveen, Siddu, Pavan(Chinnu) and Me in front of our college:

We had a great day and wished it did not end so fast....

The secret of a "happy" marriage remains a secret..

Cake at our home today..

Two years of happiness, joy, fun trips, rides, anger, fights, arguments, ups and downs and to top all these, our beautiful baby Twinkle(Shraddha)

Shot the pic with my cam mounted on a Gorilla Pod.

Yuppie, I hit 6 months...

Today I completed 6 months and I am feeling great about it. My Mom woke up early in the morning(as usual) and made a beautiful cake for me with the instructions from my Paternal Grand Mother. I wish my Mom makes me a cake every month :-), actually that's for my Dad ;-).

That's the cake... Yummy:


It was just Me, Mom and Dad. I sat in my dad's lap and cut the cake with his help. I just got a pinch of it and rest was swooshed off from my sight :-(

Food, camera and my dad in the front - I am a happy girl:
My Dad thinks this is just a small milestone compared to the whole list of things he had planned for me. I guess he is just waiting for me to grow up and understand so that he can start his "Blah Blah Blah...Yada Yada Yada". Even now he does his "Blah Blah Blah...", I just laugh (Ignore) and he is a happy man.

More later...

And it's ..."Shraddha Surineni"

Hello Everyone, Long time no see......I have a zillion updates from my side since the last post, so you better be patient to read the complete post.

I am 5 months and 8 days old and ...uuff finally I have been named, err... though I have my doubts if they(my parents) gonna stick to this one or not. You might have guessed it with the title, it's "Shraddha Surineni". My father had different one in mind but you know...that's how it is ;-), I pity him.

I:

• Put every thing I can lift straight into my mouth


• Bring my mouth to everything that I cannot lift so that I can put it in my mouth


• Acknowledge when some one talks or sings to me by saying "Aaaaam", "Aaaa"


• Cry only when I am hungry or getting sleep or...yew.. you know... ;-)


• Get angry if one carrying me talks to someone else ignoring me.


• Sleep sideways and sleep all night without disturbing anyone and myself


• Roll all across the bed in all directions


• This is the best part, my grand mother thought me "Sit & Stand". Yes, I sit when someone says "Sit" and stand one someone says "Stand"(Of course some has to hold me up). My father thinks I am genius(like him...) ha ha ha ha..... he is so funny.


• Eat nestum rice meal, banana; Drink lactogen milk, tomato juice, orange juice


• I open my mouth to eat food only when someone sings to me

Last weekend everyone took me to this cool and nice place called Tirumala(Tirupati) to do something. We all went in a vehicle and my dad came up by stairs, I thought he will take 4 to 5 hours considering that he puffs and pants after climbing 7 floors at his work place. But he made it in 2 hours 10 minutes, without drinking/eating anything(My mom thinks, if he has his camera, he does not need anything). I was happy that my paternal Great Grand Parents, chinna ammamma(my paternal Grandmoms sister), chinna tata, Maternal Grand parents, Paternal grandfather and my pinni(my mom's sister) and babai were there for me.

Above: It looks like a closed room, all children are crying on top of their voice.... My dad is brushing my hair... I wonder what's going to happen!!!!

Above: The ambiance around is serious, my mom is tensed, I am not understanding what's happening here and my Dad - smiling like always, damn I cant get any clue from his face.

Below: My Dad put me in his lap and in few seconds they made me like this :-( . They also had my ears pierced. It pained but only for few minutes, I was normal later. My dad thinks if my mom had to undergo even the fraction of the pain I went through she would have cried the entire day :-).

Below: Its Annaprasna(eating food for the first time) time and they put books, food(bananas), money, pen, flowers, gold, silver in front of me and they wanted to crawl towards the items and hold few of those. It is believed that the three items I touch first, I will have plenty/sufficient of that.
Below: I first went towards bananas and held those. My Mom was screaming "Nooooo", My Dad - "Yessssss" because he did the same during his ceremony.

Below: Next I went for Money and Pen. Now my Mom was happy that I will have money and have good education.

Next I went for Gold and silver, after that they made me eat the Prasadam. Later in the day we went to my dad's dad''s home town "Chandragiri" which is very near to Tirupati. I was very tired and hit lap early.

Next day we went to see Lord Venkateswara's Kalayanam followed by darshan and it was amazing. I am surprised to see my dad so devotional and he looked funny in the silk dothi and gundu. Later in the evening every one headed back to their respective locations and I left for Eluru with my Maternal Grand Parents.

Next Saturday i.e., 17 January 2009, I will be in Hyderabad permanently. I wonder how my parents manage me with their work schedules. I am sure going to miss my Grand ma and Grand pa.....

So, Hyderabad.... get ready for Shradha!!!

Colours of Life...

Have you ever played with colours? I am sure we all would have at one point or the other. The other day my sister gave me showcase piece(I do not know what is it called) which is basically a transparent bottle filled with clear liquid and some sort of colour fluids with do not mix with each other and when overlap they produce different colours. Also to create a dripping effect there are small cabinet like enclosures at both ends with a small hole where the coloured fluid accumulates if put the "thing" in one position for certain amount of time.


