ऐसी लागी भूख जो मिटती ही नहीं
दांत से बासी रोटी कटती नहीं
उम्र कब की बरस के सुफैद हो गई
कारी दाल चने की पचती नहीं
वल्ला ये गैस बढ़ने लगी है
चेहरे की रंगत उड़ने लगी है
डर लगता है ऑफिस में सोने में जी
दाल तो अच्छा है जी – २
थोडा कच्चा है जी
दाल तो अच्छा है जी – २
ऐसी लागी भूख जो मिटती ही नहीं
दांत से बासी रोटी कटती नहीं
उम्र कब की बरस के सुफैद हो गई
कारी दाल चने की पचती नहीं
रा रा रा …

किसको पता था बाजू में बैठा
colleague ऐसा पाजी भी होगा
हम तो हमेशा समझते थे कोई
हम जैसा फर्जी ही होगा
हाय जोर करें, कितना शोर करें,
मेरी स्क्रीन पे ऐंवे गौर करें
boss सा कोई कमीना नहीं
कभी तो रोके, कभी तो टोके,
इस उम्र में खिलायेगा धक्के
डर लगता है facebook chat करने में जी
दिल तो बच्चा है जी – २
थोडा कच्चा है जी
हाँ दिल तो बच्चा है जी

ऐसी उदासी बैठी है दिल पे
हंसने से घबरा रहे है
सारा साल कामचोरी में काटा
appraisal में टकरा गए है
mail आता है तो ऐसे लगता है वो
आ रहा है यहीं देखता ही न वो
recession की मारें कटार रे
तौबा ये लम्हें कटते नहीं क्यूँ
आँखें मेरी खुलती ही नहीं क्यूँ
डर लगता है timepass करने में जी
दिल तो बच्चा है जी – २
थोडा कच्चा है जी
हाँ दिल तो बच्चा है जी

– कवि देव

So what inspired the card. When I started with the idea of the card. I had two things in mind, one it should be SIMPLE, and second it should connect to the heart. My website name had already been decided by then (http://cam-dev.in ), so I decided that my card will be a camera, a simple camera. So the first criteria got fulfilled, now the next task was to make it connect.

My 2year old nephew had a role to play in this, he had this nice toy camera and when I would go to my sisters place, he would relate to me with the camera. Whenever he saw that I was carrying a bag he would say khichik-khichik (click-click, his term for the camera) and try to see me through the viewfinder … so the idea was a simple camera with a viewfinder to see the world. So the front of my card was cam with dev written on it. (which made it relate to my website cam-dev). And while reading the contact information you could see the world through the viewfinder.

I designed the first draft in Adobe Photoshop (A mistake, as I am not really a design expert), then I was asked to convert it to vector format by the PrintXpress people.
My first design had a simple ring to denote the lens. It got reviewed by few of my friends and then I got it printed. It did not look like a lens and the card looked too empty. Also I had chosen 40% black for the contact details, which looked very light after print and it was not legible. So the card design was updated with a lens glare and color change for the contact details. I decided to go for the thickest sheet possible(280gsm ivory) , so that the card was more durable. Also the person at PrintXpress was quite helpful in doing the selection.

In between I had got 200 cards printed in Mumbai, hoping to distribute them when I went to Kingfisher Calendar Launch party. But I just gave 5 cards. So I decided that I will get the rest punched too. When I was collecting the cards from PrintXpress, then one gentleman asked me if he could have one for his collection. And I happily agreed.

**Update:
Its also featured here
Also featured at here

Stop Stop … I’m no politician and I can never be one (even if I am good at begging for votes) …

Well then the next question would be … why not a thank you mail as well? I wanted to say a BIG BIG THANK YOU … and with some more goodies …

1. Treat (If you can catch hold of me )

and there is only one right now.

December 2009 was a busy month, even though I was on vacation. I was busy like never before … since I was working on two small projects … and they had to be done nicely … One of them which you already have seen is my new blog .. http://devography.in/ (isn’t this where we are right now? ) where I will be writing about some useful stuff and my life … my old blog which some of you must have gone through … is in hibernation like Kumbhkaran … and I don’t have any food to offer to him …

So what is the other thing? I have finally accomplished one more dream, of having my own website, partially designed by me. So here I present the link to the website
http://cam-dev.in/
and there is one more project for which some of you have seen sample and received too. But others have to wait for some more days. Mostly a week.

But this still doesn’t answer for the NON-BIG BIG THANK YOU part. Well, I wanted to club the launch of the site with the thank you with the HAPPY NEW YEAR.

The cool thing is now a days you can wish people for the festivals 3 days in advance or 3 days later too, depending on the festival. (This margin is just one day for birthdays of course). So this implies I am well within the limits to wish you HAPPY NEW YEAR. Wish you a very happy and prosperous new year.

For Girls:
May god shower John/Ranbir etc etc on you. (One at a time)
For Guys:
May god shower babes of Kingfisher Calendar on you. (All at a time)

And BIG BIG THANK YOU to all of you for increasing the photography itch in me. I hope it will result in better pics in 2010.

And if you find that my mails are close to spam, then please let me know. I will remove you from the BUG-LIST, oops I meant TO-BUG-LIST.
Also since my flickr has been dormant for past few days, does it mean it has hibernated too? Nopes, it hasn’t and the services will be resumed soon.

