1-2-3-4 Here we go.Go Goa. Day 2...

Getting late is probably written in our blood,yes we love India and we love to follow Indian Standard(Lazy) time.Started an hour late again then the decided one and left Sirsi by 8.15am.Plan is to cross Devimane Ghat as quick as possible and reach Goa early.The road was very nice, small two laned road, not very smooth but can be driven at 80-90kmph as the traffic was very less.Crossed a few beautiful small bridges.And then I decided to stop at one of them to frame it through my lens.Vinoy got very excited to see the beautiful hill-river down below and went down to the river bed(which he regretted later ;-) )
We saw the turn that goes to Yana but as we were in a city-slicker not a off-roader we had to ignore the place and head towards Mirjan. But had to stop after sometime as there was shrieking voice that shouted something like "Beach"or something like that .. I was wondering where the hell these guys have seen a beach in the hills but it turned out that our dear Mr. Adventure boy Vinoy was been attacked by an army of leeches when he entered their territory.There were two beaches, oops sorry leeches, on the floor, both tank full of his blood.There was one more hanging on his leg sucking few more drops.Stopped the car and it was our time to pay it back.Crushed all three and after a quick check for any more of the enemies hiding inside the car we hit the road again.
Now came the ultimate test of driving skill once we reached NH17.If Shimoga road was bad then try this section.It'll top the list of worst roads in India or perhaps the world.Basically there was no road as such and we were probably going through a war-zone[who knows, may be Yana road was better] Anyway after sometime we reached the Gokarna deviation and headed towards Om Beach.But we were disappointed to know that people were not allowed to go to the beach as there was some mishap day before.So we had to turn back and head towards Karwar instead.
We reached Karwar pretty soon, the ghat section where you can see the sea on the left side was walled off in most of the places for the Sea-bird project.Would have been a great drive if those walls were not there(well,we have to sacrifice something for the country) . the view of the sea was amazing once we entered the Karwar City.Car was stopped and outcomes the camera and here are some snaps :


Now we thought that better we go ahead and have our lunch at Goa.. So in goes the camera and the car roars to life.Saket took over the driving this time as I wanted to enjoy the beauty outside and took some rest also.. Well till goa border I was repenting the decision as the road was very good and I wish I was driving ;-) .But as we entered Goa the road becomes a like a galli and I was spared with driving on that road.Few sections were even potholed badlly also.
We reached Palolem around 3.30pm and we started looking out for a place to eat.The beach was very nice with nice people all around he he.. The Outlook Traveler Goa guide became our good friend and we went to Hi Tide Coco hut's restaurant.It's a lovely place on the side of the sea.We ordered some sea-food and veg food for saket.. Me and Vinay are the fisheterians and while at Goa how can we miss it ;-) . The Food was awesome(even the veg food) tasty fish and lovely tasting Prawns, on the side of the beach .It was a lunch to remember for life,the breeze from the sea,the sun going down on the horizon and the beauty all around.If it's not bliss then what is?
We had earlier plan to go to north Goa but we ditched that plan and decided to spend the night at Palolem only.Booked a room at Palolem Beach resort(a very nice place I would recommend to anyone) just walkable to distance from the beach.The lights of he huts,the calm sea ,the sound of the waves hitting the shore and the beer bottles,ummm we've chosen the right choice.But wish we had one more day to spend atleast I could've joined other two buggers in their night adventures..Oh yeah, they had a good time and Saket almost found his Cristine he he [Don't know Cristine? You need to watch some movies my dear friend]..

1-2-3-4 Here we go.Go Goa. Day 1...

Beaches where the mighty sea meets the land and leaves a trail of sand to let us mortals enjoy the mother nature.So when I got the leave sanctioned for Nov 2nd only thing I could think about is to make a trip to Goa and Karwar.Vinay and Saket said yes and we were ready to hit the road.After lots of research and help from Team-BHPian's(thanks a lot to the people on that online forum) regarding the routes and other things we decided to take the road through Shimoga so that we can also pay a visit to the famed Jog Falls.

