so high..

PS: This is a continuation of the “parting-shots” series of Upper Lake, Bhopal that were taken by me on August 31, 2008. Am missing my brother’s point&shoot Canon Powershot SD 850 IS, but I prefer the power and control that my Canon S2 IS (yeah, baby!) provides. A post on unleashing the monster within your Canon coming up! (hint: chdk)

Courtesy, a true blue nostalgic Bhopali, who love’s John Denver’s soulful lyrics and shoots photos at the drop of a hat -

All my bags are packed I’m ready to go
I’m standin’ here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin’ it’s early morn
The taxi’s waitin’ he’s blowin’ his horn
Already I’m so lonesome I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you’ll wait for me
Hold me like you’ll never let me go
Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

There’s so many times I’ve let you down
So many times I’ve played around
I tell you now, they don’t mean a thing
Every place I go, I’ll think of you
Every song I sing, I’ll sing for you
When I come back, I’ll bring your wedding ring

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you’ll wait for me
Hold me like you’ll never let me go
Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go …

- John Denver

…and if you have not already heard this song, you can catch it on YouTube.

Well, I am still packing my bags, but the time to leave is not so distant. I’ll leave for Stanford on morning of (not so spooky) Saturday the 13th. I still got to buy my $$$$ and wind-up my act here. Ever heard of being happy and sad at the same time…?

PS: Above lonesome, melancholic and romantic photo is a continuation of the “parting-shots” series of Upper Lake, Bhopal that were taken by me on August 31, 2008. I have a few more of them coming up..

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

- Edgar Allan Poe

I have witnessed some of the most beautiful mornings, days, evenings and nights in this city. Its lush green, especially in the areas I have lived in. Its adorned with many lakes, Upper Lake (Bada Taalab), Lower Lake, Shahpura, Kaliasot Dam.. which are great places to hang out and make Bhopal a paradise for morning walkers. I can not count the number of times, I have just went to any of the above lakes, just to hang out with friends, for morning walks, for being alone, or with someone special. This is where I bought my first bike (A blue 150cc Bajaj Pulsar – motorcycle), and drove it on the perfect curves and open roads in pure bliss. This is the place I’ll always root for. Bhopal.. the city of my dreams.

PS: Above photo is of Upper Lake, Bhopal and was taken by me on August 31, 2008. I’ll be posting more from the same day in coming posts.

psst, that’s my baby, Majbur Zindagiyan!

Off the record:
It took total 2 days to make, including conceptualization, interviewing some poor souls and the post-production. I remember my friends dozing off and me working on editing, through the night, ofcourse, hurling curses at them at every possible instance. Creating this movie has been one of the best experiences of my life, and winning that prize, one of the fondest memory of achievement. I miss you guys, my loved majboor fukeers.

Officially:
A documentary about the children and elderly of the city Bhopal (capital of Madhya Pradesh, India) who are forced into a life of misery and hardships because of their poverty. Stood first in a national level movie-making competition held at NIT, Bhopal (Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology aka MANIT and MACT) in ’06.

• Explore – More original shayari by the original shayar Prakash here – “Thought-String“