Shilonda Trail (Sanjay Gandhi National Park): Update

Here is an update to my previous post on Shilonda Trail in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (Mumbai).

Last Sunday I traversed the Shilonda Trail again with few of my friends. Here is a bit of dope for those wanting to go on this trail. This trail is closed for the general public and requires special permission from the forest department to go. Good news is that the Nature Interpretation Centre inside SGNP provides this permission for a nominal fee of Rs. 50 per head, albeit for a group size of 10 people. In case you are fewer than 10, then a lumpsum amount of Rs. 500/- needs to be paid. The department issues a receipt so everything is above board. 

This time around our focus was on birds and we managed to sight around 30 species of birds (fewer than we expected - but that's luck). Our prize catch was a pair of Indian Grey Hornbill. However, we didn't get any good bird photographs... but got some decent nature and street photography images.


Check out the images here.

Street Photography in Vasai

I am happy when my best friends have their arms around me :)

"When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!"  — Ted Grant

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Picture of the day: Rajasthani folk musician

A Rajasthani folk musician enjoys a light moment during his performance in Mumbai. This picture reminds me of Indian farmers' smiling faces that we typically see on fertiliser sacks and posters / hoardings of Government's rural schemes :)

See more of Rajasthan here.

Picture of the day: Hired cooks!

Men who toil to make our festivals sweet... all with a smile on their face, never mind the sweat and the grime! Clicked during the middle of last year.

Wish you all a very happy Makar Sankranti :)

10 Amazing Photos of India - a photo-essay featured on Go! Overseas

God's Own Country, Kerala

Go! Overseas have this week published on their website a photo-essay contributed by me. The objective of this photo-essay, titled '10 Amazing Photos of India', is to market India as a destination where the international community can explore opportunities to teach, study and volunteer. The pictures are a preview to what they can expect in India in terms of the beauty and the culture of the place.

The post has been compiled based on the pictures taken by me during the many journeys I have undertaken to discover the magnificent diversity of India and hence (constrained by my travels) may not be truly representative of all that India has to offer.

In the words of Go! Overseas - "From the towering Himalayas, to white-sandy beaches, India clearly is blessed with an amazing abundance of natural and cultural diversity"

To read the post click here
To know more about Go! Overseas, click here


I hope you enjoy the post. As always I look forward to your feedback. A special thanks to Andrew Dunkle of Go! Overseas for providing me the opportunity to showcase India.

Shades of melancholy in black & white...

In my "humble" opinion Black & White (B&W) photography is perhaps one of the purest forms of photography. B&W stands on its own feet - on the strength of composition and mood, without the glamour (so to speak) of colour. I have also generally found that street photography is more appealing when seen in B&W - maybe it's because B&W brings out the starkness and hence help convey the mood better. To paraphrase it in a literary fashion - street-photography has the onerous task of capturing the shades of grey in our society and what better than using the shades of grey to portray them! It could also be because the works of Henri Cartier-Bresson (which were in B&W), the legendary photographer and father of street photography, continue to inspire photographers to this day, resulting in an immense amount of B&W work being done despite the colour capabilities of today's cameras.

Initially I had planned to share these pictures as part of another larger theme-based post, but then I had a feeling that they would get lost somewhere in the array of pictures (like so many of my other portraitures). Hence, this small post depicting some of the shades of melancholy which I observed recently.

A trumpet player in a Western-styled band

Wonder why the faces of most trumpet players appear melancholic and hardened to me? This man was otherwise quite jolly and would wink at me after finishing his bit!

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Musical Bands of Mumbai 1 – the Dhol-tasha band

Young boy playing cymbals

The arrival of the month of August heralds a long period of celebration for the majority of Indians. Starting with the Parsi New Year and ending with Christmas, it encompasses diverse festivals like Onam, Janamashthami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Paryushana, Eid, Navratri, Dussehra, and Diwali. It is the season of revelry, food (read sweets), music, penance, et al. In this and subsequent posts, I am sharing with you the images of people who get us swinging to their distinctly folksy beats during these festivals - the musical bands. Our first band is Maharashtra's famed Dhol-Tasha band.

