A little bit of Gujarat in Jersey

Lets get one thing straight : Garba is NOT Dandiya..


Dhintak Dhintak, Dhidhanda, Dhintak.........or close to it is the beat of every breath in Gujarat during Navratri nights.   Having lived in the US for more than a quarter of a century, Navratri is the only time of the year when I truly miss my hometown of Vadodara India. 


 I am bit of a garba snob.......yes, I admit it!  I tend to complain if the music is off beat and I have even walked away from the venue by the sound of "munni badnaam huyi, darling tere liya.."  Upon entering a garba hall if I see a set of western drum set, I know that the dholi is nowhere to be found and short of sulking, my disappointment is well advertised.  The season gets the better of me and I do manage to get into the spirit just a bit.  Others have said I get into it "intensely".  I am sticking to my version though. 


 And despite all odds, I made it!!!!!


I must say though 2011 was one of the better Navratris that I have experienced in the US.  The first couple sessions started out with somewhat reasonable music but one single session with traditional musicians and vocalist made up for what was lacking in the season.  I was more than happy to close the Navratri season on that high note.  My  motherhood nudged me to yet another garba evening as the youth in our area (mine included) had organized garba to raise funds for the March of Dimes.  Having spent whatever extra energy I had in the earlier garba sessions of the year, I decided to lug along my paraphernalia to take a break from dancing and shoot some pictures instead.  J was not there so no one to stop me for carrying the stuff and the drum set you saw early on was an added incentive.


If you are from Vadodara, no explanation is needed.........just enjoy the movement and let your imagination run with whichever voice enters your head; kalhansbhai, shamaben, atul purohit, achal mehta.......there..... I have dated myself royally by now.

Dancing the Vadodara Style

        

     

Teens enjoying the Sanedo in their own style!

And then finally it was time to sit down!

Until next Navratri - who knows - might be in Vadodara!

Around the corner!

Over the last week, in between dancing the weekends away, I have been busy on the blog front writing about a day on the northern coast of ireland or the coast of Northern Ireland to be politically correct. Not being too crazy about the format here, I decided to explore Dreamweaver.  It doesn't matter how dreamy the software is, if it is more than a few months old, it can be nightmarish.....and mine is a few years old.....so you get the drift.......Well, one exploration led to another and I ultimately ended up at HDR photography blogs......yeah - dont ask me how!  A photography comrade suggested a workshop and in the process the blog about northern ireland coast sailed off shore.  I will get back to it sooner or later but in the meantime I thought I would share some images of that workshop.  HDR is supposed to give you these picture perfect images.  But one cannot make postcard images if the scenery is not so......our workshop was in a tiny park surrounded by busy roads and homes in Plainfield, NJ.  No need to say more. There was one egret and a few 10 geese in the park that were shot at a thousand times between the four of us (camera shots!).  I came home, downloaded a trial version of an updated software to compile HDR shots and the results led a bit to be desired.  A couple days later, in between work and a doctors appointment, I carved out 30 minutes to head out 2 miles from my home to apply some of the HDR techniques.  The gods must be smiling that day since the clouds opened up in just  the right direction of the horizon.  The colors popped up and all izzz well (you got to be indian to get that joke!).  In the park close to my house, fall is heralded by a pink trailer and a pink canoe- all in keeping with breast cancer awareness.  I am hoping that all those who read this blog, women especially, get inspired by the pink boat to get their annual physicals done!  Enjoy the images.........Ireland will be towed in shortly.....so stay tuned.

Park in south Plainfield

 A fisherman enjoying the gorgeous fall afternoon

 
 

The assorted wildlife we were to capture as part of the workshop.

Images from the Park near my home!

Inspired yet?  If so, pick up the phone and make that appointment!

HDR Shots! 

Walking Brugge in a Day

Standing at the landing of the Belfry tower in Brugge, overlooking the courtyard, I see mirror synchronicity out of the corner of my eye.  They were a "mother daughter" pair, each oh so stylish: one right footed and another left footed.  It got me thinking, I wonder how many such images I may have passed or captured in my travels?  Wouldnt it be fun to catalogue them via a blog? Thats how adayhereandthere was born.

Isnt it typical?  Brugge trip was the main reason I got inspired to write a blog and so what happens? I write post after post and completely forgot about Brugge.  As I was fishing through my pictures for another purpose, I came across a "starred" picture that I shot in Brugge, yup - the same one that had provided an impulse to blog about a day trip here and there.  So a few weeks later, here we are:  Brugge in a day.
Since we could only spend a day in Brugge, we once again looked to the Belgium travel website for walk ideas (http://foto.brugge.be/dl/wandelinga.pdf) and started out with a monument walking tour.  As you will notice with our other tours, these never materialize quite as planned.   We reversed the tour and started out at Minnewater, Lake of Love.  With a hint of chill in the air and flat grayness in the sky, the day promised to be nothing spectacular.  But once at Lake of Love I noticed that the grayness just disappeared into every shade of earth tone of this medieval city.

Around the corner is the Beguine House.  Walking the serene and empty grounds transported us back in time as we happened to be there when the Sisters of the St. Benedict Order were in service.  Where were all the tourists that Brugge is so famous for?

Grounds of Beguine House

As we come out of the side entrance of the Beguine grounds on to Wijngardstraat, we were thrown in a sea of people and a cacophony of familiar sounds.  Why?  Because they were Americans on an off shore excursion from a cruise ship.  We swam along with the crowd and I was particularly overwhelmed by the juxtaposition of the architecture of quaint shops which exuded the charm of times gone by, with the commercialism of the present day.

Shop named after its landscape

A creative price billboard

Courtesy of a college kid walking around trying to catch an empty bridge

Looking into a private garden

Any which way you turn in this town you are awarded with amazing vistas.  A brewery window took recycling to the ultimate.

I waited for a good five minutes to catch a boat free image here

Brugge is all about Canal tours. Aah Canal tours - this would have been our third in three days, de ja vu!  The boat launch pads and boats themselves were picturesque.

The fishes had crafted themselves at closing time at the Fish Market.

The Church of our Lady was under construction so some of it was inaccessible but it was still worth a visit.

One of the special treats of this visit was the Friday morning service at the 12th Century Basilica of the Holy Blood in the Square.

View of the city hall from Basilica of the Holy Blood

Service at Basilica of the Holy blood

As we vacillated throughout the day between soaking in the beautiful architecture of the town and darting in and out of sucre' lands, we lost track of time and missed getting to Chocostory in time.  The ticket agent was more than willing to sell us a ticket at 4:55 pm but failed to mention that all patrons will be asked to leave at 5:00 pm.  Good thing I checked and so we enjoyed the gift shop instead and found a nice Pizza place to grab our first meal of the day.

Added 2 lbs to my luggage weight

 

After our light lunner, we started meandering along the streets again, this time completely ignoring the maps.  It was now J's idea to head back to the trains via Coupure to Boninvest.  Once again, as you can guess, those guide maps only get us started.  There is no guarantee to end the walk as per plan. 

The quiet section of town

 

That walk to the train station somehow led us in unfamiliar territory and we could not even see the tops of the landmarks.    Circling back after walking around for countless half hours, imagine my thrill at seeing some form of the sight below.  Yes! we can now get our bearings.

 The very last image I captured was of flanders being brought up to 20th century with the ubiquitous orange wires that are so prominent in my home state of Jersey.  A reality check to head home!

Could we have used more time in Brugge?  Sure!  Do we regret being there for only a day?  Absolutely not!  Getting back to Ghent and enjoying the canal front at Ghent was as special.