Days go by...

I know I haven't posted for almost all of this vacation, so I'll just share stuff I did in one rambly post (don't say I didn't warn you.)

The plan to do a short post every day just flew out of the window because of my current internet connection. (more on that soon).

Anyway the last few days consisted of two breezers & tequila shots, too much tv, lazing around, etc.

I was watching this show No Ordinary Family (which has been cancelled, btw) & was super surprised to see Lucy Lawless in a recurring role. *squeal*

Also I am very happy that those dumb executives at CBS & ABC have managed to get both AJ & Paget back for the next season of Criminal Minds And also that they let Rachel Nichols go. I feel sorry for her & all, but she just sucked, okay?

I also did watch a ton of Jackie Chan movies. Karate Kid was awesome, but I prefer his campy, dubbed 'Hong Kong films' more. I saw New Police Story & Rob-B-Hood

Now after spending two whole weeks in the resort (bliss!!) we are back at our Goa home for some quiet relaxation. I have taken a ton of photos, & I'll share some soon.

Now, getting back to the internet connection- Tata Photon+. A salesman came to our home a few weeks ago. Of course I am aware that salesmen always make tall claims, but after paying all the money we found out the connection is beyond crappy. That's when I looked it up on the internet where 90% of users claim it's crappy, & the customer service is even worse!! We have been using Airtel Broadband at home for the past two years, the speed is decent, it has very little downtime, the customer service is superb. It's great that we live close to their office too, whenever we complain the engineer is here within 15 minutes.

I am not just ranting here, I just need to tell you that Tata Photon+ is really shitty. I didn't know anyone who had it before we got ours, so I didn't know it was this bad. I find it throughly amusing that Tata Photon+ has a ton of ads on Star TV claiming it gots some consumers choice award. All the consumers are dissatisfied. Suspicious, much?

Anyway, that's enough ranting for now. This holiday has been awesome, & I can't wait to get home in a week.

Also, do enter my giveaway if you haven't already! (You could win an awesome quality writing/drawing book).

love,

Road Trip

I don't know if you know but I'm on vacation right now. We left this morning with a big jing bang in a Chevrolet Tavera. The rest of the day included taking pictures through the vehicle's tinted windows, stopping for a yummy fish thali, stopping again in an hour to puke my guts out (I am aware that this might be too much information but if I attempt to keep a travel diary it has to be 100% accurate & honest). It wasn't the food, I never should have eaten anything other than sandwiches while travelling.

We later reached Ratnagiri. It is my first time here & this place is absolutely picturesque. Beautiful seas, fishing boats, a lighthouse. We visited a typical Maharashtrian family, they had a black cat, parrots, sharks & monkeys (they didn't 'have' the monkeys. Monkeys just go where they wish.)
We leave in the morning for Goa. Many adventures avait. I hope to blog daily now that I have Tata Photon+ (which is totally sucky, btw. A ton of false promises & shitty customer service).
Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already!

love,

Brahma Books - A Giveaway!

Hey Guys! I have been wanting to have a giveaway here since forever (I've already had one on my style blog) but the reason I didn't is because I was having trouble figuring out what to giveaway. I wanted something useful, fun yet gender & age neutral.
Finally I am hosting my first giveaway here sponsored by Brahma Books.
They are known for the great quality Indian Moleskines that they make, I have written about the books here & done a review with photographs here.
First off I wanted to provide some new & relevant information about the books so I asked Arjuna (founder of BrahmaBooks) to write a mesage for you guys. This is what he has to say:

"I am a professional artist. For the past several years I have been focusing on the classical drawing. In classical drawing the artist must draw accurately from life. Quality of materials is of utmost importance as poor quality paper or pencils will result in poor drawings. I started by importing all of my art supplies including drawing books and paper from the USA. However after some time I realized that there is a need for high quality drawing and writing books in India and I also realized that only a classical artist can fulfill it, because an intimate understanding of quality papers and other materials is required. There are many books on the market in India, but there are none that are focused on providing the best acid free papers. And hence Brahma books was born. Brahma Books offers notebooks that use acid free papers and the professional lines include the worlds best papers including Fabriano and Canson among others. At Brahma Books we focus at making the highest quality notebook possible. There are many factors that go into high quality notebooks including hand binding, top quality acid free papers, fun designs, the best adhesives and other materials and a great pickiness regarding detail. I am happy that we are the only supplier of top quality notebooks for drawing and writing in India, from an artists perspective. There are other notebooks however they fall within the category of diaries or fancy designs without underlying quality. I use Brahma Books all the time and continually strive to improve quality.

