Colors of Kerala

I've kind of had more of Kerala than I'd have ever expected. Or anticipated. Thanks to a passport renewal process which underwent full blown Murphy's law (All that can go wrong will go wrong!) I've been in Kerala now for almost a month. This is the longest yet I've stayed with my parents continuosly since I was 18 and went off for my undergrad engineering. Looking back, it was a fantastic time - great food, enjoying the almost unabated Kerala rains from our porch having hot tea and bhajji (The Kerala variety which is made of raw bananas fried in some great tasting dough) and planning some great bird shoots. I might soon get my new passport finally. Though I'm pissed off and frustrated currently about the who episode, looking back a year from now, I'd probably be glad of the forced break !
The project on which I spent considerable time at home was shooting sunbirds. I've always wanted to photograph those tiny few cm long birds flitting from flower to flower. Approaching them on foot had never ever given me even one decent shot. After studying their habits for couple of days, I created a make shift hide using some brown/green cloths and mother's bunch of sarees of similar color. (Since it's long since Ive spent time with them, they were prone to turn a blind eye to my crazy acts!). After around 20 hours of shooting spread across around a week, I finally nailed some great ones. Used 100-400 on Canon 40 D with very high ISOs of 800 odd given the cloudy weather and continuos rains. (Have used noise reduction software to reduce some effects of the high ISOs) The overcast conditions did help to preserve the color shades better than otherwise though. So here goes the output of the project !

1. Loten's sunbird - male

2. Loten's sunbird - female

3. Purple rumped sunbird - male



4. Purple rumped sunbird - female

Exif : Should be f6.3-7.1, 400 mm, ISO 400-800, speeds of over 1/200

Forced vacation !!

Seldom does events conspire to give one a forced holiday ! That is exactly what has happened to me. Though I'm not complaining, it has been frustrating few weeks. My passport renewal got rejected and now I can't travel outside of India. I had around 5 government provided identity proofs for my address and still they did not renew my passport from Kerala for reasons best known to them. So now I'm forced to be in my native place waiting for the police to come home for verification. Anyways, there isn't much I can do. So rather than fretting about what could have been, I'm enjoying the walks in our garden and the lovely rains. It seems it never ends raining - torrential downpour every now and then. It's beautiful just sitting back in an easychair, listening to the sound of rain having ginger tea prepared by mom ! Haaaaa. What is there to complain !
I just walked in my garden with couple of lenses (One tele and one normal walkabout with a reasonably macro). It's unbelievable how the small gardens in kerala are all examples of natural richness of the state. Hope some of this remains over the next couple of decades atleast if not more.
The following is the output of just 1 day of garden walking with a Canon 100-400 and Tamy 28-75 on my Canon 40 D.

Reading !

I realised how little reading I do these days. I might still pick a tintin or a scott adams or calvin - but seldom words that make me think deep (Ok - Calvin and Scott are bad examples - they probably are more profound than most people can guage!)

Blogs like this here at ecologic makes my day these days - takes me back to the days of reading things which make you take a deep breath, pause for a moment, think about life. It is not the dabanggs of writing but the kurosawas that really makes one do that. I needn't fully agree with the authors - I do trust only capitalist ways can save our forests, one of valuation and equitable distribution. (ESOPs to tribals around forests?)
However, I do wish the world was full of Shankar Ramans and not Suhas Anands - but I know,we, as a race have lost the privilege of making that choice !

And that Schaller quote is worth reproducing multiple times. Reminds me of the National Geographic of sometime around late 80s or early 90s that I had bought from roadside seconds at Churchgate which was my bible - cause it had Schaller's interview !

For epochs to come the peaks will still pierce the lonely vistas, but when the last snow leopard has stalked among the crags and the last markhor has stood on a promontory, his ruff waving in the breeze, a spark of life will have gone, turning the mountains into stones of silence.

―George B. Schaller, Stones of Silence

NB: Just back from yet another conference on water conservation and sustainability that a friend had invited me to. Completely delinked from conservation ! Everyone spoke about the feast, no one spoke about the fields !