So the D-Day arrived and I woke up around 5.45AM and found that BESCOM has tried to play a cruel trick with me that day.Waited half an hour for the electricity to come back which didn't happened and had to take a cold water bath,eeeeaaaawwwwwww.Well, actually that cold water bath took away all the sleepiness and it was a blessing in disguise.In the meantime Saket called to inform that he has started from his home to his office to keep his bike there.Picked him up from his office premises around 7.10am.We are already late by half-an-hour.Anyway Vinay told that he'll be arriving at the Jalahalli circle by 7.45am and we reached there exactly the same time he arrived.
Next major target was to fill up petrol at Shell and then look up for a good place to have breakfast.Those two hungry souls otherwise would have eaten me only if I don't find a breakfast point fast.But as we all know(and if didn't know before, now you know ;-) ) that @ NH4 after Neelamangala only good place to eat are Coffee day on left side and A1 and Kamat on the other side.And thanks to the highway planning we had to come back around half km to reach Kamat. and after a nice heavy breakfast with Hot Coffee,Dosas and Vadas we had to travel back around 1 more km or so to get the next turn to come to the other side.
After that till Tumkur the road was anyway almost a breeze and thanks to ABV, the wise old man who had the vision about Golden Quadrilateral (GQ)[and a thumbs down to the idiots who are incharge of the NHAI,more about this later]. I wish this road will be complete soon.
We had to take a right turn towards Shimoga and immediately welcomed with a few potholes.But luckily it was not for long and we reached the exit towards Shimoga.BTW, Auto rikshwas in Tumkur drive as horrible as their brethren in Bangalore or may be it's the common DNA inside them make them drive the way they do all over the world.[World is India in this case]
Road was very nice after Tumkur though it was a two lane-highway.Sparse traffic and scenic vistas made the drive more and more enjoyable.Soon we crossed Tiptur,Arsikere,Kadur and Birur. And suddenly after Bhadrawati we were greeted with few lunar craters on the road.For a second I thought may be we were cruising at high-speed and we somehow attained escape velocity and landed on moon itself.But hold on,it is not the moon but our very earth and we were approaching Shimoga.After holding all the 94 horses of the baleno and converting them to 2 bulls we started cruising at old world bullock cart highway driving.It was a major task not to disturb the craters and it's inhabitants(who knows, the Govt. may have plans to start some fishery on those craters when it rains;-) ) anyway after painstaking hour and half and lots of jokes starting from Indian Lunar mission to getting ministers driving on this stretch we crossed that section alive and unscathed.
After the tiring space exploration we decided to have lunch and went to a small restaurent near the Bus Stand.Nothing great to right home about so let me cut the story short.Oh yeah, before that we've also decided to try a road-side dhaba but that was also in pathetic condition.Journey after shimoga was smooth and we have seen lotsa green vistas zooming past us.It was a very nice drive after that.The beautiful greenery, winding road and to top that there were lashes of rain and then sun peeping out for few moments after the rain.Oh ,it was a bliss, will never forget this drive,never ever. We crossed a nice forest road(most probably it was after Anandapuram, but I'm unable recall correctly).Stopped by the road-side in quite a few places just to enjoy the beauty of our mother earth.To savour the grandeur to the fullest,to let the time pass by,who knows what's there in tomorrow and so better to live for today itself.Someone rightly said, enjoy the journey not just the destination and so we did.

We reached Sagar around 5.20PM, our earlier plan was to halt at Sagar and then visit Jog falls and come back to Sagar for night halt.But as it was already getting darker we were contemplating whether to stop at Sagar now itself and see Jog in the morning or directly go to Jog.Ultimately we decided to give Jog a visit and then come back to Sagar. So we went ahead and reached Jog by twilight. It was very dark by that time.Jog was not at it's full glory although we spent some time there and clicked few customary pics.Ok, now been there and done that,what next? Shall we go back to Sagar and I told my friends that I'm not tired at all and I can drive 3 more hours easily.So a quick change of plan and we decided to go to Sirsi instead and save some time for next day morning.A quick inquiring session with the helpful govt' restaurent manager at Jog[nice chap,thanks] and we found that there is a right turn just 3 km ahead from the Jog junction of NH 206 which goes to Siddapura. So off we go and start our night trip on a unknown territory on the dark of the night.


It was around 7.30pm and we have taken the plunge.Taken the right turn towards wilderness, oh sorry, Siddapura.For first few kms the road was newly tarred and very nice with clear demarcations but after around 6-7kms it turned out to be a small and not seems to be in bad shape.But we anyway have decided to go ahead and we did carry on.It was very scary as there was not a single other vehicle on the road .All the ghost stories that we've heard before about lonely roads came into mind and someone also taken out the topic.A particular section on that road was really scary as it was lined up with old Bodhi trees and in the light of the car the scene looked as if coming alive from some horror movie ;-) .Also we were fearing that may be road will turn out worser and we may have to turn back.But with Floyd singing Time, the time soon ticked away and we could see small villages on the side of the road. And luckily the road didn't turned out to be too bad.We reached Siddapura by 8.10 around and then reached Sirsi by 9.30 approx. After inquiring the local auto stands(Autowallas have become a great help to us during this trip actually, while asking directions) we decided to stay at Hotel Shivani. I was glad that we have been pointed to this place as it had a big parking place and that was my biggest concern during the whole trip.I didn't want to leave my dear Ms Baleno outside on the roadside.Also the rooms are very nice and a non-AC double room just for 400Rs with an extra bad.(would recommend this hotel to anyone who is travelling on this route)
Well, that's all for tonight and will post the rest of the journey soon on the next blog.

The Route taken :
Day 1 : Bangalore-Tumkur-Shimoga-Sagar-Jog Falls-Sirsi
Day 2: Sirsi-Mirjan-Ankola-Gokarn-KArwar-Palolem
Day 3: Palolem-Karwar-Devbagh-Ankola-Sirsi
Day 4: Sirsi-Haveri-Davangere-Chitradurga-Tumkur-Bangalore

Petrol Bunks used :
Day 1: Shell Bangalore,NH4 - IOCL Shimoga
Day 2:BP @ Gokarna cross
Day 3:BP @ Gokarna cross
Day 4: Shell Bangalore,NH4

Eateries :
Day 1:Kamat before Tumkur - a small restaurant near Shimoga Bus stand(not recommended)-Hotel Shivani (OK types but Gobi Manchurian was good there)
Day 2: Brunch at Hotel Shivaprakash(not very sure of the name) @ Gokarna -
Lunch at High Tide @ Palolem (awesome sea-food),
Dinner at a place which is at the end of the beach, nice food there also.
Day 3:Brunch at Palolem Beach Resort-Good one
Lunch @ Devbagh Beach Resort, Karwar (food was not that great but the ambiance was)
Evening snacks at Kamat Ankola,nice place.The Kamats are really life savers.
Dinner again at hotel Shivani,sirsi
Day 4: Reliance A1 Plaza on NH4 for Brunch.Good food at good price
Kamat after Tumkur.

