Its been just over an hour of being 18 years old, and similar to last year, it doesnt feel much different. However, I do realise that I am legally responsible for my actions now, and I can vote, get a license, sign contracts, drink alcohol, get a proper bank account and lots more things, or atleast I hope so. They disadvantages of being 18 are not too much I suppose, I can be sent to prison and will no longer be able to get away with things as easily since I’m not a ‘kid’ anymore. I’m still one of the youngest people in my friends circle so I can somewhat continue to  have the benefits of being the youngest.

I’ve got about 3 texts, 2 calls, 3 online and 3 real life wishes for my birthday so far, my thanks to all of them for remembering my birthday and dutifully wishing me on time.

The last week has been good fun, I’ve been showing Hyderabad around to one of my good friends from England which has also given me the opportunity to see various places in the city which I otherwise would not have seen. The city has certainly changed for the better over the course of the year but not too drastically, which is good since I like it the way it is. Some places that I quite enjoyed going include the Chowmahalla Palace and Ramoji FIlm City. I also met up with the Photography Club a couple of times and got some pretty good shots, all of which I have/shall be uploading on Flickr. The more eventful of the meetings being the time when we went to the newly opened Panjagutta flyover the night before it was inaugrated to get some shots of the flyover which we probably wont be ever able to get again since it’ll never be completely empty ever again.

My sincere apologies for not having posted on the site for over a week and in order to compensate for this absence, I have a surprise in store for everyone tomorrow so make sure you visit the site sometime late on the 15th of July!

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After having settled in the hot and humid weather of Hyderabad, I met up with some old friends from the Hyderabad Photography Club and we decided to go to Charminar for some street photography. We walked around the streets, as one does for street photography, after which we proceeded to have some classic Irani Chai and Osmania Biscuit at a local cafe. The Irani tasted better than ever and it also came in cups which looked like they hadnt been washed since the time of Nizams. Its small things like that which make Hyderabad the place it is. We also went up to the top level of Charminar which provided some great views of the surrounding areas. The one that intrigued me was the lack of fences around the level which is a serious safety threat and if anyone trips, it is highly possible that they’ll down a good 75ft before they hit the ground. Regardless of the safety issue, it feels nice to be up there at that height and admire the view.

Today, we went to the Villart Photography Expo at People’s Plaza in Necklace road. It was an okay show with about 4 stalls being really good out of about 25. It was definitely worth going, not only for those 4 good stalls but also to get a general feel of what is going on in the Indian photography market. One of the 4 stalls which I liked was the Canon stall, simply because I got to handle a Canon 5D w/ 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM with a 580EX II. It was very heavy initially but the lens was quite awesome and I toyed around with it for a while before having to hand it back to the people there. There was also a stall which had some movie cranes for demo and one my friends got to play around with the cranes for sometime. They seemed pretty cool and innovative. The Elinchrom stand was amazing too, the man was kind enough to give us a demo of the remote system of their line of Studio flashes and also allow us to have a go at it. The whole expo was a pretty good experience and we finished it off with a casual talk with some more friends at a coffee shop.

I have been uploading all my new photographs solely on Flickr and you can see the latest photos at my photostream here.

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I got back to good ol’ Hyderabad early Sunday morning and had Biryani for the lunch on the same day without wasting any time. It feels good to be back home where I belong with the various elements that make Hyderabad what it is.

I had an interesting experience near Heathrow airport where I was spending a night before catching my early plane on Saturday morning. I was happily taking photographs with my Carl Zeiss 135mm f/3.5 when I was approached politely by a police office who wished to know whether I had permission to take photographs there. As expected, I replied ‘no’ and then he requested to see the photographs that I’d taken which I promptly did. He asked for some to be deleted which I also promptly did and once that was done, he talked to me about how taking photographs near the airport is illegal without permission and that I shouldnt have done so. I plead ignorance since I knew of no such law and there were no boards pointing that out. He was kind enough to let me go off with a “friendly warning” to quote him, and said he would have to arrest me if I continued to take photographs. Following this, I thanked him and left back to my hotel counting my blessings for having gotten off, thanks to the friendly cop.

And in other photography related news, I have fallen in love with both my Carl Zeiss lenses which are just insanely sharp beyond belief. The 135mm is sharper than the 35mm and these have become my favourite lenses now. The 35mm is my walkaround lens now, replacing the 18-250mm which I use solely for wide-angle and sports now. My 50mm had the misfortune of being dropped once and now has problems in manual focus but auto focus seems to function perfectly well.

I met with some friends today and a couple of days ago and have been catching up on things that I missed over the past 6 months. It felt nice to meet them after a somewhat long time and socialise once again like the good ol’ days.

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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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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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Following several weeks of lusting after Biryani and curries with my English friends, we finally decided to go for an Indian meal a couple of days ago. The restaurant we decided to go to was aptly named ‘Curry India’ and was located at Crouch St. in Colchester. The first impression of the restaurant was good, it had good ambiance, a delicious smelling aroma greeting us and seemed posh.

