Haputale

After so much of waiting my midterms finally came to an end. It hadn't occurred to me until recently, that once we start the semester we don't have much of a break. I dunno if it's a good thing, lots of work and little play makes Jack a dull boy.

Anyway, leaving all that a side I got a chance to take a short break and go to Bandarawela to take a look at a camp site we are planing to go to. On our way we passed, I would say one of the best sites you would ever come across in Sri Lanka, Haputale. I'm sure Kirigalpoththa would agree.

Haputale is located roughly 170Km from Colombo, the capital. The Climb is very famous among tourists because of the view. The road runs along a edge of many mountains showing travelers a spectacular view. Sadly this trip was made before I got my new camera. The pictures you see below were taken using "Kalu Kella".

The clods, the shadows it made, the green, was mesmerizing.

Mountains were covered with tea plantations, which made it even more mind blowing.

The sunlight that escaped through thick clouds and hit the mountains added wonderful patterns to the scene.

The gorgeous tree that I love, I still dunno why.

Hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers!

Thaipusam

I was returning home after the guitar class I do on  Saturday. As I walked out of the building the class is held, I started to hear awesome oriental music. I walked to the top of the road and was shocked to see what was happening.

It was a Hindu procession. There were a good 75 - 100 trucks carrying  people on hooks. Thats right, people on frigging hooks. I have seen similar stuff before. Nothing I had seen before could compare to the grand scale of this giant even. So much of "Kohomba" leaves were used to decorate the event, so much so it gave a jungle effect to the scene.

Thaipusam, as I later found out, is a a festival celebrated by Hindu's all over the world. Thaipusam is celebrated to commemorate the occasion where Parvathi gave Murugan a Vel(spear) to vanquish a evil deamon called Soorapaadam. Kavadi dancers, kavadi dancers on hooks and many devout believers take part in a procession that lasts for several hours. The procession takes a set route, usually from one Temple to another.

I'm usually fascinated by extreme things people do, and all ways try to capture it on film. Sadly I did not have my new Gadget with me. Although "Kalu kella" was right there with me. I managed to get some decent pictures.

Thu guy on top swings the tree, it makes the Dancer to swing which intern pulls on the hooks , which intensifies the pain. More pain, more god-Merit.

Children are brought to these believers on hooks to be blessed by the spirit which is in them.

Sometimes two, three believers are hanged in one truck.

This is one of the most extreme ones I saw. He had a hook on his fore head and even on his inner thighs. I couldn't fathom what I was seeing for a while.

If you look closely, you can see how the hooks are pulled when the dancer swings himself from side to side. This dancer had a extra rope attached to the tree he was hung to make himself swing.

I stood by the side of the road for quite sometime looking and enjoying this magnificent festival. It was another splendid occasion which popped the thought of how amazing the world is. Just imagine how boring it would be if the world was not so colorful. The world has so much flavor because of the different cultures it has and because of what the people of those cultures do.

The world is one AWESOME place

I hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers!

Sky Watch

So yesterday, I tried my hands on some night sky pictures. The lowest shutter speed on my cam is 4 seconds, which is not really enough for low light landscape shooting. Although, some pictures were kinda cool. The moon has just started showing up on the west sky. Really fascinated with the super beauty they portrait. I should be studying, my mid term exams are scheduled for next Wednesday. I just finished a maths assignment and thought I would distract myself with something. It really works. Anyway, all that jazz apart. Here are the pictures.

There is star right above the moon. I was in awe and was speechless for quite a while. I hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers!

So long? Yikes!

First of all my apologies for not commenting on any of your posts. It has been a long time since I posted anything. I have been so so busy during the last few months. I mean this is the longest I have stayed without posting anything. Well the main reason was my uncle getting married. The guy lives in Japan. We had to do all the planing. Gosh it was crazy.

The greatest thing about the past few weks is that I got my camera. The one I was dying for, for a long time. I wanted a Rebel T1i but it was way too expensive. I thought I'd settle for a Power shot sx20. So my uncle who was getting married was supposed to bring that for me. The guy comes, hands me a box. Now I'm guessing inside is the Canon but to my surprise it was not. It was a Pentax x90! I've never heard of it before. I was a little upset, ahh make that "very". My heart sank when I saw it. So I pull it out and start messing with it.

The cam was quite good, it was actually better than the SX20. Only scene is I'm a Canon fan boy and it was hard to make up my mind about me not using a Canon. It had a great 26x optical zoom. I have never heard of that kinda zoom in a point and shoot. The ISO could go up to 6400. It had a good shutter speed of 1/4000 sec. It also had a good battery. And in no time I fell in love with it, and now I'm officially a "Pentaxian" (Looks at Chavie).

Say hello :P

So these days, I am hammering away pictures. I try and carry it around everywhere I go and she has been nothing but a blessing. Here are a few shots I managed to take.

The very familiar sunset, from my roof top.

Once again. sorry for not commenting. I hope you guys understand.

Hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers!