Amit Gupte

Puzzle level #1

2011-04-17T22:37:00.001+05:30

Aditya attempts this one more consistently now.

Androidify...

2011-04-14T23:21:00.001+05:30

Test post from android... Some of the must have apps on android..

1. Advanced task killer
2. Avg anti virus
3. Angry birds
4. Google maps
5. Google skymap
6. Es explorer
7. Dolphin hd browser
8. Espn cricinfo app
9. Latitude
10. Facebook, twitter default apps

Beat the heat ...

2010-05-14T18:48:00.005+05:30

Officially speaking, this is the first summer that Adi can feel. And rest assured, he doesn't like it a bit. The side effect of this is his addiction to water. ..

His day begins with a thought of having a dip in his mini-bath tub... He becomes uncontrollable when someone refuses him anything related to water. Be it a glass of water or a bucket full. There are times when we give control of the water tube in the garden. And I think that is only non-preemptive thing Adi can do yet.

Its quite a fun watching him play around with his bath tub. Following are some of the images that we tried to take while he was enjoying one of his water sessions: Picasa-Album: Aditya-Rain

This day, that year - Part2

2010-05-03T16:49:00.003+05:30

Messed up the sequence during weekend... catching up

1st May 2006, My residence.

Uncle arrived with Aunty and Anita. Coincidently, my "elder" cousin, who was to get couple of weeks later was visiting us. To be accurate, it was 20th May 2006.

Dad to uncle: Hello. Welcome... Pleasure to meet you.

Uncle: Hello. Perhaps not the best way to meet for the first time, but nevertheless we were destined to meet :)

[Both Anita and me were trying to adjust to the situation, but nervousness never let us do that]

After some more exchange of greetings, they arrived on the point.

Dad: In my opinion, we should try to resolve the resolve the strong opposition that we are facing at the moment.

Uncle: Yes that should be the best way. But I have tried to do so. And I am pretty sure, things won't change. Also, the situation seems to be grim, as the search of grooms for Anita has begun in full swing.

Dad: Oh is that the case? At the moment there are only two families involved here. But in case, things get rolling from the other side, and Anita's engagement is fixed with someone else, there could be a third family involved too..

Uncle: If things go too far in that direction, we would end up in larger problems.

[Both of us realized that things by all means are now out of our control. But so far things were falling in place for us. So both kept mum]

Uncle: Since both of us are now firm that things need to proceed quickly, I can take lead from Anita's side. I will take care of the issues that might arise later.

Dad: That sounds good. Now in that case, if we have to do it and do it ourselves... why even wait for more time. We have a wedding in our family scheduled on 20th May. So dates from 15May till 22nd May aren't feasible, as the entire family heads to Mumbai then. Post 22nd May would be quite late looking the scenario.

Uncle: Yes, 20 odd days is a difficult task for me to hold on the situation.

Dad: Ok ... lets take something earlier ....

[Both of us were stunned ... these were signs that we get married two weeks later. My cousin looked at me. I could understand his expression: "Boss I am two yrs elder to you ... and I was scheduled to get married before you... wtf is happening here :D"]

Dad: Ok, let me call a friend of mine, who is a Pandit. Let me ask for a good date.

[Both of us are numb, by now]

Dad: Ok, he says he will get back to me in some time. But tentatively it is going to be 3-4 days from today. Are you OK with the dates?

Uncle: 5\6 May?

[Both of us: WTF!!!]

Dad: Yes.

Uncle: That is aggressive, but the situation demands that. Lets do it.

Dad: OK, done. I dont think we should waste time for Wedding hall or anything of that sort. We will have the wedding at our residence. I will manage everything here.... you just be here!!

Uncle: Meanwhile, I'll ensure that this is a secret project. Also, I have some tasks to wrap from office. As soon as I am done, I shall join you in the preparations]

[By this time, everyone is zapped by the outcome of the discussion]

Finally ... someone cared to ask us if this schedule was OK with us...

Anita: Uh .... well ... ya...this is OK!

Amit: ..................

Further that week was just beyond words ...

We got married on 6th May (Which is exactly the date today).

Wedding time was 1750 ... (Which is exactly when I am going to publish this blog)

Happy Anniversary Biwi!!

This day, that year - Part1

2010-04-30T11:42:00.006+05:30

This day, that year - Part1

[This is a short description of Day 1. This day marked the beginning of the most unbelievable week so far in of our lives... And I am sure... this week is just going to be at the top of the list forever]

30 April 2006,

Location: somewhere on FC road...

Anita: my uncle is coming to Pune in the evening. He wants to meet you.

Amit: Sure ... what time?

Anita: 1930, Savera.

Amit: Right ... I'll be prepared :P

1930, Savera

Amit: Hello Uncle. How are you doing?

Uncle: Great! Good to meet you.

Amit: Anita might have briefed you already, but let me reiterate. We have known each other for about two and half years now. We intend to marry each other, but due to family opposition we aren't able to proceed further. The pressure keeps on mounting and the fear of losing each other grips all the time. The situation is ending up in a deadlock, and things might just go against our wish. So I seek some advice from you.

Uncle: The road ahead isn't going to be easy. You are aware of the consequences, aren't you? Are you prepared for all the chaos before and after?

Amit: Oh yes ... Completely. We are prepared. Just a final push is needed.

Uncle: In that case, I would like to meet your parents.

Amit: Certainly, let me just call up home and confirm.... OK tomorrow 1900 suits?

Uncle: Yes, we'll be there..

Amit: This is the first time we have met. Do you plan to discuss anything specific with me or my parents?

Uncle: As of now, since you both are ready for the action, let us see how we can take further steps. I just want to meet your parents first and make them aware of the consequences too. If they are fine with it, then there is a point to discuss what is to be done...

Amit: Sure. Then lets meet tomorrow at 1900, my residence.