The tag line for Brahma Books is "Catch Inspiration". As a renaissance artist (An artist who practices many art forms) I also sing Indian classical Music and do Shaolin Kungfu. After making Brahma Books I realized that this is a full fledged operation including factories and distribution. I decided to make a company that is an art installation. Therefore my company Brahmaforces is created like a piece of art, only instead of paint, we use real people and objects. Doing so many things, I get many ideas. Some in the middle of the night, some while I am waiting for a meeting, and some at meditation retreats. I realized long ago, that if one is able to catch these ideas and act on them, then one's life is transformed as many creative acts are initiated. One very important purpose the Brahma Books serve, is to catch inspiration. I write down and draw whatever ideas occur to me on a daily basis, prioritize them and act on them. These books are a repository of my mental imagery, thoughts and are a creative cauldron. The rough books use poor quality papers that match those offered by the diary makers and they offer a large number of pages at a cheap price but with the same fun designs and strong hand binding. I use these for rough work where volume is required.

I greatly enjoy using the Brahma Books and they have transformed my life by allowing me to organize my ideas in very strong, hardy and fun books. I hope that you enjoy them too."

I must admit that I found the writeup pretty inspiring. An artist who practise Martial arts & goes to meditation retreat- Wow! I have been wanting to learn a martial art for a while (check out the #2 on the Project 20 by 20 in the footer of this blog. And I just realized I have only 11 months left... eeek!)

And without further ado, here is information about how you can win a your very own Brahma Book:

Prizes:

✰ One lucky winner will get a Amateur Line Book 8.25 x 5.25 Inches worth 445

✰ Also, a bonus prize. If 25 or more different people participate in this giveaway, another lucky winner will win a Writers Line Book 6 x 6 Inches worth 435

Compulsory entries: (Must do all three to qualify)

• Like the Brahma Books page on Facebook.
• Follow Life etc. via Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin' or Facebook (your choice!)
• Visit the Brahma Books website, check out the five book lines & tell me which is your favorite line & why.

Optional entries: (Not compulsory but you can gain additional entries!)

• Blog about this giveaway. (link to this post)
• Tweet about this giveaway via the tweet button at the top of this post.
• Post this giveaway on your facebook page or profile.

Just leave a comment telling me all that you've done. Please mention your Facebook name too.

Just some stuff:

• Open Internationally!
• Winner will be picked out of a hat.
• Giveaway will be open till the 12th of June, 11:59 PM (IST, obviously!)
• Winner will be picked some day between 12th & 16th June.
• Regarding the winner, I will be announcing it here, & I will try to get in touch too via Facebook or Twitter, so please don't leave an email id here as spammers spam email ids that are 'left in the open' on blog comments.

Thanks for participating & best of luck!

love,

First film ever with my SuperHeadz Golden Half

Some older readers of my blog might remember when I purchased my first toy camera waaayyyy back in July 2010. I took the plunge into analogue photography with a lovely SuperHeadz Golden Half. It's a Japanese camera that works with 35mm film & takes half frame photos so you can get double the images! (Therefore, on a 36 exposure film you can get 72 images). The really fun part about it is that two photos are put together & unless you're actively keeping count you can't say which two pictures will turn up together.

Anyway as some of my twitter followers will know, I loaded the camera with film on the night I got it. Took a few photos, but then I had a slump of sorts where I didn't take any for months. :( I was worried about what would happen to the film in the camera. It was stored in a ziploc bag so it wouldn't get fungus or anything. Anyway, in late April I decided that I was done procrastinating & I clicked photos with a vengeance.

