Flaneurbanite's Urban Legends

Are you still waiting for a new post here?

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:10:00 +0000

Seriously?

Well, my apologies. I must have forgotten to remind you that my blog moved to www.shilpabhatnagar.com and the feed to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheFlaneurbanite a long, long time back.

Much has happened since then. So quickly update your bookmarks and your feed reader, and come say Hello at my new home!

I'd love to hear from you.

Say Goodbye to Urban Legends - well, not really :-)

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:34:00 +0000

It has been about 4 months since I took this blog over to my new url: http://www.shilpabhatnagar.com.

I think it is now time, and so starting tonight, this old url will auto-redirect to the new blog.

Well, I say "new", but in effect, it is just a continuation of the journey that started here. All the old posts on this blog and all your wonderful comments have a new home on the new url, alongside all the new content.

So please update your links to http://www.shilpabhatnagar.com/category/photostories, or simply click here to subscribe to the new blog.

I'll look forward to seeing you over there!

~

Do you know where the phrase "picture postcard perfect" comes from?

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:01:00 +0000

If you don't, you've probably not updated your bookmarks and feeds to my new blog yet. Tsk Tsk...not good!

Click here to do it now, and click on the image below to find out the answer :)

Belgian Bits - 1

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:55:00 +0000

For those who used to follow this blog in its earlier avatar, I know it's been ages since I posted some real meat (read photographs). But as you now know, it was because I was busy building this new web-home thing. Hopefully, you'll still come around to have a look at the pictures and tell me what you liked (or didn't). Here we go.

This time, I've brought you bits of Belgium, from a brief trip over Christmas.

Click here to read the rest of the post (and look at the other pictures) on my new blog, here.

The Flaneurbanite is Here! Please Update Your Bookmarks and Feeds!

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Tada!

I present to you the new improved and much larger version of Urban Legends:

The Flaneurbanite at http://shilpabhatnagar.com.

The new site is much more than just a blog.
Not only does it have all the content (and all your comments) from the last three years on this blog, but also other stuff that I get up to.

Which includes Urbanism, which is what I do to earn my living;
Design, which I have a keen interest in;
Writing, which as some of you already know I do quite a bit of;
and of course my original love - flanerie and photography, which is just a continuation of this blog.

This is what it looks like:

The Four Blogs:

Urbanism:

Design:

PhotoStories (The Original Urban Legends and more):

And "Everything Else" - a place for my writing on quite literally, everything else!

But this is not all. I'm also going to be hosting my ongoing Writing and Photography portfolios on the new site - so if you're interested, you might want to click through to that section and see what I've been up to.

And do please update your bookmarks and feed readers with the new url.

But before you do that, please click through to the site, check out my new content and please, please do let me know what you think.

This new website has been a project close to my heart and it's taken me a long time and lots of hard work to make it happen (especially as I am no whiz at technology - it takes me ages to do what it might take a tech literate person five minutes to do!).

I would love to get your feedback and comments over there - and I can't wait to get going!

Click here to join me at the The Flaneurbanite.

And Do Say Hello :)

PS: I won't be closing this blog for the foreseeable future, but I might add a redirect link to the new website in a few weeks.

Urban Legends Is Changing!

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:19:00 +0000

Just in case you were wondering, I haven't abandoned this blog! I know I haven't posted anything worthwhile here lately, but it's all for good reason.

Around the middle of last year, I started feeling that this little Blogger blog isn't allowing me to do many things that I originally intended to do here. It did great for a while, and then it started to stagnate. I needed more space and better space to do what I really wanted to do.

So, after months and months of deliberation, procrastination and self-doubt caused by a humbling lack of technical expertise, I have kicked all of it aside, and have plunged headlong into the world of self-hosted Wordpress.

Which does mean what you think it means!

Yup, I will have a new website in place of this little blog very soon!

It should be up in a matter of a few days from now, in fact - if all goes well and if I can manage not to crash it for the third time. (Having a partner who deals with technology in his professional life is a very blessed thing in such circumstances).

The new website will not only have all of this blog's existing content, but a whole lot more of what I do - professionally, personally (and passionately).

Thank you for being with me on the three year long journey that was this blog.

It continues, albeit elsewhere.

Stay tuned...

Work In Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:33:00 +0000

Just in case you were wondering, I'm still alive. So is this blog. I'm just working to create something that will (hopefully) be a bit bigger and a lot better than this little blog that I created nearly three years back - wow, time flies!

Meanwhile, I hope you're getting ready for winter - here's some warmth from my Diwali celebration at home in London to keep you warm, while I return with what I'm working on.

Thank you for your patience!

Love and Light.

~ Flaneurbanite.