[...to be continued]

Homemade photography

2010-02-23T13:12:00.002+05:30

Off late I haven't been able to do ample photo shoots. I am trying not let my photography instinct die with time. So once in a while I pop up my camera and try some stunts with readily available subjects. Invariably these are Aditya's toys, since they the most colorful stuff at home. After a couple of shots like these, I am now trying to explore more and more of home subjects that can give pleasing frames. I am trying with anything an everything. Lets see what comes out of these attempts. I'll keep updating...

New arrivals...

2010-02-08T14:25:00.006+05:30

There have been a lot of types of entertainment devices coming home for Mr. Aditya. But this weekend we ended up getting some live entertainers at home. These aquatic creatures are such a pleasure to watch. I don;t really remember thier ID's but they seem goldfish by the appearance. They are 2 pairs of different species, are quite tiny. Aditya seems to like them as yet. Hopefully his interest remains for some time.

Hello 2010

2009-12-31T10:16:00.005+05:30

Before I think about things 2009 brought... let me revisit my 2008 wishlist:

1) Baby

2) EOS 40D

Well both the wishes came through within the first 3 weeks of 2009. And there on, I've been totally occupied with either #1 or #2 :) I am sure Anita hates my occupancy with #2!! So the rest of the post is going to be bragging about the two new things in my life.

All I can remember in 2009 is the night of 13th January. That was the day Anita felt contractions and we admitted to KEM. After that point whatever happened was just out of the world expereince. At 1245 on January 14th the doctor told me that we were blessed with a baby boy. It was the best thing in my life (leave 2009 apart) to hold the new born Adi minutes after he came to existence. Thrilling to its core...

Since that day...time has flown ... The first couple of months were full of confusion about how to handle the baby. But slowly we both settled on our parenting roles and Adi settled as an individual in our family. There were times of commotion when Adi was unwell, but with gods grace, we saw it through. Now that Adi is growwing fast, it fun all over the place.

Professionally, 2009 was full of pressures ... thanks to the global recession. Work has been interesting and quite rewarding in terms of learning experience. Thoroughly enjoyed working on big ticket items for huge clients. Working under these pressure situtation has helped me grow as a mature professional and I feel a considerable upgrade from what I was last year :)

But the spot light of the year in office was the intra department Cricket tournament.. THE SPL. I played cricket after about 3 years, and man... it was fun. It took a long time to realize that even if your body is able to give 80%... your brain is not able to handle the emotions on the field. Temprament has gone down the drain. Despite of many oppurtunities, lack of temprament led to fatal errors, costing our team a spot in the Quater Finals. Nevertheless, it was the best team bonding effort ever made in our company.

Photography has been going steady, learning has been immaculate. Nov 2009, we (Photographers@Pune) hosted a photo exhibition, "Drushtikon 2009", featuring works of over 55 photographers. It was a total hit, and we saw over 7000 visitors in the 3 days of the exhibition. The overwhelming appreciation has kept our morals high to host Drushtikon 2010!

All in all... a good year, ofcourse with an addition of a new car (Indigo GLS) in the family, and a couple trips to Goa, Diveagar, Sangli, Mumbai made it more exciting.

Hoping the new year to be as enticing as this one has been. Happy New Year Folks.. Wish you the best in 2010!

DiveAgar - and again...

2009-12-29T17:24:00.009+05:30

I have been to Dive-Agar time and again. The place never seems boring. I still remember the first time when we went there... way back in 2002. It was a coastal village, untouched by tourism devils and one could get the feel of true Kokan.

Since then there have been many developments happening. But doesn't matter, who cares if you get to eat the best fish ever!! As Pratik says, "CONSISTENCY is a word that POTNIS and BAPAT (from DIVEAGAR) should patent!"... For the past 8 years we've been relishing the same quality of sea food!

This time round there were a couple of interesting incidents that made me think beyond the food :) ...

For our journey from Pune, we had taken along some bread for sandwiches. And as expected we weren't able to finish the entire loaf. When we reached our rooms, there was a very cute calf tied close by. We were tempted to feed it with the left over bread. But to confirm, we asked its care taker if we can actually do that. We assured the care taker that the bread was fresh. To which he replied, "Saheb, bread taja asel tar me pan khau shakto." After realizing what just happened, we handed over the bread to him and left the place.

In the evening, while I was walking along the streets, I saw a small kid (about 6yrs old) trying to play cricket with a stick. Just for the heck of it, I offered to bowl. And to my surprise he connected all the 8-10 balls that I bowled with the stick. I agree I am not a great bowler, but connecting accurately with a 100% strike rate was something commendable for me. Real talent for sure...

Later in the night, I overheard a couple of local boys discussing their new year eve plan. Four-five of them together had contributed 70/- and were planning on how to utilize the money to the fullest. Some discussion towards having chinese food resulted in a proposition to share one dish of something (costing arround 40/-) amongst all of them. And they were truly content with their decision.

Perhaps, these events are an evidence of the difference between cities and villages ...

Meanwhile, some of the trip photographs:

India:Google

2009-12-04T15:59:00.003+05:30

Recently I got an awesome email about google searches... it started a laughing wave amongst colleagues which is still active... Here is a short description of the content:

When we type anything in the search box, the intellisense prompts us with a set of possible strings that you might want to search for. This intellisense suggested search strings are based on the number of hits each string has received in the past.

Now comes the fun part... TRY THIS

1. Browse to Google.com (When browsed to google.com from a system located in India, mostly the request would get redirected to google.co.in ... Use the "goto Google.com" link below the search box)

2. Start typing any word ...let me take the example in the email itself.. start typing the word "Removing"... Notice what the intellisense suggests...

