And then there are CAPTCHAs that just want to mock you, like the one blogger so affectionately threw at me this morning:

Since CAPTCHAs cannot be read by screen readers, a lot of sites also include an audio version of the CAPTCHA. I hadn’t heard one till recently (I happened to click on the accessibility icon accidentally), but what I heard was stuff of nightmares! Turn down your speakers a bit this stuff is not pleasant:

Obviously, the intent here is to stop sound recognition programs in their tracks by introducing a lot of background noise. The overall effect however brings images of prisons, misery and torture to one’s mind. (Or may be I watched one war movie too many this year!)

And then there is this minor matter of spammers with an army of CAPTCHA cracking humans at their disposal. Or may be that explains why CAPTCHAs are becoming increasingly painful even for legitimate users.

A random collection of electricity poles, wires, transformers and such. I think that they are the most common form of visual noise in urban India. I usually hate them for ruining my shots but this time they are the shots. We are now even.

p.s. The moment I published this post, I had a power cut. I am trying not to read too much into it.

Here’s wishing everyone a very happy and prosperous Deepawali 2008!

Rant etc: The picture was taken 2 years ago at an HDFC branch near my house. I wasn’t around at Bangalore to inspect the decor last year, but it looks like that this year the Diwali decorations are a lot more muted - which is not unnatural; considering what the financial world in general and banks in particular are going through. I for one am trying to be indifferent. If I were to distill my life’s learning (so far) into one sentence, it’d be this - things in this world are rarely as good or bad as they seem!

Subodh Gupta - Is an Indian artist who is going places these days. He creates very peculiar art and steel utensils are an important motif across most of his works. Be it his installations, like “Very Hungry God” - a huge skull made entirely of stainless steel cooking vessels (thereby giving the installation a somewhat literal bend), or his photorealistic paintings of everyday steel utensils.

Photo: Marc Domage, via Saatchi Online

via The Saatchi Gallery

Brooke Waggoner - Most music that is churned out these days has very little shelf life - most songs grow on you within one listening but then their charm begins to wear off. Within a month you begin to wonder how you ever liked that particular track. Gone also are the days when you’d pick an album and like every single track in it.

So I approach the free tracks that iTunes gives away each Tuesday with very little expectation. Yet, when I heard Brooke Waggoner’s ‘Young Friend’ I knew I had stumbled upon something different.

Her music is a fairly unique sounding blend of folk, pop and country and hasn’t lost it’s freshness after a month of repeated listening. But don’t take my word for it. Her site is giving away her first EP free. Get it from brookewaggonermusic.com.

Filminute: The International One-Minute Film Festival showcases one minute long ‘films’. My attention span isn’t quite that bad yet, but it is indeed a very interesting limitation that has led to some very creative ‘films’, including a couple from India. Do check out ‘Rahim Murge Pe Mat Ro’ (don’t if you are the squeamish sorts). Bonus points if you can identify the background track.

Via Gaurav.

Seemed to say these leaves. Taken in late April at Coorg last year. The summer had been hot and the rains had proven to be temperamental. No wonder the plants and the trees were calling out for a little love!

London on a summer day. If you are lucky, a bit of blue will show through the clouds and with some more luck, it’ll continue to be visible for the rest of the day.

In the clear-speckless-blue sky department, Brighton is something else altogether. My 50 mm lens wouldn’t permit me a wide enough view of the pier signboard, so I settled for a pie in the sky.

Although the picture was originally taken in color, I think I knew that it would end up as a toned, black and white. Come to think of it, it goes with the current blog template eh?

Our home-stay at Coorg had a small covered area in their lawn. Besides the hammock and a scenic view that the spot presented, I was fascinated by the roof that covered it. The way the light fell, the geometric pattern of tiles, the overall symmetry, all added up to make the roof eminently photographable. I got on my knees, pointed the camera at the exact center of the roof and clicked a few shots. It then occurred to me that I was sitting exactly the way Arjuna was depicted in our school textbooks as he shot a golden fish (mounted on a wheel spinning on a pole) in its eye while looking at its reflection in a pool of oil below. I said something to the effect of, how, if I were to arrange such an archery contest, it would involve cameras and fish-eye lenses rather than the fish’s eye. That got me a very special look from my wife - one that she reserves for my exceptionally sordid jokes, and I knew that I did not have to take the analogy any further. Ah, well - I present to you - ze roof.

I learnt that some things can be pretty, gaudy and pretty gaudy all at the same time. Clearly, it is something that does not happen in India alone.

..or in the wake of the latest Microsoft advertisements - “I am a Mac, and we are the PCs”.

p.s. From a trip to Nandi Hills in April.