Picturesquer: 2008

14.8.08

IC 211

I've been taking my camera to the skies since it has been allowed.

AFC Challenge Cup, 2008, India vs Tajikistan

I don't play football but it's so nice to cheer for your team.

7.7.08

Old is gold! Golkonda Fort is 10 km west of Hyderabad city. This fort was meant for defence hence one will find not much of the finespun intricate architecture like the northern Indian forts. Golkonda Fort was one of the reasons of the downfall of Aurangzeb. I ain't a history scholar, you can always google its history for further reference hehe

6.7.08

Golkonda Fort 2

Qutub Shahi nobles used to use this place for photo sessions 600 years ago (: And today the models are LP and CL...

Golkonda Fort 1

Golkonda Fort is built on a 400-ft. high hill, its highest point occupied by a double-storeyed structure, originally called Tana Shahi ki Gaddi. It is now known as Bala Hisar, which is the inner area marked for palaces. One of the most magnificent fort complexes in the country, Golkonda, meaning shepherd hill, was built consecutively by three dynasties, the Kakatiyas, the Bahmanis and the Qutub Shahis, the major contribution coming from the latter. It betrays the confluence of Hindu and Muslim architectural perceptions of the times. It was the capital of the Bahmani kings first and the Qutub Shahis later for sometime, before they shifted the capital to what is now the old city of Hyderabad. Legend has it that Golkonda was the centre of a flourishing trade in diamonds and that the world-famous Kohinoor diamond came from this market.

7.6.08

Barking Deer

Taramani Guest House, IIT Chennai. Barking deers(sazuk in Mizo) are found aplenty in IIT Chennai campus.

Chennai

From atop St. Thomas Mount, Chennai.

Mango

Mango Mango everywhere

Centre for Modeling Simulation and Design, University of Hyderabad

The Way

F/2.7, Exposure time 1/200 sec.

17.3.08

Please don't pluck

Spring is come so does the fruit.

Tree

An inspiration from calliopes-canticles

Macro 2

I don't know what they are called but they are just beautiful. The red one is a bunch of tiny flowers (for scale, the bunch is about the size of a match box)

12.3.08

My hostel in University of Hyderabad

It's a scenic place surrounded by gigantic ashoka trees. There are nine hostels for men (another one under construction) of which the four oldest hostels are identical in design and capacity, mine being one of those four. There are chandeliers and the loos and baths are English in design. I guess it's another British hangover we just have to live with.

11.3.08

Macro shots

Focal length 6mm, F-stop f/2.7

Clockwise spin!

9.3.08

Club 8

The picture says it all hehe

Wine

I like the wine-kuhva hring contrast (:

Nzamiah Observatory

I visited the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad and got a chance to photograph the Nizamiah Observatory which played an important part in the first ever international project for collaboratively photographing and mapping the skies - the Carte du Ciel. The observatory, which was the first to have catalogued and mapped both the Northern and Southern skies, now stands desolate and in ruins.

In 1887, at the meeting of the International Congress which established the Astrographic Catalogue, the zone from -17 to -23 degrees was assigned to the Observatory of Santiago. By 1900, the work was still not progressing, so a proposal to establish an observatory in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, was made. This, too, did not progress so the Observatory of Santiago was asked to re-undertake the project. At the same time, the Nizamiah Observatory offered to work on this zone as well. So, in 1909 there were two observatories offering to work on the -17 to -23 zone. A resolution passed by the Congress in 1909 assigned the -17 to -20 zone to the Nizamiah Observatory. After completing the photographing and measuring of these four bands in 1920, the International Astronomical Union recommended that the Nizamiah Observatory continue photographing down to -23 degrees declination. This work was completed in 1928. This zone between -17 and -23 degrees is known as the Hyderabad South zone. It also observed a section of the sky in the Northern hemisphere that Potsdam, a city in Germany, was originally assigned. This zone, between +36 and +39 degrees, is known as the Hyderabad North zone.

The Nizamiah Observatory, which still houses the 15" telescope, is located at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies campus in Hyderabad.