3. Now browse to Google.co.in and again start typing the same word "Removing" ... and notice the suggestions ...

I leave the post match analysis to each one of you...Happy ROFL :D

Photography exhibition: Drushtikon 2009

2009-11-12T16:56:00.005+05:30

The interlockings

2009-09-11T23:42:00.002+05:30

For a few of years now, we've been seeing the nice interlocking blocks in the market. When introduced, these were an alternative to the tiles. I must say these blocks look great in gardens and walkways sorrounded by lush green lawns. A different look and feel than the traditional "Shahbaadi tiles". I first saw these blocks in Fergusson College CSD way back in 2001... Within no time these blocks got popular all over...

But only a couple of years ago, these blocks managed to impress the offlicaials in PMC. Slowly PMC started adopting these blocks for footpaths along side the roads. Fantastic application of these tiny marvels...So far so good. But then some wiz official came up with an idea of having these blocks deployed in all major squares in the city.

And there goes the Pandora's box wide open. Every third week one of these interlocking blocks get un-locked and sits loose. A prompt action can save a lot of trouble...but with the rep that PMC carries, instant action is a distant dream. Consequently, with Pune traffic in action, the adjacent brothers and sisters of the disjoint block start falling apart. This damage hampers the avg speed of every vehicle passing on that route.

And when realization dawns to the officials, a truck load of new blocks are ordered. Then half of the sqaure is blocked for maintenance. This hotfix deployment goes on and on for days..causing a lot of painful traffic jams. Finally when they manage to patch the entire sqaure, the intersection of tar\concrete part of the road with the interlocking blocks remain the weakling. In addition, countless blocks go waste in the transaction.

I've been seeing all this for over a year now. The Aundh road-Baner Road intersection square is one of the instance. Just 100mtrs away is the GreenPark Hotel Square on Baner road. Same story... The work never seem to finish... I wonder the rationale behind this advancement from tar\concrete to the blocks.

But but but ... when all the blocks are in place...all the repairs tend to finish ..I srill slow down when I approach these sqaures ... suspecting... "There's gotta be a block that is no more interlocked.."

Photo fest!

2009-08-24T19:37:00.003+05:30

Need your opinion.. » online polls
Tags : opinion

The Baya nest!!

2009-07-27T19:29:00.005+05:30

Recently I got a chance to see a baya weaver bird weaving its nest. We all have seen the nest as a dry tube like mesh with some bulges here and there... But call it Nature's Excellence or an architectural marvel ... each and every curve of the nest has a significance.

The nest hangs from a branch and looks like an upside down flask. Generally the nest hangs on the weakest and most flamboyant branches of the tree. Often a thorny tree adds to the safety. The suspended design helps keep the feline predators at bay.

The central bulge is the actual nesting area and the tube on the side that leads to the exit. This tube makes it difficult even for snakes to enter the nest. Although the nests look precarious, most nests are very well attached and are impossible to remove without almost destroying the nest.

The nests are made entirely out of strips of grass which the birds collect by cutting a notch in a tall grass. The bird usually gets hold of an entire blade of grass and then it stripping it into thin threads (30-60cms), which then it weaves into knots. As you can see in the image, a newly-made nest is green with fresh grass and turns brown as the grass dries.

The nests last well through the 3-month breeding season, sometimes even up to a year. The entire procedure of building the nests could take weeks to complete.

I could not see the entire nest being constructed, but at least I could witness a part of Natures way to Protect the next Generation...

Bird Photography .. in and around Pune

2009-07-14T13:03:00.006+05:30

Geographically Pune is quite diverse comprising of large water bodies, mountain ranges, plateaus. Each geographical location houses a habitat for birds, including migratory bids. Places like Mulshi, Bhigvan, Sihagad Valley, Kavdi etc serve an excellent treat to birdwatchers. These sites are within 50-100km radius and are easily accessible by road. The best time for birding in Pune is from September(closure of monsoon) to April (beginning of harsh summers). Flamingos are the main attraction during Dec-Feb time period. In addition, the residential localities of the city too are abundant with birds like sun birds, bee eaters, ashy prinias, tickells blue flycatchers etc.

For the past few months (before Monsoon) .. I have been addicted to bird photography. The new Canon Gear at hand, inspired all the more. Though the glass that I possess is considered a mediocre choice for bird photography, I am content with the results.

I am novice at bird photography, so any comments\suggestions are most welcome...

To visit my gallery Click

Google wave..

2009-06-25T14:27:00.002+05:30

This will be one of the coolest thing Google ever released so far!!... Check out yourself..

Sky outside the window

2009-06-22T15:29:00.006+05:30

The sky outside at the moment is absolutely like a painting. It is so very tempting to start clicking right away. But the fact remains that today is a Monday. So all I can do is .. use my cellphone from the window...

Hope it rains tonite... Cheers..

Lilly

2009-06-17T20:21:00.003+05:30

Recently, happened to visit FC for some project evaluation work. When I was studying there I always saw these lotus in the garden of CS Department. But those days, frames wasn't even a distant idea in my mind.

But I went this time round, the sheer beauty of the lotus tempted me to carry my camera and take a couple of shots....

This is one of them...

Some better Mondays...

2009-06-16T11:51:00.007+05:30

I was stranded on FC road near Goodluck chowk signal, heading towards Kothrud. 3 Green signals already went past and I was still on the same side of the road, inching towards the first position.. I agree at 1930, the traffic scene all over the city is about the same.

Finally with the 4th signal I managed to get past, so I picked my Alto at a considerable throttle and suddenly .. Screeeech.....an Indica (or some other small car) jumped the opposite red signal and landed right in front of my bonnet. I literally stood up on the brakes to avoid collision. That creature driving the car, didn;t even seem to bother a pixel. He was busy discussing something on his cell phone. At that fraction, all the "B*" words popped my mind ... and the before I could utter any of them ... I saw a mama run @ his max speed from some corner of the square. It was quite a sight.. Never seen a mama sprint ... ;)

Within no time he was right in front of the indica ... the guy had to stop... I knew he was going to have it big time. Jumping the signal, Cellphone while driving in combination are quite enough to get you a heavy duty fine... But I really didnt care about the fine. For the first time in my life I was so very satisfied with the past 30seconds... And that too without me having to do a single bit... I was ecstatic!!! as much as Roger was at Phillipe Chatrier.