Postcards from Italy...3

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:14:00 +0000

continued from here

I know this blog channels the spirit of flanerie, and that, by common understanding, is more about cities than lakes and pristine countryside. But then again, this blog is also about photography, about the beauty of the moment, and I strongly believe that beauty must be shared. Even if it makes me look much more like a hopeless tourist than a flaneur.

For this week therefore, a few more postcards from Italy.

Paris Je T'Aime | Paris, I Love You...4

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:10:00 +0000

Others in this series, here

And the last few bits of lovely Paris...

Until next time. Sigh.

Paris, Je T'Aime | The Street Artist of Marais

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Others from Paris, here

When you look at this...

A version of this famous painting - Rembrandt's "Titus, le fils de l'artiste"

...would you believe, it's being drawn live by this guy?

Yes, as I was as astonished and impressed.

The Business of Being Parisian...2

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 06:00:00 +0000

continued from here

Like London or Delhi or Bombay or New York, Paris is more than one city. There's the Paris of the garish tourists, for no outsider can match the finesse and grace of the true Parisian, and there's the Paris of the classic and nonthreatening seediness, if there's a such a thing, in Montmartre. There's the Paris where I narrowly avoided being robbed*, and there's the Paris of the puppet artist who shooed away an ice cream quaffing American from his shop but warmly welcomed wide-eyed me. There's Hausmann's Paris, of course, and weaving through all of this is the Paris of the Parisians, where they go about the seemingly uniquely cliquey business of being Parisian.

It all comes together in a sort of unreal utopian fairy tale unlike a London or Delhi or Bombay or New York - the wonderland that Paris is, to me.

*Not exactly a hold-up, but boarding the RER train, I caught a girl trying to open my bag that was carelessly slung on my shoulder. She disappeared before I could react, leaving me very indignant indeed. Well, served me right for being a careless tourist. I clung on to my belongings for dear life for the next three days in the city. And no, this episode did nothing at all to spoil my Parisian fairytale - if you've been watching this blog lately, you might have guessed that. :)

The Business of Being Parisian

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 11:22:00 +0000

Others from Paris, here

Paris Je T'Aime | Paris, I Love You...(3)

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:30:00 +0000

(Others in this series from Paris, here)

"The solitary and thoughtful stroller finds a singular intoxication in this universal communion. The man who loves to lose himself in a crowd enjoys feverish delights that the egoist locked up in himself as in a box, and the slothful man like a mollusk in his shell, will be eternally deprived of. He adopts as his own all the occupations, all the joys and all the sorrows that chance offers." ~ Charles Baudelaire on the Flaneur.

and the story continues...

Paris Je T'Aime | Paris, I Love You....(2)

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:15:00 +0000

...continued from here.

In large part, what makes Paris Paris, and keeps it what it is, are the Parisians, the people of Paris. I met a few really nice ones, and spotted a few interesting ones...

...like these two little boys, play-dancing on a busy street in Montmartre, oblivious to the bustle around them...

...or Monsieur Carry PlasticBag In Mouth. New form of paparazzi protection?

More to come, soon.

Paris Je T'Aime | Paris, I Love You

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:32:00 +0000

The Flaneurbanite's fallen in love. With Paris. It happened almost at first sight - just like in the movies. Four days of a whirlwind romance later, she's back in London and pining away. It had to happen, it was meant to be - a flaneuse is bound to fall in love with the city where it all began... so far, she only knew Paris through Baudelaire's walks. Now she knows it as her own, her very own.

Paris, Je T'Aime...

The love affair begins :)

Postcards from Italy | Varenna

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Tue, 24 May 2011 03:00:00 +0000

...previously: Como

Varenna

Just one of the picturesque villages around Lake Como that we spent a day in. Varenna is more or less two parts - the lower lake side, full of awestruck tourists like us, and no surprise that, for the lakeside is indeed that pretty - and the upper town, which we just stumbled upon in our exploratory spirit.

Varenna remains with me.

Postcards from Italy | Como

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Mon, 23 May 2011 03:00:00 +0000

I know I disappeared again after my grand proclamation of being back. Oh well, what can I say - all I have to offer is the usual excuse of work, life, and holidays. I hope these vignettes from my last holiday in Lake Como will appease you for the time being.

Como

More tomorrow.

Last Night's Perigee Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:15:00 +0000

I was probably one of the only people on the Earth last night who were completely unaware of the fact that we were about to have this dazzling moon. I noticed it only as I returned home from a day out - and then raced upstairs with my camera for a few shots.

The moon, as it looked to me, last night.

Stunning. :)

Dusk at Twickenham Riverside

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 09:48:00 +0000

On a freezing cold day in March, spent walking around in a relatively run-down area of London because work insisted I must; cursing the weather and my inappropriate sense of dressing-for-the-weather, I found redemption on the riverside.

