Its been a splendid year at Essex but its now time to go home for the summer. About this time next week, I’ll be home, most probably enjoying a meal of Paradise Biryani with my family and friends. I do look forward to go home but I will sorely miss my friends here for the 3 months back in Hyderabad.

Its been a boring yet busy week. I’ve had various things to get done regarding the various societies that I’m part of. I’ve finished a majority of these things but a few still remain which I plan to get done in the following week.

I’ve also finally sorted out my accommodation for next year and will be living in a beautiful house with 3 of my friends very close to the University.

Over the past week, I discovered that the photography society had a darkroom which hadnt been used for over a year. I, being the president of the society for the next year, opened up the room and realized that it was a fully equipped darkroom. I’ve been messing around there for sometime and tried out different things. I havent been able to process a photo yet due to the fact that I do not own a film camera but its been very interesting to understand how film processing works.

I’ve also been cooking quite ardently simply due to the fact that I want to try and finish most of the food that I have before I leave.

Blackadder has been another great source of passing the time. Every episode is just so witty and amusing, I can never get enough of Blackadder and Baldrick.

Life over the past year has certainly affected me as a man. I have changed for the better, by life in a different country, away from home…

I shall most probably be back in Hyderabad the next time I post here, so good bye till then!

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On Tuesday Night, I had the chance to go and watch the filming of the Graham Norton Show live in London, thanks to a friend who managed to get 4 tickets.

The show started at about 1845 but we had to get there by 1800 so that we could seated in time. We had priority tickets which allowed us to jump a majority of the queue. The show kicked off on time with a warm up presenter who was quite funny and introduced us to the various elements of the filming of the show. After his brief talk, Graham Norton himself came onto the stage and went on about this slightly disgusting but funny story of his previous weekend. With that story done, the main show was about to start, the title music started playing and we saw Norton come to the stage again but with much more of a spin and style to his walk this time.

The filming of the show lasted for 2 hours but we didnt even feel the time pass by. The guests of the show were Oscar winning French actress Juliette Binoche and chef extraordinaire Gordon Ramsay. The entire show was hilarious had the whole audience laughing their hearts out. The fact that the show is based, not on just interviewing the guests but several different elements as well, makes it very humorous and doesnt get boring. At the beginning of the show, Juliette seemed a bit lost and Gordon seemed to enjoy discreetly making fun of the French which she didnt understand. But over the course of the show, she realised that it wasnt a straightforward interview show and joined in on the fun which made it even more enjoyable.

One of the first things that struck me when I walked into the studio, was the lighting system. There were about 100 different lights hanging from the ceiling, each affecting the overall lighting of the show a little. I was overwhelmed by these spectacular and spent a good amount of time simple examining them and the accessories they had. The cameras used were very impressive as well. They had around 5 cameras on the ground and one camera on the crane. Watching all the crew do their job made me realise that Graham Norton is only a small part of the show and that a huge amount of effort goes into making each episode.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience which we finished off with a great meal at Chinatown.

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We had the two final events of the year over the weekend and with those events, this year has officially come to an end. We still have some random bits and bobs to get done but nothing related to academics. I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by, it seemed like it was just yesterday that I left home for Essex. I remember how sad I felt to leave India and was nervous about my experience in a new country. Fortunately, everything has been perfect over the past year and with the great group of friends that I’ve managed to get, I’ve always felt like I was home.

Most of my friends will be leaving over the next week, and I know that I’m going to miss them a lot. A lot more than I thought I would miss them. We’ve bonded over the course of one year, known each other better than our families, learnt to live and cooperate with each other, and I feel that I might spend a majority of the 3 months in India looking forward to getting back here to meet my friends.

The event on Friday was called ‘The End’, aptly named, since it was on the day right after everyone’s exams got over. About 2000 odd students come out to the squares in the University to drink and be merry. The squares got pretty crowded but with a DJ in once side and all your friends on the other, there was nothing that could go wrong. It was tremendous fun, as I experienced, and we went on till about 3 in the morning, partying away to glory.

The Summer Ball on Saturday was a bit more exclusive event but nevertheless, still very popular among the students. We had a flat meal at a fancy Italian Restaurant before going to the ball which was great with good food and good company. It did rain during the day which resulted in the venue becoming muddy but it didnt deter the spirits of the party-goers. It started off slowly, with the only exciting thing being the circus rides. It improved slowly and after a few rides here and there, we got into the tents, where they had several different artists and DJs in the different tents. These tents were where we spent a majority of the time, had great fun and lasted till 5 next morning and ended up in the Survivors Photo, which was, much to my excitement, taken by a large format field view camera.