If during a festival in Maharashtra you have heard the drums roll, clatter and create a deep resounding sound, then in all probability you have heard the dhol-tasha band play. As the name suggests, the band members play an assortment of drums (large and small) along with hand cymbals to create various taal (rhythm) synchronisations. The group members (more than 10 in number) are both young and old and sometimes also include children. Of late even women have started joining these bands (that should impress the women's rights groups)! During the Ganesh Chaturthi festival one gets to see the best of these groups. They typically rehearse for months and develop new taals to be in the reckoning of the large Ganesh mandals who hire them for the processions.

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Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Shilonda trail - A walk in the woods!

Mumbai, aptly called Maximum City by Suketu Mehta in his book by the same name, is a city of contrasts. One such element is the presence of a National Park in the midst of what is India's busiest metropolis. Which other metropolis in the world can boast of such a privilege? To most Mumbaikars (especially of the types born and brought up in the city like me), the 104 sq. Km Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) brings back memories of an unspoilt childhood when our parents would take us to the park on a lazy Sunday for a jungle safari or an excursion to the famed Kanheri Caves (they are 2400 years old!) and of course those lovely school picnics. Alas, as we have grown up, and through the boom years, places such as these have only remained confined to memories for most people.

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Say cheese! It's the World Photography Day!

Today, across national boundaries, most photography lovers like me are celebrating the World Photography Day. Photography is a hobby which gives me immense joy and helps me discover this world in ways different from a casual observer. The thrill of having visualised something (a story or a moment) and being able to capture it "forever" is something indescribable. Photography has now been around for over 150 years and yet, as a medium of communication, it still remains the most powerful. This is owing to its ability to convey reality as well as the mood in a manner that directly appeals to the sensibility of the viewer.

On this day, I am sharing with you one of my favourite clicks - a picture that I took recently on a rainy Sunday morning while out on a nature walk inside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai. While I was strolling inside the park and enjoying the greenery, I came across a house where a boy, seated outside on the rocks, was quietly observing a heated conversation between two people. As I observed closely, I saw that his face was melancholic (probably saddened by the commotion), he was poorly dressed and was looking in a direction away from the bicycle leaning against the house. That's when I took this picture...

Whither Childhood! - one of my favourite clicks!

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Lahaul - Spiti Valley Jeep Safari: Notes & anecdotes from a 7 day odyssey through the middle land!

Connoisseur’s delight…door to freedom...

Komic

If you are not averse to any of these -

• living at an average altitude of 4,250 metres in a cold desert;
• travelling on narrow (single lane), gravel and water filled roads winding through the Himalayas, which stare thousands of feet down into a violent river, and where road blocks due to landslides and snowfalls are as common as the day and night;
• living without newspaper and telecommunication network (save for BSNL) in a place unscathed by modernity;

then Spiti is the place for you - the connoisseur traveller, the solitude seeker, the adventurer!

Spiti Valley came on my radar a couple of years back while researching some exotic driving holidays in the Himalayas. I was instantly taken in. Ladakh had been on my travel list for over seven years (since the time the populace had not even heard about it), but seeing the swarm of casual tourists thronging to it since the release of 3 Idiots, I decided that it had to be Spiti that I must visit this time around, before the hotels over there too started dishing out thalis!

View of Spiti Valley from Kye Monastery

Spiti, which means ‘the middle country’, is the land of ragged and snow capped mountains that reach out to the clear deep blue skies. Here, in the cold desert, trees are scarce and the moonscape expansive. Spiti is the land of several perennial rivers - Spiti, Pin, Chandra - whose gurgling sounds will soothe you in the night and whose ferocity will awe you when you travel alongside them in the day time. Ah, and not to mention the placid, azure blue lakes like Chandra Taal, Nako, Dhankar. The observer would also be struck by some of the most beautiful canyons and the most unusual clay and rock formations along the river bed and in the mountains. The continuity of the landscape is only broken by numerous waterfalls and glaciers, including one of world's largest non-polar glaciers - Bara Shigri.

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Wanderers

"Not all those who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien

Undeterred by the haze, Kiran sets his eyes on the target above...

