Random thoughts of a conflicted mind. #2

Yeah am back again…whatever. So, I’ve been listening to some different off beat music for a while now, some jazz, blues and scores of independent artists. I’ve grown up listening to metal and what not for years; lately I’ve fallen in love with Porcupine Tree. (All over again).

If you haven’t heard their music, you probably haven’t heard good music. Go listen, highly recommended.

Anyway…yeah with the winters already here…the weather is amazing, as a photographers point of view as well as the random point of view. The chill and the isolation are beautiful. And what’s better is if you have nothing to do at early morning 7 am and sit at a chai walah sipping garam garam chai and listening to sweet melodious voice of Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree).

The other day a random out of the blue conversation between a friend and me at the roadside chai walah got me thinking. Maybe it was the overdose of Porcupine Tree or just another passing thought, but in the end I came back to the question…why?

We enter an elevator and stand facing the door. Why?

We will never sit on the footpath next to a beggar, and silently look at people passing by all worked up in their busy lives. Why?

Why are we so scared to click photographs of people on the streets?

Why do we think so much?

We always say “Kaam karna hai, I will study my ass off and want to make money and live a lavish life!” why?

In the end why so many why’s?

I guess it’s just another random thought of a conflicted mind.

Just by the way, here’s a link to one of Porcupine Tree’s song. LISTEN!

Porcupine Tree- The Sound of Muzak

Random thought of a conflicted mind.

Funny. We are brought up in a society which is run by sexually frustrated men, who have no idea how to run the government or how to go about things in the daily life itself. We are constantly told what is right or wrong, what to eat, where to sleep. We are so infuriated when someone point out our flaws that most of us would go to great lengths, to point out theirs or ruin something they have been working on.


Sometimes the most basic outcomes are initiated from something as basic as music. Personally experienced. If it weren't for Iron Maiden, I'd have not heard good music and probably never would have started clicking concerts. 


Life is weird, so are we, who get sucked into its daily cycle. We dream about taking a break and doing something different, but never get around it. Maybe going to a high point in the city, smoking some marijuana would help see things differently. The world is colourful, full of textures, some thing which isn't so negative. But we see what we want to see...the negativity.


We see the things that are going wrong, not the ones that are going right. We see creed and religion, but not the human... funny really.


In the end, am just saying, thoughts of a conflicted mind.

Facebook-ed?

The rise in number of social networking sites has done little for the causes but more for itself. Twitter, Facebook or may it be Myspace,these websites may be a good platform for performing artists to get closer and be in touch with their fans, for multinational or upcoming brands to contact the consumer and ask them what they really need and for people like me to showcase our so called talent. These websites give us an opportunity to get in touch with old friends that we have lost contact with and to be in constant touch with friends and family in far away lands.

When you sit in front of your desktop or laptop, what is the first thing you check? I asked the very same questions to some friends and family members. I got the same answer every time. Facebook or one or two Orkut here and there. Irrespective of whether it is Facebook, Orkut, Myspace or whatever, the answer is we all are victims of social networking.

Let’s not blame us teenagers for the urge to socialize virtually. The adults are no better. What astound me is that there are people who will actually update their status every few hours to what they are really doing. I mean its okay your doing something, but really what happened to the term “it’s my private matter”? Infact, I know this person and she is quite active on facebook and updates her status from time to time. I remember her last status was “Black” (which evidently meant the colour of the Bra she was wearing at that point of time.) I guess we don’t really care about her bra, now do we? I guess privacy isn’t important anymore, well…at least for some.

So when we get a friend request from some unknown being, we usually accept it. Why? Because some think the more number of friends they have, the more popular they are amongst their peers. This farce belief is especially true with the kids. So the ‘friends only’ setting gets chucked out of the window and our personal information is free for all. For some adding all the number of random girls they find in the search list. Anyone they think is “hot” they send out a request. Why not? In the end you’d look popular right?

