She sells Sea shells on the Sea shore

Sorry, I got no mermaids or fisherman's daughter on this post. Neither am I putting in too many beautiful photographs. But these are some interesting(to me) photographs I took last weekend in Mandarmoni, West Bengal. This beach is new enough to tourists. Hence, finding sea shells is a rather natural thing unlike other popular beaches.



I was walking on the beach when suddenly this 'dead yet dazzling' washed up near my feet. The shells were not detached yet as is normally found. Who could say, this one might have carried a tiny pearl inside it.



Met another dead one, the above one. It seemed to have been alive not much before I met it. I don't know their scientific names but I can bet they are 'piece of art'.



But this guy was too alive to let me picture it and it was moving fast on wet sand. And it vanished as soon as it touched water. What amazed me is, the little divine looking guy was acting as a parasite on this clumsy beast.



I think this above one was also some kind of parasitic act. The leaf like thing must be part of some creature as I found many like it being washed ashore. Well, the shell must have had a good surfing experience riding on it.



The thing shown above looked interesting. I found another same thing but that didn't have any such shells on it. The surface was smooth. At first, I thought it might be some kind of egg but later realized that it was nothing but a lump of clay which took this shape due to continuous rolling on the flatbed surface of the beach.



For the first time in my life I saw a starfish out of the TV or zoology lab. Don't ask me if it was alive or dead. I did not feel the urge to poke a dead or may be nearly dead person on my first meeting. And of course it was the most beautiful thing I saw in Mandarmoni.

I know that you are really pissed off seeing clumsy things which I think are beautiful. And I should not deprive you of nice pictures. I hope you'd like the next two photographs. Well, although not a 'she child', but a 'he child' was selling those sea shells on the sea shore.







I thought of bringing a few to my home so that I could take a few more pictures. But somehow, we missed the opportunity. Next time, I promise to be more careful in picturing them.

Road to Ornamentation

Earlier this decade, Page 3 articles and several literary write ups concentrated on the so called 'Junk Jewellery'. I remember those faint paragraphs where party revelers used to flaunt their unconventional ornaments and boast that they bought it from an African tribe. Actually, this was the entry of those 'big stone' and 'alloy' jewellery in the pavements of India. The pavement in front of Grand Hotel Kolkata was among the first outlet. Gradually, now we find them everywhere. Well, the prices get doubled when the outlet is a stall in some shopping mall, the factory remaining the same. While on different casual walks on the roads of Kolkata I got a few glimpse of those, thanks to my lady friends.



People chose hair clips of different colors. Igot a glimpse of how colourful they might look when placed together on the pavement of Lindsay Street, Koilkata.



The previous and next photographs are of jewellery shops beside the Hogg Market, Kolkata.



The handicrafts fair 2011 was indeed a photographers delight. Those Ganesha lockets were to me, the latest of 'Brand Ganesha' improvisations.





Can you imagine Indian ladies without bangles? I guess no. You should see their facial expressions when they look at those. The expression shifts from 'Yuk', through 'Poor Bangle' and 'Cool One' till 'I just love it'. You see the aggression on her face and listen to the sweetest words, 'Can I have it?'



Well this lady did have those bangles.