Few more pics from Chitradurga Trip

You can visit them here

600+ kms in a day..Chitradurga fort and Chandravalli and Davangere and back in a day

All it started with one of my Team-mate getting married and we few decided to pay him a visit and give our blessings to the newly married couple;-);) ..So after pondering over mode of transport we decided to hit the road by ourselves,means me driving again in my trusted old Zen.. I got her ready for a long trip by getting a thorough check at Smart cars on Saturday and packed my photo gear as usual.. And yeah I was the only driver as another friends who was supposed to come with us was not able to join us as he had some urgent work..
Got up in the morning by a call of Vyas and they(Vyas and Sumeet) were at my home by 9.30 already an hour late then planned ;-) .. So we started off around 10am from my home and picked up Pandeyji near Indiranagar flyover.. Decided to fill her up at Shell on NH4 but lo-behold there was no stock.. So had to compromise with HP petrol..So by 11.30 we were on the outskirts of bangalore thanks to less traffic on a sunday morning.. After going only a few km.s everyone realized that each one is very hungry and need to do pet-puja as soon as possible..So by the we decide upon whether to have breakfast or an early lunch we've reached the Cafe Coffee day on tumkur Road.. Well after savoring few things we again hit back the road(BTW, there is a A1 Plaza right opposite of CCD but the U turn is bit far and there is Kamat also just before CCD but we somehow managed to miss it;-) )
>>>Sumeet, Pandeyji and Vyas @ CCD NH4


The Road, thanks being part of the golden quadrilateral project was awesome in most of the places.. It is even fenced in lotsa places so that cows and pedestrians won't be able to cross the road at there will.. But still there lot to be done to make it a fully safe road ..But comparatively I found this road to be much safe then Blr-Mysore road which is full of cows,bullock carts etc..Driving was easy and not stressful at all till Chitradurga.. We had a lil' scare and had to brake very hard as the road suddenly finished and there was a diversion..luckily nothing major happened except lil bit of skidding..
Anyway We've reached reliance A1 plaza on the outskirts of Chitradurga around 2pm and had a good lunch there.. the food there is not something very great but for the price it worth the money.. So after lazily finishing our lunch we decided to visit Chitradurga fort and Chandravalli (it has a cave called Ankulli Math )As the Sun was hot up on our heads we decided first to visit the Caves first instead of the fort though the fort comes before.. it was a fascinating trip inside the caves as it has well curved out steps and there were different rooms which were being made long time ago..Oh I forgot to mention that there is a Kere (Lake in Kannada) just before the caves with the backdrop of Dhavalapanna gudda which is a cone shapped hillock(will try to visit there in near future as I heard the view is stunning from there) .. >>Me @ Ankulli Math Caves<<


After coming out of the cave we made our way towards the famous Chitradurga Fort.. It was a awesome experience to view the Grand fort that I've heard so much from a friend who visited it recently..One thing that strikes immediately is that the fort is very well maintained..It was very neat and clean(yes few places one can see few litters thrown around by idiots but other then that it was nice to see the cleanliness).. We couldn't explore the whole fort as we didn't had much time(it was already 4.30 around) as we need to reach Davangere by 7.30 and we've heard that Chitradurga Davangere section is not so good...We decided to visit the Onake Ovaba kindi which was probably the most famous point of the fort.. On the way to the place we could see the Ganesha temple and then a place where there is huge pillar and Treasury house of the fort.. Every turn, every climb was providing new vistas and overall it was a nice experience.. I don't know why I've not heard much about this place before.. I'm thinking of visiting the place again and to spent more time to see the whole place.. maybe I'll club with my long planned Humpi trip..Sometime ,someday I'll sure do this trip..


It was getting dark and we had tea in a place on the outskirts of Chitradurga and so by the time we hit the highway it was 6.45pm and slowing he sun was setting on the horizon .. and yeah it was a awesome view to see the sun set that day.. Couldn't stop for a shot as we were getting late..
It required helluva concentration while driving in dark in an unknown road.. Road from Chitradurga to Davangere are still in construction phase with few stretches still to be finished.. Had to drive very carefully and slowly (I was doing around 80-90kmph on this stretch while the BLR-ChtDrg I was doing around 110-130 kmph most of the time) .. And on this stretch we've had experience of why Indian Road are not safe at all.. People were coming on the wrong directions , riding bikes, cars, bullock carts(that too in dark) etc.. at one corner suddenly comes a moron on bike driving along side the divider on our side.. He was lucky to survive I feel..I just can't imagine how can people be so careless and stupid, driving on the wrong side on wrong direction..Doesn't they care at all about their lives ?? Is saving 5 min is so important then their life???Why are they so suicidal ??Do they come into this world with a peanut instead of brains in side their heads???
Anyway after that lil' scare we reached Davangere. None of us were sure about the way to enter the city and we overshoot and taken a wrong turn.. After going lil' bit distance my sixth sense told me we are going wrong and we decided to turn back.. After that we found the right road with the help of some peple.. After searching a lot we at last found that marriage hall.. After that our next adventure of getting a gift started.. Yeah we didn't bought any gift so we thought to get it somewhere on the way..and that somewhere ended up in Archies Gallery at Davangere itself ;-) So by the time we got the present and be present at the function it was almost 9.. Yeah we didn't had much time to be present at the function and needed to leave for Bangalore ASAP.. so we started our return trip around 10pm.. The return journey was mostly uneventful.. On the way to Chitradurga I thought of getting a Pilot car, I mean to say follow a car which is doing similar speed and not very aggresive.. But in the end I ended up being the pilot car for a Alto.. This guy vey meticulously given us way to overtake and then started folllowing us.. Even if I was giving him way to overtake he was never taking the bait ..and even if he overtook in some places he immediately decreased his speed to let us go ahead;-)..
After Chitradruga the road was anyway much better as I've mentioned earlier..So was easily doing around 100kmph at night also..Another pleasing thing I found out that the most of the TRucks were very well behaved..All of them were driving on the left lane and the fast right lane was always empty.. And if a truck was trying to overtake another truck and I felt that I was nearer to overtake I flashed my headlights and they were making way by moving to the left lane again.. I found it quite surprising as I've heard only horror stories of Truckwallas.. Only pain in the neck was the Bus'es and two or three trucks and surprisingly all these buggers were either KA or TN registration vehicles.. Buses never gave any way and had to overtake these morons from the left side..
Forgot to mentions another thing, the wind at Chitradurga is mindblowing and that's why there are so many windmills.. Well it was so strong that I was worried it will cary sharp objects and hit us on face.. So most of the time kept the window rolled up on untill we left chitradurga long back..
We've taken 2 breaks on the return journey..One at a Dhava where we stopped only for tea and Pandeyji was all so enthu to eat some Tandoori Rotis and Daal that we had to give in.. Reluctantly we started Roti's and by the end it was almost 3 and roti's per head ;-).. it was good.. next stop was at a small tea-shop after Tumkur..BTW all A1 plazas/Kamats were closed by that time..
Reached Bangalore around 3 and after dropping Pandeji and Nagraj(he hitched a ride with us from Davangere as there was space) at their homes I reached home and hit the bed around 4am..
Total Dist: 602 km to and fro according to tripmeter..
Time Required :BLR - Chitradurga 3hr .. Chitradurga- Davangere-1hr 20 minA(approx).. Way back it was around 5 hr 40 min approx(with few breaks)..
Road Condition : Excellent up to Chitradurga..Chitradurga to Davangere still under construction
On the way Refreshments : near tumkur CCD Kamat and Relience A1 plaza(All these 3 are in the vicinity of each other) Another Reliance A1 plaza is near Chitradurga..