Not surprisingly, we spent a majority of Sunday sleeping off the weariness after having partied for nearly 10 hours at the Summer Ball. It was a beautiful sunny day so we had a little picnic by the lake and a game of Monopoly.

I’ve been taking photos galore with my new Carl Zeiss Flektogon 35mm f/2.4 which I’ve fallen in love with. Its my walkaround lens since its focal length of 35mm which is equivalent to 50mm on a crop factor camera like mine (Canon 40D) seems to be perfect for every situation. I havent got too many things planned for this week but I’m sure I’ll find something to do…

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Its been about a week since my exams got over and I’ve made some interesting purchases over the course of these days.

The first and most important one would be the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon DDR MC Electric 35mm f/2.4 which I’ve nicknamed ‘Jenna’. I managed to win an auction of it on Ebay for just over £60 which I thought, was a decent deal. I havent really had a chance to try the lens out and push it to it limits but from what I’ve seen so far, its had some very impressive results. The first thing I noticed about the lens was that it felt good which is a mark of a good lens. When you hold it on your hands, it just feels right and solid. The piece which I got was in mint condition with one very minor scuff on the side. It focuses very closely, upto a reproduction ratio of 1:2 and can be used to shoot some impressive macro photographs. It resembles the standard focal length of 50mm on a crop-sensor camera and is useful in everyday purposes. I can also remove it from my wishlist now and I’m proud to have achieved another milestone on my wishlist. I will be posting some sample shots taken with it very soon on my Flickr Photostream.

Another gadget that I’ve got my hands on is the Logitech Z-2300. I didnt buy it but one of my good friends bought it and hence, I was able to test it out. They are 2.1 speakers and come with an absolutely massive sub-woofer. The sound quality is excellent, very crisp and makes you feel like you are in the middle of a concert. The sub-woofer is second to none and has a bass powerful enough to rattle the windows. It is also very very loud and can probably over-power some of the popular home audio systems. The sound retains quality at all volume levels which is one of qualities of high-end music systems like Bose, etc and its good to see that quality in consumer level goods, thanks to Logietch’s THX certified sound quality. A highly recommended purchase for any audiophile.

And my final and latest acquisition is a Phottix Wireless remote for my camera. It works excellently and as good as a Canon wired remote. It supports Bulb mode and if you hold down the button on the remote for 3 seconds, you can release it and the camera will still continue to take the photo until you press the button again. This is very useful feature so that you dont have to hold it down to take long exposure photos like Star trails. It also works perfectly with the burst mode and even though I probably wont use it with the burst mode, it nevertheless sounds quite exciting. I hope to make more use of it soon.

The Greatest Show on Earth, the Summer Ball is this Saturday and I’m looking forward to it!

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I’ve been ardently following the semi-finals of Britain’s got talent over the past week along with my friends. One hour, every night for 5 days lead to a lot of swearing at the TV, swearing at each other and making fun of innumerable auditions. Its been good fun and the finals of the show were held on Saturday.

As always, all of us had our favourites, the people who we wanted to win. My personal favourites were ‘Signature’ a dance group of two Indians, who had a combined style of Michael Jackson and Bhangra which proved very effective and popular. I quite liked their style and the fact that they were Indians was a huge plus point. The other group who I liked was ‘Escala’, a troupe of 4 beautiful girls who played the violin in a pretty spectacular way.

I watched intently to see who the winner would be, and when they had cut down the participants from 10 to 3, only one of my favourites remained, Signature. I cant say I really liked the other 2 of the final 3 so I hoped that Signature would win. Then, when only 2 remained, the final winner was to be announced. However, as fate would have it, Signature did not win, and the winner was this 14 year old kid named George Sampson who was quite good at his rain dance act. I was shocked that Signature did not win, probably along with thousands of others who would’ve been heartbroken.

I am very proud of Signature, for the tremendous efforts that they would have put into their dance, for the unique style that they created, for making all Indians proud, and for not giving up without a fight. I’m sure that they will have a bright future ahead of them.

You can watch the first audition of Signature here, their performance in the semi-finals here and their dazzling finale here.

And for those who’ve already watched the audition and want to listen to the mix they used, you can listen to it here, its called Nachna Onda Nei by Tigerstyle with Kaka Bhania.

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