I clicked the above picture at my home last Sunday
I got something like this couple of years back but it broke(fell down and NOT my mistake) the very minute I brought it home.

I simply love to play with this one(of course when I have nothing else to do), various shapes, colours and especially with sunlight in the background this looks amazing. If I give it a thought, like my camera shows, this also has colours, shapes, light and ... O my God! Sometimes I feel like I have started looking most of the things as "Through the Lens" ala Frame, color, composition, Depth etc.

You know what? basically, I am confused and completely off the track as I started off to write something and ended off with something else. I find no relation with the title, picture and text. In my native language they say "Tala Toka lenidi" which basically translates to "something which has no head and tail... :-) :-( ... Ok ....Ok I stop

I guess I will end this Freak Show and get back to what ever I have been doing... ha ha ha ha.

Work like an ant and be prepared for the hard times...

I cicked this above picture near my home

Other day I was lazing around with my camera around my home enjoying the beautiful sunset. FYI, I can spend hours admiring and of course clicking the Sun Set, Alas! that is lasts only few minutes.

I was composing a plant with sun in the background and I noticed a group of ants working their ass off even at the fag end of the day. We all know how much hard workers Ants are and their well planned colonies which are engineering marvels(especially when you are at that size) explains it all.

When I was composing this picture the thought which came to my mind is "Let the Sun set on the past year's difficulties and let us march ahead into the new year with all our vigor, strength and positive orientation".

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!!!

Little less 'Converse'ation...

Little less 'Converse'ation...Little More Action

This is for all the "person's who are professionally involved in politics, especially as a holder of an elected office and person's who act in a manipulative and devious way, typically to gain advancement" = Politicians (As per the oxford Dictionary)

W. A. K. E UP!!!



A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark

~Elvis Presley

Sometimes mother nature has its own ways to remind us...

Yesterday, while driving back from work I saw a beautiful scene in the sky. The moment I looked at it my heart was filled with joy. For my mind and heart which were filled with rage, disagreement anger and disappointment with all the current happenings in our country from last few days , it came in as a relief.

I clicked the above picture from my home (Hyderabad) yesterday night

It's like someone telling us to something; conveying a strong message, "To stand as one even in our deepest grief's" and answer back the cowards that no matter what we Indians always stand as one!!!

Coming to the above picture, its The Moon-Jupiter-Venus. It was a spectacular sight and I relished it very much. When I googled for more information I came to know that we won’t see this kind of incident for another 44 years.

If you don’t mind losing the moon, Venus and Jupiter will repeat this gig in 2011 and again in 2012, once in the morning and once in the early evening. But the next time the moon, Venus, and Jupiter gather like this will be Nov. 18, 2052. Reserve your seat now :-)...

God, give me strength...

Give me strength...

To accepct the truth...
To be with the Good...
To Stay focused...
To help those who are in need...
To see happiness in little things...
To smile even at unbearable pain...
To think positively what ever it may be...
To be courageous to fight deeper most fears...
To stand tall when everything around falls apart...
To be patient when a volcano is erupting inside...
To go for next best try, whenever something fails...
To be happy and make everyone around me happy...

Happy Diwali....

I am back......

I am back, I am 78 days old and this time I have done lot of things for the first time......

I travelled out of Eluru for the first time...

I travelled by train for the first time...

I travelled by car for the first time...

I came to Hyderabad for the first time...

I travelled by Auto in Hyderabad(Oh my, the pollution my nose went for a toss) for the first time...

I got into a Volvo bus for the first time...

Ufff....I am tired of the list and I guess I can get few more if I think but like my dad, I do not like to think too much ;-) so I am leaving it there :-).

Me in the train to Hyderabad. My dad could not get ticket so he climbed the upper berth and did some monkey business with his camera.

I loved Hyderabad climate, its lot cooler when compared to Eluru. I was there in Hyderabad for 2 days and went back to Eluru....

In my new dress which my GrandMom gave me when I came to Hyderabad for the first time :-)

More from me later........

O'Man or Man!, No

What does a full bottle of Vodka make you feel?


I am loving the way a DSLR performs while shooting in absolutely low light conditions and the freedom it gives.

Technical Specifications:
Focal Length: 59mm
F-Number: F/5
Exposure Time: 1/4 Sec
ISO: 1600
Metering Mode: Spot
Miscellaneous: Picture taken Hand held, shot in complete darkness with one small candle as light source, post processing done in PhotoScape

The light within...

I clicked the above picture at my home, day before yesterday when there was power cut.

No matter how dark it is.......
No matter how low you are......
No matter how bad you feel......

let the light within glow bright and guide us through these short lived difficulties towards everlasting happiness!

Happy Dushera!!

I wish everyone Happy Dushera, may your dreams, wishes, come true and you taste success in all the endeavors.
I clicked the above picture at my brother's work shop(Recently he got into wood business, here they design, cut/carve any hing that can be made of wood, more details some time later). He calls it WoddeN'ice.