Tag: Photos

Agra sky over the decades

The BBC has an article with photos of celebrities in front of the Taj Mahal over the decades. The thing that caught my eye was how the sky is nearly never blue in the recent photos. While the yellowing of the Taj’s marble is well documented, the slow yellowing of our sky is well known but rarely discussed (GDP growth trumps everything else).

Here are the photos, chronologically arranged:

1959, Eisenhower
1992, Diana
1966, George Harrison
2000, Putin
2001, Aussie cricket team
2001, Musharraf
2015, Zuck
2016, Kate & William
2020, Trump

Of course this set is in no way representative. They are too few data points. All susceptible to the weather on the day, the camera settings, and the post processing.

There is also a bit of confirmation bias on my part. I’ve noticed, sadly, the disappearance of blue day skies and starry night skies for over two decades. And I probably looked at the photos to confirm that.

But this also gives an idea that this may not be the worst approach. There are probably billions of photos shared of the Taj on social media every year. We could create a program that scans for them, dates them, filters out the outliers, and then analysis the trend of sky colour (and Taj’s marble colour) over time. Time to put all that social media oversharing to good use :)

Budapest ‘87, Attila Manek

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Source, via this isn’t happiness

Everything about this photo is … ❤️

The strength in her left arm. Her erect posture, and core strength; no sinking hips.

The heels on her shoes. The wicker basket. The way she’s balancing the basket with her knee. And so how her right heel is so slightly lifted to help bend the knee.

The baby, unbothered by her state but keeping an eye on something. Sharing the carrier bag with the produce, nonchalance.

The clean, but not western supermarket clean, produce on display. Pedestrians all around.

The birthmark, or otherwise, on her right forearm. The angle of bend in the right arm. The strength, and maybe stress, in her shoulders.

The handsome guy with the dark red suitcase. He’s either checking her out, or the produce. His suitcase!

The guy, dressed like my dad in photos of his 20s & 30s, carrying a wire mesh bag.

The white shoes of the woman in the background, sharply in contrast with her well tanned legs.

So much more… but I keep returning to the first thing I see every time… the strength in that arm, those shoulders and her core.

RSS & site updates

New combined RSS feed

Added new combined RSS feed comprising posts from all the blogs hosted on this domain. The combined feed is available here: Adi's combined feed.

The combined feed includes:

  • Speak Easy—feed
  • Converge—site, feed
  • Middlering—site, feed
  • Paws N Pedals (never updated)—site, feed
  • Photos (new)—site, feed
  • The winter blog (rarely updated dev notes blog)—site, feed
  • Use my marker (highlights from Instapaper and kindle)—site, feed
  • App Updates (update notes for my apps and extensions)—site, feed

Photos & Books pages

The new photos blog, and the experimental books page are now linked from the home page.

Walk the dog…

I wake up early, make a coffee, and start working straight away. So, by 9 or 10 AM, I’ve got in 2-3 hours of work, and need a break. The dog and I go for a walk.

We return, we have breakfast, and I head up to work again. He sleeps.

After another couple of hours of focussed work, I’m in need of a break again by noon/1PM. So, unless R has already claimed it, the dog and I go for another walk.

We return, have lunch, and watch TV for a bit. Then I return to work upstairs, and he goes back to doing what he does best – sleep.

By around 6 or 7 in the evening, my head is screaming for a break again. Literally screaming – tinnitus has been getting quite bad lately. So we do whatever helps. A.k.a. the dog and I go for a walk, again.

I have always loved walking. I went for lone walks after fights with parents as a teenager. I enjoyed going for lone walks in Delhi in my early 20s – it helped living so close to Siri fort forest. I loved walking around the campus in Calcutta, and at the sea front in Bombay.

I occasionally enjoy company on my walks. I go for a daily walk with Dad when I’m in Karnal. I also enjoyed walking around with a few friends in Bombay and Calcutta. Once in a while I even enjoy having R come along for a walk.

More often, I prefer to be alone. Walks are my time to let the mind wander, or focus, or rest. Let the mind do what it wants while the legs, the lungs, and the heart get some loosening. After all most of the non-walking time is just the opposite – mind at work, everything else resting. Having company on a walk means the mind has to engage – converse, debate, listen (to remember). Not rest. Not recover.

Walking with Chewie isn’t the same. He doesn’t tax my mind too much, yet keeps my heart entertained. He loves all the tracks – muddy, sandy, gravely, boggy – that I keep exploring. He loves hills as much as I do. He enjoys exploring smells in the woods. He loves rivers and the sea. He enjoys being out and about, likely more than even me.

So, when I hit a mental road block with work, I look at him, and he’s up for it. We go for a walk.

When I’m anxious or tense, he takes me for a walk.

When I need to clear my head, or escape tension in the house, he indulges me with another walk.

I’m grateful to have him, always, on the walk.

Sometimes when I’m deep in work, when it’s -4°C and horizontal rain outside, when my body is still aching from the previous run/ride/swim/yoga, he comes and nudges my arm away from the keyboard with his nose. He wants to go for a walk.

I coddle him, delay him, curse him, plead with him. Then he wins. We go for a walk.

Continue reading Walk the dog…