Cambridge

Has obviously been very busy over the past few months to blog. Just back from a whirlwind UK tour where the most peaceful fact was being in Cambridge for around 4 days - enjoying the campus, the legendary pubs (Including The Eagle where the discovery of DNA was announced to the world) enjoying the ghost stories and also getting trained in leadership !! (Ok stop laughing!). I was staying at Christ College right opposite Charles Darwin garden. Across it was Kings & Trinity (At one time my dream place to study arts - ok stop laughing again!) Cavendish's study, Newton's room and what not ! I just wonder how can students there not study ?! It will be sacrilegious to waste time there like what I did during my engineering days ! (LOL). I tend to think I did not waste time during post graduation, atleast first year at Ahmedabad (Ahem ahem..).
Back to India and loving the rains here (Why do we never love rains in London ?!) - conditional to me being in Mumbai. Since Ive been in Delhi more than Mumbai, it is indeed disastrous ! But surprisingly all flights Ive taken are on time - the new rule from AAI is really kicking some ass and Im loving it !

Sharing some Cambridge shots. All taken with my obedient 40 D and Canon 18-200 on with a Hoya CPL. Worked in PS CS3 - the usual workflow, nothing dramatic.

Conversation with a call centre executive

Me: I could not web checkin. Can you figure out what the issue is ?
She: Can I tele check in ?
Me : That is fine, thanks. But do figure out what the issue with webcheck in is,ok ?
She: Ok sir. There is a problem sir.
Me: Thanks, What ?!
She : Sir it is a problem !
Me: Yea. I got that much. What is the problem and what is the solution ?
She: Sir your name is spelt as Anand Suhas Mr instead of Anand Suhas Mr.
Me: Hunh ?! Isnt that both same ?
She: No sir.
Me: Is my name spelt wrongly ?
She: No sir. But it is Anand Suhas Mr.
Me: That is how it always is. But I have never had this issue before.
She: Sir there is no space between Suhas and Mr !
Me: Oh so that is the issue ! How will I know that if you just pronounce Anand Suhas Mr and Anand Suhas Mr ?!!!
She: Sir you are male no sir ?!!
Me: What ?
She: That is why Mr Sir !
Me : !!!

Indian Hatch market - Victory of customer and liberalisation

The recent happenings in the Indian hatch car market is an example of what globalisation, liberalisation and the resulting competition can do for customers. The pricing of the newly introduced Chevy Beat and Ford Figo is a stark contrast to the days of waiting in the queue for sub standard value products like Ambassador (Whatever nostalgia people might have for the car, it definitely is not VFM at the pricing and features that it provides).
Three things that make me happy

1. The pricing is definitely value for money. Right from barebones to the top end version (LT and Titanium respectively), each price point is VFM. The top end diesel Titanium version of Figo will be sub 6.5 lakhs OTR. This is clearly due to competition and the need to beat incumbents like Maruti, Tatas and Hyundai.
2. These cars are not "dumb down" versions of cars made for western markets. These are made in and for India. And no, the designs do not cry out "Sorry India - we have made this sedate box for you in which we have put windows, chassis and a sub 1 L engine tuned for 15+ kmpl".
3. The top end versions come with ABS and Airbags. These safety features, pretty much standard across the west are atleast provided as optional in the top end versions. A significant shift in safety feature provisioning for Indian small car segment.

With VW, Nissan, Honda and Toyota too coming into the segment, we would have a bevy of beauties to choose from. (A sub 6 L German car in Indian roads - My grandpa, if alive, would never have trusted his eyes on this one. But yes, the Polo is here!)

Hunt for food !

It's almost a year now since I've been shuttling between Delhi and Mumbai - I can safely say I'm a half Delhiite now (Will separately blog about a BOM-DEL comparison - it's lose-lose since someone will take offense!!)
Anyhow, to the more mundane. I realised I was free last evening by around 8 - a free calendar with no work, no calls and no meetings ! Since I had never had Kerala food in Delhi I had this sudden urge to check out places. Some net browsing gave me two options - Keraleeyam at Yusuf Sarai and Coconut Grove at Hotel Indraprastha. Thankfully, I decided to call them up to check if I need to book seats. Both are closed ! Former years back and latter taken over by the new Shangrila. I called Shangrila to check if they still have the coastal food restaurant and they said no !
Many FB status replies asked me to head to Hauz Khas village having multiple options like Gunpowder (Quaint name!) and Naivedyam (Sounded very vegetarian !)

