Sandhi Pujo | Durga Puja 2009

Sandhi Puja is an important ritual performed during Durga Puja. It is performed at the juncture of Ashtami and Navami. It is believed that Goddess Chamunda emerged at this moment to kill Chando and Mundo, the two generals of the demon king Mahishasur. 

Some pictures of the Sandhi Pujo at the New Alipore Association . . .

At the start of the Pujo

Crowding to light the 108 lamps

Lighting the lamps

Ma lighting the lamps

Another view

Close up of the lamp

Sandhi Pujo in progress

Nikon D200; Nikon 18-70 f3.5-4.5 handheld

Durga Puja 2009 in Calcutta

A very traditional puja in New Alipore organized by the New Alipore Association.

Saptami evening

Close up

Horse drawn carriages for the old-world feel of moving between pandals

Nikon D200; Nikon 18-70 F3.5-4.5

Day trip to Fanateer

We took advantage of a Friday holiday to visit the Royal Commission Area (commonly called Fanateer) and to visit a colleague and generally drive around.

Nakheel beach. … deserted in the late morning. Temperature was hovering in the low 40 Cs.

Driving away from Nakheel Beach

Fanateer

You can see SABIC Building in the background.

Fanateer Mall and a view of the locality.
Fanateer Mall happens to be one of the most upmarket malls in Al-Jubail

The Marina

Another view of the Marina. The boat restaurant is visible in the distance.

Another view

The boat restaurant

 The Fanateer Mall

Interesting architecture

SABIC Building in Fanateer

A new block of flats in the Fanateer area

En-route to our colleagues residence

Not the Hollywood Boulevard
.. but one of the access roads in the Royal Commission Area

On the way out of Fanateer Mall post lunch

Another view

The Fanateer Mall car park

Nikon D200 & Nikon 18-55 lens

Trip to Al-Khobar

The Bongyo Samaj, Eastern Province (Saudi Arabia) had organized a Nobo Borsho cum Rabindra Jayanti Programme at Al-Khobar, 140 km from Jubail.

It was an interesting programme with performances by members and their children. About 200 plus Bengalis attended the programme. The programme started at 5.00 PM was followed by an Indian dinner and we came back at 1.15 AM.

En route to Khobar... somewhere along the Jubail-Dammam highway

Khobar
The design of the building is a copy of a similar building I saw in Beijing... could be the same architect

Another interesting looking building
.

Nobo Borsho programme . . . a dance recital
.

"Bhushundir Math" a play by the Jubail contingent

Flowers

A couple of pictures taken on the recent trip home.

Both the compositions looked interesting.

Taken with the 18-55mm Nikon lens as I was too lazy to pull out the macro to shoot the flowers.

Click on the pictures to see the larger image.

Nikon D200 18-55 mm Nikon

Ringo (@ 9 months)

Ringo is growing up fast. At 9 months, he is a 28 kilo puppy. Loves to fool around and get in everybody's way and manages to nick anything that one accidentally drops.

What are you trying to do???

Seriously busy chewing a thick twig that he has managed to get hold of..

I was reading a blog called http://riviera-dogs.blogspot.com/ and its main site http://www.pensionmilou.com/ and came across these interesting quotes:

One reason a dog is such a lovable creature is his tail wags instead of his tongue.
~ Author Unknown

All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers, is contained in the dog.
~ Franz Kafka

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.
~ Bern Williams


Nikon D200 18-55mm Nikon

Home and away

Just a series of interesting pictures taken during my trip home. I had hoped that my next seat would be occupied by someone whom I could chat up with during the long flight.

But that was not to be. It was an office boy on his annual leave from Muscat to Delhi via Bahrain, traveling on his company paid ticket. Nice chap but not one whom you could carry out intelligent conversation.

The Spicejet flight from Delhi to Kolkata was worse. The flight had less than 50% occupancy and as a result, my next 5 seats were empty. So, I did what I could … clicked away and then plugged in my ipod and fell asleep helped by couple of rounds of Smirnoff.

Business end of Bahrain Airport - 12.10 AM

  Descending into New Delhi Airport... about 5.30 AM

Spicejet 9.35 AM shuttle from Delhi to Calcutta

The cloud cover was there from Delhi to about 150 km from Calcutta.

No pictures of the drive home from the airport. Jubail was 18 C when I left and it was a blazing 37 C in Calcutta. It was like a heat shock.

It was more or less the same case on my way back . . . The chap had his fill of scotch and promptly fell of to sleep . . .

Flying out of Mumbai on my way back to Bahrain

Over the Arabian Sea, with the sun setting

Cruising @ 37,000 ft . . . about 2 hours out of Mumbai

Nikon D200 | Nikon 18-55mm