Kere Thonnur..

There is this lovely lovely lake on the hillock.. a little far away from Pandavapura, it's a place to be..a very silent place with very few people coming there. a perfect place to spend time enjoying the beauty..

A journey into the Himada Gopalaswamy Betta

Just after my return from home I hit the road again.. Me,Saket and Vyas decided to go for a short trip to see the mists over Gopalswamy betta.. This small hill is sitting pretty on the side of Bandipur National Park..A place with a shrine and rolling hills all around and covered with mist most of the time.. One can have commanding view over the Bandipur and Mudumalai forest downhill and yeah the Pachyderms do pay their visit to this place almost regularly.. Lucky ones sometimes have close encounters with these gentle giants..
We've not been so lucky as we were there when the sky was clear and there were no giants in vicinity.. But the view, it was just wonderful..We've walked through the treks there and every step leading us to different vistas..We spent around 3 hours their and returned before it get dark. (you are not supposed to stay there without prior permission after dusk as the place is inside the Bandipur Forest) On the way back we have witnessed a very colorful Sunset..
As it was Sunday next day we decided to stay over at Mysore..And the next day, well ,read my next blog ;-)

Distance : 226 km from Bangalore..
Road Condition : Blr-Msr highway is pretty nice to drive.. Msr to B'pur is somewhat ok to worse in places..OK types after the turn towards the hill..

Gopalaswamy Betta Photos

Gopalaswamy Betta..Check the other pics here

Home.. sweet home.. The Greenest Valley on earth.. Yes It's Assam my dear..

Some pics from my trip to back home.. Few evening snaps.. and few snaps of the paddy fields near my home.. also care for some Tea ?? In my next trip I'm planning to get around 100s of photographs this lovely land..Some more pics are here

Mangalore,Bekal,Surathkal and Dharmasthala trip Photographs

Here are few of the clicks during the trip to Mangalore,Bekal,surathkal and Dharmasthala.. It was a drive to remember for a long time.. Had everything from Rains in the hills to the Sun in the beach.. Morning tea at Bekal,evening snacks at Surathkal beach. .A bend gear shift shaft enroute Dharmasthala.. finding a maruti service station in a place called nowhere.. 100s of vintage cars in the car museum and thousands of devotees at the shrine.. Can things get better then this?? Oh can I ever forget the drive on the Sakleshpur ghat section with the rain lashing on the windshield.. rain makes the place mesmerizing,it was green all over,feels like God had only the shades of green while he created this place(and yeah we mortals had put the grey road in between but the contrast was so nice) and to have a cup of hot tea while it rains.. Romantic, isn't it ?? ;-)

And yeah,thouht I should mention,'yours truly' was born on this date..

Deverayana Durga - Where silence is broken by the Birds..