This would be a tiny insignificant event for everyone on the signal ... but I am sure gonna have a smile for the entire week :D

Nature Facts - I

2009-05-10T13:58:00.007+05:30

Human beings are the most advanced life forms and the reproduction cycle invariably takes the better genes of both the partners. The newer generation is an hybrid combination of the previous one. The strong genes continue to propagate to the next generation... But in lower life forms, this is not the case. Nature has to externally filter out weaker genes before getting into next generation... One of the most effective example of this rule of elimination is the reproduction cycle of Salmons.

Salmons are one of the species of fish which are born in fresh water and then spend majority of their life in the sea. These fish are mature at around the age of 5 years. The matured male & female salmons start their journey from the ocean towards the stream. The fish travel miles upstream (of course, against the flow of water) to reach to the highest point of the stream where the water is calm. This is usually high up in the mountain ranges, where that stream particularly originates. This is where the reproduction actually happens.

Going upstream for miles isn't easy. The fast flowing water against the fish is a daunting task. In addition to the stream, the fish encounter enormous enemies like birds, other fresh water fish and the lethal Grizzly Bears. Most of us must have seen these scenes on TV earlier.

The weaker fish, get killed by the bears or tire off to death, and only the stronger fish make it till the higher points of the stream, exactly the same place where they were born. Here the females lay eggs and the males fertilize the eggs. Thus only the genetically strong fish mate and the next generation would eliminate the defects in the previous genes.
Most of the fish die after the reproduction stage due to exhaustion of the journey. The eggs then hatch into fishes and the stream water flows the juveniles back to the ocean.

PS: Image courtesy http://student.britannica.com/eb/art/print?id=55550&articleTypeId=0

Wonder...

2009-04-13T12:00:00.006+05:30

ID: Indian Robin (female)

To elaborate... while I was trying to photograph this robin pair... they let me close-in as much as a couple of feet. This image is not cropped and taken about 4 feet from the female.

I wasn't sure of the reason why the birds were letting me so close... The moment I started getting near to one of them ... the other partner would close in. My instinct made me follow the second bird. This was happening in succession and every alternate times the birds closed in. This is the first time I saw such an action.

In a while I realized that I am quite far from where I had started. (about 20-40 feet)

And then suddenly both of them vanished. Extremely bewildered by the behavior I decided to return ... (the same path)

On my way back.. I saw a tiny juvenile robin trying to hide in the nearby bush... And the pieces fell in place. Wonders of "parenthood"

I abandoned the place immediately. (Though I managed to capture a glimpse of the baby)

New watermark

2009-03-23T12:15:00.002+05:30

Now on you will find a simple non invasive copyright watermark on my photographs... Here is one of the first images of this watermark.

Cheers,
Amit

Monday Filler.

2009-03-22T22:17:00.002+05:30

3_23_09_MondayFiller

Large Pied Wagtail

Aditya...

2009-03-16T11:32:00.002+05:30

Aditya...
Originally uploaded by amitsgupte

Monday Filler

2009-03-02T12:10:00.001+05:30

3_2_09_MondayFiller

Vacancy ... We are hiring!

Monday Filler

2009-02-23T12:38:00.000+05:30

2_23_09_MondayFiller

Monday Filler

2009-02-16T11:27:00.002+05:30

2_16_09_MondayFiller

Golden Sizzle.

Little Wonders - Month 1

2009-02-13T22:46:00.002+05:30

My son turns 1 month tonight. Let me put down some things that I've noticed since he came into our lives.

Visibly, when he was born he looked much plumpier and round faced. Now he is a bit lanky, but his weight has increased considerably. His hair still seem to be unusually long and partially cover his ears. His eyes have opened up completely.

Coming to behavioural changes, when he was born, the only sense he had was touch (skin). Even if there was a loud noise around him, he didn't seem to respond or even notice it. Nor would he blink if something came in front of his eyes all of a sudden. Books say that even if the light\sound reaches the sensory organs and is transmitted to the brain by the organs, the brain is not capable of processing these signals as of now. But since week two he started shivering when a particular frequency hit him. For instance, a vessel dropped far away, the noise of that vessel was very feeble, but the frequency disturbed him.

Now at the end week four, he has faintly started to respond to sound. When I make some noise on his left, his eyes turn to left. Also his eyes now follow objects (held a foot away). Though this behaviour is quite rare, the sense of sight and sound seem to be begining to develop.He still doesn't blink at a stimulus. In the coming weeks, his reflexes should start taking over his actions ...

I haven't been reading a lot on the above behaviours so am not able to explain in detail the reason supportinig the observations :) ... But I've enjoyed every moment of it to the fullest!! ...

Looking forward for new surprises in the coming month...Happy Birthday Buddy!

Cheers,
Amit

Monday Filler

2009-02-09T15:15:00.002+05:30

2_9_09_MondayFiller

Sunset...
Originally uploaded by amitsgupte

Explored

2009-02-05T23:01:00.000+05:30

Explored

1. Sunset..., 2. Sun bird., 3. Water mist, 4. Rainbow flowers, 5. Tickell's blue flycatcher, 6. Day 3 ...Let there be Light!, 7. Grandeur Personified, 8. A foggy morning at the camp, 9. P9270821

Monday Filler

2009-02-02T17:42:00.002+05:30

For lack of long gaps between my posts, I've made up my mind to post 1 picture that I take on every monday. It will at least refresh the latest updated tag of my blog. Here goes the first one:
2_2_09_MondayFiller

Sun bird.
Originally uploaded by amitsgupte

A letter...

2009-01-20T23:25:00.000+05:30

Hello Canon .. How u doin??