There were 8 of us, and funnily enough, I was the only Indian in this gathering. The restaurant had a set dinner meal which the waiter tried to market to us but I wasnt falling for his tactics, we said we would order from the menu instead of this so-called “set dinner meal”. The menu was extensive with several obvious spelling mistakes, some of the more prominent ones were Masala being spelled Mosalla and Biryani spelt as Biriany. It did annoy me slightly but I thought it was permissible since they were about 5000 miles from India.

I did lower my expectations before ordering so that I would not be disappointed with the meal. Being the Hyderabadi that I am, I ordered Persian Chicken Biryani since I thought it would bear the closest resemblance to Hyderabad Biryani. My friends were a bit more adventurous ordering things varying from Mushroom Biryani to Gammon Steak.

The ambiance of the restaurant was pretty good, there was old Hindi music playing away in the background as we have in the Dhabas by the highways. The lighting was dim but yet not too dark which allowed me to have proper conversations with my friends across the table without having to squint to see who I was talking to.

The service was decent with seemingly enthusiastic waiters although we did have to wait for an unusually long time for the second round drinks that we had ordered and had to remind them before the got us the drinks.

The food arrived fairly quickly, it looked and smelled wonderful and all of us couldnt wait to start munching. As for my Biryani, it was quite disappointing because it wasnt even Biryani. It was what I would called fried rice by Indian standards. I did eat all of it, mainly because I was quite hungry.

What I expected -

Hyderabadi Biryani from Paradise by jennn

What I got -

Okay, maybe the pile of rubbish is probably exaggerating it but the meal definitely wasnt the authentic Indian food that I had come for. It could probably pass off as Indian food to the English but they werent going to fool me. Of course, I do have to consider the fact that the majority of the people in the restaurant were English and believed that this was real Indian food and appeared to be quite satisfied by it. They also probably dont have the same ingredients as one would get in India but whatever be the reason, I wasnt pleased. If it wasnt for the great company provided by my friends, the entire night could’ve been ruined. I definitely had a good time, but mainly due to the social factor and slightly due to the food. However, I have to say that the social factor was also probably influenced by the good ambiance so the restaurant did provide to the good evening if not directly.

Final ratings -

Ambiance - 7/10
Food - 4/10
Service - 7/10

Overall rating - 6/10

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I went Gliding yesterday after more than a month. I’d forgotten how much fun it is to glide and had some very enjoyable flights yesterday. The weather has improved which made the whole experience more pleasurable and we had a great day out at the airfield.

GTA IV comes out in less than 2 days. I wasnt really anticipating the release of the game that much since I’m not as interested in games as I was 2 years ago when San Andreas came out. However, I did want to try out the game just once to see how it is and if there is enough improvement as has been publicised. And yesterday, I read IGN’s review of the game and they gave it a perfect score of 10 and called it ‘One of the best games ever’. I also watched the gameplay videos which are totally awesome. And some of my friends over at GTAGaming got invited for all expenses paid trip to New York by Rockstar Games to have a sneak preview of GTA IV, you can read about their exciting experience here. These events have reinstated my interest in the game and I look forward to release. You can see a countdown to the release of the game here.

I got a PC Sync Extension cable for my cameras flash so that I can fire both of my flash simultaneously indoors, I have taken some exciting photos with some new techniques and you can view some of these on my Flickr Stream and my 365 Day Project. I can also use my flash outdoors now, using the cable and I’ve been experimenting to get unique shots which can be seen in the links above.

I had an Economics Test a couple of days which went fairly well. My exams start on May 12th and ending on May 30th. I also got the result of my Politics Essay and I was quite happy with it as was my teacher.

In order to make my domain more ‘UK-friendly’, I have now redirected my previous derelict website and domain name - Cozmonite.com, to this site so that now anyone who visits that domain can click a link to visit this site which is my primary website.

And I have some big plans about the photo gallery which I shall try and implement soon so that it will be easier to view photos here.

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I got back from Seaton last Sunday and have been able to access the internet on my laptop today only. Seaton was great, we walked to several places around the coast including Sidmouth, Beer, Lyme Regis, etc. Got lots of great photographs which I shall upload once I get back to University. I spent the last 4 days in North Dorset visting several historic locations. We went to the Stonehenge which was not as impressive as I expected it to be although it was still quite nice. We went for a nice long walk in the Stourhead Gardens which were very beautiful and had a great time with my friends there. We also saw one of the locations for a scene in the movie ‘Pride and Prejudice’ there. We visited Old Wardour castle after that which was a lot better inside than it appeared from the outside. It was also one of the locations for the movie ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’. We spent a considerable amount of time looking around the place and had a lot of fun.

I spent my first April Fools Day away from my family, it probably sounds funny to you but was quite emotional for me since my dad always used to fool me on the morning of every single April Fools day, and I really missed him.

I arrived in Oxford today morning and I went for a tour bus ride to get a general idea of the whole place. After that, I got off the bus and walked around half the city and it took lesser time than I imagined. The city is very beautiful and has a very authentic English feel to it. It has a lot of people wandering around, a majority of who appeared to be students of the University. I saw most of the important places to visit in the city today and will probably visit the rest tomorrow which will be my last day here.

I will be able to update the 365 Day Project only after I get back to University due to various technical problems. I sincerely apologize for the delay caused.

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