Gagandeep Singh

Light Painting

2011-06-21T04:15:00.000-04:00

This post has been pending from a long time. Finally, trying to to sum this up. Last year tried a hand at Light Painting. Well, first a little about what is Light Painting.

Light Painting is a photographic technique practiced in a dark location using a low shutter speed and moving a hand-held light source while keeping the camera at one place. The results are quiet unique and only your imagination is the limit. Not many people interested in photography try out this technique, but I got pretty fascinated by this.

I just tried some basic shots, but have a few in my mind that I did not try yet. The following one I took last year in a dark room, using a small candle as a light source, keeping a camera (Sony DCS-HX1) at a suitable location with a shutter speed of 10 seconds.

For those new to photography, shutter speed of 10 seconds basically means that the camera will take 10 seconds to capture the shot. That buys you time to capture the movement of the light source and make unique figures in the air. Do you need to be good at drawing? Not really, but you need a stable hand and a focused mind. If you try, make sure you don't burn your hand! :)

How IPL will be in 2016

2010-04-14T11:17:00.002-04:00

Came across this, so thought of sharing!

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As Napoleon Nayudu prepared to face another ball, several thoughts raced through his mind. After being bought by the Gummidipoondi Gumboils for an astronomical $5 million in the 2015 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, he knew he had a reputation to keep up. Should he try a straightforward Toyota Front Foot Drive this time, or should he aim for a Bombay Dyeing Cover Drive? Or perhaps an ITC Square Cut (Statutory warning: Smoking is Injurious to Health) would be a better idea? He realised he needed to hit an IBM boundary soon. Ever since IBM had announced they would pay Rs 1 lakh per boundary and Rs 5 lakh for a six, he had been trying to run less and hit more. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been doing either in this match, because the Begusarai Bandits had some very good bowlers. The next ball, he played a Pepsi Inside Edge onto his Maggi middle stump and trudged wearily off the field to the accompaniment of boos from the Vodafone Zoozoo stand at the Kellogg’s Special K-Cereal stadium in Gummidipoondi.

Relaxing in the Parle Glucose commentary box, Saurav Ganguly ruminated on the momentous changes in the game that had occurred since the IPL came into being. In 2010, he remembered, the game started to really grow, with huge sums of money being paid for the Pune and Kochi teams. Teams soon started springing up like frogs in the monsoon. And when the Gorakhpur Gorillas won the IPL in 2012, every district town in the country wanted its own side.

The IPL season was extended to six months in the year, then to 12 months and soon, once the villages started having their own sides, you had matches on all 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Industrialists sold off their old companies and bought IPL teams. Twenty five of the 30 Sensex stocks were of cricketing companies. Advertisers fought with each other to sponsor matches, stadiums, sixes, fours, shots, balls, wickets and what not. Every patch of the players’ clothing, his arm guard, helmet, and pads was covered in advertisements. Tendulkar Itch Guard Crotch Guards started a new trend in merchandising, selling like hot cakes.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Lalit Modi mooted a radical proposal in the Lok Sabha for nationalising the Board of Control for Cricket in India, pointing out that its profits would wipe out the government’s fiscal deficit. Food production had suffered, he said, as villagers refused to till their fields and spent their time playing cricket instead. A law prohibiting the transformation of arable land into cricket pitches was swiftly passed. A resolution to install a statue of Lalit Modi in Parliament was also adopted unanimously.

As the money flowed in, players’ salaries zoomed. Everybody wanted to be a cricketer. Engineering and medical colleges were deserted and Indian Institutes of Management converted themselves into institutes of cricketing management. C.K. Prahalad lectured on the pot of gold at the bottom of the leg stump. Back in the commentary box, Ganguly did a rapid mental calculation and told his listeners that Napoleon was now being paid the equivalent of Rs 10 lakh per run. A twinge of regret passed through him — during the IPL season in 2010, he recalled, he had been paid only about Rs 1.8 lakh per run. He needed to make more money, he thought. Maybe he would join Navjot Sidhu in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and be paid lakhs for laughing. For the rest of the match, he practised laughing hysterically at each ball.
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My Own Quotes

2010-01-22T19:34:00.010-05:00

I like quotations becuase they essentially represent the essence of your understanding on a subject objectively.
Just as a picture substitutes a thousand words, quotation substitutes perhaps five hundred :-)

As of now, I have been able to come up with the following. I'll keep adding them here, as quotes get unquoted to me :-)

--------------------*****---------------------*****--------------------
"Ignorance is Bliss, but it is short-lived and comes with its own "price" tag."

"The point is not to find a point in Living but make Living a point."

"Challenge Everything before making it a Belief."

