REFLECTIONS
Picture Courtesy: M-Y-S-E-L-F

Imagine 20 years from now, categorized as a ‘woman of substance’ by the World, you ponder down your memory lane at an old snapshot and remember the old times.  You realize that you’ve been through a lot, and the experience you’ve gained has taken you through life’s storms. This pierces through your heart, making you feel like you miss your Alma Mater. Then you look at the world around you, and you feel burdened. You’ve reached all heights of glory thanks to your education, and your hard work; but your fellow citizens are still struggling, what can you do about them?

Education is not just about learning and then imparting that learning to lead a better life, education is also about sharing knowledge. It does not matter if you are a product of Harvard, IIMs or even Symbiosis; you have a responsibility to the society. If you can foster that responsibility under an umbrella like Symbiosis, you have done justice to the education you have earned.

‘Educate a boy, and you educate an individual; educate a girl, and you educate a whole community!’

-Anoop Mathai Mathew 

P.S.: The original unedited version of this Picture won the Best Photography Award at UMEED 'Pictography for a Social Cause' Competition at Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management, Pune, India.

A cup of coffee in my hands and a laptop on my desk, a swivel chair to sit on, with nothing but a lungi on, I began writing this Easter morning.

Writing about what? you may ask.

So I've come up with the perfect idea to soothe your genuine curiosities with.

I am writing about me, the Indian.

Why? What's so new about it?

Well, isn't that itching enough to read? Even before we started bleeding our sins into these machines of modern era, we were once a clustered group of nature lovers. Today, as we survive in these slowly turning concrete jungles of hatred and despair, let us look back at what we've lost along the way. Our integrity is at stake as none of us really like each other anymore. Even if we have no choice but to do, we hide the truth behind plastic smiles that were professionally scripted thanks to the abundance of cheap dentistry at our side.  

Nature lovers?

Huh! Old might be still gold, but who needs Gold anyways? Diamonds are the new trend! So your favorite quote is now smitten upon but some substitute made of carbon! Think about it. Why do we need the wealth of nature when our beloved homes bling around diamonds?

Life gets easy with these new advancements. True that! Yet, why are we not happy? We turn our homes and cities into indigenous master-pieces taking care to cut down trees that obstruct the view or even the very foundations of our lovely homes. But how many of us really try to plant a new one in place of it. If you look at the cities these days, all the lovely trees that used to shade the roads are now being cut to pave way for our technological advancements to be established. Metros, concrete buildings and every other mall is a part of the story behind the destruction of our once beautiful cities.

I am not against development. I fully support it. But all I am asking is what have we done post-development stage? Have we provisioned new trees in front of our shopping malls? No!

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Open your eyes you fools! Think about the future of these cities! What would become of these if we don’t give room to some trees? Of course they might obstruct your underground pipelines or other links, but still, leave at least one tree in that parking lot area which you've concreted away. Isn't it better even for your cars to be parked under the shade? Desperate measures are to be taken to re-initiate common sense and the need to keep our areas cooler.  The beauty of your architecture is never compromised even if a few trees are standing! Learn from the Arabs and Persians!

The El Nino factor is definitely going to be mind-blowing over the coming years. And if you don’t want to rot away in that, keep you places intact. Or else your kids whom you've nurtured with more than sufficient knowledge will hold you responsible for it!

Seeking Light in the Darkness
[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

Even in darkness, the flower seeks light; we humans are no different!

P.S.: Shot at Edathua, Alappuzha, Kerala, India with 50mm prime lens and Canon EOS 600D

To download the FREE wallpaper, check out My Deviantart.

"I love like a leaf in the wind..." - Jared Kintz

P.S.: Shot on a windy day at the heart of Kochi.

Gear: Canon EOS 600D and 50mm Prime lens.

Download the FREE wallpaper version from My Deviantart.

This is the photograph I took of the Scarlet that flew outside my window. 

More more photos, like and visit TheImperfectSnap

The Lonely Candy Man!
by Anoop Mathai Mathew

Battling both Sun and Rain,
His shadows walked the sand;
In an eager effort to feed his kin,
Who awaited their sibling's grand...!

P.S.: Picture Taken at Alappuzha Beach by Anoop Mathai Mathew for The Imperfect Snap.