DEvarayana Durga, is a quite hill station(or say hillock) just around 65 km from
Bangalore .. This is the place we've decided to give a visit this weekend .. As
Siva,Nathan n Jk ware busy it left me and Srikant to make the trip .. I woke up to a call from Srikant in my mobile at 5.30..It seems I switched off my alarm and slept till the call came.. I was supposed to start before 5.30 am and I was still sleeping.. So ultimately I was able to start by 6.15am.. Had some tea and bun near Srikants home.. So here we come D.Durga .. We have to take NH4 to reach D.Durga.. at the 20 km Milepost before Tumkur we have to a u turn and a small muddy road(just 15 mts) connects to D'Durga road..NH4 is part of the PM highway scheme and one dream road to drive.. I was constantly driving above 100 and the road was smooth like silk.. Probably these roads were the best gift by the previous government and I hope the good will be continued by the new govt..Anyway,after taking the state road from NH4 we are back to real roads from the dream road ;-).. Road was not so good and most of the places was full of potholes.. it's around 15 km from the diversion of NH4 and it took us more time to cross this part then it took from Blr to the diversion.. ;-) But so what, I enjoyed the countryside and it was really really beautiful..
After sometime we reached the DD forest range and we stopped in many places as we were spotting lotsa avians on the way .. Really the place was full of lotsa birds.. Though my birding knowledge was limited I was able to id some of them.. Me and srikant tried to capture them in film but what I found that my equipment is really not suitable for any short of birding.. After some misadventures we decided to move on towards DD hill.. On the top of the hill there is a temple but first we decided to roam around other places and look for some birds/bugs/butts or whatever we thought can be clicked .. And our patience did paid up .. We were able to shoot some Lizzards( I'm still not able to id those two species) .. And there were lotsa butterflies around .. I could catch some of them after an hour of effort and quite satisfied with the outcome later..
Then we decided to give a visit to the temple. It's actually inside the fort we had to climb some stairs to get there.. Believe me the view was awesome from the top and I wish I was there early morning or late afternoon to catch the magic light(Sigh!!! I wish!!!
how I wish,how I wish you were here - Pink Floyd!!! ;-);-) )
So after spending some time in the temple we decided to call it a day and march back to where we belong(namma bengaluru) .. The return journey was uneventful and only thing I remember that we had tender coconut water on way back and wow it probably tasted like nectar..

Where to go??? and raindrops...

After the weather-spoiled Kolar road trip I was roaring to go for another one .. now this one come from Srikant's mail for a trip to Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary or to be specific Bheemeswari.. But again after lotsa discusions/brainstorming and fights CWS was cancelled.. So I had nothing to do on the Sunday and was thinking of spending the day sleeping .. ;-) Yesterday night had a nice candle-light Diner at Rajeeb's new house(Seems the elctric trasnformer tripped after the storm in the evening)..
Around 11 am got a msg from Srikant about some place called Devarayana Durga..It's a small hillock near Tumkur and seems to a nice place tofind birds and reptiles..But as there was not much time(I had to wait for Siva as he was to join me and then we planned to move towards Srikant's home) to make a long trip we decided to give a visit to Tipu's Brithplace,i.e. Devanahalli .. After waiting for Siva for a long time he arrived at around 2.40 pm.. Anway we started asap and picked up Srikant on the way .. the Road to devanahalli is in progress and in some places both way traffic had to share the same stretch of road.. Except that the road was good.. I hope the work will be finished soon.
Nowadays it seems like every developement work in bangalore has stopped.. Everything is moving in a snail pace,thanks to the new stupid Government and their policies..
We reached the place on around 4pm and parked the car inside the fort.. actually there is a settlement of people inside the fort walls.. The fort is not that big and it seems walls have been collapsed in some places.. Everything seems to be in pathetic condition. There was no maintanance or stuffs like that.. And it seems some places are used by the localites as their toilets..Well probably Srikant will like to say somehting about something dry,ahem..;-);-)
After shooting some pics of the fort walls and inside the temple(VEnugopalaswamy Temple)we decided to return back to Bangalore as it was getting dark and Sun was setting on the Horizon.. On the way back we thought of having some tea and Srikant has taken us to a very nice lil' Bengali Sweet shop in Jalahalli.. The Singra(or Samocha) was really good and I was feeling like having it on my hometown.. We also had something called ChanaPayas and that was yummy..
Arrived home by 8 pm and waiting for the rain to come .. I really miss my native home when it rains.. I love to hear the raindrops falling on the Tin-roof at my home but not so in the RCC roofs in Bangalore.. ~sigh~

Early Morning,Kolar Road(NH4) and a bad weather

Sunday morning 4.30 am .. While most of the earthlings,well atleast the Indian specimens, are happily sleeping I ventured out on the Kolar road in search of some photo ops .. There are lotsa hillocks on the way I thought of getting some clicks.. Well I was not alone,Nathan was also with me.. I travelled on that road thrice b4 and neither time I had my camera with me.. So this time determined to get something out of it .. We were welcome by a nice cool morning and thought it would be a great day to shoot but we failed to see the overhanging clouds .. While I woke up I could feel the gentle breeze and that moment I had a feeling that it might rain today.. Well it didn't rain but the overcast condition left us high and dry .. Well maybe next time ..

Morning morning

Wake up early in the morning and raise my weary hair .. Ohh God it's 5.45 and I have some friends to catch .. It seems people from the BPC are planning a meet and I have to be a part of that .. JK also would join me on the way .. So by 6.30 am we reached Lalbagh ..
First met Shivakumar there on the parking lot itself.. He was very eager to show his
slides .. He got some nice pictures and some nice compostions(specially the Sunrise/set ones) .. But I was horrified to see the scratches on the slides and it seems he has given the slides at GK Vale for processing .. I was thinking of testing GK once for slides but I should be better off at Prabhu .. No GK Vale for slides(and any other photogrpahic shots in negs also) except probably only for prints from snapshots if any ..
Next we went inside and Shivakumar got busy with shooting some people .. Then nathan joined in .. Shiva was trying my cable release in his camera with great fun for some peeping tom kinda shots ;-);-) .. After sometime Srikant,Ajay,Kumar joined and we proceed to talk about the future course of the club.. Ulitimately it was decided to have some polls(yeah, it's India, buddy) to know about peoples idea about having photo tours and competitions.. Let's hope to see some good response .. After lotsa discussions we decided to finish the meet by 10.30 around ..
I';ve to get my car washed today .. Probably I've forgotten what the original color was.. ;-)

