My PhotoBlog - http://17myclicks.blogspot.com

Finally! I have created my photoblog.


I have always been interested in photography ( if I have to give a simple term -clicking pics, viewing pics and collecting pictures). However, the first time it took shape was about a decade ago when I got my first ever digital camera. It was a basic model of Nikon and I was the happiest with it clicking away pics of places I visit and almost anything I could see. In kannada there is a saying called manganige manikya bandha hage (which means that the monkey has discovered a gem)....which was true for me.


I started blogging around 2005 and wanted to have another one only for pictures and one for music (which did take shape here - but you will see that it is not updated as it was hard to maintain two).


I thank my parents for always encouraging me to be doing what I like, I thank my friends who backed me with anything I did (though some of my articles and photos were really not that good), I thank my husband for gifting me my second camera and first set of lens though he knew I wasn't going to be some great photographer.


I have been lucky to go places and I have tried to capture this in my own way to show what I see and how I see it.

http://17myclicks.blogspot.com is up!!!


I hope those of you who visit will enjoy what's on it.

A Beautiful Proposal

'Name a song that is your favourite' - That's quite a hard thing to do for most of us. The first thing one might say is 'It's hard to pick one, I have so many favourites'.

It's not any different with me, though; if I am really pushed to give an answer it's got to be either Rhim Jhim gire saawan (which I have blogged about before) or O mere dil ke chein (which I will be blogging about now).

I know what you are thinking - 2 songs! That’s not fair. Come on, I can have a choice of 2 amongst 1000s that are good. I like this song for the usual things - the music, the lyrics, the tune, the picturization and of course Kishore Kumar.

The song is where a boy asks the girl to be his for the rest of his life. The simplicity of the song is brought out in the lyrics which are more like the boy making a conversation with the love of his life asking her not to be scared, asking her to hold his hand and telling her that she means the world to him.

All this sounds a bit too cheesy isn't it, but honestly... that's what the song is all about and that's what makes it beautiful.

In its picturization, Tanuja has portrayed the shy girl who has just been told how special she is.  She has just been lifted off her two feet by the proposal. She is happy yet scared; she's over the moon but remains grounded to understand what her man is saying. Rajesh Khanna shows how eager he was to have her home and share the special feeling he had towards her.

This song makes me quote one from the book Shantaram 'Any Indian man will tell you that although love might not have been invented in India, it was certainly perfected there'

It's incomplete if I don't post the song here.

Friend-UnFriend: FaceBook

OK... This Topic might go nowhere.


There has been many times when I look at the number of 'friends' on my Facebook profile and get frustrated. Firstly, I am not in touch with most of them for more than 10 years or so. We are friends on Facebook for days, months, years, but haven't written a simple Hi to each other. When you see a birthday note popping up, you end up wishing - more like a ‘Oh! I have to wish now I know it is’. I don't blame anyone or the system. These are purely my thoughts.

There was a time when I was so angered with the quality of relationships that I decided to deactivate my account for a while. 2 people out of the 350+ friends noticed that I was not to be seen on it. Never mind...no heart burns there....for sure :). It definitely showed me something.

Don't get me wrong. I don't dislike Facebook. In fact, the reason why I am back on it is for the fact that I have found a few people in my life today I might never have found and I have to Thank FB as it was the platform that made it happen.

I think of it also as a great forum to post events. How would one know about all that's happening around at one given place? It is a brilliant way to advertise, market, invite the community you connect to.

On the other hand, you wish to disconnect from someone it happens with a click of a button - literally! It's a switch on or off to have a friend! How much more easier can it get!? Even better, you click a second time and you can block the person too! Wonder if your inner self could have a switch like that!

It reminds me of 'Tu-Say' that we used to do as little kids in kindergarten. 'Tu' confirming that we are not friends anymore and hence won't be talking and 'Say' bringing the friendship back, forgetting what might have happened.