Neither my gardner nor cook had any clue about Kerala, let alone Kerala food. Cook even threatened to cook Masala Dosa for next day's breakfast which I politely refused (He had made a version of Idli sometime back which was well, lets say, not quite it's namesake from South). Security guard asked me to go to PVR Priya market saying it has many good restaurants like McDonald (!!), Subways (!!) and Pizza Hut (Ughhh) and anyways it's 5 minutes walk from our house.
So without much help from internet, Delhi friends et al, I decided to search for Coastal Food instead of Kerala food. Figured out Swagath had a few choices - situated at both Def Col and Malviya Nagar. Avoided the former given the traffic mess during peaktime. For a change my driver took me to the right place - Malviya Nagar market. (For someone who took me to West Delhi via Gurgaon from Vasant Vihar this was an A+ performance!)
Decent place - mid market ; decent food (I even packed a curry for tonight - I'm sure my cook is going to be disappointed at this affront). No alcohol was a big let down - Kerala place without Alcohol ? The owner has clearly not read this
Drove back home, walked to Priya and had the Chocolate Pan to top off a nice evening. (My first dinner date with myself, which I realised is not all that bad !!)

But alas, it still feels a let down that there are no good Kerala food place any where close to Vasant Vihar !! Quite unfair !

Ranthambhore Diary, Jan 2010

Ranthambhore - that little tiger habitat amidst fort ruins in Rajasthan's Sawai Madhopur has been in my dreams for the last 3 years. The last time I had gone there was in 2006 and I had not seen even a single tiger back then.


This Republic day weekend (Taking leave on Monday) me and missus were planning a relaxed drive away to Goa for sun, sand and buckets full of beer. The idea was to leverage some "army" connection to get to a beach no open to junta. Since it fell through we ditched Goa. Just another Goa trip did not sound like fun.
So Friday night, 22nd of January she flew down to a fogy IGI airport in Delhi. I picked her up and took a train from Delhi to Sawai Madhopur after arrangin stay at ITC Welcome Heritage through Junglelore.
We were quite apprehensive of the trip given the extreme fog, lack of Gypsy booking and not staying with Ranthambhore photo experts like Aditya Singh, a friend from INW. We were cursing ourselves for not planning this better. Finally we decided we will just go and enjoy the forest not worrying about photography.

Day 1 Afternoon Safari - Zone 4

Rated as a "good" zone, we were off in a Gypsy (Thankfully could manage one last minute) accompanied by two Brit couples. Nothing major happened other than the usual suspects like CSE, Wild boars, Sambars, Cheetals and Nilgai. It was quite chilly during the evening drive and it forced us to deck up in all winter finery for the morning on Sunday
Oh yea, some normal forest / land birds too for the camera !!


Day 2 - Morning Safari - Zone 4

Again Zone 4, said our lady luck. And we were reasonably pessimistic. TO top it we were in a canter with 16 odd folks. Thankfully not daily tourists decked in red sarees with cry babies throwing plastic biscuit wrappers all around the park - atleast helped my blood pressure as well as avoided fighting with them ! Was driven by one of the most experienced drivers around, Raees Bhai. He soon became my favorite driver - almost as good as Ive seen in other national parks.
Nothing happened till about 9 a.m. Did see some forest birds blah blah. Just when people were settling back for the drive back out of the park, the guide shouted "Tiger Tiger". And there she was. Some where down on the right side close to a water hole was Machali. (We had a long debate on her identity and finally the guide and driver said it's indeed the legendary Machali). Machali was recently conferred the Life time achievement award by BBC and rated as the most photographed / videographed tiger in wild along with B2 of Bandavgarh. I had B2 in my last Bandavgarh trip and adding Machali was indeed a nice bonus.
Had 10-12 good shots of her flehmen response, scent marking the territory and generally moving around the grassy landpatches. Angles were tough, a big challenge of shooting in Canter. So was light. Since unlike in a Gypsy I cant ask the driver to move around the big canter with ease for best lighting. Whenever the light was good, it was divine. The winter light in Ranthambhore is stuff of dreams for Photographer.

Day 2 - Evening - Zone 3

The usual..nothing exemplary but for the great scapes and fort ruins across Rajbaug lake, Padam talab. Also could shoot Sambars in water, few water birds, bar headed geese, pied avocet, brahminy ducks etc. But the real essence of Ranthambhore in a way is in Zone 3. Majestic is the only word that comes to mind.