I finished up the film & gave it for processing a few days ago. Got it back that same night! (mainly because I couldn't wait till the next day).

When I got the film back, I admit I was a tad disappointed. Out of 36 double exposures, only 20 came through. On many, half was unusable. Many never got processed at all. A few were too light & two were too dark. *sigh*

I asked the photo lab why the photos didn't come out right. Were they over exposed? Under exposed?

Nobody at the lab spoke any English! (one of the curses of living in India!)

One guy thought he was very smart & told me, "Blur ho gaya" (They got blurred).

Of course i was really really pissed then because that idiot works in a lab & doesn't no basic photo lingo. Blur? BLUR?? Does he even know what blur means?

I know the lab might not be the reason the photos were so messed up. There could be a ton of reasons (like leaving the film in for 9 months!) but the least they could do was explain to me in simple words why so few photos turned out okay.

I controlled my temper till I got home & decided to check how I could salvage the photos. I had to crop a few halves, a few auto adjusts in iPhoto & the (few) surviving photos were looking better.

Anyway I have blabbed too much. Now for the photos & what I learned from my first ever film.

(I don't have exact dates, but all photos are in chronological order!)

Mom & me. These photos were taken on the day of the indiblogger mumbai meet (indimum)

left: Me! (I was totally living in that black tank top & silk purple pants combo at that time & I'm not ashamed to say it).

right: This exposure was terrible. But I didn't crop it out because if you look closely you can actually see my parents in that picture.

Both photos were taken at the same spot at around the same time with the same settings. How the hell did one turn out so great & one so terrible? :/

Mom with my EOS 1000D :) This photo & the previous one was taken at Holiday Inn.

My mom looks so cute in this one! ^_^

Mom & me again. I like the lens flare on mine.

Red jeans ftw!

Mom & me again!

One of my favorite photos!

The photo looks good, but the ziploc bag doesn't! I was holding it in my left hand & was in a hurry to finish the film.

Ziploc in front of the red electricity box=fail!

But I love the photo mom took of me.

I am kind of obsessed with these red shoes, they have feature on my project 365 blog too!

This diptych shows the Home for the Aged that my mom has been regularly volunteering at for over 8 years. I have been volunteering that long too, albeit sporadically.

My favorite diptych from the roll!

The metro construction & the local church.

Superheadz Golden Half x Kodak 400

Those are some of the best photos from my first ever 35mm film roll. I have a page on the lomography website, you should come check me out I'm magali on lomography. You can check out this whole film here. Look out for my first ActionSampler roll soon!!

I'd love to hear what you think of my photos & analog photography in general.

love,

❀ Happy Mother's Day ❀

Dear Mom,

I've given this some thought & there is no way to say what I want to without it turning too mushy or clichéd or fake.

We didn't even try co-ordinate our outfits, we just ended up being matchy matchy.

So I'm not going to try to be all articulate- Happy Mother's day mom, I am incredibly lucky to have you as a mom. We may fight sometimes but I still think you're my best friend! (& the most common label on my blog, :D )

Thanks for being there for me. Thanks for being who you are. Thanks for everything. :)

lots of love,

What's in my bag? [lomo edition]

Ever since I heard of the what's in your bag project that became a whole meme of sorts, I've wanted to do a post. Somehow it never happened.
I keep switching bags & I carry stuff according to where I'm going. Not many staples other than my phone, wallet & iPod.
I didn't do a 'my week in pictures' post this week because I didn't get that much stuff or go any place significant. So I did this post instead to show you what I've been up to. I plan to do more in the future, to show you different stuff I carry at different times.
So without further ado, here it is:

um, sorry for the bad photo :(
Anyway, all the stuff is tagged, but I'm going to write about it anyway.