2009-01-08T19:25:00.004+05:30

This blog could be considered as an epilogue to the previous one..

Not very long ago did I think over a wish list for 2009. And now after about 2 weeks, I've started to believe in Shahrukh's words, "Kehte hain kisi cheej ko pure dil se chaho to puri kayanat use tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jati hai" from OSO ... well that's not Shahrukh's quote per say, it is inspired from Paulo Coelho's original, "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." But..lets not discuss the conspiracy of an inspiration anymore, the reason to mention the quote is that I recently managed to buy an EOS 40D. This was something that I was craving for quite a long time. Surprisingly the deal happened quite quicker than I had expected. The camera seems to be just a magical piece of work! I am glad to have this acquisition... finally.

Thanks to Pankaj who gave me an ample time for hands on with his 40D during the exhibition.

Hoping to have a pleasant, durable and long stay with Canon.

Cheers,
Amit

Adios Olympus

2009-01-05T11:37:00.000+05:30

Yesterday struck a deal for my good old Oly 500. It has been about 1.5 years that I had this fella. Its just beyond words to explain what it meant to me in my early days of learning photography. Its quite a sad moment, but I had to do this for practical reasons.

It was nice knowing you Olympus.

2008

2008-12-31T09:53:00.005+05:30

2008 brought ...

Personal:
It was Sagar's wedding at Lucknow, so me and baiko decided to make the most of the occasion and decided to visit the Taj (ofcourse the Agra one :) In that sequence we ended up going to Delhi as well. It was just an amazing experience. Am glad we made this trip and was one of the most memorable events in 2008 .

Photography has been one of my top hobbies (obsession: better half would certainly agree). Recently two of my photographs made it to an exhibition. This was my first exhibtion ever and now I feel am not bad at Photography :P ...

Its been over 3 years that I joined Veritas\Symantec, and since then it was the first time our stock went over $22. I was thrilled to pump out some of the RSU's (first time again). Though a small amount... it did give me a ton of satisfaction!

Alto made 14,000 kms in 2008. Note: just 1 out of pune ride!

Maintained myself at 86 Kgs.. quite an achievement ha?

I am sure there are quite a lot of things more happened to me ...

Pune:
CYG was one of the best thing happened to Pune this year. A by product of CYG was Baner road, Pashan road becoming drivers paradise.

India:
Unfortunate ... Mumbai attacks :(
But on the +ve...
3 Medals at the Beijng Olympics (1 Gold and 2 Silvers).
Anand defends his title against Kramnik.
India crush Australia & England to end the year on a high.

Global:
R E C E S S I O N

2009 Wishlist
* Daughter\Son .. (Very soon to be accomplished) :)
* EOS 40D
*
*

Happy New Year Folks!!!!!

Cordially invited.

2008-12-18T14:12:00.002+05:30

Theme: "India Explored ... Shades of interestingness."
Exhibition dates: 26th to 28th December 2008 (9:30am to 9:30 pm)
Venue: New Art Gallery, Ghole Road, Pune.

Peace amidst chaos...

2008-12-18T10:45:00.000+05:30

The Pataleshwar temple, located at the begining of JM road (Shivaji Nagar side) is one of the most contrasting places I've seen in Pune. When you are on the road, its difficult to believe that there is such a calm and quite place just a few feet away. And when you are inside the temple, there is no way you can make out that this place is surrounded by the 4 busiest roads of the city.

...a tense battle

2008-12-15T09:57:00.021+05:30

Trust reinforced!!! Congrats India!!!

[1548hrs] 20runs to get. UV catching up with GOD. 81 & 87. Keep going India.
[1532hrs] 30runs to get. Are we there yet? :)
[1504hrs] 52runs to get. A boundary after long long time. UV races to 61. God's on 79.
[1453hrs] 61runs to get. [ . 1 . 1 1 1^lb | 1 1 . . . 1 | . . 1 . 2 1 | . .]
[1442hrs] 73runs to get. UV reaches his 50. Singles-doubles is the doctors prescription.

If India manage to get past the pommies total, it'll be the fourth highest run chase in the history of test match cricket. Fingers crossed, as Sachin and Yuvraj walk in for the post tea session...

[1410hrs] 84runs to get. Thats tea. UV:45* SRT:64*
[1402hrs] 94runs to get..Slow and steady wins the race.
[1305hrs] 126runs to get..GOD inches to his 50. Chepauk errupts into joy.
[1245hrs] 134runs to get..UV on the top. 3 boundaries ease some pressure.
[1227hrs] 163runs to get..Lax goes. India now 4 down. UV joins GOD... a tense Cheapuk
[1130hrs] 174runs to get..Laxman playing well..GOD steadily moves on.
[1050hrs] 204runs to get..Gambhir well played .. Why fear when GOD is still there!
[1000hrs] 236runs to get..In GOD we trust.

...made it to the final Destination.

2008-12-11T17:14:00.001+05:30

Photographers @ Pune have organized a photography exhibition in town. This features work of professional, amatuer, enthusiast photographers in the country. It gives me immense pleasure to invite you all to this event. I shall post the official invite once I get hold of it.

Theme: "India"
Exhibition dates: 26th to 28th December 2008
Venue: New Art Gallery, Ghole Road, Pune

I am glad that two of my pictures have been selected for this event. I am really grateful to the judges, who have given me this oppportunity and motivation to go furhter on. Thanks a million!

I Love You - India.

Grandeur personified.

Hope to see you @ the exhibition.

Cheers,
Amit

Jatropha...

2008-12-08T23:28:00.004+05:30

A few more from the bird sanctuary....

...expect a few more :)

Roger ... Error in formation...Goose bumps :)

2008-12-08T19:52:00.004+05:30

Visited a birds sanctuary recently. It was out of luck that we hit this place called The Jatropha Bird Sanctuary (google gives directions). It wouldn't be over 15kms from my place. This is in close vicinity of a military centre... so obviously .. a) it is clean b) it is not crowded c) least miscreants around the place... Overall a good place for some peaceful photography.