There are too many things about friends and friendship and I am no genius to quote something new ....that said, I can copy something which I have liked and this quote in particular makes its place here

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”

― Elbert Hubbard

A simple Cup of Tea

Here I go again about Coffee and Tea... very typical of me to get caught onto some topics more than others. I would like to think of myself as a coffee lover. Have I mentioned that before? Well!!!

However, in the past few years I am inclined to drinking and enjoying tea as much as I enjoy Coffee. This said, it's pretty hard for me to start my day without coffee - that cup or two to start a new day has to be Coffee! But as the day progresses, I see myself inclined towards tea.


For most of my life 'Tea' for me was what my mom prepared. A pot in which water, tea leaves, some ginger, ground elaichi, sugar and milk go in together, brought to a boil and served hot! Oh! It makes me want her tea as I say this!


She has always enjoyed serving her tea to those who enjoy tea and has this very special way of serving them in Corelle mugs (only), which are never used otherwise. I can say with all honesty that a few of my friends were 'Fans' of her tea and loved to drop in at that hour of the evening for a quick one. This was more of a common feat during the monsoon months as it's a perfect note to an evening when it rains. This perhaps is the story of many a household in India.


Tea in the western world is a whole new story. A kettle to boil the water, Tea bag in the cup, hot water going in, Sugar if required, leave it for 2-3mins, squeeze the bag out and add cold (yeah...you read it correct) milk to it, Stir and tea is ready!

I was miserable the first time I had it.

Tea also can be 'anything'....literally. Had never imagined jasmine or pomegranate or Orange or Strawberry to be 'tea' material! I must admit that I am not fond of all the available flavours, some of them just a funny coloured, weird smelling hot water. I do enjoy the 'Lemon & Ginger' tea in the evenings when I come home or during cooking.

I liked creating this collection of pictures of various blends of tea, a small set giving a quick view of what's available in the world of tea.

When things go Wrong....

Sometimes things come to you when you have least expected it. It does not bring you easy options too!

When things get tough, when you are going through perhaps one of the worst phases of your life everything seems to come to a standstill. Collecting yourself together to get through and be as normal as you can be is challenging. These are times when everything else takes a very low priority.

It's often said that talking your troubles to others would bring comfort. However, there are a few thoughts around it, do you want to tell someone something that's bothering you and trouble them too? And the other being it's painful to spread the problem and you might want to keep it with yourself.

Time is always said to heal almost everything. Easier said than done, but giving this time some 'Time' actually works. The intensity of the problem is surprisingly low on the 4th or the 5th day than Day 1!


Looking at alternatives, again, something that does not always work, but a deviation of whatever sort from the issue does some good for the otherwise bad day.

Being positive that things will get better for the good is perhaps one of the best ways to get by, the will to be that needs to be strong.

There's also the why me, why this, why now factors which pulls you back 2 steps when you have made an attempt to take 4 ahead.

All this said... It's faith in God that things will change that is the ultimate strength and we need to take each moment and carry on with an unaltered faith that 'HE' has something in store for you and that's how things work.

We all make the Games

I have always enjoyed watching, reading Advertisements that it sometimes makes people around me wonder how I can get sold by an Ad! I do have another post talking about the same. It's amazing as to how creative people can be about getting a message across, just by a few words, the correct picture, that it stays imprinted in your mind.

These days in London with all the Olympic buzz, there of course is a lot of advertising by the main sponsors- now! Why would they leave a chance like this when they have paid all that money to show their names!

The one which stands out and no surprises here is that of Mc Donald's. They have at least 20 different posters which collectively create the punch line 'We all make the games'. They have included the common man and have highlighted how the audience makes a huge part of the show. It displays how an individual would react to an event, would show an emotion of an occasion and how expressions can change for a win, a loss, a competition, a battle which is all a part of the sport.

I would love to have all the pictures to put up here. But here's a few to highlight what I am talking about, plan to update this if I can get hold of more.....