Went back to the hotel. Rested a bit around the pool and went to meet Aditya dicky singh. Had a great time at Ranthambhore bag with him, his wife and couple of friends from INW. Had dinner around a good fire to ward off the biting cold. We were quite jealous about his charming life so close to the tigers that he loves so much. We then took a walk back to the hotel in the moonlight with the forest right beside and the sounds of forests in our ears. There was flowing Rajasthani folk songs wafting from some faraway hotel. Was a great day that ended all too soon !!

Day 3- Morning - Zone 3
Zone 3 again. Again waited close to the lake for a tigress who had made a Sambar kill a day back to appear to drink water. 3 hours wait and nothing happened. Go back to the hotel. Had lunch. Downloaded pics. Charged batteries. Removed winter attire and got into something more lighter. By 2.30 was ready for the second safari

Day 3 - Evening - Zone 3 !!
Ok..Now this was becoming all too familiar. Off we went again to Zone 3. Shot the brahminy ducks and pied avocets at Padam Talab and scapes of Sambars eating at Rajbaug lake. ALso couple of cute little mugger crocs. Waited for couple of hours close to the lake for the tigress to appear at water. Again nothing happened. We had invested a total of close to 10 hours for her to appear. Shot vultures, white brested drongo, treepies, partridges and prinias in the meantime. Drove back with a rather heavy heart.

Day 4 - Morning - Zone 1 !!

Aditya had told us Zone 1, was the most underrated zones of Ranthambhore with most tourists not liking Zone 1. Though it had leopards with cubs, bear with cubs and 2-3 potential tiger opportunities including T 38 male. Since it was very dense sighting would be tough unless on the road. The forest in Zone 1 is lovely, giving feel of a pench or tadoba for some reason. Shot a spotted owlet which was pretty cute. Nothing happening other than that.


By around 9 there were alarm calls from a Sambar. Waited at a point close to the end point go Zone 1 for some movement. After 15 minutes we decided to go further up and there she was. A beautiful shy young female tigress in all the glory. THought light was still not super good, we got some head on shots. Got atleast one eye level shot when I got down to the canter steps , hunkered down as low as possible and waited for her to come into the view finder.


All too soon the trip was over....Two sightings, 2 GB worth of pics and some nice evenings lying on hammocks listening to Rajasthani folk songs in the cold weather. Was also great catching up with Dicky and getting some connects with guides and good drivers like Raees bhai. Might plan a return in April. Sighting will be better but I guess I wont get the winter light. That is only if Im not going to Bandavgarh !! ;)

Decades worth of blog !

I know Ive not been blogging. Blame it on a full calendar day after day - oh that is just an excuse ;). So i thought - hmm - y not blog for the whole decade ?

What a decade it has been ! I know I speak like I were to speak of the man's time in this earth. But for now, its just my life upon this earth that I'm partial to !
A decade is a long time. For me four things stand out which has defined my life today and has had a lasting impression on my (then) young mind ;)

1. Passing out of NIT and joining Larsen and Toubro and within there going on to live a life of recluse in an East African island off Tanzania. What a splendid opportunity to grow, lead and work across cultures. Apart from learning to love races, places, animals and nature in all forms and fashion

2. Joining IIM A Class of 2006 - with stars in eyes and a dream that the youth in me had laid seige to, to be in the best business school in India (Some would argue in Asia Pac). Looking back if I had joined IIM B or IIM C Id still have probably had pretty much a similar life thenceforth. However, IIM A made me humbler, helped me interact with great folks (Friends and gurus) and probably made me a better, more confident and suprisingly less arrogant human being. As against my fears, I came out putting life in a bit of a perspective answering couple of key questions - how important is money, how important is being in India, how important is it to give back to the nation.

3. Joining The Firm - McKinsey was everyones dream. A dream I did not dream. I honestly thought I stood no chance. I wanted to have my time with sports which I would not sacrifice. I wanted to have my time with bed and sleep which I would not sacrifice. From whatever I had been fed of IIM A and McKinsey it was that McKinsey prefers to hire only from Top of Class and to be top of class in IIM A one has to sacrifice all interests and sleep. As I realised both these are not entirely true !
The Firm remains a place close to my heart. I made great friends, learnt a lot, made some moolah along the way and answered one additional important question - how important is family and spending time with them ?