Spotting:
1. Pintail
2. Pond Heron
3. White throated kingfisher
4. Comrant
5. Grey heron
6. Black kite

A foggy morning at the camp

2008-09-30T17:22:00.001+05:30

A foggy morning at the camp
Originally uploaded by amitsgupte

One of the slow shutter caps taken near Kundalika rafting area.

C O L O R S

2008-09-17T15:14:00.000+05:30

FL36 bounce

2008-09-08T20:39:00.000+05:30

Some Slow shutter ...

2008-09-08T20:36:00.000+05:30

Memory again...

2008-05-15T09:39:00.010+05:30

Disclaimer: A different "Memory" than the previous post...

Memory errors are a nightmare for every developer using a heapalloc. A good way to deal with these nightmares is Page heap verification.

PageHeap utility returns a pointer to allocated memory on 8 byte boundaries. The end of the returned pointer is followed by 0 to 7 guard bytes (depending on the size requested, 0 to 7 bytes are added to round up the request size to be on an 8 byte boundary), followed by a memory page marked PAGE_NOACCESS

For example:

char * p;
p = new char[5];

PageHeap returns a pointer to the 5 bytes plus 3 guard bytes to make up a total of 8 bytes, such as .....XXX . If the memory allocation size is a multiple of eight, there are no guard bytes added to the returned pointer.If the end of the allocation is overwritten, the guard bytes change and PageHeap causes an Access Violation (AV) when the memory is freed. If the application reads or writes past the allocation (including the guard bytes), it incurs an instant AV.

PAGE HEAP VERIFICATION USING GFlags.exe (with windbg).

A full heap verification for an application could be done using

gflags.exe -p /enable /full

This will automatically monitor all the malloc, new and heapalloc allocations made in the application. And in cases of memory errors, the application will crash with an exception

The exception Breakpoint A breakpoint has been reached. (0x80000003) occurred in the application at location 0x77f9f9df.

This should enable us to locate the point of crash in the code.

To disable page heap verification
gflags.exe -p /disable

For more information:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;286470
http://www.osronline.com/ddkx/ddtools/gflags_00s3.htm

Note: On Windows 2008 the memory manager itself takes care of this. So another way to locate memory errors in your module is to execute the same app on Windows 2008 :)

HTH

Down the memory lane 2

2007-11-30T12:20:00.000+05:30

Contd .. from previous blog

Bhushi Dam

Some place near the dam

The walkway towards the dam

Some creatures around the corner...

Down the memory lane

2007-11-30T12:17:00.000+05:30

Long long ago ... Lonavala (2002 I guess)

No DSLRs, no 8 Megapixel, no cybershots ... but still golden pictures!!

On one of the dam gates.

@ one of the many Tea-Wadapav halts.

On the way to the waterfall source...

On the way back...

Low key portrait

2007-11-27T15:08:00.000+05:30

Olympus E500
45mm
[Zuiko 17.5-45mm]
1/15sec F/5.6 ISO400 Metering: Pattern

A Macro

2007-11-20T14:19:00.000+05:30

Sunny Day

Olympus E500
150mm [Zuiko 40-150mm]
1/250sec F/5 ISO200 Metering: Pattern

Hang dump generation using ADPlus

2007-11-01T21:35:00.000+05:30

Hang dumps can be generated quite easily using ADPlus. ADPlus is a VB script that ships with Windows Debugging tools. It works in 2 modes viz. Hang Mode & Crash Mode. As of now lets worry about the hang mode...

Hang mode: ADPlus immediately produces full memory dumps for all the processes that are specified on the command line after the script has completed. Each .dmp file that is created is put in a folder that contains the date/time stamp when ADPlus was run. Each file name contains the process name, the process ID, and the date/time stamp when ADPlus was run. While the process memory is being dumped to a file, the process is frozen. After the memory dump file has been created, the process is resumed by using a non-invasive attach/detach with the CDB debugger.

The following are the most frequently used switches.

-hang: This switch configures ADPlus to run in hang mode.

-pn: process name
The -pn switch is used to specify a process name that you want ADPlus to analyze. To specify more than one process, use multiple -pn process name switches.
For example: -pn process1.exe -pn process2.exe

-p: process ID
The -p switch is used to specify the process ID (PID) of a process that you want ADPlus to analyze. To specify more than one process, use multiple -p PID switches.
For example: -p 1896 -p 1702

For more details on ADPlus visit : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/286350

The Wine Values

2007-10-25T12:07:00.000+05:30

Wine is something that can give you great taste and flavor if taken in the right way. Learning how to taste wines is a straightforward adventure that will deepen your appreciation for both wines and wine makers. Look, smell and taste - starting with your basic senses and expanding from there you will learn how to taste wines like the pros in no time!

1. Look for clarity & colour. Generally holding the glass tilted in front of a white background reveals the right features.

2. Swirl the glass to find viscosity of the wine. More viscous = harder the wine :)

3. Take a sip and before swallowing roll it in your mouth. Breathe in while you are rolling the wine, the flavours will come out really well.

4. After you swallow, note how long does the taste persist. The longer the better ...

5. Lastly, and more importantly, note down what you noticed with the wine. Make sure to include the name of the wine maker to the observations.

Happy tasting ... Cheers!! (the real one)

Suggestion: The wine would taste even better if you go with cheese or\and some lamb delicacy :)

WinDbg: Breakpoints @ all exported functions.

2007-10-18T15:38:00.000+05:30

Oflate I was held up in a situation where I needed to insert breakpoints @ all exported functions(Over 100 of them) in a dll. The idea was to obtain the sequence of the calls made to the dll. WinDbg gives quite an impressive way to do this ...

bm [dll_name]!* "g"

bm -> multiple breakpoints
!* -> all exported functions
g -> the debugee doesn;t break at each breakpoint!

