Lahul an Spiti

So i've pretty much slowed down my travels. I'm in Patna right now (where they have ESPN!) but I head of to Bombay on a 36 hour train ride...no don't say "ouch"...I get to see the Indian country side, which is so different in different parts of the country.

Anyways, sometime back I told you about Matty, from Canbera. Well, he's now in the Lahul and Spiti valley in Eastern Himachal, and some of the pics he's taken are awesome. I feel I should have gone there instead...check it out...

http://mattythej.blogspot.com/2006/06/spiti-valley.html

Who's Going to be the New Sect-Gen

Kofi Annan is due to complete his term at the Sect Gen of the UN at the end of this year, and candidates have already thrown their hat in the ring. The latest is India's own, Shashi Tharoor. At the moment, he's the Undersecretary for Communications and Public Information.

Along with Tharoor, are other more favored candidates from Thailand, South Korea, and Sri Lanka. Then theres Pakistan. Cos India now has a candidate, there are reports (and don't laugh!) Pervez himself may throw his hat in the ring.

A more realistic occurance, which has been widely reported in the local media here, is Pakistan influencing China to vote against any Indian candidate (permanent members make a final selction - complete with veto powers and everything - which is then put to the General Assembly). To this Tharoor has said, in his upper class Anglo accent, that China has a "sophisticated" view of the world and will not be influenced by other nations. Nice one.

What are his chances? Tharoor is widely regarded as an insider, someone who knows the UN system. He's worked under and is quite close to Anaan which many analysts regard as a negative.

Anyways, here's a couple of links about other possible candidates, by the UN, who also catagorise the potentials in terms of "The Candidates", "Serious Speculation", "Others Suggested", "Politically Remote" and "Populist Longshots"...
http://www.unsg.org/candidates.html

And Shashi Tharoors personal site...
http://www.shashitharoor.com

We're through!

Actually I was expecting we'd get through :p, so this was really no surprise!!!

Varanasi is on some anti-ESPN thing, so I didn't actually see the game...so, thanks heaps to Rahul and Jigglypuff for sending me msg's with updates of the score, and in the case of Rahul, even commentary complete with expletives...made me feel like I was actually at the game!

Expressions of the Tiranga III

Randoms...

Played around with my cam, and finally cameup with one "these" pics...15sec exposure and an ISO of 50. There was also a blackout which really helped!

And with the last pic...yeah, flygirl, thats a barbed wire...i thought it was harder to guess!

And finally, my bit on the World Cup...watched the Aus-Japan game from Aus Consulate in New Delhi (which incidentally, is right opposite big brother, the US) with a bunch of 15-20 expats, complete with VB's, short, and thongs...btw, love this from flygirl...Go you good thing!!!

Taj Mahal

So I wanted to show some pics of the Taj you may not normally see, so heres a take of a few...

A silloutette from a roof top restaurant...


From behind the Taj, just before the banks of the Yamuna...

Ok, this more ordinary, but yeah, its the Taj...

Bet you haven't seen one with a particularly grizzly looking Me...

Taj Blue...

Post script: its really quite easy to just see the entire monument through the lens or screen of a camera, and I almost did that. I had to literally say to myself, "stop, and look!" and when you do, the wonderment which washes over you is quite amazing. You stop look, turn around, and then trun back, just to make sure its really there!

That said, I also felt that this was such a unique opportunity that I didn't want to miss out on anything, and kept racking my brains for any other picture opportunities. And so tom, I hope to be there for sunrise...

Don't mean to boast...

...but this time tom, i'll be standing in front of the Taj...for the 4th time!