The Cinema

Pheonix Picture House, Jericho

Conversations in the garden.

Balliol College Grounds

Matriculation

Where bowler hatted persons guide the many incoming students into the Sheldonian, when the town is over run by penguined students and tourists and parents become paparazzi and the students celebrities. It was fun. I ended up very drunk and took the best part of the next day recovering. Like I said, fun.

Old meets new.

St. John's College, Oxford.

Bicycles

Oxford!!!

*(More) photos, details should come at some point but right now I am overwhelmed, worried - essay due next week already and I haven't had a class yet!, and trying to figure out how the fuck this place works. Decentralization is not always good.
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St. Antony's College, Oxford

Stylishly perched

Chawri bazaar, Delhi

P.S: He could be on The Sartorialist perhaps, don't you think?

Chawri bazaar madness

En route to the Jama Masjid. A few hours back, today.

Graved Courtyards

Nizamuddin's dargah, Delhi

Two men and a minaret

The courtyard of the Mecca Masjid, Hyderabd.

Old man and a monk

Badami, Karnataka

Luang Prabang, Laos

Many colours

The town walls. Hoi An.

Swallowed by the snake

Chidambaram, India

By the temple gate

Ekambareswarar Temple, Kancheepuram

Onion Domes

So many months in Delhi and this time I still haven't made it to the old town. Many reasons - I have been in and out of town, it's been murderously hot, I've been too lazy. But it's ramzan now and the Jama Masjid's onion domes and the gorgeous old Delhi food are too tempting to resist. A trip should be made soon ... if only to update my photographs. This one is about 3 years old.

Hampi: Garuda's Chariot

Vithala Temple, Hampi

In all Hindu temples, the vahanas are always present outside the shrine of the main deity. There is never a Shiva sans Nandi the Bull and Garuda is always around with Vishnu. The Vithala temple is unique because here Garuda has a chariot - usually the half eagle, half man has to be content seated on a pole. The chariot is a wonderfully carved structure and - though surrounded by gorgeous mandapas and often blending in with them in perspective - the focal point of the temple's entrance courtyard. Though originally drawn by horses, it is now elephants who shoulder the load. The horses were destroyed centuries back but the ASI thought a chariot without animals to pull it was hardly a chariot at all and thus these elephants were brought from some other part of the deserted site and installed here. They make for nice photos, too.

Hampi: Gnarled Tree

Vithala Temple Complex, Hampi

Hampi: The Virupaksha Gopura

The magnificent and awesome in every way gopura of the Virupaksha temple in Hampi almost seems to act as a navigational aid for the site. I still recall gasping at the sight of it. Nine stories, fifty three meters high, it towers over everything in the vicinity, almost providing a watchful shadow over the happening inside the temple.

A functional temple, unlike many of the architecturally gorgeous but plundered temples in Hampi, the Virupaksha is abuzz with activity early morning on - devotees make their way through the huge compound to seek their deities, rushing through the elaborately carved pillared halls, stopping in the courtyard to take the blessings of the resident temple elephant. All in all, absolutely wonderful.

Coracle-ing

On the Tungabhadra, Hampi

Boats on the river

Benares