In picture: Kiran Bhangare; Location: Karnala Bird Sanctuary

In picture: Mahesh Kondwilkar, Swarupa Amin, Kiran Bhangare, Vikas Kokare; Location: Morbe Dam

In picture: Nilesh Wanjari; Location: Morbe Dam

Some pictures of fellow birders taken during the HSBC Bird Race held on 21-02-2010.

For more pictures of the beautiful environ of Morbe Dam (an earthen dam in Karjat, near Mumbai) please see my Flickr stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelegendreturns/sets/72157623518410664/

A visit to Photofair 2010

Photo frame mouldings (makes for an interesting abstract photo)

Collection of Photo frames (makes for an interesting abstract photo)

A visitor admiring the innovations of Nikon over the years

Hustle-bustle

Photofair, held in Mumbai, is supposedly the world's 3rd largest exhibition of photographic equipments and accessories. I visited it last Saturday (09/01/2010) along with my friends hoping to get the latest dope on technology and to get to know vendors for accessories I might need. However, the place was quite crowded and it was difficult to spend time at the stalls owing to the constant flow of people, which kept you on the toes. It took us over 4 hours only to tour the area. Surprisingly the exhibition, though housed with hundreds of stalls over a large area, didn't have a presence from Canon, Sony and filter manufacturers / distributors. Nikon, one of the sponsors of the event, had little on display and its stall appeared more like a gallery (see pic above).
The event also had intermittent fashion shows and Latin dance performances to titillate the visitors.

The exhibition, thus had little to offer to a travel photographer like me and was aimed more towards photographers who have a studio or are engaged in portrait / wedding photography. Nonetheless worth a visit.

Candle light dinner on New Year's eve

While the world was running after fancy (read expensive) DJ parties, we decided on a quiet dinner at home. Little did I know that it would turn out to be the best dinner I have ever had. My wife did up the place like a lounge - aromatic candles & flowers all around, piano on the stereo and drinks on the house! Its moments such as these that make a day special and it was truly a fantastic way to ring in the new year. A pleasant surprise for me!

Pictured above are some profile shots of my wife Sheetal.

Wish you all a healthy, wealthy and green 2010 from both of us.

Maximum City, Mumbai - C.S.T.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (C.S.T.) is India's premier & busiest railway station where trains on the suburban Central line terminate. It is a UNESCO world heritage structure and also serves as the Central Railways' headquarters. It is named after the famous 17th century Maratha King and warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (depicted below).

In fact I remember spending a night at the station (sleeping on the platform on newspaper sheets) having missed the last train to Mulund while returning from a college function.

Located opposite C.S.T. is another heritage building which serves as the headquarters of Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). It is currently being given a face-lift and hence its façade was covered .

Maximum City, Mumbai - Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel

View from the sea

Here one can see both the old heritage structure and the new tower along side the Gateway of India. I took this picture from the upper deck of a ferry and the atmosphere was quite foggy at that time. I promise to go back again and get a better picture on a nice bright sunny day!

Close up

The Taj Hotel, located opposite the Gateway of India, is an architectural wonder and one of the most recognisable structures in Mumbai. Currently it is undergoing restoration and would be soon back to its original grandeur.

Maximum City, Mumbai - Gateway of India

The Gateway of India, located beside the Arabian Sea in South Mumbai, is easily the most recognisable monument in Mumbai. No visit to Mumbai can be complete without soaking in the air over here. It is always teeming with people and bustling with activity, representing the vibrancy of this great city. Some of these are depicted below -

From the Gateway one can take ferries for the Elephanta Caves or enjoy short tours of the sea. There are a number of tourist attractions in the vicinity (particularly the Kala Ghoda area, which is also referred to as the Art District of Mumbai) such as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya (Prince of Wales museum), Jehangir Art Gallery, National Gallery of Modern Art, David Sassoon Library, etc. Other hotspots in the neighbourhood are Cafe Mondegar & Cafe Leopold, Regal Cinema and some great eateries.

Postcards for my dear - omnibus

Probably the last in the current series. Lots more to share...may be sometime later!

Postcards for my dear

An assortment of pictures on which I decided to employ some creativity.