"To know what to unlearn is the biggest learning."

"Living in Reality is more beautiful than Living in Fantasy."

"Neither Belief nor Disbelief is a substitute for Understanding."

"God entertains only those prayers that you treat as a promise to yourself and work towards making it a reality."

--------------------*****---------------------*****--------------------

Avatar - An Imax 3D Experience

2009-12-18T21:24:00.005-05:00

As they say in Avatar, you got to write the log when the memory is fresh, so let the dice roll :-)

For this one, I will let my Avatar ask me questions! :-)

How many stars?
5/5

Is the story line solid?
Rock Solid.

Have you seen the story before in another movie?
In bits and pieces yes, but the Rock is still solid.

Howz the Screenplay?
Couldn't have been better. Every scene is as rich as it gets in every way.

Is Pandora more beautiful than the Earth?
By Far :-)

Do the characters feel animated, unreal?
They feel as real as humans and far better than them :-)

Does Terminator, Titanic, Matrix fall short?
Absolutely!

Is this the best movie ever you ever watched?
With complete 3D experience added, Yes.

Should James Cameron feel proud of himself?
I am feeling I have achieved something in Life just by watching the movie, I can't begin to imagine how James Cameron would be cherishing the sense of achievement?

What do think of James Cameron?
That’s what I call a soul realized!!

Bottom-line?
If you didn't watch the movie yet, what are you waiting for? Just Go the heck for it and make sure you get an IMAX 3D experience. Cheers :-)

First Venture into Digital Photography

2009-12-04T14:59:00.004-05:00

Finally after lot of research on digital cameras and camcorders, I bought Sony DSC-HX1, a 9.1 MP digital camera with HD Recording. Its what they call a Bridge Camera, bridge between point and shoot digital cameras and DSLRs.

Took some initial testing shots from it, some of them came out very good, esp. a close up autumn leaves shot and a Full Moon shot.

I really am loving my first experience with manual controls of a digital camera. Other than impressive Intelli Auto mode, it has a full manual mode, priority shutter mode and priority aperture mode. These modes give you complete control over the exposure triangle - ISO (125-3200), Aperture f (2.8-8) and Shutter Speed (30 seconds - 1/4000 sec).

The above controls allow you take some really nice photographs, which a normal digital camera or even a naked eye can't see. I am loving playing with low ISOs and slow shutter speeds.

I am encouraged to venture out now to take some more beautiful pictures. London Trip is coming up in 3 Weeks. Hopefully that will give me some opportunity to click some intresting shots.

Other than that, I have a few intresting shots in mind using very low and very high shutter speeds, which I will try out in coming days.

First step into manual digital photography, HX1 building the bridge just right. Cheers :-)

What the hell is Australian youth up to?

2009-09-17T12:17:00.008-04:00

Sharing the conversation I had with my friends on Facebook.
The conversation is as is, except spelling corrections.

