Laurent Decol, mime artist

Not a single word spoken and Laurent Decol, one of World’s greatest mime artists, told us stories after stories with just the use of his hands and facial expressions. Laurent had not only the children but the adults too rolling with laughter with his fine acts. He enacted ordinary people from everyday life, their mannerisms, their views and wishes, numerous emotions in an eloquent manner, each time leaving the audience wishing for more.


Nine acts in 75minutes each had a unique story. In ‘The Public Park’ act Laurent played various characters, including one of a priest who walks on reading, holding a book (imaginary) upside down. The act of ‘balloon seller and a child’ held the audience captivated and finally when the little boy is flown away with the balloons in his hand, the speechless audience suddenly broke into a roar of thunderous claps.



The most popular one with the children seemed to be the one about circus. Laurent plays the role of a weightlifter who struggles to lift weights and he picks a little girl from the audience to lift up the weight (imaginary). The little girl very effortlessly lifts up the weight which Laurent was struggling to lift just a few minutes back, this had the spectators hold their stomachs and laugh. When Laurent shakes hand with the little weightlifter, he screams out silently as if in pain and his hand is getting squished by her.

I, for once, forgot myself, joined the kids and laughed my heart out. I don’t remember when I had seen a mime show last, and I enjoyed every minute of the show. The show was held at Alliance Francaise, Bangalore on 25th Jan ’11.

Hampi, Karnataka

The ruins of Hampi with 83 monuments scattered over 26 sqkms; tourists are well known to cover this in one day!

My second visit to this great UN World Heritage site, I strolled around in my own pace. It seemed to me as if each corner beckoned me to have a good look. I roamed around in the ruins, one page at a time, devouring the details of the sculpted stones. Sipping tender coconut water I walked towards the western end of the site.


The Sun never pauses along its path, yet like a snail I moved on through the busy market lanes. Darkness waiting to takeover and at that final moment of the day I managed to capture the setting sun between the pillars. The fake sense of victory pleased me.

Tivoli - Hadrian's Villa

From Rome we took a trip down the lanes of time and went as far back as 125AD. It was Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli. The mammoth remains of Hadrian’s villa left us stupefied initially. Stupefied because, we landed here without much planning and it took us some time to focus and set ourselves on the right track so that we got to see the whole site. The various sections of this Villa is scattered across eighteen sq. km. It was like racing against time, moving around these timeless monuments, some of them yet to be excavated completely.

Some of my favorite shots from Hadrian's Villa.

Emperor's Hadrian's private reading island.

Remains of the halls with fluted pillars.

Swimming Pool at Ruins of Hadrian's Villa

And what a coincidence: Today, 24th Jan, is Hadrian's Birthday!

UNESCO World Heritage Site

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31st Dec 2010.

The last sunset, the final moments of 2010.

The shots taken while driving on NH-7, through Chikmagalur, Karnataka.

Skywatch Friday

Colosseum, Rome

COLOSSEUM!!! My head was spinning, when I was inside the arena. I always thought the word ‘huge’ has limits, but this hugeness surpassed that imagination of mine. The walls crumbling all around and the shocking contrast was that, new paths in the base of arena were being discovered by the archeologists. The seating arrangement for 60,000 spectators, the innumerable exits/entrances for them, I wondered what it would have looked like in it’s hey days; difficult to imagine.




The grey-black exteriors, the worn down and broken pillars and arches, I looked on with wonder at these parts that survived earthquakes, war, theft and neglect; that is only a third of the original Colosseum. They stand mutely yet speak volumes of the glory of the mighty Roman Empire. The physics that went in to the construction of this great center for entertainment is definitely a model for modern sports complexes. Three hours passed off in minutes.



I took many shots, presenting a few of them here which I feel will describe the arena from main view points.

Pankaj Advani

Have a Heart Foundation is a non-profit organization that funds the life saving heart operation costs of under privileged. The focus is more on children from the less privileged strata of the society. Every month needy patients’ caretakers are interviewed by the donors’ panel of the Have a Heart Foundation. Some amount of money is organized by the caretakers and the remaining amount for the operation is funded by this organization.

Manu Chatlani, Director, Have A Heart Foundation and Pankaj Advani

Recently a small function was held to mark the funding of 2000th patient’ open heart surgery. Pankaj Advani made a generous contribution to this deed. Pankaj Advani is a World Champion in snooker and billiards from India. I was asked to do photo coverage of the event. This is the first time I met a world famous personality and I was on a clicking spree. Pankaj Advani was at ease, he held the baby for some time, talked to press reporters, handed over the cheque of seventy thousand to the child’s parents and after a brief posing with others around for photographs he left the place.



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Belum Caves, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh

104kms from Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh are the Belum Caves. The very mention of the word ‘caves’ creates images of mountains in mind; surprisingly there were none around and in fact none in the vast stretch of land around. For a moment I thought I was in a wrong place after the long drive. There is a huge statue of Buddha in meditation at the entrance to the area. You walk further and find the entrance to the caves, steps going down, twenty meters down and then you realize the existence of the caves. Even at that point it is difficult to comprehend there is a 3.5 kms long tunnel waiting to be explored.


We walked in to the depths, the paths are well lit and ventilated too, but it was hot. It was spacious at some places, narrow at some points. For the first time I was seeing the stalactite and stalagmite formations in the limestone cave. Some very interesting names are given to the various formations of the stalactites and the stalagmites there. The Patalganga is the deepest point in the caves, it had water bubbling out. The thousand hood point had stalactites formations looked like 1000 cobra hoods. A musical chamber; where the formations when tapped produce musical sounds. I didn’t see any long formations, most looked broken.


The APTDC can do well by installing video cameras for the security of these precious natural formations. Belum Caves is 275kms from Bangalore.

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