[DKG]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Astronomy : Living in a city where seeing stars is rarer than spotting Elephants on roads, this hobby of mine has suffered. When I was a Kid we were in Patiala, and the city had not been ravages by pollution so on clear nights the Milky way was still visible.

Nows that's one hobby that's sadly gone into cold storage for me. I had access to a spendid observatory at my university. It had a 16inch reflector, complete with a tracking device. I have spent countless nights gazing at some of the most spectacular sights in the skies. There's so much beauty in those clusters and nebulae out there. And the thrill of spotting an object!

I still have all the manuals at home and someday I'll treat myself to a portable telescope which I can lug with my camper to the wilderness and restart the hobby.

Its a beautiful passtime if family and friends join in too

Here we have the Rangapur observatory, need to find sometime to visit. Any observatories near where you live?

[tsk1979]

Unfortunately Delhi and surrounding 80-90kms are very very polluted. Even my hometown Ludhiana is highly polluted. The only place I get to see stars is when I go on a Himachal holiday, and there also most resorts(including forest rest houses) follow the policy of buying the entire stockpile of tubelights of the village and putting them in every nook and cranny.

[DKG]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Photography : This is an obsession I must say. 7000+ pics on tanveer.smugmug.com are a testimony to this.

When I was at university in the US people used to ask me if there were still tigers roaming around on streets in India! I joked I had one as a pet.

To set their perspectives right I did a marathon photoessay on Hyderabad in slide film in 1981 which gave them a realistic idea of what life in an Indian city was like. It sure did the trick of opening their eyes. I did this with a Nikon FE, nice camera. I had a 24mm and 50mm Nikkor lens set.

Later I treated myself to a Mamiya 645E, a medium format, but no one is prepared to develop the medium format 120mm film. So its lying idle. I did a lot of my travel photography with the floppy drive Sony Mavica, pictures on the Zorpia: Deepak's Homepage sight.

Finally last year I treated myself to a Canon 400D. Need to familiarise myself with all the bells and whistles.

Thanks for your site ref. Would love to see your pics at leisure

PS BTW the Non auto thread has amazing pictures by you, Rudra and many others. Totally WOW!!

[CaAT]

Good thread this.

I am an avid reader. Books on wild life, sports (cricket), current affairs occupy a large portion of my shelf. I often take pride in that I am usually updated, on Technology, Sports, Politics or Indian Music.

But the thing I am most passionate about is cricket. Though I get to play the game only rarely these days, I have a huge and a rare collection of magazines and books on cricket. The earliest magazine is 'The Illustarted Weekly of India' from 1971, published to commemorate India's twin series victories in West Indies and England. (I also have an 'Illustrated Weekly' mourning the death of Jawaharlal Nehru).

The next in line comes cooking. As Nitin mentioned it is a stress buster for me and I simply love cooking. Having said that, I am very conservative in food habits and rarely stray away from the 'tried and tested' Maharastrian, Punjabi and South Indian food!

Travelling, especially the wild life Safari, is another passion. My next two trips are planned to 'Sunderbans' and the 'Kazirunga National Park'.

Someday I will also make a trip to Manasarovar.

[DKG]

Originally Posted by CaAT

The earliest magazine is 'The Illustarted Weekly of India' from 1971

Ahh!! Just the mention of the name of that magazine took me back to my childhood. It was a lovely mag and along with Binaca Geet Maala on shortwave radio they form an integral part of our childhood memories

Sadly we never retained any of the copies.

[tsk1979]

Aah reading. I forgot about that!
Reading is another addiction with me. Esp science fiction which I DIG. I am currently reading "Spin" and recently finished Mistborn.

[jvsatish]

Music - would top the list, as soon as I wake up, the first thing I do is, switch on the radio and then go about doing my chores..
Reading - I am an avid reader, fiction, non-fiction, self-develpment, business magazines...unfortunately due to my busy schedule I am not able to read much - need to pick it up again
Nature - Anytime, anyday give me some greenery (forest) and water (lake, river) and I can be absolutely content with myself
Travelling - can do that at the drop of a hat and thankfully even my better half likes it. So we take off on holidays a little too often..
Gadgets - crazy about them and keep acquiring new ones everytime I travel abroad on work..n getting shouted at when I return
Wildlife - I love to watch wild animals but not in the zoo, tried a few of the sanctuaries in Karnataka. But could not see much except wild boars, bisons, elephants and some monkeys. Would love to photograph a tiger in the wild!! someday!!
Ancient buildings - have a strange fascination for ancient buildings, archeological sites, etc.,

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by DKG

Not the Bahadurpura salvage yards. If you come up to Puranapul via Mangalhat at a junction with a Gandhi statue you take a left and just a few yards down the road on the right side, just off the road is a yard where early Thursday mornings a lot of knick-knacks are hawked. Its best to be there around 6:30 am as usually things get over pretty quickly. Not sure if they are still conducting but it was an old market for years

I asked my mech. bout it today & he seemed to suggest it still exists.
6.30am is a difficult time to make it though, from my place!

Yes she is associated with INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage)

Oh, INTACH! My father was associated with it too, many years ago. I recall the magazines/newsletters coming to our home.

More than just gold jewellery its the stone jewellery that fascinates me. The Nizam's jewellery that was on display at the Salar Jung museum was simply unbelievable. It also ranks as one of the world's most significant collections of jewellery. CBN was trying to convince the Centre to have it on display at Hyderabad permanently, hope some CM eventually manages that.

I do recall reading bout his jewllery collection, and also his chandelier collection.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by DKG

Shyam

Do the Fiat and Herald owners meet regularly for drives etc? So far I've not been able to get the vintage car owners to meet up so. The superbike group rides I started two years ago have become a wonderful experience and now the activity has a life of its own. I wish the vintage/classic car owners take a cue from what we've done in the biking scene and meet
Saturday evenings.

Am not aware of any Herald owners in Hyd., apart from a couple of them.
They do not meet anyone.

Reg. fiat owners, there is suren181, who goes for the local team bhp meets every time.
I havent attended a single meet so far. Yes I feel even the vintage car owners here should meet up periodically like members of the FCCCI pune.