My 4 top favorite Instagram accounts | Friday’s List

January 31, 2015January 31, 2015 / Srishty / 6 Comments

After excitedly clicking photos for several future posts this past Sunday, I finally managed to do none of those posts till now and here I am, presenting the Friday’s List today on something totally out of the blue. I am not sure how many of you use Instagram but it wouldn’t hurt to know my favorite Instagram-ers because no matter what the medius, all hail content! 😀 So, here you go:

1. indiapictures

It was so hard to narrow down on one picture from their account to share here. I LOVE their page – I don’t have enough words to describe how I feel about every image they post, marvelous is probably too understated a word for them.

2. SoDelhi

Now I don’t follow any other Delhi guide kind of account on Instagram, so I have nothing to compare them to but I love their work, love how artfully they bring to table even the simplest of things and love how their love for Delhi shines through their account!

3. krsnamehta

The designer and owner at India Circus, his personal account is a diary of everything Indian and everything else that he loves. I like the way he perceives things while clicking, I don’t know if he puts a lot of effort while clicking for Instagram or not but I like his vision from what it appears to be from the pictures.

4. melangeofmusings

This is Sara’s account who blogs at ‘Melange of Musings’. A lifestyle blog by a girl, nothing that you haven’t heard of before, in fact you are reading one right now. However, Sara’s blog and her pictures on Instagram are unique in their own way. Her attention to detail is breathtaking and it is quite evident how painstakingly she works on making her blog posts thorough and, of course, the pictures speak for themselves.

That’s all, but before I end this post, I would like to mention that there are many Instagram accounts, probably better than the ones that I mentioned as far as artful photos are concerned but these 4 are the ones that fill me with excitement as soon as I come across a new picture by them. If you are big time into artful photos, you should definitely follow Instagram’s own official account where they keep sharing about fabulous Instagram accounts ranging from accounts dedicated to vintage cars to food architecture to sketching and doodles and what not. Then, of course, there are amazing street style photographers, not to mention the king of street style photography – the Sartorialist.

I’ll leave the rest to be explored by you. 🙂

Disclaimer: All pictures have been taken from the respective Instagram accounts. I claim no ownership.

Cannot see, but photographs

March 26, 2014 / Srishty / 12 Comments

If you think this is just a catchy headline to grab eyeballs and would lead to a different meaning as you go on, then you are wrong. I recently came across someone who is visually impaired, but is a photographer and follows sounds to click his pictures. 🙂 Yes, it is true. Sipra Das, a photojournalist, is coming out with her book – ‘The Light Within’ that features pictures of visually impaired people whose lives are inspirational in unimaginable ways! They are doing things that are unexpected and truly inspiring. For example, this person who is a photographer. I mean it is so hard to imagine a visually impaired person to be a photographer, isn’t it?

I read this inspirational story in Sunday’s Hindustan Times, Page 10 and it really touched me. Precisely why its here. 🙂

Go, check out! It is indeed worth checking out. Here’s a shot of the coverage from Hindustan Times (i know you can’t make out much from this picture :/)

Take care,

Srishty 🙂

Life Instagrammed! #6

March 11, 2014April 10, 2014 / Srishty / 7 Comments

Last week just sped off like anything. I hung out with my college friends over the weekend after such a long time, it was really nice. 😀 We met, as usual, in Connaught Place and ate at this place, Route 04, an American cafe and bar sort of setup. We keep going back to this place every now and then for some reason, even though I find the food pretty average. We had onion rings, pizza, mushroom alfredo sauce pasta and my non-vegetarian friends had something else too whose name I don’t remember (i recently gave up non-veg, I am unable to eat it these days). Anyway, everything was pretty ok and felt bland.

I also went for an eye check up but apparently the doctors who should be checking me are not available on Sundays.

Anyway, coming back to the life snapshots clicked this week, here you go:

1. Haha! This thing is so much fun! The Delhi-Jaipur road where Cyber City, Gurgaon, India is situated recently had these ‘Keep Calm’ boards put on a lot of pillars. I think this brings a smile on your face among the maddening jams. Since my office is in Cyber City, I used to come across these boards while in my office cab (‘used to’ because I have now started using metro for some time).

2. ‘Day to Day Economics’ by Satish Y. Deodhar is the book that I am reading at the moment, along with other fiction books. This is my fourth book as part of the Brunch Book Challenge, but I guess I’ll be sharing my opinion about my fifth and sixth books before I complete this. It’s so hard to finish non-fiction for me 😛

3. Women’s Day Celebrations in my office. 😀 All of us got a box each from Baker’s Street (a bakery shop) which had a cute cookie, a cupcake, a croissant and sandwiches in it. Fine on the taste part but looked super beautiful! (Ate it too fast to click pictures :P)

4. Air freshener in my friend’s car. I don’t know why but I liked the container a lot. 😛

5. New curtains in our drawing-room. I like them a lot, tell me what you think. 😀

6. Treasures getting sold on the street. I found this stall selling these beauties in Connaught Place, Delhi.

That’s it for now.

Take care and keep smiling 🙂

Life Instagrammed! #5

March 2, 2014March 3, 2014 / Srishty / 5 Comments

Hello!

I am back with the most regular posts on this blog. 😀 (Hope it doesn’t get jinxed :O)

Coming back to the snapshots from my life, here you go:

1. A visit to the New Delhi World Book Fair 2014 organized by National Book Trust

2. A new washing machine by IFB, it is a Wedding Anniversary gift to my parents 😀

3. Ok, it might be weird for others that I am excited about this key chain holder inside my bag, but I love this holder! 😀 It lets me hang this key chain which is a gift! 😀 The blue thing is my lens solution!

