After much grief, we’ve learnt that along with a good Camera and Lens, a decent Tripod is a must. We now use a Bogen Manfrotto 725B tripod with integrated ballhead ($112.90). 

More than adequate for point and shoot cameras, the Bogen Manfrotto 725B can also take the weight of DSLRs like the Nikon D80 and the 18-135mm kit lens.

Las Vegas Blvd a.k.a. the Strip is where all the action is in Las Vegas. Most of the big casinos like Bellagio, Venetian, Mirage, Caesars and Bally’s are located on the strip.

This was our first serious shot at night photography. We used a Canon S80 8MP point & shoot digital camera.

Shutter Priority Mode
Shutter Speed - 5 sec
Aperture - 8.0
Focal Length - 5.8mm
ISO - 50
White Balance - Auto
Tripod - Manfrotto 725B

In the distance you can see Lincoln Memorial (white building) while in the foreground are the many tombstones of fallen American soldiers.

Double-decker bus in Mid-Town Manhattan, New York

Hey look, India is all over New York these days.

Gujjus, Telugus, Tamils, Sardars, Mallus and Marathis, you can see all of them and more varieties of Desis in New York.

From the many Hindu Temples in Queens and Long Island to the scores of mostly lousy Indian restaurants to the Gujju-owned Dunkin Donut stores to the gawking Desi tourists in Times Square to Bollywood movies to news-stands in Manhattan and the glittering jewelry stores in Jackson Heights, India is everwhere in New York.

Just look around to see India in New York.

Hey, India is present even on those red double-decker tourist buses in NYC.

You are never homesick in New York.

Picture Details
Camera: Nikon D80 DSLR
Lens: 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6
Conditions: Cloudy Morning
Focal Length: 18mm
Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority
1/60 sec- F3.5
Exposure Comp: +1.0 EV
ISO: 400

Dasara Dolls at Shiva-Vishnu Temple, San Diego (2005)

Dasara Festival is synonymous with arrangement of dolls in South India, particularly in Mysore (Karnataka), Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

During our travels in California a few years back, we found the above arrangement of dolls at a Hindu temple in San Diego.

We bet you have never seen a notice like this at any other museum in the world.

During our wanderings in New York City, we found the above board at the entrance to the Museum of Sex on 5th Ave and 27th St.

We wonder why this warning was necessary.

Do you think some museum visitors in the past may have gotten too excited on seeing the exhibits and tried to….Well, you know the rest.

We spotted this man just the other day on W47th St in the Jewelry District of Manhattan sporting a back-board that advertised a nearby Barber Shop.

Just a few blocks from New York City’s famous Times Square landmark, the Jewelry district in Manhattan is chock-a-block with stores selling gold, diamonds and other precious gems.

Amid all the jewelry stores on W47th St, the man with the board attached to his back stood out, mainly because what he was peddling was so different from the main business of the area.

Mounted police are an interesting sight anywhere.

In this age of Hummers, BMW and Mercedes Benz cars, the sight of a policeman atop a big horse makes for a nice picture.

Horses, once ubiquitous in New York (according to a recent issue of the New Yorker there were 120,000 horses in 1908) are a rarity these days except on Central Park South, where tourists can take short rides in carriages. 

In the above photo, we see a New York City policeman riding down 8th Avenue in Mid-Town Manhattan on a Saturday morning.

Gujju Behns in the Den of Vice - at an Atlantic City Casino

Boredom makes men and women explore strange things, particularly when thrown into a strange environment.

If a move to a different culture is hard enough for the educated Indian middle class - those with the so-called cosmopolitan world views - it must be much harder for these Gujju Behns transported to America and cast into a totally alien social milieu.

Their limited education and grasp of English, and different dress habits make Gujju Behns seem like fishes out of water in mainstream America. Assimilation is just out of the question for most of them.

Visiting any place in the company of other Gujju Behns is preferable to spending yet another dreary day in their homes, assembling in the local park, or chanting slokas in praise of the Lord.

Even a visit to the Sin City a.k.a Atlantic City of the East Coast is fine.

            Lakshmi Ganapathi Temple in San Jose, CA

Ram, Sita, Lakshman & Hanuman at Durga Mandir, Fairfax

Hindu temples are proliferating across the U.S. We’ve seen them on the West Coast, East Coast and quite a few in the mid-west as well.

Even a small state like Delaware has two Hindu temples - Lakshmi Temple in Hockessin and the Swaminarayan Temple in New Castle.

We wonder how long these temples can sustain themselves at their current rate of proliferation. For a list of Hindu Temples in USA, see HinduMandir.us.