rocksea & sarah

Tag Archive 'photography'

nature vs civilization. technology breeds happiness?

Posted by rocksea on 18 Feb 2006 | Tagged as: india, japan, life, photography, prakriti

Last weekend we had the Sapporo International Night and along with it a lot of group discussions on world heritage sites, nature etc. Our group discussed on nature, culture and civilization and how they can co-exist. I am not getting into all details of coexistence but just a single point.

Technology & happiness. Human civilization and technology has grown in a fast pace but are we happy? Some of the members said they feel life is more comfortable. Nobody said that life has become happier. We found that technology which has been developed to make life easier has in fact made life complicated and busier. One of the members said that unlike the past, now he can travel from place to place in few minutes/hours but life has become busier. Communication has improved, internet, mobile phones, have taken place in our lives but effective communication between people have decreased. We were all alarmed to face this fact that better technology doesn’t mean happiness. So is technology, instead of liberating us, holding us back?

technology made life (in the long run)

Does it look like a painting? I like the overall tone. A bit far from earth, it doesn’t show much of human intervention other than the dam. but may be a dam is enough? Anyways the picture shows a lot of geographical features.. Took it on my flight from Delhi to Sapporo a few months before. So it must be somewhere close to the east coast of India.

Anyways, am happy about the warm hi-fi japanese toilets mentioned in the pervious post More on it later!

Tags: civilization, coexistence, dam, environment, happiness, human civilization, painting, photography, prakriti, technology

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my own metamorphosis ~ from a psychrophobe to a psychrophile + snow sliding @ sapporo

Posted by rocksea on 18 Jan 2006 | Tagged as: japan, photography

Prologue:
Remember the day when you set your foot at Sapporo? It was 2 years before, on a cold February, just like this. Snow was something new and strange then, and you were happy. First few days are always like that! *snow everywhere* and you will start smiling and laughing, it was so fun.. The Dean asked you how you felt abt Sapporo. You said beaming, snowflakes allover your cheeks, "I love the snow! It is so beautiful here!" He roared out a laugh, "snow has no value here!".

"but I love snow!!?"

So first few days were spend analyzing the so-called-snow, eating it to your heart’s content.. Later you learnt that you could better sit at home and watch those japanese comedy shows (and start laughing whenever they laugh..)

Well my (shifting to first person) first 2 winters went like that, good-for-nothing. Sat indoors for 4-5 months till I made sure there’re no white patches watching me. But this winter, one day while coming to lab, got soaked in the snow and like a revelation from heaven it transformed the psychrophobic ¹ me to a psychrophilic ² self! Thatz how my bicycle started slowing down on my way to lab. Thatz how soon a camera was hanging on my neck, swinging all the way but keeping an eye on things going around,,

So am not so fed up of winter, you see.. Though all my insects and butterflies are hibernating, I managed to find some amusement in the snow.. and thatz how I ended up taking all these winter photos.

So, the photojournal for the day:

Caught ‘em from my window first. They had spotted the snow-mountain (some snow heaped over) in our compound and had decided it is the perfect place for snow sliding.