4. Here’s a close up of the classic vintage beauty of a calendar key chain! What makes it extra beautiful? The fact that its a gift from Luck. 🙂

5. A shot from my building’s terrace. I go sit there on weekends to enjoy the winter sun.

6. Costa Coffee’s cookie. It was nice, but overtly sweet.

7. It is this restaurant called ‘Made In Punjab’ in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon. Cyber Hub is a cool hangout place with loads of fine dining places and my office is situated in Cyber Hub. 🙂

8. Cute socks 🙂

9. Would you believe if I tell you that I got those sandals for 250 Rs (roughly 4 dollars)? 😀 They are not comfortable though.

10. Another restaurant in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon. California Pizza Kitchen this is! I found the pizza just fine, but maybe if I try another set of toppings, I’ll say these are good pizzas, better than many. I think I like Indian-ized spicy pizzas like from Dominos. By the way, I am hearing rave reviews of the pizzas of this chain in Gurgaon called Fat Lulu’s. I’ll totally check it out sometime soon.

11. Reading Premchand. Blissful is all I can say!

Thanks for reading!

Stay happy 🙂

Kashmir Diaries 2013

March 1, 2014September 22, 2014 / Srishty / 18 Comments

Hi guys! 🙂

I know I am doing too much posts about things that happened in 2013 like this post but I guess that’s fine if the things are as beautiful as Kashmir, right? Well, truth be told, I might do more posts about 2013! 😛

Those white things are mountains 🙂

Talking about Kashmir, who doesn’t know that it is heaven on Earth? Indeed, it was very beautiful. No wait. Very, very beautiful. However, might I add, I am sure there are other places in the world (and in India) which are extremely beautiful, somehow they are not treated in the same league as Kashmir. Maybe, when I visit them, I will be in a better position to decide. I loved Kashmir but I think there are other places just as beautiful?

I would like to talk about a few things about Kashmir:

1. The highlight of the trip for me was Dal Jheel. It is a long stretching lake in Kashmir dotted with house boats and Shikaras.

Shikaras are cutely adorned beautiful boats for tourists to roam around and enjoy the beauty of the lake. The most unexpected part was that these Shikaras were also used by shopkeepers to sell things on the go in the lake itself! Like, we had hired one Shikara and while we were roaming in it, out of nowhere used to appear another Shikara every once in a while selling Jewellery, herbs, nuts and other knick-knacks for which the area is known for.

Also, there is a huge market selling Kashmiri clothes and wooden stuff located on the lake itself. Its very beautiful and a different experience altogether. 🙂 I loved the Dal Jheel experience the most during my whole trip. Did I mention that the houseboats were E.X.T.R.E.M.E.L.Y. beautiful with carved wooden walls and all?

2. We visited Pehalgam, a small village on the outskirts of Srinagar, which is famous for certain tourist points and apple fields that lead to it.

This place in Pehalgam was called Chandanwadi.

This cozy little cafe in Chandanwadi served us maggi and desi style hot chocolate. Heavenly it was!

This is a valley where the shooting of a Bollywood movie ‘Betaab’ was done.

3. We also visited Gulmarg, which is like the heart of Kashmir, it is very beautiful and the snow there glitters making it such a perfect sight.

Sledges were available here to have fun on the snow, sledges did not look very exciting though!

4. As most already know and must have observed, Kashmiri people are very beautiful, be it a girl or a boy. They have very sharp features, perfectly carved. 🙂

5. When in Kashmir, drink the original Kashmiri Kahwa. It is a type of tea that is big on dry fruits and is supposed to provide warmth. There’s absolutely no way that you won’t like it, doesn’t matter whether you are a tea person or not.

6. Kashmir is famous for dry fruits like Walnuts and almonds and for Kesar (Saffron) too. However, it is very easy for tourists to get fooled into buying fake stuff. So, either be sure or don’t buy in huge quantities at one go. Definitely buy Kashmiri clothes like shawls, warm suits and sarees, jackets, kaftans etc. There are some big markets in Srinagar called Lakkad Bazaar and Lal Chowk.

7. There are two things which were very striking about the life there. People are always wearing this thing called phiran over whatever they are wearing to provide comfort. The picture in the link is a very fashionable type, the ones that people wear there in routine are very rugged and even men wear them, the ones for men are usually of plain or tartan print. Secondly, they always carry this fire-pot called Kangdi with them to keep themselves warm.

8. We couldn’t visit the famous Mughal gardens and this place called Sonmarg due to lack of time. Hoping that I would visit these places some time! 🙂

Oh, and, just because we are discussing travel, I would mention that I love clicking people, emotions, streets and culture more than I like clicking nature. So, I love Shimla a lot because there are people, there are markets and there are the British buildings. You get me? For the same reason, I love Rajasthan, I loved Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur. Well, Jaipur is one of my favorite cities. 🙂 For the same reason, I want to visit Pushkar, Lucknow and Kolkata. I think street photographers will get me? 😀

Take care & stay happy,

Srishty 🙂

New Delhi World Book Fair 2014 #Visited!

February 18, 2014April 10, 2014 / Srishty / 4 Comments

Finally, after so many years :’), I visited the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF). I cannot even begin to describe how good I felt. I went all alone so I also had the pleasure to browse at my own pace, leisurely, which is so relaxing and therapeutic always, I am sure you would all agree?

One thing I realized today is that Children books always attract us, or is it just me? (This is something I would really want to know) I feel extremely attracted towards them, and still want to buy them and read them. I just let “better sense” prevail. Anyhow, here are some random pictures from the book fair, did not click a lot. Oh, by the way, the kids toys were really nice. Loved them! 😛