Thanks to Sumit...

Homemade flash bounce.

2007-09-27T18:20:00.000+05:30

Warning: This post is audience specific. This might not make sense if you are unaware of Flash Bounce. So if you still want to go ahead and read on, here are some pre-reqs. that might help :)

Right, if we are still reading, to begin with, I own a Quantarary Manual Flash, which doesn't have a swivel(bounce) head. Putting the implications blunt and straight, I can NOT have bounce with the flash. For some weeks, I went on with no bounce, but it was giving me terrible results very often. I started feeling handicap on this aspect, and then tried looking for ways to hit this issue. (Ofcourse the best way is ruled out as I do not have ample finances for a new strobe :)

I struck gold with a few minutes of thinking... I am going to put the implementation in 3 diagrams. I guess these are self explanatory. (Forgive me for the illegible font)

Diagram 1: This is one of the reasons why I was badly in need of the bounce getting to work.

Diagram 2: This was the simplest, poorest and fastest way to have bounce on my flash.

Diagram 3: This is how the design works.

Things used:
1. Card board
2. White paper
3. Aluminium\silver foil
4. Sticking tapes to hold on the papers.

And the most important thing, IT WORKS!!

Dream comes true ...

2007-09-25T10:15:00.000+05:30

Well WE WON THE GAME!!! That pretty much says it all!!

The Dream Finale!!

2007-09-24T15:52:00.000+05:30

The T20 WC has been a riot of swashbuckling shots and a festival of sixes & fours. The Indians started with an unconvincing victory in a bowl out, and then a loss to NZ. But now we have made our mark on the T20 arena by packing up England, South Africa & Australia!

The Indians have really come up from the day they lost Sri Lanka in the Windies and were thrown out of the WC07. Since then, amongst rage, frustration & disappointment the Indian team has fought against all odds, and today they play Pakistan in the T20 WC Final!!

What more could you ask in return for the poor performance in the WC earlier this year! No matter what the result, we already have found "The Team India" who can really Lead India to 2011!!

ALL THE BEST TEAM INDIA!!!!!!! LETS GET GOING...

Frame-Magic

2007-09-18T16:57:00.000+05:30

Before I begin, let me mention, this is an IMHO blog -

Recently, I found a free utility that adds custom frames to your images. If given a choice, I wouldn't go for framing all the pics, but at times it does add a lot of depth and a sense of containment :)

Have a look at this one-

If you see the image without the frame, the tiny flowers look segregated. But with the frame, the togetherness has jumped in!

Does flash affect eyes ... especially babies?

2007-09-18T10:45:00.000+05:30

Hmmm ... this is my second post of the day. I am thinking of following Chetan Bhagat ;) ...

Anyways the reason I write this post is based on my last months trip to Bombay. I had a family function to attend, and these are perfect occasions to try your hand at portraits. You generally find babies with colorful attires & cool expressions. They are one of my favorite subjects. But every time I click with my flash on, one question bothers me all the way... "Am I bothering their young eyes?"

Yesterday finally I found one article, which had perfectly answered my question. Some of the facts mentioned (in consent with people in medical world) were:

- The eyes of babies are sensitive and they can be harmed with prolonged exposure to concentrated and intense light. Its similar to a dried leaf, which sits unharmed on a hot-bright sunny road. But the moment you put a magnifying glass and focus the sunlight, it shall start burning away.

- The good news here is, out flash is neither concentrated nor prolonged. But the flash can create a temporary blackout in some cases.

For more information, click here
....

On that note, I'd say its safe but avoid :)

Taming the light...

2007-09-18T10:35:00.000+05:30

Taking a shot against the light is always a difficult task. 9 out of 10 shots are unsatisfactory. Having a balance of the light falling on the subject and the light coming from the back is necessary. The simplest way to encounter this situation is to turn around and take the click with the light... :) If I have the shooting conditions in my hand, I generally prefer shooting with the light. But again thats not the case always.

A cheap way to go with, is to fire the flash which adds more light on the subject. This will make the subject brighter than the oncoming light. Might do the trick... But there are times when the oncoming light is too too bright and intense for the flash to nullify...

There is cheap, and then there is a poor mans cheap: Crop away the over exposed part!! :) This works well, as long as you don't have a tightly packed frame. (Tightness of the image is the % of the total area that the subject occupies.) So in case of tight images its again difficult to crop...

But when all the above 3 ways are dumped, we endup with the LIGHT...

We then go to the last escape, which is a combination of flash and apperture ...

Have a look at this image. A quick run through the setting of the conditions: The subject here is the vase, which is kept in front of the door. It was ~1130 in the morning, bright sunlight outside. The sunlight reflected from the wind shield & body of the car is creating intense light interfence in the picture. This was taken at 1/160sec & f5.6 AND THE FLASH DID FIRE!!

With the aperture logic, it would make sense to have a smaller appreture(higher f stop) to allow lesser light. Sure enough with a trade off with the Depth of field. But then have a look at the image below:

Certainly you can now read the number plate of the car, but it has eaten up the excess light. And I would be happy to buy this image than the one taken with excess light. This was taken at f/14. Now in here, I might have gone with a faster shutter as well, but then "Flash Sync" comes in my way, and the electronic lock binds my fastest shutter with flash to 1/160sec.

With all the above stuff, you might want to experiment with shutter speed in addition to flash and aperture. Hoping that your cameras allow you with a faster shutter and flash.

Let me know of the results..

Escrow

2007-09-11T17:24:00.000+05:30

Of late came across a business term "Escrow".

Escrow essentially is a legal agreement done during deals. The dealing parties appoint a third party, and the asset(money) of the deal is kept with the 3rd party till all the conditions of the contract are satisfied. On completion, the escrow agent transfers the amount to the recipient.