4. The wedding - Keeping aside all romance and kinship and sense of family (which are probably more important) I got a great friend in Sandhya. We keep pulling each others legs, mostly meet during weekends only , works our ass off through the week and crib to each other about how our marriage is always at half life. (If we are married for 50 years, that would essentially mean only <25 !!). We love common things, which we knew as friends before dating - sharing a lasting passion for nature, nature conservation, trekking, mountains, forests and a liking for small pleasures of life (Travelling in double decker buses, eating roadside food, having chai watching monsoons from our balcony, listening to birds sing, smelling first rains, train travel etc etc). It has been one fun ride.

Fifth, if I were to pen down, would be my ever growing love for wild life and a growing need to do by bit to protect the planet especially the forests. Downside has been my extravagant spending on photography equipments for wildlife shooting (One of the very few luxuries that I afford apart from premium clothing!!)

Where the rains are born....

There is a definitive beauty of western ghats aka sahyadris that makes one go to her lap time and again. Every trek to these beautiful cloud mountains brings in new sights, smells and tastes. This time we decided to trek close to Bhimashankar in Maharashtra. And on the way back at Junner / Malshej regions. Some of the most beautiful landscapes that Ive seen outside of Kerala and Europe can be found here. Pity that not a lot of folks know the place - oh well, in a way it's good that the crowds dont know a lot of the trek trails herein. Else if will just become another Malshej or Lonavla with the city slickers on their honking cars, playing hindi bar songs at top volume, eating and throwing leftovers and plastics all over or in general making a mess of themselves and their surroundings.
We took off early morning at around 4 a.m from Mumbai. Decided to drive through the expressway rather than take the Malshej route on the onwards journey. Had hired a Tavera given that there were close to 4-5 of us. Reached Bhimashankar at around 10 after a few breaks and stayed as usual in the Blue Mormon resort. As a friend and I tried the gupt bhimshankar trail for some birds to shoot, wife and friends went to Ahupe to trek the ghats there. Next day all of us trekked the Gupt Bhima trail (A very small and easy one) followed up in afternoon a drive to Junner and Malshej.

Nature

Our report on Environmental and Energy Sustainability is out.

As we fight our way to reduce emissions, its also critical to create carbon sinks through afforestation and prevention of the largescale destruction that we are forcing upon our forests. I like to look at simple broad indicators to assess the health of pristine forests. One of which is the rate of death of free ranging tigers.
Most observations point to the alarming fact at that rate of 10 per month, we have another 10 years at best before free ranging wild tigers are wiped out from India. That would also mean huge water crisis, droughts and floods since many river sources are inside these protected forests. What a sad turn of events from a point during the time of Indira Gandhi when many felt we might win the war on tiger poaching.
Planned construction of a memorial for YSR in the midst of pristine forests is yet another knee jerk reaction. Haven't enough sacrifices been made by nature for your gods and politicians ?

Finally Toyota brings home the Fortuner !

So its finally here. In what would be a strategically important move for Toyota Kirloskar in India and one that is going to make the off road pretence of CRVs and Captivas of the world take notice, the Fortuner is in India after a wait of more than 6 years.


The price at over 18 L is still out of reach of many but is clearly unercutting CRVs and Captivas and Endeavours. That is a key pricing point for SUVs in India. Sub 20 L. To that extend one might think Toyota has got it right - once again ! But hey the same one is sold in Thailand at around 13 L. I was expecting something like 15 L for this in India. Anyways as of now it remains in my dreams. But yes, if they had priced at around 12-13 L it would have been pushing my bankruptcy quite strongly ;). That would also have sent a big warning to Mahindra to get their act straight on Scorpio which though an able product is quite ageing.

Lets sit back and enjoy the drama in Indian SUV market ! For now, Im glad that Fortuner is atleast introduced albeit at a higher price than comparable markets.

Trekked to Malshej ghats during the weekend. Though just trekking is not something that really perks me up, I'm always game for monsoon treks. Thankfully wifey could persuade me to go along with her for this trek. And boy, I'm glad I did. Though neither of us took our normal photography gear for fear of getting wet and carrying through some tough trek, we did put a sony cybershot in our jacket pockets - just in case. That turned out to be a boon.
Malshej is a monsoon heaven. Around 150 km from Mumbai its generally not as crowded as much hyped Lonavala (Which cannot even be remotely compared with the beauty and serenity of Malshej)
You have to avoid the easy trek routes and roadside waterfalls where legions of families will be taking bath, washing cloths (!!!) and rowdy youths drinking their Smirnoffs and Teachers, stripping to ugly underwear and dancing as if they are indeed sex-changed Lopez from Shall We Dance. We had to create our own trek route and at some stages did think of returning back due to increasing difficulties and slippery rocks without too many holds.

