Last, not the least!

Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not the merits of who receives them. ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

As the year is coming to an end and the mood has already become festive, we have something here to liven up your mood too. Let’s look at some of the most-appearing themes on our blog this year (excluding the common ones such as TimePass, Reminiscences, Philosophy, Family, Comedy, etc.): Camera (12), Academia (9), Travel (9), Nature (8), Food (6), Nokia (5), Shayari (5), Music (4), Survey (4), Windows (4) and Sketchbook (3). So this last post of the year will be dedicated to reviewing some of these themes.

Enjoy the Shers by different poets first.

शायद डगर सरल हो, कुछ दूर चल के देखें
कुछ तुम बदल के देखो, कुछ हम बदल के देखें

Shaayad dagar saral ho kuch door chal ke dekhen
Kuch tum badal ke dekho, kuch ham badal ke dekhen

The path may be easier to tread, let’s walk along a bit
You change yourself a bit, I will change myself a bit

– डॉ. अनिल शर्मा (Dr. Anil Sharma)

उन्हे भूलना या उन्हे याद करना
वो बिछड़े है जब से यही मशगला है

Unhen bhoolna ya unhen yaad karna
Wo bichhde hain jab se yahi mashgala hai

To remember or to forget
Is the crisis since we parted

– ख़ुमार बाराबंकवी (Khumar Barabankvi)

बिछडते वक़्त उन आँखों में थी हमारी ग़ज़ल
ग़ज़ल भी वो जो कभी किसी को सुनाई न थी

Bichhadte waqt un aankhon mein thi hamaari ghazal
Ghazal bhi woh jo kabhi kisi ko sunaai na thi

There was my Ghazal in his eyes when he left
That too the Ghazal which was never recited

– नासीर तुराबी (Naseer Turabi)

कौन अपना या पराया नदीश छोड़ो भी
मिले इंसान जहाँ जब भी भले प्यार करें

Kaun apna ya paraaya Nadeesh chhodo bhi
Mile insaan jahan jab bhi bhale pyaar karen

Nadeesh, don’t worry about friends or strangers
Love those who seem to be benevolent characters

– लोकेश नदीश (Lokesh Nadeesh)

प्यार गर प्यार है तो उभरेगा
लाख उसके करो निशाँ गायब

Pyaar gar pyaar hai to ubhrega
Laakh uske karo nishaan gayab

Love, if it is true love, will persist and flourish
Even if its signs are erased a million times over

– सुल्तान अहमद (Sultan Ahmed)

Let me share some very old Sketchbook snippets next. These are amongst my favorite ones when I had just started reading Sketchbook. Enjoy while listening to this music.

Here Sora is trying to understand how a life event has changed the cat named ‘Grey’ and what are some of the characteristics of the cat ‘Mike’.Sora is feeling liberated by getting to use a Deskel in the following panels:

The following picture is one that my Superpartner made using ‘Photofunia’ app and her name is Kokage Kuga. The first time he asked me to guess, I called her Sora… He was disappointed! hehe

and this is her lovely and cute cat ‘Yutanpo’:

He has very recently bought a Panasonic’s GX7 and has finished reading its Manual (It was not a basic instruction manual, it was an advanced guide worth of 380 pages!). Who reads manuals, anyways? Somebody please explain that to him! If you wish to read a manual-like review of the camera, here is one. He kept talking about its weight, colour, body, design, art filters, lens, shutter button, manual focus adjustments, etc. almost everyday while reading that guide and some of those comments were:

• ‘GX7 did a great job at focusing on the right thing!’ (when a bird flew towards him out of nowhere and he blindly hit the shutter button!).
• ‘It's not heavier than E-PL1, maybe it's lighter. It feels solid too…’
• ‘Man, this camera gives hints to buttons or what could be next settings change... liking its attitude :)’ (Who says I’m the only funny person here? )

There was a time like this too before he bought the camera:

He: You're thinking of punching me, aren't you? :)

Me: I sure am, punches won’t suffice. I deserve more for hearing your camera stories everyday :P

But all the efforts seem worthwhile when I look at the pictures clicked from the camera. ‘All is well that ends well’.

People in Pilani taught me that confession sessions are a must before a new year starts. They say that it helps in having no regrets against someone. Should I be confessing then? O yes, I shouldn’t have gotten that passionate about a greeting card. I did not listen / watch closely to how he likes to keep things organized in the room and placed things in my own way. I did not catch the right train and was late for the trip to West Meadow Beach. I feel really sorry that I messed up with that plan. But at the end of the day, everything fitted perfectly like this fully solved crossword:

and it was all a lot of fun like this:

Or like this:

Keeping up with the program, here is something to cheer up this guy (have teased and laughed at him many times on the Blog, all for fun though).

Lastly, here’s the last ‘end-of-the-post-link’ for this year, which concerns photography from GX7

Merry Christmas and a very Happy new Year!!!