Mystery unfolds!!

2007-09-07T18:46:00.002+05:30

I would classify this blog for people who are really keen on Manual photography.

Before I went digital on cameras, I had been using a Full Manual Film SLR (Ricoh KR5 Super2). On this camera I had no other option to manually adjust the parameters based on the light conditions. When I took some shots with an external flash and a comparitively faster shutter speed(1/500 or even faster), I got quite a few images with a prominent black band.

An example is attached below...

View in Picasa

Completely baffled with the results, I would convince myself, considering some fault in the way the film was developed. Until recent I believed that it was the film that was causing the issue. But then I noticed the same band appearing on the images taken with my digital camera. Well, now this needs investigation!!

For symptoms, it was evident that a fast shutter was a clear suspect. Then I took a look at all the digicam images, versus the affected digicam images. I realized that the external flash was a common factor in most of the affected images. Beyond the above 2 , I could not find more culprits. But eventually these 2 were enough to nail this one down. Let me explain...

Test1:
To reproduce the issue, I started shooting with external flash + slower shutters and then increasing the shutter speed by a step. The anamoly didnt reproduce. I reached 1/250 and still there was no sign of the crime. But then with 1/500, I hit it, and subsequently all the faster shutters came with the band. So Test1 concluded that only shutter speeds 1/500 and above are affected.

Test2:
Then I tried without the manual flash, but using the inbuilt flash of the camera. But the camera wouldn't allow me to exceed the shutter speed beyond 1/180... WTF.

Then in one of the ref mans, I found something called Flash Sync!

Definition: It stands for flash synchronization. It means the fastest shutter speed you can use with the flash.

Use:
At high shutter speeds, the shutter closes faster, and only the part of the sensor is exposed to the light coming in. This leaves behind an un-exposed part of the sensor, resulting in a dark area on the image.

Icing on the cake: The old generation cameras did not have the facility to hold on the shutter speed. But now a days the digital cameras have an electronic lock on the shutter speed based on the sync speed of the flash being used. The inbuilt flash in my camera has a sync speed of 1/180, so my shutter speed locked out on the same speed. And the lock didn;t happen on the external flash because it was just a manual flash which is not identified by the camera.

Phew ... all questions answered!! Mystery sorted out!

For more information:
Flash Sync

It eludes him for the 6th time ...

2007-09-06T12:46:00.000+05:30

Its not very exciting to see "GOD" coming so close and not getting there. Not once not twice, but 6 times on the tour.
[For all those who didn't decipher the above stmt, I am talking about Mr. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and his unfortunate dismissals in the ongoing England tour]

The match winning 94 runs of class and elegance took India past the mammoth 316 and rung victory bells. But the 6 runs deficit still remained.

"I would like to score nineties than a century, if India wins that match" - Sachin mentioned after the match!!

The crab experience...

2007-09-05T16:58:00.001+05:30

WARNING: Animal lovers, Veg Food eaters Don’t read on …

Generally on a rainy Sunday morning there is nothing much you can go about planning. Last weekend was one of those… The only way things can be enlightened is having a “Special Lunch”.

Out of an array of edible creatures to choose, I picked up the CRAB. *Info* you can find good fish\crabs starting from Narali Poornima *Info End* .As per the task distribution, I was the one to buy the raw material … including the dudes, ”The Crabs”.

When I hit the shop where I generally pick fish from, I saw a few strong heavy crabs. Confirming the costs, I picked up 3 dudes from the basket. The normal practice is that the shop keeper cuts off the claws before handing over the crab to the customer. The claws are the crabs only defense\offence weapons and they can hurt really badly to human hands. Knowing this, out of some thrill (which nearly cost my little finger) I asked the shopkeeper not to get rid of the claws.

At home, the moment I opened up the fellas, I saw GAINT claw poking out of the bag …

The Game was ON… My father teamed up with me versus the dude. The ladies of the house had disappeared long ago … It was running all over the kitchen platform. Due to the huge teeth on the claws, it was not possible for us to hold him at all. Priority was to defeat his claws. Not knowing how to hold him and not getting caught, we evaluated out options. We thought of pressing him down but to no avail. We also tried an attack from the back.. I know its cheating, but we had no choice. And as a punishment to unethical warfare, it he turn around and sprung on my hand … Caught unaware my little finger missed by a whisker…

So finally we slid him into the basin. With water flowing on him, he took it calm… and there was the first sign on Victory! After a grueling 10mins, we finally made it … J

And yeah, the supper turned out much more worth than the hassle !!!

Test Blog

2007-08-25T12:06:00.000+05:30

Test for redirection ...

London Bridge

2006-12-02T15:55:00.001+05:30

London Bridge
Originally uploaded by amitsgupte.

One of the most amazing structure I have ever seen. This huge thing is really one of the heritage structures in the world.

An illuminated Brook Drive

2006-12-02T15:51:00.001+05:30

An illuminated Brook Drive
Originally uploaded by amitsgupte.

A deserted evening in Reading. With a shutter speed of 30s I never knew the frame would come out so well... The fact that the road was deserted added on to the beauty of the click.

Trafalgar Sqaure

2006-12-02T15:40:00.001+05:30

Trafalgar Sqaure
Originally uploaded by amitsgupte.

Once upon a time ... the horses ruled these streets. With years passing these streets have cluttered with buses and cars. But the horses still rise over the buses ...

West Minster

2006-12-02T15:26:00.001+05:30

West Minster

An overcast evening, a well lit West Minster... quite a picturisque view and with the clouds giving a pinch of colours to the Thames, it becomes a Perfect Frame!!

DOF Reduction

2006-12-02T15:21:00.001+05:30

Macro

Ricoh KR-5 Super II SLR Film Camera (35-70mm Quantaray MF)

I am really impressed with the Depth of Field reduction of this particular shot. The 70mm zoom putting in an additional blurr to the f3.5