The CHOLAs Chorus – free & random thoughts!

It’s one thing to create a blog, but it’s quite another to maintain it. The status quo of the blog is but proof of this, for there hasn’t evidently been much activity. You know we created it in 2009. Two years on, we welcome 2012 today. Even as we celebrate the dawn of the New Year and hope it has peace, prosperity, and happiness in store for us all in the 365 days ahead, we look back only to confirm that we have sure come a long way but haven’t covered much distance. Yes, we have failed to deliver what we promised. That we promised only to ourselves is a solace. (more…)

It’s not often that one gets to have a double sundae. So for somebody who has  had the good fortune to win an open scholarship and successfully complete it, it is sort of a perfect antonym of double whammy, indeed, to be featured in a publication dedicated to celebrating 60 years of Australian scholarship in South and South East Asia.

Published by the Australian Education International, Commonwealth of Australia, the book, titled “Endeavours of Excellence” was released a few months back, and last Thursday (1 December 2011), (more…)

Today I opened my blog after a two-month estrangement. The estrangement was without rhyme or reason but the thaw wasn’t, for it takes two to tango. Many break up because of irreconcilable differences or each fails to stick to the other, but I broke away because of premature writer’s block. But perhaps the reconciliation was ill-timed: No sooner had I visited it and begun to scroll through the photos my co-blogger uploaded as substitutes for the unwilling write-ups than a chatty couple cuckolded it. (more…)

This October was a month that would go down very well with most Bhutanese, and dare I say, the hundreds of foreigners who visited. It started off on a festive high with the Thimphu Lhamoi Drubchen, an annual fare ever since Je Kinga Gyesthen instituted it back in the 18^th Century, followed by the Thimphu Tshechu, celebrating, yet once again, the magical and paranormal deeds of Guru Padmasambhava.

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Photography is all about light, and according to an established American photographer, you’d have all the slick photography gear in the world and yet you’d be dead as a dodo if you don’t care to understand light and lighting! “Lighting essentials,” as they’d put is the running mantra for serious photographers.

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We cannot always be sticklers for grammar and correct usage, for most of us wouldn’t read many of our papers if we were. News should, of course, take precedence over grammar and syntax. As long as an error isn’t egregious or destructive or repetitive, every other thing deserves more attention and consideration in this fast-track world. Unless you are a writer or grammarian, you are neither pedantic nor expected to be one. You’d better remember this, or else you are irritatingly fussy. Ostentatious?  Perhaps.  (more…)

I stumbled upon High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography a year back while reading a popular photography book. I was taken in by that near-surreal kind of look those images had.

It’s a concept that enables viewers to see that extreme range of exposure – shadows and highlights – which otherwise would have been impossible to capture on a camera sensor.  So an HDR image would usually be a result of three or more images of different exposure levels blended into one using an HDR merging software.

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What has always baffled me is our love/hate relationship with change. It’s not change per se that’s baffling, but the quality of change. Change for the better or change for the worse, that’s the indomitable characteristic of change that’s beyond the remit of any agent. And that’s to reaffirm that change is unchallenged. (more…)

Getting up, close, and personal, and yes, down and dirty with my immediate natural surrounds!

A sneak peek into some of my most recent macro-shots! Enjoy!

Note: All photographs are highly compressed versions of their original files

All images © Lakey

No image may be reproduced in any way without prior permission from the artist.

Blossom Forth

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That’s catchy and inspirational, too. And the inspiration flashes across your mind. Immediately afterwards you sit down to write. Sometimes you do it in bedroom, sometimes in workplace and sometimes, better still, in reading room. Occasionally you do it standing anywhere but home. It’s quickie writing once in a while. (more…)