From photography POV, made two images with which I have started my monsoon collection. Its a major down in plans since I was planning to take a month break from work to follow the SW monsoon through Konkan, Agumbe, Valparai etc ending in Kerala !! Alasss best laid plans of men!!

Natural disasters and economic "earthquakes"

Some of our recent research is throwing up striking parallels between natural disasters like forest fires, earthquakes etc and "manmade"crisis like the economic crisis, bankruptcies of large corporates, variance of industrial output for large countries etc. These are all falling into a "power curve" something that statisticians and mathematicians have been using a lot in studying complex systems.
One symptom of such a system’s behavior is that the frequency and magnitude of outcomes can be described by a mathematical relationship called a “power law,” characterized by a short “head” of frequently occurring small events, dropping off to a long “tail” of increasingly rare but much larger ones. The latter was dealt in lucid details by folks like Nicholas Taleb in his much famous Blackswan books.
For most of us who have looked at / studied bell curves and always intuitively think of a spread as bell curve, this is quite fascinating. Quite simply, the implications is that extremely large outcomes (Call them black swans if you are a Taleb fan like me!) are more likely than in a normal bell curve.
One self serving thought I had the curve charecteristics were that for PG courses like in IIMs we should use power curve rather than bell curve for relative grading ! Even one of those IIT M quant jockeys can srew-up the grading for the rest of us in a quant paper if using a bell curve rather than a power curve for RGing ;) Hehehe. Sometimes I think Ive still not grown out of the ultra competitive kid ;)

aala ree

Eyes that used to throw furtive glances at the sky in anticipation can rest...Monsoon has finally come to Mumbai shores ! Rains bring in plethora of memories - all sewn up across time lines.
Rain drops on through the windows as you wake up. The smell of sweet earth emanating from the moist cool breeze. Pigeons resting at the windows safe from the deluge. Slightly soggy newspapers. The sound of viper making swoosh noise at the car. Foggy windows at Grandma's mansion where paper boats were initiated on a endless journeys. New school uniforms for June reopen which soon gets messy and wet in the school bus. 3 a.m walk to canteen at IIM A in knee length water to have hot coffee. Trekking in the rainforests of Kerala with leeches all over as an 8th standard student part of WWF camps. Splashing of water drops on the historical facades of Angkor watt temples. Water bellowing through the grand roots of the trees which has eaten Ta Prohm temples. Kerala and her sex appeal. Fishermen going into deep seas with cloudy horizons in Kochi. Slushy peace of a small rural temple in Kerala where rain drops fight with the oil lamps. Dazzle of thunder all around as you hold onto fixtures in a storm inside a pipe laying barge with huge waves all around you. The rage of seas along with rains beating my small seaside cabin in Tanzania to pulp in a span of 2 hours. Coldest of rains and hailstorm in Alps while trekking in Austria. Waking up on a Sunday afternoon to have Sandy's masala chai and roadside bhujiya. Gulping buckets of Beer at Seaview, Juhu before walkign to PVR to watch random movies or lying down at the chowpatty with waves and rains drops beating you down. Going from Juhu to Borivali in double decker bus sitting in the front seat at "top floor" with front windows opened. Cheapest Brandy mixed with water from Canteen and lemon pickle to go along as a poor Mechanical engineering student. Driving my Pajero over unforgiving terrains in Africa with visibility close to nil due to the watersheets falling from heaven. Sitting with my Gujarati pilot born and bought up in Nairobi flying in a Cessna over Arusha forests/river in a storm and his profoundly comforting words," Dont worry, I won't crash land. Why ? Cause death from a mid air crash would be so much more peaceful than by those crocs down below!"

