A new chapter: India for the Summer!

And here comes the big announcement that I'd teased you with in this post. The Flaneurbanite is off to India for the Summer! It's a planned three month long work-cum-leisure trip and if all goes as per plan, I'll be back in London at the end of September.

Needless to say I'll miss London sorely - I'm missing it even before I'm gone! But I'm really looking forward to being in India too - it's home, and it's one of the most beautiful countries in the world. And I'm not just saying it because it's mine!

India is where my photographic journey began, more than a decade back , when I used my Dad's Minolta film camera so much that it decided to conk off. I then graduated to an Olympus digital that I borrowed from my office for work and shot a series of random pictures with it. It excited me enough to make me buy my first very own point and shoot digital, the Fujifilm E550, which remains faithful to this day. Last year my better half added company to my solo fleet with a Fujifilm S9600 (semi-pro) and that is what I primarily shoot with these days. Some of my earliest shots with the E550...

Neemrana Fort, Rajasthan, North West India





Neemrana Fort, Rajasthan, North West India






Bombay/Mumbai






Land's End, Bombay/Mumbai

Some of these made it to my first photoblog that I started in 2006 to a lot of interest but couldn't keep up with when I started my MSc in London later that year. It sits dormant now, though I'm tempted to start posting those that don't make it here but I'd still really like to share, there. Perhaps that'll happen yet!

India is where I shot those first few which got me the precious drops of genuine appreciation from people who really know the art. Many would think it doesn't get better than in a city like London for street photography, for a continuously dynamic panorama of urban life - but you need to have clicked in India to know better! And there is going to be lots of that here to prove it, in the next three months. I'm excited about the journey, and I hope you'll be my fellow travellers, my fellow flaneurbanites.

So, fasten your seatbelts and here we go!

Portobello Quirks - in pursuit of the unordinary

How many eccentricities make up one street? How many quirks of colour and situation, proximity and juxtaposition, contrast and comparison can one find in a single afternoon? What does it take to define a street in only a handful of pictures?

Sometimes the narrator needs to quieten down and let the imagery weave the spell, let imagination do its turn...because sometimes, the truth is so strange that nothing could be too far from it.

How many stories can you weave through these images?

Spot the fake

















Nothing Edwardian about the bike, Sir











Five hats and a pout





Dreadlocked diversity?

What is the probability of so many quirks to gather on one street and be captured in the space of an hour in one afternoon? And what does that say about the street? You tell me. As I said, I'm taking the backseat on this one.

Colour and Serendipity on Portobello Road

Ever since I got back from Spain, I've been missing that raw richness of unabashed colour that assaulted and overhwelmed my senses there. To make matters worse, London is associated with 'grey' more often than with any other colour. Then I remembered Portobello Road. For nothing screams colour in London than this famous curving street lined with Victorian terraces, antiques dealers and funky boutiques. Set in the heart of Notting Hill (yes, the setting for that film), this street is an antique bargain hunter's delight. I did not visit on a Market Saturday, but I still came away with ample colour therapy to last me a while - along with a healthy dose of serendipity.

My blues and your reds - or vice versa?






Purple shoes against a purple wall. And blues to match.






Yellow above, yellow below. Colour me sunshine!






No honey, it's a blue awning.






Mauve. Candy purple. Muted Pink. Wait, what is that colour called?






Colour me Blue, I'm Lost in You






Merge into me






Electric, electric blue







Paint the town red as you go along...





Or take your pick!

All in an afternoon's work. Serendipity will find you, if you only know where to look!

More eccentricities from Portobello coming up - in my last London post to come for a while...

Postcards from Spain | Snippets from the Alhambra

Previous Postcards from Spain:
The Doors and Windows of Granada
The Streets and Alleys of Granada
People-Spotting in Granada
Markets and Signboards of Granada
The Street Artists and Buskers of Granada

I have thoroughly enjoyed sending out these postcards over the last week or so. Although this is not exactly a tourist-picture blog, I couldn't not share my view of the place with you. And what is the modern day tourist but an evolved avatar of the earliest French flâneur? I know that I was one, as I walked the streets of Granada for four days, quietly observing, recording and tying the threads together to weave the whole story. I think , and I hope you'll agree, that these postcards all stitch up the fragments of the picture into a rough whole - and that picture would be incomplete without this last set of images that showcase in pithy snippets the grand Alhambra, the Moorish icon of Granada - its seed, its raison de'être, its claim to fame. And you will perhaps see why, in these last set of postcards from Spain.

That's it from Spain! Like I said in my previous post, there's a whole lot of new stuff waiting to happen here - and an exciting announcement that I'll make next week!

Thank you all for the terrific response to these postcards - I have loved every moment of putting these together. And again, thanks to every one of you who has given me your very valuable feedback and encouragement since I first launched this blog six months back. It's come a long way since then and it has a very long way to go.

Postcards from Spain | The Street Artists and Buskers of Granada

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'd know that I have a particular affinity for informal forms and purveyors of art, or in other words street art and artists - be it visual of performance based. I therefore had to document the street artists and performers of Granada for you, and today's set of postcards does just that.

In particular, I was struck by the number of musicians performing in Granada's streets and plazas, which, on second thought is no surprise given Spain's long and rich musical tradition. It shows... and buzzes and mesmerises you as you walk around town - and how!

This gentleman is usually found around the Plaza de la Romilla of Granada, busking his music to people sitting along the promenade with cafes on one side and the spactacular Alhambra on top of the hill on the other. He entertained us for two breakfasts and one glass of evening wine.










I have never heard or seen someone playing the didgeridoo before this (at least that is what I think that is) and this gentleman was doing an absolutely fantastic job of it! He was keeping rhythm with those two wooden pellets in his right hand and the combined effect made you want to tap your feet and sway your hips! He was busking his unique music outside the main Cathedral in Granada.
It was around the Cathedral area that most other buskers and artists would tend to ply their art as well.

















This gentleman is painting scrolls of Arabic poetry - something that the walls of the Alhambra are covered in. A common art in these parts, it seems, but incredibly beautiful. I only wish I knew how to read Arabic so that I could make an informed comment on what I was looking at!

I hope you liked this set of postcards as much I personally like it! This series of postcards is about to draw to a close soon, but beyond that I have some street photography related writing, and some London-based stories coming up... and also an important, very important announcement! Keep watching, and I hope you will not be disappointed with what comes up. :)

Postcards from Spain | The Markets and Signboards of Granada

Previous Postcards from Spain:
The Doors and Windows of Granada
The Streets and Alleys of Granada
People-Spotting in Granada

Hello Tuesday! I'm sending to you my view of the markets and signboards of Granada today.

I had quite an adventurous start to my visit when Iberia Airlines decided not to send our luggage on the same flight from Madrid as us, leaving us bereft of fresh clothes to change into. Iberia had assured us that we would get our bags delivered to us in Granada by that evening. But when our bags didn't arrive by 10PM, we rushed out in the rain to buy a few clothes to last us until the next day, at the least. We'd spotted the Albaicin markets earlier in the day, and we managed to find one last shop about to close. The shopkeeper did not know any English and our Spanish was limited to 'si' and 'gracias'. But we not only dealt with the guy in sign language, we even managed to get a nice bargain for the bunch of cheap hippy clothes we bought! Of course we were extremely chuffed and pleased with ourselves as we ran back to the hotel in the rain. Fresh, dry, cheap clothes had never seemed as precious and welcome as they did that day as we changed into them!

Our luggage arrived ten minutes later.


Enjoy your postcards for today!