Sunrise sunrise, Looks like morning in your eyes..(Pondichery trip part 2)

I woke up at around 5 am in the morning to catch the sunrise in the Bay of Bengal ..Wow ,what a feeling it was to see the big sun comming up from the far Horizon and
glowing up places with the warm morning rays of light .. After setting the tripod and
waiting for the sun to come up I've taken some pics of the new Pier..Then captured the Sun and the Sea on the chrome.. Then I decided to move on.. after walking a bit I found the Churches/Duplex statue/War Memorial glowing brightly in the morning Sunlight .. BTW,again horror struck and I've found that the door lock of my Canon body had gave in and door was open .. Luckily Canon uses Pre-wind mechanism(once u load ur film all the film loads into the spool and once u click the pics the exposed part goes inside the canister.. So there is no chance that it will spoil ur exposed pics if u open the back cover accidently).. I let go some frames and started shooting again . Have to do something about the lock after I get back to Blr..Well by 8 I was feeling hungry and then I realized that I left my purse in hotel.. So I had to get back there by 8.30 around.. We checked out of the hotel by 10.00 and voted to go to Chunnambar beach resort .. Some people have misguided us yesterday that the resort was closed due to the recent Tsunami..Luckily Rajeeb has asked our hotel manager in the morning and seems the Resort is up and running smoothly.. So our next destination is Chunnambar.. Ohhh no ,isn't it the most unappropiate time to get my glasses broken..S**t,my specs r gone and for the first time in a trip I forgot to bring my spare ones.. I'm going to have hell of a time today .. The worst thing is that I won't be able to use my camera today and my camera doesn't have diopter control .. Luckily the Digital comes to rescue..
We reached the place by 10.45 around and the place was bustling with activity already .. We went for a ride on boat .. It was almost like the boat ride in the backwaters of Kerala .. Nice view and a good weather(lucky we).. Pankaj n Indrani went for a speed boat ride also .. We had a nice time at that place and I would like to recommend ppl to visit this place also if they r travelling to P'cherry..
We decided to start our journy back home without re-entering P'cherry..Indrani was
fighting with Pankaj for not taking her for shopping in P'cherry.. ;-);-) .. The road was very good and wasn't able to enjoy the scenary previous night but today we were able to see the rows and rows of Tamarind treed on both side of the roads .. The drive was good and we have reached Gingee(pronounced as Senjee,don't ask me why). There is a massive fort on the hill.. It was too hot to try a climb up and the people were not willing to even have a look at it(it was 3/3.30 in the noon) ..I've taken some snaps .. Will be back here again.. Have to climb up and I want to see it closely ..
Our next stop was Thiruvannamalai Shiva Temple.. We reached there probably by 4.30
around .. It was grand ..I was amazed to see such a big temple . It's one of the biggest (probably the Biggest) Shiva temple in South India..There was an elephant inside the temple who was bestowing devotees by hitting on the head mildly.. but u have to give him either some money or some food.. It was funny I thought .. Anyway we left the temple by 5.30 and head back home.. After an uneventful journey we reached Bangalore by 9 pm.. Thus ends another trip and tomorrow have to give the slides for processing .. Hope something will come good ..
PS-Some snaps taken on the Digital are here .. not much thoughts have gone behind this one so don't expect some great pics .. http://www.kaushiksaikia.fotopic.net/c456172.html

Pondicherry Trip ..

It all started with Pankaj getting his new car and Ajay's party at the Ebony .. Pankaj was raring to go to some places in his car and ultimately the discussion ends up in deciding to go for a trip somewhere .. I had the idea of Pondicherry and Coorg at my mind.. But Rajeeb thought we should go to some sea-side place and not some places higher up as we normally do ;-) .. Initially Deep and Kongkon also thought of joining but they had to drop due to work pressure (;-);-) ) ..And as usual after saying no Honsha also joined with lot of enthu.. So that left with me,Honsha,Pankaj,Rajeeb,Indrani and Anamika.. Six people won't fit inside a Palio so we decided to go for a Qualis instead of taking 2 cars .. So we were all set to hit the road on 4th night .. Journey begins and we started from Blr to Pondicherry .. The onward journey was mostly uneventful except once our driver was feeling sleepy and the car was swerving towards the right .. Ohhh God,it was a terrible feeling and luckily nothing happened and the driver regained his composure..It happened
something around 3 am in the night and everybody else was sleeping happily except me .. And thanks to that event everyone woke up and I had chance to take a nap at the back seat . ;-);-)
We reached pondicherry at 5 am in the morning ..Now it's time to search for a hotel for our stay .. I got some print-outs from the net and to utter disappointment when I tried any of those numbers I was not able to get through any of them.. Seems the numbers got changed .. And at this point the Outlook Traveler guide comes to our rescue as it had all the updated numbers .. after much searching/roaming and endless phone calls we decided to check-in into Hotel De Pondicherry .. This hotel is on the French quarter of Pondicherry and we were readily falls into love of the place.. It was on rue dumas street just next to the Promenade , just a minutes walk from the hotel to the sea.. We love the ambiance of the hotel ,it was actually a French house renovated to convert into a hotel.. anyway, I was feeling very sleepy as I have slept probably an hour or two on the whole journey .. But fighting the sleep I walked up to the sea to see the morning light hitting the sea.. It was about 7 in the morning and it's already bit hot up there .. But the feeling of seeing the morning sea swept away all the other thoughts..After sometime I decided to return to hotel..
Woke up by 10am and after a refreshing shower we are ready to roll..First we went to Aurbindo Ashram near the Promenade but it was closed at that time so we've visited the temple nearby .. Then we have decided to go to Auroville.. Auroville is everything it is called - "The International Township of Harmony", and more. Based on the concept of the Mother, it is an entirely independent multi-racial community, which works and lives in self-fashioned, wildly original homes. It consists of 50 settlements spread across 20-sq-kms. The whole place carries a sense of peace(though there were lot other people there was not much noise or chaos .. It was so hot in Pondicherry and the cool climate(thanks to the trees n greeneries all around) in Auroville. We've stayed there for almost 3-4 hours just relaxing .. Then by 4.30 we decided to hit the beach near Aurovile .. The beach was not that good or clean as it happens to being other places but still we enjoyed a lot with sand and water ..May be the beach was lil' bit dirty after the Tsunami striked few days back,just my thought.. We returned back to Pondichery after it was getting dark..We had a lil' bit of problem as the promenade and the Roads nearby was closed for the convenience of the people who were walking on the sea-side .. We also came to the promenade to have a stroll along the sea-side with the cool breeze hitting our face.. The walk along the sea-side was probably one of the best things to do in Pondicherry.. BTW, I bought an YO-yo which lights up when u spin it .. Anamika broken the first one while trying her hand on that .. Luckily the seller was a kind one and gave us another one without any extra cost .. Pankaj also bought one more yo yo .. Sometimes kids inside u comes out,isn't it ..
By 10pm we were back to our hotel and had dinner there . I had lotsa expectations
regarding sea-food and French cuisine there was utterly disappointed.. I think Koshy's and Ebony in Bangalore serves far better food ..