Angkor Watt with clouds gathering before a deluge !! (Taken in 2008 while on a Steve McCurry inspired trip to Cambodia, taken with Canon 40D, Tamaron 28-75 f2.8, Manfrotto support, worked in PS CS3)

Last frontier of Asiatic Lions - The Gir Odyssey

Gir was in my dreams for couple of years. When an opportunity presented in the form of hurriedly applied for and obtained leaves for me and Sandy, we decided to embark to the last abode of Asiatic Lions in the world - Gir Sanctuary (~170 km from Rajkot and 45 km from Veraval)

Had a quick chat with Yogendra bhai from INW (Our lion leader and go to person for all things Gir) and booked the ever reliable gypsie driver of his, Lalit bhai. Knowing my love to stay with locals as deep in the jungle as possible rather than in posh hotels, he arranged Chaman bhai's (One of the most hospitable individuals Ive met - imbibing all the fineries of the amazing Saurashtrian hospitality) farmhouse for our stay.

On March 31 me and wifey reached Sasan from Rajkot. Chaman bhai's farm was adjoining the gir forest where freqently leopards and lions roam freely at night. (We could hear them sometimes, never could see them in our search lights the couple of nights we gathered courage to venture out)

First safari the next morning yielded amazing results. We tracked a mating pair in route 1. And spent around 3 hours with them. The attack of the lioness on the lion before mating, the roars, the love making - these 3 hours gave us both memories of a lifetime. We could not stop thanking our stars for helping us witness such a rare and intimate moment in the life of these animals.

Next day was bitter sweet. While we could photograph a brother and sister (Both extremely good looking), we missed the chance of shooting 5 cubs which were sighted on another route. From our route we could see them at distance but could not go since that would have meant breaking the "route rules" at Gir (Each gypsy is supposed to stick to their assigned routes - largely this is followed to the word!)

Afternoon was again spent with the mating couple observing them spar at each other (Lion sustained a huge gash in his face). Post mating (Which this time they did behind bushes) they came out in open road and sat resting. We could observe them for an hour from as close as 15 feet. Could almost feel their breath on our body and it did send a tremble down our spines. There is nothing bigger an adrenaline rush than looking eye to eye with a male full grown Lion at 10-15 feet. It is like 500 sky diving and 1000 bungee all rolled into one !

Third day morning was on route 2. 2 and 6 are the routes which is allocated to most local tourists and hence pretty busy ones- also more noisy especially if there are rather clamorous kids in some jeeps. The morning was spent with just a single lioness sighting deep in the bushes for any good photo ops.

Went back to Chaman bhai's farm for lunch and the usual bucket of chaas (buttermilk). Took a break to download pics, process a few of them, check internet for sometime and catch up on some sleep. At 3.30 sharp we started off in Lalit bhai's gypsy for the safari. Nothing happened till around 6. We did shoot a few birds like common kingfisher, tickells blue, green pigeon etc. While on the way back we saw a gypsy full of students waiting across a water hole. We waited there along with them. After about 10 minutes a lioness appeared across the hill - slowly walking down to the waterhole behind bushes. Then we saw her brother appear lazily ambling across. They gave a brush to each other and came towards us. Passing us in front they started walking along the road. After 10 minutes, the male decided to rest right on the road in full view - that too in super golden light falling on his beautiful full maned face. At that moment, he could very well compete with the most handsome tiget Ive photographed as the most beautiful thing Ive ever shot.

As wife shot the video in her panasonic, I took 2 GB worth of memorable snaps. We had to leave them as the time was almost 6.30. Going back to Chaman bhai's farm we discussed the day and plans for next day with Lalit bhai. Went to the field to take bath under the water pump and then off to the machan to lie down under the sky in the field with mind full of happiness. Got down to have a sumptuous dinner and chaas as ever !! :)

The last day again proved to be unfruitful for photography as there were no lion sightings - nor any great birding opportunity. However, we saw fleeting glimpses of Jackal and two leopards - one in each safari. It was my first leopard sighting. That day morning Lalit bhai had told - today we should aim to shoot leopard. His words came close to being true twice - we saw it twice but could not photograph either time as it was too fast between the bushes for a good shot. Anyways, I was more than happy since in all the time spent in the Indian and African wilderness, I had not once spotted the beautiful leopard let alone photograph one.

As the trip came to a close, we were really sad to leave Gir - both the lions and it's amazing people, especially Lalit and Chamn bhai who were like close relatives all through the week. We caught up with "Dhamal" a performance by the small african community which thrives in the Gir forest - little known to the outside world.

As we went to Rajkot for onward trip to Mumbai and it's daily chores we were wondering when would the next opportunity be that we can be back with the kings of Gir forest and the love and hospitality of Chaman bhai and gang !!