1. Elephant Canvas bag from Bangkok - I got so psyched when I saw this bag on display in Bangkok because it's so Indian. A lot of the Bangkok art & culture actually has Indian origins.
2. FOX'S candies - I've loved these since I was a little kid. These are from the 'berries' tin. But I love all FOX'S equally. Even mint.
3. Hello Kitty Wallet - A gift from my once best friend. We've gone drifted apart since, & are hardly in contact now. :( But every time I look at my wallet (everyday!) I remember her.
4. Yellow Sunglasses - I love these sunnies! They look so bright & happy & are perfect for summer. I broke my 'I only wear Ray-Ban' rule to buy these. And boy am I glad I did. I don't even have to be that careful with them!
5. Lomography ActionSampler - My newest toy camera, by Lomography. Haven't started shooting with it yet.
6. SuperHeadz GoldenHalf - My first toy camera, I bought this Japanese baby with my first ever salary last year. =D
7. Contact Lens Case - Self Explanatory
8. Revlon Compact Mirror - This mirror, isn't just useful, it's fun! On one side there's a regular mirror, & on the other there's a super magnified version. Guaranteed to make your pores look huge!
9. My cellphone - Nokia 7210. I'm sure you're wondering what happened to my beloved BlackBerry? Well, I was a bit bored with it, fed up with plans & stuff so I gave it to my dad who took it with him on the ship. Though I miss it a bit, I appreciate the simplicity of this Nokia phone (it feels Primitive!!!) And after using a qwerty keypad for months, texting is really a pain now. :/
10. iPod touch - I got this super cute Winnie the Pooh case quite by chance a couple of days ago & now I love it!! I want to go back & get a spongebob one too. :)
11. And last but not the least, Lomography film! You can see one pack each of Redscale, Xpro slide film & of course Fine Color. I am really excited to try all this fun film, but not very excited about the fact that I will have to trek halfway across the city to get them processed. Oh well.

Oh & if you looked at the above photo clearly you'd notice that there's 3 films but 4 canisters. That's because I got my first film processed yesterday. Photos are coming up, real soon! :)


up: Lomography ActionSampler, down: SuperHeadz GoldenHalf

I am in love with anything yellow at the moment!

In case you're in doubt, all this stuff actually fit in that bag.
Also, feel free to do a what's in your bag post on your blog too, I'd love to have a peek into your bag too.

Also, you peek into some other people's bags by checking out the flickr pool.
I'm gonna be posting this on my style blog too.

love,

More Plagiarism :|

Remember my post on copy & paste 'blogger' Ankit?
He is definitely not the only one of his kind. It has emerged that a supposedly famous blogger, Sourav Pandey has been doing this, a lot. He is quite the expert actually. He steals people's wonderful but undiscovered older writings from blogs & deviantart. Makes some very minor changes with words. Then posts it. You know what is worse than that? This CREEP actually posts these shitty messages on his posts to make it seem like he has written them.
Such as:
"Hello friends!
This is not a work of fiction. I had a very strange dream last night, and it is not very unusual for me. I am always in two minds to put such dreams/thoughts into words, but this time I really want to know if any meaning can be inferred out of them! You are allowed to call me mad or you can be nice enough to leave your views after reading it completely. Please do not leave half-baked comments, as this is a very personal post!
Thanks!"
Did you read the message above? This sick guy has written it on a post that he has lifted off someone's deviantart page. He makes me sick to my stomach. Seriously.
It has also emerged that almost all his posts are copied, but he conveniently has comment moderation enabled so he only publishes the comments praising his posts. (That is why I don't have comment moderation enabled, you are free to say whatever you wish.)
Indiblogger has done a post exposing the said creep, you should check it out. Also, please retweet their post, & blog about it too because more people should know about sickos like this.
Also, they have urged him to come clean on his blog about all the plagiarism. Personally, I don't think such lying thieving cheats know the difference between right & wrong. But let's see if he actually has the guts to do the right thing.

Update: Those of you following the whole controversy know what happened & how the culprit behaved after he was cornered. Don't want to get in to it now, all I want to say is that I stand by what I said, because I am willing to fight for what I believe in. Also, thank you so so so much for all the encouraging & praising emails, tweets & comments. You definitely helped in my fight by reassuring. And yes each & every one of you made my day. Thanks again, I have never been happier or proud of being a blogger. :)

love,