Was just having some fun with these photographs. They are after-all my cousin's pets, and are quite awesome creatures. 

Photography is all about the fun you have isn't it?

If you liked this, please hit a like here. Thanks!

This is the Cat who has conquered my attic. The view you are seeing is the view that I get from my bed at night.

If you liked this photo, check out my other photos here. Also don't forget to hit a like over here.

It had been a long time. By long, I mean long enough to forget all about ourselves and where we came from. We had grown apart and now lacked the coordination that once glued us together. On recalling the past, a rush of excitement and sheer loss filled my heart. A ceremonial event was required to refurbish our minds to adapt into the realm of friendship. Being schoolmates didn't instill any sort of alumni enthusiasm as the years faded away. Time had inked our past as a story in each of our chapters. We never thought we could get closer again – the few of us.

The Chaos in the Chatter
Image Courtesy: DW-WP

By birth - a victim of war, and by growth - a social cynic, I was stuck in India with the unusual urge to commit myself to patriotism. The country had inspired my mind to bloom in thought. The nature and the naturist scenes of life portrayed, displayed a naive impact in my heart. Time again, I felt lonely.  No amount of pleasure could soothe my inner thirst. I wanted more than the life that I lived. Feeling an inner urge to get back in touch with my friends kept lingering in the back of my mind. I longed for people to respond in the social network. Due to the chaotic life circumstances and a billion other things to do, people never got the time to get together and converse. Even if they did, the conversation would not last for more than a couple of minutes. I didn't know any of my friends like I did before. They were all strangers to me, who were once part of a meaningful past. The greatest curse mankind has got is loss of memory. You tend to forget things and people. Time does not heal often. You need to heal.

We all want to be heard, but do we listen?
Image Courtesy: KAPLANCO

One night, while lazing at home, an idea surged into my head. I was introduced to WeChat by a colleague, and he said that it was a good form of getting in touch. I did not take it seriously at first. On exploring through the internet, I found out that it was reliable. So I installed it that night into my smartphone. After leaving school, I had kept in touch with only a hand full of friends and that too once in a blue moon. School life in my foster-motherland of Kuwait was exciting. Evening tuition and hangouts at various shopping malls and street corners was a thing of my past. But now, I had only about five friends in my contact list to cherish those memories with. Nonetheless, I added them on a group in WeChat. 

Creating a connection
Image Courtesy: LonerWolf 

At first, it wasn't easy to get everyone to come online. But when they all did, it was like Christmas in summer! And with Christmas comes lots of fun. We began our occasional chatting, and recollecting of the past. My batch mates are scattered all over the world, and the ones close to me were the ones in India – the ones I was chatting with. I wanted to expand my boundaries and be in touch with everyone around the globe, at the same time. So began my search for contact details. I kept pulling out all links I could grab my hands on. It felt like creating a miniature social networking platform. More and more folks were added, and the conversation and gossips never stopped. We were live 24/7 thanks to the fact that people were there in various corners of the world. Most of us flooded the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan and Bangladesh, while a few of us were stranded all over the USA, UK and Canada. Three of them even found their way to the Caribbean Islands, and one drifted off to Australia. I couldn't sleep on the first night of celebration, and everyone was equally excited. The reality had struck us by storm, and it felt like a rain of blessing to be alive and together again – talking, fighting and loving each other’s company. I had recreated my classroom that was believed to be lost and scattered five years ago! We had engineers and engineering graduates, doctors, teachers and business professionals in our batch. We also brought in one of our teachers every now and then to enhance the classroom atmosphere. What turned out as a lazy evening thing, has now become a daily activity. Lucky for me, all my friends all well off and most of them have started working. It's hard to say when a real reunion is possible, but the foundation stone has been laid - it'll be done with time in our favour!

A glimpse of the Recipe!
Image Courtesy: TOBYHK.com

Now our group is live almost all the time, and people stay in touch. We no longer ignore each other, and are cool about the transformation from childish plays to adulthood pranks. At least we all got each others' contact numbers. All thanks to WeChat!

P.S.: This post is dedicated to all those lovers of WeChat, and to the contest that WeChat has put up at IndiBlogger.in.