Tips for first time visitors :

1. The road from Rajkot to Junagadh is real ossum. Junagadh to Sasan is not bad either.
2. If you are taking bus, ensure you take a GSRTC express from Rajkot to Sasan. That will save you more than an hour - it becomes a tiring and sometimes irritating journey in a non-express.
3. If you are coming by train, see if you can take a ticket to Veraval and travel back to GIr (45 km from veraval) rather than from Rajkot (160+ km from Gir)
4. Book a nice place to stay. If you are adventurous, I suggest farm houses as close to the forest as possible. You can then walk along with experienced locals at night to search for some lions ! (Or just walk in that hope - it is indeed quite thrilling and you probably are happier when you fail in the endevour). If you love local life, local food, local folklore and lots of great hospitality head to Chaman bhais !! Else you also have airconditioned swimming pooled hotels galore.
5. Get a good driver (If you are a photographer) who can maximise your sighting by collecting local intelligence regarding animal movements.
6. Tip the guides and the driver - they work overtime to get you to see and photograph your subjects. ANything from 50-150 over and above the stipulated guide fees is fine.
7. There are no ATMs of any bank. Pay in advance or check if they can accept credit card/cheques.
8. Alcohol is officially prohibited ;)
9.Understand and accept that inspite of best efforts, the guides / drivers can't make a lion appear for you ! However, in summer months 2-3 safaris should yield atleast one sighting. And in winter 5-6 should yield atleast one.

Lastly just feel blessed - you just went to the last remaining abode of the Asiatic lions. Truly the king of the jungles in these parts of the world. Lets all do whatever we can to ensure this population grows for generations to come.

Vacation at Gir

Me and Sandhya have taken a break (finally) of a week to track and photograph the remaining Asiatic lions in their final frontier Gir in Saurashtra, Gujarat. We are staying at a local farmer's house here in the forest. Sleeping at the machan in the field open to the stars, hearing the roar of lions close by, bathing under the pump in the fields and drinking bucket fulls of chaas whenever we are not photographing in the jungles..
Detailed report and pics soon...

Sachin Tendulkar - Legend in my life !

I woke up today, started brushing my teeth watching Sachin score yet another century. That's when I suddenly felt a strong emotional connect with a man whom I have seen only 3-4 times and spoken to only once in my entire life. Still he felt so much a part of my life. Like a close relative. He has at various points been a guide and philosopher (unknown to him ofcourse!!) as well as being forever an inspiration in professionalism and how to lead a worthy life. Right from when I was around 8, over the past 20 odd years, he has been always close to my heart.
Right through my days of playing district leagues and Inter University through engineering and working as an engineer, through MBA and working as a consultant there had always been tid bits that I have tried to imbibe from the his life. Some of his interviews with Harsha Bhogle, I regard as masterclass in philosophy as well as being truly inspirational. Like when he said "Experience is a double edged sword. For every ball you know all possible shots, but you also know all possible ways it could go wrong and result in a catch".
I never used to keep his posters in my room, or drool over in his fan clubs. Or buy t shirts with his face. And surprisingly I was not angry at the fans who booed him at Mumbai. For me he is beyond all this. I'd be thrilled if I can do 1% of what he has done in his chosen field in my own area of work. With the same dedication and more importantly the same humility.
Thanks Sach bhau - for being there !

So what is your Paris ?

Saw Revolutionary Road this weekend (Along with Da Cunha's Pune Highway).
Rev road is a must watch ! One of the most intense old school cinema making I've seen in recent memory. If Slumdog is very good, Rev Road is excellent ! (Now that is saying a lot)

IMDB and Oscar panel might have differing view, but for me this is a timeless classic. It could be anywhere, anytime setting. A story which is riveting, a script which is tight and above all Kate in as good as performance as in The Reader.

So what is the Paris that you are waiting for ?...Do you need a Mike Shannon a.k.a John Givings to ask you those tough questions ?

Had gone for a trek at Sinhagad valley in Pune. It turned out you don't need to trek a lot to shoot the amazing number of flycatchers. In keeping with the decision of not posting too many pics here directly given the bandwidth issue faced by some blokes
So if you have tha bandwidth you can catch a few from the trek here

Good day ! (Oh what a day - ARR got his due finally ;)