A note to these stalkers: You’re never going to land a girl in the bed with these requests and those ‘OMG cool’ statements like “hi will you be my frandzz babezz” Trust me!

That’s not the end of it; most of these websites have interactive games. Most famous of them all: Farmville and Mafia Wars. These games are dope. Playing once or twice isn’t bad. But every session lasts for about an hour each. Half the people in my friends are either farmers or mafias, battling out that has the bigger farm or rather who can beat up more people and become the mafia of Facebook. Sigh. I plead guilty to have tried atleast one of them. But, it was never like I was addicted to them. I know quite a few people for who these games are life. Missing one session is like a panic attack, further more these games give the player and opportunity to publish the achievements on the homepage and wall. So the once meaningful wall is bombarded with annoying, irritating and unnecessary information.

After all this blabbing I might look like I am a retard who is against social networking. But, that is not the case. I am active on Facebook myself and find a it a great medium to exchange thoughts, catch up with old friends or just showcase some recently taken photographs, on my Photography page. Even in social networking there is a fine tuned line between sharing your private moments to sharing your thoughts. Your friends might put humorous posts but eventually it will all wear out. And do you really want your potential future employer to do a background check and discovering your status as to which colour bra or underwear you’re wearing today?

Canon 50mm f/1.8

Yeah so finally got my hands on a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8! I know most would say it isn't the best etc, but then again it is the cheapest available lens. Reasons for it to be this fucking cheap is because this lens is one of the most trusted EF lens manufactured by Canon and is also totally made of plastic... at least the body and ring.

Should do me justice in gigs...where good lighting is an issue. Dying to take it out on the streets and to a good gig.

Will post results soon.

Photography- One year of me doing some music photography

 I don’t really know when photography came to me. For what I remember, the first photo I ever clicked… was well something you don't want to see. But last year when I finally started off on this journey. People have been telling me for years that am good. But I never quite paid heed to it. Maybe capturing some few people standing together and few mountains is amazing talent to them.

Last year on 3^rd October I got my first D-SLR. Nothing too fancy, but a decent thing with good features. A Canon to be precise. Practically new to this new fancy gadget and photography, I took it upon myself to click whatever was in front of me. Rahul Lal, a friend and a fellow photography enthusiast asked if I’d be interested to click his then band Prestorika play live. That conversation was something that opened doors for me. (And um Rahul, remember the convo right? Especially about the ‘green room’?)

The first gig I clicked was on 8^th Feburary, 2010. Mrigya’s debut album ‘The Composition of World Harmony’ gig. After putting in almost two days of research and study into music photography, I was still uncertain and apprehensive about it. Karan’s (Karan Sharma is the guitarist for Mrigya) fate was something that gave me enough confidence that I could do it well. There not only did I meet Abhijeet Singh Chauhan, a marvelous photographer who taught me more about my own camera and settings, but I also did manage to do a decent job.

Time and month’s passed. Time after time I’d go to a gig with an all access opportunity and click the bands. A fantastic opportunity to not only click, but also listen to the music you love.

Nitin Malik another person I should thank. Being embarrassing low on money I asked if I could click his band play live at Modern School, Vasant Vihar. The man not only did get me in for free, but also asked me to approach whenever I wanted to click Parikrama, he’d ensure I have no problems on my quest.

Now one year down the line, I see it as an amazing year. Amazing year in which I have met new people, and learnt a lot. Not only have I learnt a lot but also met some fantastic people who have helped me and taught me without whom half it won’t have been possible.

Even though I am not the best, I am doing what I like, that is the most important thing after all. With just a year, and many more to come, I hope to excel and be one of the most recognized people around.

Happy one year to Maanas Singh Photography. And thanks to who all supported me. Especially to all the bands that let me in for free and troll around on the stage when they played. And really special thanks to Disha Singh, who is the most supportive girl friend ever :D, Soumil Nigam (no he is not my manager, he uses that term for free entry in events and to take a share of my earnings), and also tome mum. Not to be forgotten the ones who have always tried to demoralize me. Without you lot I won’t be here. Head below for few snaps, and let me know what you think.

