Meine Fotografieren blindlings

My blind photography...

50-50

Back to my Obsession: Trains!! :D

A random click, this one, without a preview to what I was capturing as the camera was placed on the ground. Luckily the picture was divided in two halves: the lower one taken up by the ground and the upper half by the surrounding environs. (D-lighting used here).

Music: "Shiver" by Coldplay!

Motion, Thoughts, Emotions...

Ain't got anything spectacular to say...
Though I was jus randomly thinking about certain things...completely irrelevant information, but it just intrigued me to know that docs in Belgium are going to amputate Mozart the Iguana's penis (maybe they already did. Stale news this is!) because of an erection that has lasted more than a week after a mating session. Luckily, iguanas have two penises.

Sidney Sheldon passed away.... Well, I dont really look upto his style of writing. He even has all the same masala for all of his novels but I admit I enjoyed reading most of them. But I was a crazy fan of "I Dream Of Genie"....Sigh....I was one crazy kid who would just get glued to the television way before the show started. I also had a crush on that Nelson guy! ;-)

Motion

Motion

1600 hours.
Really strong sun.

Kite
Motion

These Kites were quite close.
I didnt need to zoom in!
Motion

Thoughts, Emotions

Dinshaw Wachcha Road. Outside K.C College.
Guy selling the really popular raw mango slices with the usual masala to go with it.

A photographic sojourn...

Afghan Church, Colaba.

Haji Ali.

Part III: Jim Corbett Park

And this, people, is my 5oth post! Yes, I am a lazy bunch of bones because its almost a year since I started blogging and this is all I could blog about! Sirf pachaas?!?! Anyway, this isnt a blogging/posting contest and I feel contented to vent my thoughts, which are at times in turmoil. And most of the times, I try not to crap up this space by writing about silly thoughts or insignificant events of my life! So here is me... :D And I am lucky to have a found a good bunch of friends through blogging!

CORBETT PARK!! YIPPIDEE...my favourite part!
After the Nainital stay, we learned that we had to go to Corbett in a Sumo, which was bad because the roads were winding, zig zag and uneven... So many of us were a victim to motion sickness and the six hour Sumo journey saw some of us throwing up in plastic bags , which were by our side throughout the wobbly ride. We couldnt really stop immediately if someone was feeling unwell, owing to the narrow path; many a accidents occur... So people, do keep a strip of Nice or some other motion sickness tablet with you if you take a similar course!

We reached Hotel Suman Grand and were shown an hour-long or so documentary about the life of tigers from birth to death, breeding, hunting and survival ways thrown in. It was quite informative and seemed to be the work of National Geographic or some other similar channel. The effort and hardwork that went into the docu was evident because they actually followed a tigress for more than two years during which time she mated, cared for the cubs, saw some cubs die and saw other grow into adults. Tigresses mate after every two years when their previous cubbies are grown-up enough to fend for themselves. That was a lot of work for an 'hour-short docu...!' 2 years aint a joke...Hmmm...! Oh, and by the way, males or tigers never partake in the care and growth of the cubbies. They mate and go their separate ways... kind of sad.... Maybe thats nature's law. Dont we see that happening many a time in the lives of humans too? So, I think one cant blame (human) men of being irresponsible or straying after their whines and moans are taken care of... Maybe they are just made that way! I digress...
(I foresee some strong counter-comments and arguments regarding my comment above! Especially by male readers! :P)

On The Rocks!

There was a little half-dried riverbed, a little way behind the hotel. It was fun crossing over the wet soil and rocks. This is my shadow! On the rocks!! :P

Standing Skeletons

Throughout the 5-hour safari, we were surrounded by trees. Some trees looking over us, bending, like a teacher towers over here errant pupil. And at some places, the trees were far off... You want to feast your eyes on something else for a change but everywhere u see, TREES!! And then one cant help thinking how eerie those trees look. Like these far-off standing skeletons over here!

Tiger Pugmarks!

Alas!! Pugmarks were all that we could see. Unlike some other people in the jeeps ahead of us, we couldnt spot a tiger. As they say, tiger sighting is all on luck! But we did see a lot of deer. Corbett looked more like a deer-reserve than a tiger reserve. You shall see as u Scroll down for the pictures. Our logic was correct in a way, when we say that where there are a lot of deer, at least one tiger has to be there. Tiger got up and left as we reached the famous and most coveted spot!

Narrow Path. Trees Towering...

Dried up Riverbed.

Inside Corbett Park. this place seems to be swimming in water during the monsoons! Its extremely cool where the dense tree cover doesnt let much light and heat touch the ground. This place swarms with anthills. So big that they almost look unreal and man-made!

(apparently) A Rare Bird.

Another Scary Tree!

And so ends my week long break. :(
I wish I could live in a jungle like Corbett, close to nature. At least I would be living the natural way without a mask to my face, without any pretenses that one has to don in this fast life here...
Too depressing I know. But my heart longs for the place. And, it kind of, is amusing to me, because ever since I have come back, I have been having dreams of Nainital and Corbett and my train journeys!! Just cant seem to come out. And some of my friends, too, echo the same thoughts!
Cheers!