Gagandeep Singh:
What the hell is Australian youth up to?
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/three-indians-brutally-attacked-by-70-aus-youths/517308/
Nandini Rao: Severe punishments to such attackers should hopefully solve this problem
Gagandeep Singh: Yes, Punishment is definitely a must. What shocks me is the fact that "70 young people" acting with racist mindset openly in a developed country. It’s a matter of shame for the entire Australian people and administration.
Nandini Rao: It definitely is a shame but I was thinking what the government can do to change the mindset of some handful of people. These are youth, kids in their teens which have a preset opinion about certain community/communities. These kids need self realization.
The government can only impose punishments to control/stop some mishaps.
Just when you thought that everything was over new incidents started to happen. It is such bad elements in the world that have caused unrest everywhere.
Gagandeep Singh: Actually, I am not as much surprised at the government being unable to act, as I am at the youth having this mindset. The bigger question is from where they are getting this mindset, and what circumstances and which people are the real culprits?
Gurdas Singh Sandhu: Australians attacking Indians = Maharashtrians attacking Biharis
Powered by ignorance, selfishness, and greed.
Anand Nair: I think it is "Harden the Fuck up, Australia" effect.
Now its should be "Harden the fuck up, India" for payback
Gagandeep Singh: @ Anand :-)
Gurdas, Maharashtrians in general (the youth say) did not turn against Biharis. It was illiterate & unemployed people, and Shiv Sena workers exploited for political reasons by Raj Thackrey, MNS.
I have lived in Maharashtra for 6 years, and never saw similar racist youth mentality shown by Australian youth here. Wanna know what’s the real story there...
May be our NRI Australian Friends can comment?
Gurdas Singh Sandhu: Gagan: I accept there is a difference in the profile of the people between Australia and Maharashtra, but the most basic underlying emotions are the same: scorn for the immigrant, ignorance, and selfishness. Education does not help much to fight these factors. I know that when I hear highly educated Americans speak with anger about immigrants taking the better jobs in USA.
There could also be the angle that Australian hooligans are looking for punching bags!
Gagandeep Singh: Yes, the reasons are the same for the attacks mostly being are scorn for the immigrant, but I think scorn for the immigrant is the just the effect, and not the cause. After all, we are not the only immigrants in Australia. Why Chinese, for instance, are not attacked? I think there could be multiple subtle reasons for us being the specific targets:
1. Indians being in the spotlight for being prosperous, while global economy slowing down and it’s just a "Jews" effect. People become jealous of the prosperous people.
2. Indians being scattered in Australia may not have well formed societies in general to show their strengths in form of protests and are thus becoming soft targets. When the opponent senses the weakness, he attacks with more aggression.
Sarfaraz Ahmed: I am also unclear about the fact why only we are being targeted so far?? I thing there some thing else other than what media is trying to broadcast.
Gurdas Singh Sandhu: Gagan: very valid points.
Why not the Chinese? Obviously because they do not play cricket!
Gagandeep Singh: Sarfaraz, yup there might be, which I wanna know.
Gurdas, :-), I think may be because they know the Kung Fu and they have goddamn China town in every town... hahaha..
Ravi Sahi: I would go back to that pool game:) ...eye for an eye man..and I don't give rats behind if Australia goes blind
Gagandeep Singh: Ravi, I think Australia is already blind or rather deaf. How about those old NRIs there who are giving a damn about this... and are rather claiming that new youngsters from India are more aggressive, which to me, basically means that all they are trying to say is that Indians should take the racist remarks as they did and do not react.. Bull! -
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?a=jgjjEiibdha&title=Many_NRIs_blame_it_on_Indian_students&tag=Student
Ravi Sahi: got a message for them too "don't ever start a fight but always finish it" :)
Gagandeep Singh: Well said Ravi! If the involved parties don't mind, I would like to share this conversation on my Blog to share our thoughts with (supposedly) wider audience?
Gurdas Singh Sandhu: Go ahead.
... this idea sounds familiar :-)
Gagandeep Singh: Well, thanks to you Gurdas of course for the idea :-) Assuming everyone is fine with that. If not please let me know.

Out of the above conversation, as an ending note, I would like to mention I conceptually but not in methodology agree with Farrukh Dhondy on his appeal to India to rise against this menace, but I would say the method rather should be in form of strong protests by Indians i.e. other than political, diplomatic and goverment efforts, which needs to be geared up.

OSHO VS EINSTEIN

2009-09-11T12:27:00.008-04:00

Recently I happened to be reading Einstein's Ideas and Opinions and OSHO's God's Got A Thing About You simultaneously!
On the outset, they look two unique and completely different individuals. One, who totally went inwards and other, who totally went outwards.

I was pleasantly surprised to read Einstein's thought on GOD and Religion. It was a refreshing change to know all this about Einstein. He was not a follower of set traditions of a religion (neither was OSHO!). Actually, in that sense, he did not believe in GOD, as a being who rewards the just and punishes the unjust. He did not believe in Religion of fear (from GOD). He believed morality is totally human affair, and there is nothing divine about it.

Einstein - At the highest level of religious experience, is a cosmic religious feeling. An Individual existence impresses an individual as sort of a prison and he wants to feel the experience of the universe as a whole. Most religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling; which knows no dogma and no GOD conceived in man's image. In my view, it is most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.

Per OSHO, GOD is the inner core of you. The moment the ego dies, God is born in you. GOD is Love. The whole art of knowing God or of knowing oneself is the art of standing outside one's mind, of watching the thoughts passing by, the fantasies, the desires, imagination, memories, and projections. God is not known, has never been known, will never be known. God cannot be reduced to knowledge -- God remains love.

In this the two think similarly, both talk about spiritual development.
Einstein - The satisfaction of physical needs is indeed the indispensible precondition of a satisfactory existence, but it itself is not enough. In order to be content, men must also have the possibility of developing their intellectual and artistic powers to whatever extent accords with their personal characteristics and abilities. This is what he also calls spiritual development of the individuals.

OSHO too talks about self-development through meditation, through spiritualism, though he has come up with various meditation techniques to find your inner self, to find your creativity and be lovable and love the mankind and universe in general. OSHO also does not deny the physical aspect of being too. Per him, that has to be enjoyed too to make your existence whole.

In a nutshell, there are obvious differences between the two, but it was interesting to know these subtle resemblances between the two.