It was on Dec 24th, Christmas time when the whole Ottawa was busy decorating the houses and streets for the festival! There are lights of different color all around the city. The joy of the festive season was in the air and everyone were busy in buying the things to decor their homes. It was in this time when we were invited to attend the Christmas Carol Party in the Cathedral Church of Ottawa! I always wanted to see the celebration of Christmas in the traditional christian way and it was a perfect time for me to experience that! Thanks to Ann Bourke who invited us to the dinner party and thanks to Sam and Lynn who extended the invitation to me and Prashanth as well! :) So we were there with Ann and it was an excellent time! I enjoyed the music a lot and the memories of that evening will last for very long.
It had been almost 3 months and we decided to meet again for a dinner and decided the venue as East India Restaurant on Somerset. We had decided that we will gift her something memorable! As she likes traveling and photography my obvious choice was to gift one of my images! [:) a slightly selfish thought! :)] After many rounds of discussions we zeroed in on the image of Jog Falls which I made during last monsoon trip to that place! I processed the image and after some struggle we took a nice 8x12 print of the image and went in search of a good frame for that. Finally, we were able to locate a frame which suited the photograph well. I was curious to know if she likes it or not as it was my very first image which got printed and framed! So I was also a bit of nervous!
We got the table after standing for a good 1 hour!! Thanks to a party by one of the Indian families which occupied a good half of the place! The food was good and the ambience was fantastic. Ann went on to tell her experiences of her encounters with the Lions in South Africa! She narrates amazingly! I enjoyed it a lot!
After the desert was served, it was the time that I was waiting for! On behalf of the friends I presented her the gift bag and requested her to open it and let us know if she liked it or not! My heartbeat was audible to my ears! I was curios and a bit nervous! She slowly opened the gift wrap and slowly took the frame out and very slowly turned the frame and............... the smile on her face and the joy in her eyes said that all!! I was relieved and contended! :) There was the first print of my image in the hands of a person who gave me one of the most memorable experiences of my life on the last Christmas eve! This photo is just a small token of memory from our side which reminds her of us in the time to come!
Below is the photo which I got printed and framed! I had never shared this image before!
Ann is planning to visit South India next year!
You are always welcome Ann!
Had been to Niagara last weekend and working on the images and planning to come up with an article about what I have felt at that place (in fact about how bad I felt !!). Hoping to upload soon.
Cheers,
Ash
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