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We had a motorcycle-related mishap while on the road a couple of weeks ago. A good samaritan hooked us up with this village guy who could fix Enfields. I like this shot because it reminds me of Jeff Beck‘s “You Had It Coming” album cover :)
Archive for the ‘Phil’s Photos’ Category
Aug
04
2009
Working On The Enfield
Aug
04
2009
Three Painters
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The man in white, a master sign-wallah named Chinnappa, has been painting oversize movie theatre signs and cutouts for a lifetime. The movie industry’s need for these objects is being gradually replaced by cheaper, easily printed vinyl signage, and so his business is slowly going away. Our friend Alex has decided to help him stay afloat by starting a business with him: Bespoke Bollywood.
At Bespoke Bollywood, you can have your likeness inserted into any Hollywood or Bollywood movie poster, and rendered in oilpaint on canvas. Or you can have him render any source material onto canvas in his unique, Bollywood style. We have just taken delivery of our first order, an 8×4 canvas based on the Slumdog Millionaire movie poster. We’ll post photos soon. These are huge, impressive, and very affordable, so if you want to do the same, contact Alex. !
Aug
04
2009
Pam Gets Tired
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Somewhere in the Lalbagh Park area shopping for motorcycle stuff, Pam gets tired.
Jul
31
2009
Design Fridays
Design Fridays is a design-centric event held every two months, at a moveable location somewhere in Bangalore. Created and propelled by the people at Ray+Keshavan | The Brand Union, the event is a welcome opportunity for creative professionals in Bangalore to meet, mingle, and at least in my case, to feel a lot less isolated :)
Each Design Friday features a presentation by a prominent design professional from a given area: branding, typography, painting, industrial design, and so on. The presentation is followed by Q&A, then dinner and mingle time.
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This particular evening, the location was the beautiful Park Hotel downtown, and the presenting guest was Gautam Rajadhyaksha, probably India’s best known celebrity photographer. He was a delight to listen to, generously sharing behind the scenes stories and technical insights. He was also really delightful in personal conversation afterward; he still shoots film mostly, and was quite curious about my 5D Mark II, and about Lightroom. We promised to deliver a copy to him in Mumbai with a personal demo sometime soon :)
The other, equally luminous, stars of the show were the attendees: every conversation we had afterwards was engaging and fun. The guests included architects, business people, entrepreneurs, designers, musicians and more. In fact, I think we may have made a few future friends.
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For me, one of the most memorable meetings of the evening was with this gentleman, Mr. Nandan Nilekani. Among his many achievements, he has been the Chairman and CEO of Infosys, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2009, the author of a very successful forward-thinking book, Imagining India, and a guest on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show; and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The buzz around Nandan Nilekani now is about his recent Cabinet appointment: India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, hand-picked Mr. Nilekani for a very interesting Cabinet post, only a couple of weeks ago.
I am sure Mr. Nilekani thought me a bit of a dope, as I was fairly starstruck. It’s never fame that impresses me, it’s competence, and I am rendered even more stupid than usual in the presence of someone with such accomplishment and ability. I do hope if Mr. Nilekani ever reads this, he will accept my apologies for any goofy behavior. I am now kicking myself for squandering the opportunity to ask him a couple of more meaningful questions… ah well :)
Thanks indeed to my friend Jaydeep Dutta for encouraging us to attend and making us feel so welcome.
Jul
08
2009
Hanuman The Monkey God
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After a long Sunday afternoon ride through the countryside on the Enfield, we found ourselves at one of the most beautiful temples we have yet seen. The Trimurti Temple on the southernmost outskirts of Bangalore, past all kinds of farmland and winding roads, has three large sections: one each for Ganesh, Hanuman, and Shiva. Here we have Hanuman, the Monkey God, against a lovely cloudy sky. More pix soon of this fantastic location :)
Monkey man say: Talk to the hand.
Jul
04
2009
Enfield Puja Mojo
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Before we started riding the Enfield for real, we took some local advice and brought it around to the nearest Hindu temple for a puja. This is very common here; people bring bicycles and motorcycles to the temple all the time for a ritual blessing. Given the traffic and driving conditions here, we’ll take any advantage we can get.
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The temple holy man had us park the machine in the proper spot, and purchase some flowers, floral garlands, coconuts and limes from a nearby vendor. He lit a spoonful of something on fire and wafted the smoke about the bike; we warmed our hands over the flame and then placed our hands over our hearts. Then, chanting all the while, he strung the garlands onto the front of the bike, and made various marks on the bike’s frame with kumkum. He placed the limes underneath the front wheel and instructed me to run them over, while he continued chanting.
Finally, he blessed us, placed a lotus blossom over the speedometer, and sent us on our way, with his business card and a request that we e-mail him the photos we had been taking throughout.
True: On the way home, we ran out of gas…