I grew up in India calling this “Rajanigandha”. Without doubt, one of the most fragrant flowers one can ever be around. This flower almost always carries a symbolism of marriage in my mind since every wedding ceremony in India (certainly the parts that I come from) would have this as a must-have item. This, those ever-flickering tubelights in the wedding halls and those dratted small green insects that rejoiced in walking sideways around those flickering tubelights (Bengalis help me – “shyamapoka”???).

My dad – who is not exactly conversant with everything America – could not be more glowing of this country when I told him this morning that Sharmila has grown “Rajanigandha” in our garden. It has almost made up for his disdain towards those American socks sellers for selling me socks that barely came up to my ankles. (He figured for the money I paid – once multiplied by the exchange factor, I should have gotten socks up to my knees. Or even more!! 🙂 )

Anyways, going back to the picture, this was taken with an iPhone in the evening. I could get one stalk in an angle such that there was nothing behind that gave a great depth of field perception.

Not the best picture. Taken from inside the car using a iPhone.

Sharmila is in Dallas. So, it is just me at our Sunday night bar. One of our favorite servers – Big Ben, we call him – asked me to check out the sunset outside.

It was brilliant…

I had reached the turning point in my run. Took a quick picture of the bridge under which I turned. Later, over breakfast, as I was checking the pictures, I realized that the shot managed to capture a bird of prey (eagle? falcon? hawk) take off in full glory. I had not even noticed the bird!!! It could not have been more than a few yards away from me behind the bushes.

I wish the sun was behind me instead of in front. The light and color has not come thru well…

Not a very common sight on a late spring evening (this was nearly 9PM on 6th of June)…