CAMERA CHRONICLES

 Being sick is a feeling that is never welcome and one of the prerequisites of having an enjoyable, stress free vacation is to be sickness free. I have been down with a severe form of indigestion and it took me back to this trip. Why? Well I honestly don't know.  This was back in 2017 when I travelled to Kaziranga National Park to spot the famous one horned rhino. The food I remember wasn't top notch. Having said that I did not fall ill. 

Indian Rhinoceros

The Indian Rhinoceros is found along the Indo-Gangetic plane and is the second largest Rhinoceros species. They are characterised as a vulnerable species and are very commonly exposed to poaching. When I went, there was a lot of awareness about it and the park officials had taken stringent measures to try and prevent the poaching from becoming rampant. This photograph could be deceiving as they are only second in size to the Asian elephant. 

A morning in Kaziranga.

The Kaziranga National Park is beautiful and serene in the mornings and a definite must visit. Everyone talks about Tadoba, Bandipur or Jim Corbett National Parks for their Tiger population, but the Rhinos are no less impressive when you see them in all their glory. 

Unlike other national parks I couldn't live inside the park, but this view en-route the morning safari was worth the travel. Everyone should visit, enjoy the atmosphere and have no fear, cause the food is definitely safe. 

Until we meet again. 💚

GLOBETROTTING WITH HARI

 Gondavale - Maharashtra

Part 2 -

So far we had left home early in the morning and reached Gondavale around noon. We had successfully finished the darshan. 

Having come so far we decided to eat the prasad. The temple premises are spacious and clean. The only scope for improvement would be adequate signage to guide the devotees. We asked some of the devotees sitting around, the way to the Annapurna hall. They were kind enough to guide us but no one was very sure and we were directed in a general direction - " It's somewhere that way". We had to walk quite a bit behind the many rest houses and the kitchen before we could hear the clanks of the plates. We figured that we had reached the Annapurna hall.  

They had a system in place. The hall was lined with tables and stools for people to sit and eat. There were plates and Sevak's were serving khichadi, sweet lapshi and watery buttermilk. After we were done we had to place the plates in a large tub. The hand wash was outside the hall. Once we stepped out we realised that, had we walked straight ahead from the samadhi temple, we would've reached the Annapurna hall. 

By now Baby H had woken up. He was hungry, cranky and the sun was definitely getting to him. We headed to the car and switched on the AC for him and settled in for our return journey back home. On the way we stopped to pick up some vegetables that were being sold by farmers from the villages nearby. We also stopped to have the most refreshing sugarcane juice with a hint of lemon in it. 

 Learning 1- Dress Baby H in light clothes while travelling in a car during the afternoon time in summers. He had turned red and was feeling quite stuffy in his full sleeve clothes and the rexine of the car seat. We did a quick dress and diaper change and were off on our way. The first half of the journey was quite uneventful. the real fun began after our tea break at Riverside hotel on the banks of the Koyna river. 

We had been on the road for close to 9 hours now. Baby H had started to lose his patience. He was starting to become cranky and needed some open space. As we reached Chiplun which is about 35kms from home, he began howling. No rhymes, bhajans or stories could pacify him. Not even his favourite song -  Kabhi Kabhi Aditi.  I had never heard him cry like that. We just kept patting and comforting him. 

Learning 2- 12 hours in a day with the summer sun making the car a furnace during the afternoon could be avoided. We finally reached home at around 8, almost 12 hours after we had left. It was definitely a successful trip and I am sure Baby H enjoyed it too. 

Until next time... Adios Amigo. 

GLOBETROTTING WITH HARI

 Gondavale - Maharashtra

Part 1 - 

After Baby H completed 2 months, we decided to take him to the Gondavale Maharaj Samadhi Mandir in Gondavale. It is approximately 137kms from Mundhar and takes about 5hrs 30 mins by road. We started our day bright and early at 06:00am. Strapped up ready to travel 11 hrs in one day, baby H began his journey by sleeping through the first 2 hrs. He woke up just as we stopped at Suswad Veg restaurant for a typical maharashtrian breakfast of Misal Pav. The food was mediocre and the service quite slow. We carried baby H into the restaurant in his carry cot - thats just his car seat that can be removed to ferry him around securely. Overall the road was quite good sans a stretch where the condition was very bad. 

misal pav at suswad veg restaurant 

We reached the Samadhi mandir at about 12:00pm, just in time for the afternoon aarti. With the sun beating down upon us we sat under the shade of a tree just outside the main temple hall, hoping to beat the crowd present there and take the darshan once the crowd had dispersed. to our surprise a temple sevak started ushering people towards the temple entrance. He didn't say anything to us as we were with a small child. 

After the aarti everyone was made to form a line. With no clear cut instructions we were under the assumption that everyone who had stood outside for the aarti would be let inside for the darshan. We again waited for the line to move ahead so that it would be less crowded when we went. Having just sat there for sometime and when the crowds started dwindling we realised they had closed the main entrance of the mandir after the aarti. Baby H's grandmother went to enquire and we realised that there was a completely different line for the entrance and the long line we were waiting for was actually the line for prasad. 