Road Condition: The entire stretch was nice .. The road upto Krishnagiri from Bangalore is part of the PM highway and a cool road to drive.. The diversion towards P'cherry was also a nice road with Tamarinds trees lined up by the side of the road..

Morning at Hebbal n Evening at Ebony..

Weekend means waking up early for me now .. Well I woke up at 5.30 am( I know lotta people who know me for a long time won't believe it) .. yes 5.30 am .. Some of us in BPC has deceided to go to Hebbal lake to capture some bird activity there.. I've started around 6 am and has to pick up Hari on the way.. The sun has just risen sometime around 6.30 and by that time we were at Hebbal Kere(Kere means Lake in Kannada) .. Senthil was already there .. I've been there before and I knew I would have tough time capturing birds through the lens I have ..Anyway thought of giving it a try .. And to horror one of my nightmares came real.. My cameras back is closing after I loaded the film .. It seems the spring in the door lock has loosen up and it's not locking the door .. I was totally in a mood of sadness.. But luckily after some time I was able to lock it and started shooting .. In this place the birds are lil' bit further from the point of view .. I wish I had a digital and a 500mm lens(going to buy one 170-500mm soon).. Anyway tried a bit hard and was able to capture some of the action .. I thought of giving a try on smaller birds which r on the ground .. One thing I learnt that patience is the key and I waited near a small tree for a long time and have seen Robins and Bulbuls chirping and dancing from a close quarter ..

Hebbal lake is host to lotsa birds and I could see Robins,Bulbuls,Pond herons,
Egrets,Coots,Kites,Moorhens,Parakeets etc etc.. Some of the birds I couldn't recognise as I'm not yet very much knowledgable on avians.. One was a greenish yellowish small bird that I couldn't recognise.. anyway had a nice time shooting there and I was shooting negatives as I didn't have any slides left and I had BnW's only .. Anyway had anice time there enjoying the morning with chriping of birds and doing I love to do most,shooting with my SLR.. We came back form there by 9 pm..
Found a place near house to get my car washed .. The job was good but they charged me 150 for the car wash ..anyway,that's the problem of having a car instead of a bike(bike would cost only 40 bucks..sighhhhh) ..

Evening : Had to buy a gift for Ajay.. He got married and we(me,Honsha,Deep,Pankaj n Saurav) decided to get a nice gift .. So went to PAi and got the gift..On the way we've decided to try the new coffee-day at Jeevan-Beema Nagar.. We instantaniously loved the ambience.. IT was spacious then the other Coffee day in Indira Nagar which gives us a cramed feeling..Deep anounced that he'll give us a treat for his new Computer .. ;-);-) .. Had a nice Coffee with not so good Black-Forest(I'm still to find a place to get a good black forest in Bangalore)
Have a party at 7.30 pm at tried and tasted (bored according to Deep ;-) ) Ebony .. I like the place not only because of the food but for the view it offers of Bangalore.. We reached there by 8.00 pm,thanks to the traffic and indian puncuality.. I had to get my slides from Prabhu(Sighhh, I don't have other option to get it done elsewhere .. So thought of giving them one more chance) .. These were the slides of 2nd trip to Kokkrebellur and Medahali lake .. I was kept my fingures crossed and hoped that this time there won't be any scratches on the pics .. Pics have come out good .. I could see at least 20-25 good pics from the 3 rolls that I've shoot.. Will get then mounted tomorrow.. Anyway the party at the Ebony was a great one with around 15 of us .. Taken some lots using my digicam ..Given some tips to Deep.. Have to post process them somtime in the coming week .. After having some good Poisson a la Bedfort we were back to home by 12.30.. Will be sleeping whole day tomorrow..