Karan Sharma of Mrigya

IP Singh of Faridkot

Rohan Kale, Cyanide

Kali Yuga

Parikrama live at Modern School VV

Chintan Kalra of Parikrama

Chintan Kalra of Parikrama

Simple Harmonic Motion

If you want to book me head here and to view more go here.

Till next time…

I know what my eyes want to see!

Being an avid gamer, I have grown up playing games through out my life. From the time I used to Lead Mario on his adventures to today’s Price of Persia. We all play what we like, and choose to. But not really…

Sex is a natural phenomenon that pretty much every human on the planet enjoys. But alas, mere mention of the word sends shudder down some convention and also hypocritical people’s spine. So you can imagine how these people react when sexual content is shoved into games. I don’t know if most of you remember the Mass Effect incident where the news channels blew the issue way out of proportion and showed their ignorance when the game was compared to pornography.

What most of these hypocrites forget is that this game is made especially for adults. That’s why they come with M rating (which if you don’t know means Mature Rating)

What irritates me the most is these people have to play adults and tell me what’s wrong or right. Who the hell died to make you my parents? Thanks but no thanks. I guess am old enough to decide what is good for my eyes. In that respect I really do admire BioWare for not shying away from this topic (Fuck you Hypocrites!) and inserting it in their latest games, from Mass Effect 2 to Dragon Age. And if you don’t know BioWare is widely known for their characters you can connect with. Nothing in the previous games should be blown out of proportions. But games like rape simulators…really cross the limit.

I don’t know how many of you know about this Japanese game that came out few years back. It was called Rapeplay or some shit like that. Apparently you had to rape the mother and the daughter from the first person’s point of view. I really do not know who is sick in the mind, the developers or the consumer who bought it.

My point is that today’s games are developed far more than killing just few x number of bad guys/zombies/aliens etc. Unless you shy away from sex in your real life, I see no point why one should throw a fit over sexual content in the video games.

How many of you have literally wanted to shoot people on their face? How many of you did not think about killing innocent pedestrians on the streets in the games? I don’t know about you, but for me taking someone’s life is a far more heinous crime than having sex. Think about next time you boo a game for wearing its sexual content proudly on its sleeve. A fact in life you are and offspring and well…humans reproduce sexually. So you get my point right?

I have eyes and I know what I want to see.

Nirvana

Like a bird you fly,
Wingless...still high.
As the colour of the sky vanishes,
Sucked back into the vacuum.

Pain, Cold, Heat.

The colours of the painting,
Drip down the wall,
Your blood...crimson no more,
These open wounds ache,
No more.

Then you realize the Nirvana fading,
You know the truth,
Pain it still hurts, world is not full of colours,
Nor is life.

As my Nirvana fades,
I reach for the man made compounds,
Slowly it kills,
My soul knows not.

In the end,
I fly again,
Soaring higher than the birds,
But this time,
Without my wings...

DemRockritic India's September Issue

Yeah am back...

After DemRock's first issue launch in August, we are back with another. Been few tiring few weeks. But nevertheless, fun. We worked our ass off and wrote things etc. Fun. But now the anticipation begins of what the aam janta (mango people) will think about it. Though we haven't had that many hits till now all morning, we can expect it to do better. Anyway yeah it's a good thing. I mean I wrote an article right? So am all happy. anyway yeah. I need followers.

Till next time.

Also here's the link for the september issue.DemRockritic

Welcome

Yeah well...this is it. I'm here, my first time. Though I have absolutely no idea about blogging, am going to still do it. Perhaps, crazy? No, I just have too much time on my hands. So well yeah, if you're reading this...then welcome and please visit again. I will scribble more stuff here. Should be interesting, at least i hope so.

Namaste.

One more thing, Hitler is dead, and snow white was a slut who lived with seven men.
Cheers.