Dood’s Photo of the Day

Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 29th Apr’08

You can see these green tiny cabs zooming around all over Mexico. Resembling almost completely with Volkswagen beetle, these taxis are the lifeline of the city. They are used extensively by everyone – rich and poor alike. These metered taxis are much cheaper than cabs in any city of US or even India. Just like the beetle, they have only the front entrance and no doors at the back.

One of the safety advices which you will get upon entering the country is – being an outsider, you should never board these cabs as you are most likely to be robbed.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 28th Apr’08

Ruben Dario is a famous street in central Mexico city which boasts of hosting many big corporate houses like Coca Cola. The beauty & sophistication of the place is evident from its neat streets, high rise buildings and big names on the name plates. Along with renowned corporate offices, this street is home to many embassies too. Given the strategic importance of the residents, you can always spot a couple of police cars zipping through it.

I used to walk through the street to my office until a week back, before I changed my apartment and moved to a new place. I took this photo during one of my walks back from office. 123, Ruben Dario, by it looks, seems to be some hotel. Though I couldn’t exactly figure out what it was.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 27th Apr’08

I was walking past a local city park when I saw this lamp hanging on a tree. Probably the lone of its kind in almost the entire park, it somehow attracted my attention and I decided to give it a shot. Though there was nothing special or nothing which really “stands out” in this particular photo, I somehow liked it very much. Maybe the inherent simplicity is what attracted me the most.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 26th Apr’08

I have usually seen such stills at Discovery channel or while watching the NGC or Animal planet. A thirsty animal sipping water at the lake side oblivious of the evil intentions of the predators hiding nearby. Suddenly a crocodile launches itself from beneath the water and grabs the animal’s throat in it’s vicious jaws. The next moment the crock disappears inside the lake along with it’s prey.

As for me, I clicked this one while having a boat ride in a lake at Africam Safari in Puebla.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 25th Apr’08

This flower looking structure which you see in the picture is not actually a flower, but a skeleton of the same. The actual flower is bright red in color with long broad petals. When the plant dies and the pollen is taken away by birds and insects this is what remains of a thing which once a beautiful blooming flower.

Though being dry and being a skeletal remain of an elegant flower, this dry stub is not any less eye catching. Unless you have seen the original flower and unless you know that this is a dried remain, you will definitely mistake it for some dry variety of a fresh counterpart.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 24th Apr’08

The dark brown parched piece of cactus which you see in the photo is originally lush green in color when alive and is used in many different dishes across Mexico. It is actually very tasty and has a sour tangy taste. Apart from growing in the wild it is also cultivated as a crop with proper farming practices. The best thing about growing cactus as a crop is that it needs minimal care and almost the entire plant can be used including it’s thorns which are used for “stitching” in many “wrapped” preparations like tamale.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 23rd Apr’08

Mother nature has incorporated symmetry in almost every second thing it has created. Ranging from magnanimous symmetrical creations like our solar system and the milky way itself to miniature things likes thorns growing on a dry tree’s branch. You can find it everywhere, the best explorable example being the human body itself.

Symmetry after all is the best arrangement for long lasting stability.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 22nd Apr’08

The outskirts of Mexico city resemble a typical urban desert. Large spreads of dry barren land with no signs of greenery or habitation at all. This is where you can find a huge variety of plants which survive in extreme dryness. This was one such shrub which had plenty of tiny dry flowers. Though it was hard to focus on them in the hot blazing sun, I got this pretty satisfactory shot of some of those miniature flowers.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 21st Apr’08

A rare sight in a country which is famous for cow boys riding their way through on tall handsome horses. I saw this man treading through a hot Saturday afternoon on the outskirts of the city. Probably as heavy as the donkey itself, he was enjoying his comfortable ride with a typical Mexican sombrero on his head.

Different people, different means of transport

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Originally clicked and uploaded by – Pratosh Dwivedi – 20th Apr’08

You can find at least 10 different varieties of Cactus in Mexico. Cactus is used for various different purposes, ranging from sewing & textiles to being extensively used for cooking. The shapes and sizes of the cacti found here vary from small ones, which are hardly 10 inches long to almost tree-sized cacti.

This is the season of bloom for most of the cactus plants & these are the flowers which grow among a dense mesh of thorns.

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