Kokkrebelur trip 2

Back to Kokkrebellur..(12/02/05)

Well ,it started off from a mail from Shivakumar in the group .. It seems he and some other bpc guys were planing for a trip to kb .. I thought of pitch in as the previous trip was not a huge success ;-) due to the bad lighting that day ... So after lots of discussion/addition/deletion the team remained was me,Shivakumar ,JK and Nathan..So we've decided to start by 5 in the morning .. Wheeeewwwww that's early in the morning for a late riser like me ..
Anyway, next day we've started on time .. Nathan came to my place by 4.45am and then we've started .. On the way we've picked up JK and Shivakumar .. There were no hick-up as such at the start and we hit the Kanakapura Road,i.e. NH 209(or is NH207?) soon ..We've decided to take this road as the Mysore road was not in good shape due to the ongoing construction of 4 lane highway .. Last trip we've taken that road and luckily we've avoided some mishaps .. The Kanakapura road itself was not in a bad codition barring some small patches and we could sail smoothly .. By 6.30 the sun has decided to come up and we hasd really beautiful sunrise to enjoy and of-course click .. Hope the pics will speak for the truely marvellous sunrise ...
We had our breakfast somewhere near the turn to Sathanur ..I'm not very sure about the name of the place ...After some biscuits n snacks we've started our trip again .. To reach Kokrebelur we had to take a right turn after Halagur..After the diversion it was mainly a village area with lots of morning activities .. Though our mind were mostly occupied by birds I was able to take 1 shot or two of the village life .. On the way itself we could spot lots of birds(mostly egrets,pond herons and kites) ..
After spending some time on the road capturing all these birds(by others specially shivakumar was very much excited ;-) ) and some morning(I too have taken some) we reached Kokkrebelur by around 8.30 am .. All the other members were owe-stricken to see so many birds that too in such close quarters .. All of them were speechless(I was not as I've already seen this phenomenon on my previous trip).. Nathan disappeared to catch soe birds and we were not able to locate for almost an hour or so .. Shivakumar was jumping with joy and JK has only one
word "Awesome" ..The place was full of Pelicans n painted storks .. On every tree of the village u could see flocks of birds ..It's a treat to the eyes and a site to remember for life.. The light was very good on that day and there was not a single cloud we could see the sky .. Anyway we had a nice shooting session of the birds
for around 1.5 or 2 hours and then we've decided to move back .. We've started our return journey by 12.30 pm .. We had our lunch at Kiran Dhava on Kanakapura .. We reached Bangalore by around 4.00 pm.. Dropped shivakumar at his place and then directly moved to home .. I was tired like hell after all this driving and shooting ..So directly went to bed once I reach home .. It was a nice trip with like-minded people and had a really nice time .. Three cheers to Kokkrebellur ..
Have yet to give the slides for developement.. thinking of trying some other place then Prabhu as my last slides I could see so many scratches and I was really p**ed off to see scratches .. Probably will try Mallik this time ...
Road Condition : The Kanakapura Road or the NH 209 was good to drive with two or three occasional potholes.. The diversion to Kokkrebelur is somewhat like a village road and there were 1 or 2 bad patches but not that bad and we didn't have much problem driving there..

Kokkrebelur trip

Srikant called me at 9.30 pm on saturday.. He had a nice offer.. He asked me whether I want to join him and Manas for a trip to Kokkrebellur to shoot some birds (well with cameras not with a gun).. I was interested and I said yes without giving it a second thought .. Adam also confirmed that he'll be coming also.. I tried to call JK also but he had changed his mobile number and I was not able to reach him .. Anyway, it was Srikant,Manas ,Adam and Me were the travellers to go for this trip .. We fixed a Cab as none of us knew the place..
We started off lil bit late then planned due to some unavoidable cirumstances.. We decided to take the Mysore road as the Map indicated that u have to take a right turn just before Maddur.. The road was in a horrible condition with only half of the road is in drivable condition as the 4 laning of the highway is going on .. We had some close saves on the road and was shaken to the bone once.. What happened is that we've decided to have our lunch at Kamat's Lokaruchi which is on the right side of
the road and as we were trying to to cross the road(our driver was guilty of not looking into the other side traffic) one Maruti 800 almost had hit us .. We survived an mishap by an inch ..Anyway,at Kamath's we had nice and filling south Indian lunch and we told the driver to be more careful next time ..There we thought of asking for the directions to Kokkrebellur and to our shock and disbelief we found that the map given in Outlook Traveller was wrong and we have to take a left not right turn after 10 km or so from Kamath's..
Anyway, we started again and after 10km or so we decided to ask someone on the road for the diversion .. Voila.. to our delightful we found that the diversion is
on exactly same place where we decided to stop for directions ..After that diversion road become small and we could see lots of green paddy fields and nice vistas... It was around around 11 km from the main road to Kokkrebellur .. We reached the spot after a bit of searching.. I was expecting some lake or some water bodies where we can find the birds .. But upon reaching the place we all were to be surprized .. there were birds all over the place, on every tree of every house .. There were literally more birds then the tree leaves in a tree .. I may be exagerating but we were awed to see so many birds in a small village .. but as ill-luck would have it the light was very bad that day .. full of clouds and could not see a bit of sun rays .. Still we thought of carry on the shoot..
After around 2 hours of running ,walking and ofcourse shooting we were tired and also the light was falling off very quickly .. So we decided to pack up and start for Bangalore at around 6.15pm .. This time we thought of taking the Kanakapura road instead of the Mysore road .. So we have taken the other turn and asked some people about the directions..They told us that we need to go to Halagur where we can find the main road and that will take us to Bangalore .. So after around 13-15 kms we could see the main road and relieved to see our way back to Bangalore .. We stopped at Kanakapura for snacks and then reached Bangalore by 9.30/10 pm ..
Though the light was not on our side I still enjoyed the trip and it's a pleasure to see all those birds flying freely in the nature ..