All cozied up for the long journey in his car seat

We immediately queued up in that line. the sun was beating down on us but thankfully baby H had slept through most of it. The people in the queue were quite taken to the carry cot, maybe they had never seen anything like that before. Someone even asked me if it was easier that way. It definitely was, especially cause baby H loves movement. We could just rock him whilst he snoozed in the carry cot. He was also lighter than what he is now. Given the combined weight it's impossible to carry him in that anymore. 

The people in the line were very kind and accommodating and let us bypass towards the end so that we didn't have to wait in the heat. We had finally reached the Samadhi. We placed our offerings, said our gratitude and prayers and were out of there without incident.  So far it had been a wonderful and smooth journey. More about what happened in the next post.

Until next time... Adios Amigo. 

CAMERA CHRONICLES

It’s been a while since I have posted any camera chronicles. This particular one isn’t a DSLR chronicle but a phone camera chronicle. Although the DSLR has its advantages, it is impossible to carry everywhere in anticipation that an opportunity to click a photograph will reveal itself. What do you do then ? Simple, turn to the most handy and ever evolving (the only thing bettering itself) device our generation has seen. 

The phone came about in 1876 and has now become an indispensable part of our lives. From phones that were rejected to rotary dial to push button to now smart phones that are smarter than us. Sorry!! I digress… coming back to photographs, an opportunity presented itself when I got the chance to visit the holy place Puri. A town in the state of Odisha in India. 

It is one of the Dhamas, because of the temple of Lord Jagannatha..... 

WHY do you ask is this incomplete? simply because, these thoughts came to me back in 2022, almost 3 years ago and 10 years from the time I got the DSLR.  I am revisiting this post because I had the same thought again last night. Does that not show the psychology, complexity and rigidity of the human mind? But thats for us to discuss another time, for now let's delve into what this is actually about, photographs. 

Technology has surpassed us. It has changed photo taking for us. By us I mean the common homosapien. Phone photography has become a thing especially with social media taking over life. Here are a couple of pictures that truly make having the convenience of a phone worth it. 

Mt. Fuji 

Riding the shinkansen is truly an experience. You know the speed at which the train travels, but does your brain do the required math as quickly as it should? Definitely not. I got lucky that I was able to make full use of the seats that we had so specifically requested for, just so that we could get this view. I say I got lucky because my math failed me in my time of need. I was keeping track of how far Mt. Fuji was on google maps. What I did not account for was the scale of Mt. Fuji. Right at this point this volcano is more than 11 kms from us and the train is travelling at almost 300km/hr.  Right now would a dslr have been my saviour? Hell no.

Gion, Kyoto

I personally love this photograph. Everything came together perfectly and the idea in my head was translated to photo. The sun is the main model here, highlighting the architecture, with the tree, cobbled path and angles playing the supporting actors perfectly. Can a seasoned professional photographer find mistakes in this photo, cent per cent, but for me this photograph is near perfect. 

I am not averse to using the DSLR for clicking some photographs, it's just that I haven't quite mastered the art yet. Do I give up? or start afresh?

Until we meet again. 💚

GLOBETROTTING WITH HARI

It hasn't been too long that baby H has lived on this planet. Does he enjoy travelling? or does he hate it? Is he a vacationer? a traveller? a hiker? a glamper? It's too early to tell.  What I do know is that giving him the opportunity to decide is in my hands. This series is to simply archive his travels as he evolves and decides his preference. Come along for the ride and lets have fun. 

Mundhar

Day 40 and he travelled for the first time to his grandparents' village- Mundhar. Nestled amongst lush greenery during the monsoons and scorching plains during the summers, this village in the Konkan region of Maharashtra is where his second home is. 

Baby H in his new outfit, ready to leave.

Bright and early on 30th Jan 2024, he got dressed in his best clothes and sat for the very first time in his car seat, strapped up, ready to embark on this 7 hour long car ride. We - Baby H, his grandmother and me - left Mumbai at 07:15am, to beat the insane Mumbai traffic. He did get tired very quickly and slept for the first two hours of the car ride. By the time he woke up we had just stopped for breakfast at a highway joint for some steaming hot idlis and tea. 

A quick feed and diaper change later we were off again. We didn't stop for the next 4 hours as we wanted to cover distance before the sun came up and the car heated like a furnace. The journey was quite uneventful and the only activity that happened was a couple of diaper changes. Baby H did get down from the car at the next tea stop.  He was quite enamoured by his surroundings. Surely he had never seen anything like that before. 

Mumbai - Mundhar

Right at lunch time we reached home. There was Rangoli and decoration with flowers to welcome Baby H as he stepped into the house where he is going to be pampered and loved by all. His first trip was truly a memorable one, and has me wishing him safe travels all his life. 

Until next time... Adios Amigo.