Please forward the BIG BIG THANK YOU to people around you(All who were made to vote for me). And some HAPPY NEW YEAR wishes too.
Any feedback on the design of the site, the quality(Good/Bad) of pictures there is WELCOME.

Also as I’m fasion freak and creating a fan page on Facebook is in fashion. So I have created one for myself too. my Fan Page. THANKS.

Irrespectively, the journey began. I made my profile on the website (My Contest Profile) and started asking (read begging) for votes. I spammed inboxes of all I knew to vote for me and coaxed my friends to spam their respective friends. It worked. Very next day I reached 10th Rank. And the day after that I was in top 5.

As I was about to travel on 9th and my access to internet would have been limited, I decided that I will carry my 4 years old 4 Kgs laptop to browse. I saw myself spending my travel and time thereafter asking (read again as begging, from an expert beggar by now) for votes. Some people who liked my photography also started getting votes for me. Within no time it was a close contest. I moved to first spot in few days and stayed there for good 2 days. But last three days of contest saw a tough competition and I finished second in the number of votes. Yet, I hoped I will still be selected because of my photography skills. When results were declared on 17th, I was there on the list of winners. It all felt like a dream. As a photographer I had some plans, but this was “THE” opportunity for any photographer.
And a BIG BIG BIG thank you to people who had the confidence in me and made me reach there.

I came to know that the event was in Mumbai at Dr. Vijay Mallya’s house. I was already on vacation and about to roam in Mumbai. COINCIDENCE. Isn’t it?

In the dreams, you are supposed to be well dressed and look as best as you can. But the dream was over and reality was so close; I tried shopping for the dress code Calendar-ish, which was kind of confusing. Help came from a friend Yash in finding the good areas in Mumbai to shop. And we zeroed in on a designer shirt and black trouser and some accessories.

I was all set to attend the party; my friend from Kingfisher side was Sambhav, who had the invites for me(The babe on invite was so hot). He had also arranged for the flight back to Bangalore (thanks to the contest). I woke up early in the morning to get ready on time and reach the venue on time. The event was supposed to start at 1pm, but got delayed a little. I like a kid in candy shop arrive a bit early and was lucky to get the glimpse of the calendar girls; their posters were already put up which were not covered by any photographers by then. Not many people around at that time also made me click the pics peacefully (you see, arriving early at times helps). The pics are there in the end of this blog (READ the blog and then only jump to them ).

On the entrance of the house, there were beautiful babes, who welcomed the guests. It would be a sin to address Dr.Vijay Mallya’s house as house, so from now on I will refer to it as a PALACE. And Dr. Vijay Mallya as the KING. On the entrance there was this big poster which depicted all the Kingfisher hotties over the years, truly Kingfisher and Hot girls are like twins. This followed calendar preview, wherein the models came and posed.

Babes receiving the guests

Mallya, I mean The King and no signs of Booze. That’s Blasphemy, so there was a counter with all UB products or call it drinks adorning it (for free of course).

As I heard from a passer-by, the guests list comprised of all big names of Bollywood, it was quite exciting to speculate who all will arrive. The calendar was brought to the stage at around 1:30pm and it was beautifully wrapped in yellow. It itself made a perfect picture. The King arrived at around 2pm and so did the models from the calendar. I started getting some shots of the models and followed each one of them, and they were sweet enough to pose for me.

And suddenly someone appeared … any guesses …. ???
DEV.D (Abhay Deol)

So this Dev.P was in front of Dev.D or vice-versa, I just started clicking him …click click click … and got some nice shots … and then focused back to the models …

Others to make their presence felt were Madhur Bhandarkar, Mandira Bedi, Simone Singh, Purab Kohli. I was getting all confused by now as to whom to click … hot models around me or the Bollywood celebs … and then Nagesh Kukunoor arrived and I clicked him … one more good shot …

Cyrus started a funny game at around 2:30 and it involved five teams of two guys each, YES GUYS … and partner A had to get a drink from a lady in the audience and partner B had to drink the drink in a milk bottle meant for babies… here there was some cheating from all the teams and Siddharth Mallya was declared the winner, the reason given by Cyrus was that he was the son of the King .

After the event was over I was going to the drinks counter, to get some fruit juice but then I had to stop … why… why … why … because Deepika Padukone was sitting inside the Palace. and I got two candid shots of her… and then later on I mustered the courage to go inside the palace and get a click of her … but then she said I will be back in some time … and then later on I got some more good shots … one with the Prince too …

And then Kunal kapoor made his entry … and I went very close to him and I think he felt I was a stalker … I almost appeared so with my big camera … and click click click … few more good shots … meanwhile Cyrus had started his question answer session for the hot models … questions involved their english accents, about their funny names, height and etc etc … and ya their relationship with Atul …

In the end the Ace photographer Atul and the King gave their speech … and Deepika arrived on the stage … there were just click sounds thereafter … She was looking billion bucks. She unveiled the Calendar. I think I was clicking more of her pics than the Calendar…

Post launch Deepika was posing with the new Calendar and thus started the mad rush. Every photographer was stepping on each other to capture Deepika. Glad that I had got much better candid shots earlier.

I had a morning return flight from Kingfisher. I didn’t sleep at all and was uploading some pics on Facebook/flickr … It was really a life changing experience … and I think it is an experience I will cherish for my lifetime …

And here are some hot pics from the Calendar … You can ask me for the full size images…

More to come