The Twickenham Riverside is not the most stunning of places next to the Thames in London, but it was calming enough (if not warming), to make the day seem worthwhile. What made it even more worthwhile was that I was carrying my new camera, and had a glass of red wine in me.

Presenting some of the very first pictures from my very first DSLR.

I'll be back with more, soon.

Hipstamatised Kuala Lumpur

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:40:00 +0000

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I've been travelling a whole lot recently. Most of it has been of the hectically-working-while-being-severely jet-lagged variety, which leaves little room (or consciousness) for taking pictures.

On my last trip to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) though, I was forced to slow down and take notice - by a massive but beautiful thunderstorm - and then, I had to take pictures. But it was one of those rare moments when I wasn't carrying my camera, weighed down as I was by tonnes of paper and a laptop (sigh, work trips...and being tiny) and so I gave my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app a chance. The only credit I'll take for these pictures is for that consciousness...and perhaps, the composition.

It had been a while since I had seen a tropical thunderstorm in its full glory and power. The only rain I see in London is the feeble, unsure type, with a complete lack of self respect. You know, the deeply annoying type? Tropical rain is all powerful, seductive, all-consuming. It makes you stop and take note, awes you by its presence. It forces you to celebrate its beauty, its glory, even its destructiveness. Ah, I miss the Indian monsoon.

And so, I went to bed that night, tired, but strangely happy...and woke up the next morning to this stunning view.

Who says you need a state of the art camera to capture the beauty you see?*.

*Having said that though, I must confess and rather proudly announce that on the same trip, I became the owner of a new DSLR camera - my first. While the camera can no doubt do nice things, I'm busy figuring out what I can do with the camera. I'll be back soon with my first results. :)

A Day's Walk's Worth - 2

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:17:00 +0000

(continued from here)

...and as fleeting as the breeze on Pondicherry's seaside promenade, the flaneur passes, leaving no trace, but bringing back a few snippets, just a day's walk's worth.

A Day's Walk's Worth - 1

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:52:00 +0000

How long does it take for a flâneur to find that little blister in the fabric of the city to be able to start peeling its layers away? A few days? A week? A month? How many years?

Certainly more than a single day, spent walking around in flip-flops under a 30 degree Centigrade sky, meeting the incredulous amusement of the local auto-rickshaw drivers, and the mostly closed doors and windows in Pondicherry's French Town - very French, a little Indian and just a vague hint of old Dutch.

The only hope I had then, was to bring you back a day's walk's worth.

Yet, a day's worth doesn't quite fit into a single post. More tomorrow.

And we're back!

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:22:00 +0000

Yes, it's been a long time away, and I've missed you, I've missed the blog, I've missed the pleasure and the hard work of clicking and posting, I've missed replying to comments and watching you come and go...but not for a moment did I give up or forget - I've been meaning to come back, and here I am again.

My personal all-time favourite picture on this blog, and certainly the one that attracted the maximum attention in 2010. Just because, I love this picture and I'm proud of it (and because no post on this blog can be sans a picture!)

In the last four months, I have clicked, but not as much as I'd have wanted to. I've travelled a whole lot, and some of that is going to find its way to this blog. I've also been busy writing for some publications and I'll soon show you what. I've worked hard elsewhere because I needed to, and that goes on. But what changes is that I'll be posting regularly again, and if all goes as per plan, I'll have some new things going here not too far into the future.

But before I go on to all that, I need to thank you, dear readers - all those who stuck on to this blog, left comments and sent me emails despite my being A.W.O.L; and to all those new subscribers who've recently joined the little party we've going on here (it's a bit dull at the moment, I know, but I promise to amp it up, and soon!). I know I can't trust technology a hundred percent, but if my subscriber statistics are to be believed, this little blog has not lost any subscribers in the last four months - instead, added a whole bunch! And do you know what a big boost of encouragement that is? A VERY big one!

So Thank You, and I hope you've all missed me just as much as I've missed you.

Here we go, again.

Bohemian Spitalfields

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 12:32:00 +0000

I have often wandered into the Old Spitalfields Market even when I don't quite intend to be there, and have ended up spending hours walking through and by the fashion markets and the vintage shops. It is perhaps the eccentric bohemian hidden in my closet that emerges to fish these scenes out.

If you like what you see here and have an affinity for the East End like I do, you might like the first few books listed on the right hand column of this page. As for me, I'm plotting my next escapade into the old notorious alleys of the East End. Until then.

A Passage To The East End

noreply@blogger.com (Shilpa Bhatnagar) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:28:00 +0000

Behind the money making powers; behind the glass and concrete towers; behind The Suits and the expensive watches ticking to the work day; behind the booms and the busts and the redundancy pays; behind the lunch sandwiches and Friday pints...lies one of the many streets of the East End of London.

I wandered into one of them and brought back a few snapshots....

...and something tells me they hide more than a few stories.
I'll be going back for more.