Snowstorm and other things

The days are flying by. I have been busy before, but never have I been as busy as I am now. Between last-minute work on my thesis, experiments for a couple of new papers, managing a photography exhibition in Kolkata, my teaching job and driving lessons, I hardly know what I am doing any more. However, even amidst all this stressful work, a few events took place last week that took a little of the stress off. I thought I will post a few photos of these events here, if just to keep this blog alive.

First, there was the Broadway musical Mary Poppins which I went to see on the day before its final performance on Broadway. I do not have time to describe it now, but probably I will write a full post on the show. I am happy I saw it. After that there was Saraswati Puja last Sunday, delayed a couple of weeks by a snowstorm but enjoyable nevertheless. There was pushpanjali, bhog and a lovely cultural programme followed by a delicious dinner.

Then there was the exhibition in Kolkata itself. Being a part of the administrators' team for Kolkata Photographers' World, I had to do my bit for the club's second photography exhibition. Mine was probably the least work among all the admins. The others had to run around printing photos, getting them framed, reserving the gallery, sticking posters on the streets, hanging photos, finding a chief guest- the list is endless- while I was just designing flyers and posters, and helping select and prepare photos to be displayed. Still, this little work was heavily taxing on my tight schedule. When the exhibition finally happened and people from all works of life crowded the gallery to appreciate the work of us amateurs, it was worth all the trouble, of course. Those three days were really rewarding for me.

My sister at the exhibition. Photo courtesy my friend Lopamudra Bag

Finally, as the week was drawing to a close, we had a snowstorm blowing in unexpectedly into Newark. While it prevented me from practising driving as planned, it did offer me the opportunity to photograph my university campus in a heavy snowstorm, something that I never had since I bought my weatherproof DSLR in 2009. Since 2009, all winter storms have either hit Newark at night, or the school has been closed, or I have been in India. Going to take photos the next day is useless as the cleanup is real fast, and old snow looks different anyway. I have written about snow before, several times in fact, and although the summer is the most enjoyable season here, fresh snow has a dreamy quality to it that can instantly turn any landscape into a fairyland. This snowstorm had the added advantage of having a relatively warm air temperature, which made taking photos slightly more comfortable. A more complete set of these photos can be seen here.

And that's all for the time being. Daylight Saving Time begins tonight, which means tonight is going to be shorter by an hour. It's time to turn in and get whatever sleep I can.