Part II: Nainital

Here with the Nainital post! This is one of those places that I want to come back to. Jim Corbett Park is also one of them. My tiger-sighting is still left. How long will that tiger evade my eyes?
;-)

Balrampur House

Balrampur House: The palace of some Raja/Maharaja called Balram. This pic would have looked much more beautiful sans our wet towels hanging from the railing, which did not dry properly even after a whole day of letting it out in the sun. Such was the cold of Nainital! But this was one hotel that wasnt anything less than grand! Huge rooms and the size of the washrooms was as big as a room fit for 10 people to sleep in, excluding the bathtub that could fit another person! ;-)

Lake near the Nainital Market

Huge lake that this is, it also enhanced the scenic beauty of this place. Maybe it was almost in the heart of Nainital but I cant be sure because I did not have a directly overheard aerial view of this place, in spite of being on the ropeway! Beautiful maple trees and it was a nice, light, jovial atmosphere seeing the locals gather for discussion on news, locals matters, chit-chatting. This place even had a movie-house called Capitol Cinema, which showed old films like one of those when Salman Khan was young. Nainital Market was close by and it was a lovely place to be at, with comfortable buzz. This place didnt have the arrogant buzz in the air like Mussoorie has. Mussoorie, as and when I saw it, was crammed with students of boarding school, which made me deduct that they were rich kids! Nice place to people-watch, seated on the cold benches while having a steaming cup of Nescafe (which everywhere was sold for 10 bucks!).

On the Ropeway

Un-chill your bones!

Nainital Market

Tasting 1-2-3

Just a local kid, his tongue rolled out alongwith his mother. I found the lil boy (or is it a girl? You never know what with all those sweaters and hoods and monkey caps..?!?!) very cute and amusing amd so got his/her pic covertly! In the background is a tradesman with his wares as well as the Nainital lake. This area is one of the most beautiful with the lake, market, cinema house, one or two churches, a mosque a little farther away, and narrow winding roads, all placed together.

Nainital @ Nite

Dusk starts falling at around 5 pm at this hill station, quite like any other place atop a hill. The tradesmen with the roadside stalls as well as some shops have to take the help of lamps. I do not know if it's an issue regarding scarcity of electricity here, as I saw many shops with a tubelight or fan, but going by the hotel's grand use of it, there seemed no special dearth of the energy source. But water can be quite a problem here. Especially when you suddenly stop getting hot water in your bath or have to wash your bum with chilling, ice-cold water!

Nainital @ Dawn

This was chandamama at 7 am in the morning! The moon was just a tiny pebble in the morning sky and the temple in red and white that you see were extremely far off on a hill. Zooming in gave me this big pic of the moon! The fog is great in the mornings and when one reaches atop this hill on horseback or waslking, the fog is so thick that is barely not possible to see your own hand if you held it in front of you!

Just some timepass...

This place has amazing flowers!!!
Even the trees look so graceful in spite of scarce leaves on them!

Bhimtal Lake

Bhimtal Lake: Enroute to Jim Corbett from Nainital. there was some legend or story behing this lake, which i could not catch properly, while the tour guide was blabbering away. apparently Bhim had a fight with someone and flung the enemy so hard that a crater developed and water filled in. and hence the name Bhimtal! (Sorry, I felt too lazy to Google it)


PS: Please do not steal/ dhapofy any pics. Ask first if you want to save any on your PC!

PS 2: All said and done, I'm sure the small note above is not going to help!

Part I: Dilli

It was way to difficult to shortlist a sane number of pictures to upload because I would go crazy uploading even half of the 700 pictures. So here are the ones I liked and thought should be put up here. I shall put up the pics in three parts, that of Delhi, Nainital and Jim Corbett Park. Here's Part I. Unfortunately, I dont know how good the travelogue that will accompany these pics will be, cause there's so much to tell... one might as well resort to watching Travel & Living or Musafir Hoon Yaaron!

Caution:
My opinions about certain places/locations + cuisines may be exaggerated and boisterous. You shall know as you read further.

Part I: Delhi

Sarojini Market, New Delhi.

Delhi saw us having a short stay plus it wasnt a city that made me get my camera out and start capturing the sights...Old Delhi is a horrendous place to stumble upon. If you do have the unfortunate luck to stumble there or are dragged by peers/ family, let me warn you of the 'dirrrty' streets. Paan stains/spit AND insect hovered faeces will mock you at every few yards of the steps that you take. So my advise to you is dont get out of the bus or whatever vehicle you are travelling in when you are in Old Delhi, more so if you are woman; because you will get stared at by the 'bhaiyyas' ( maybe i got the term 'bhaiyyas'wrong) even at 8 am in the morning when you step out in urgent need of medicines!
Eww...gives me the creeps, that place.

Also, they boast a lot about 'Dilli ka chat'. It's utter crap. You would be doing your taste buds some favour by not letting the 'aloo chat' enter you mouth. The fruit chat is passable, but these Delhi chaps take it seriously when it comes to 'chat' and stay true to its name by sprinkling truckloads of chat on the aloo...man, where's the aloo disappeared, we wondered?!?!

New Delhi is much more organised and clean and how can one forget the National School of Drama and its spacious lawns, and the nice two lil portions of 2 plays I saw there and the cute guy...oops! Thats too much information!

The Delhi Metro is a nice place; you can occasionally spot an idiot or two taking pics of empty escalators and making it starkly clear that they have either never seen an escalator in their life ever before or have been in the Metro for the first time!!
I wonder when Mumbai will get a Metro of its own. Photography inside the Metro was forbidden! But I love to break rules at times!! *chuckle chuckle*
Haha!!

Metro

A post on Nainital is coming up next! One of my best stays in the whole trip...

Bliss and Adventure...

I have always dreamed of going high atop a mountain and being there alone all by myself, doing nothing at all and just pondering. I have even imagined myself lying on my front on the golden sands of a beach for endless hours and not being bothered about by anyone...a beach, a masterpiece of God, a gift of Nature... It would be beautiful to have it all for myself! Wished of doing weird-but-not-weird things like just sitting quietly, lonesome, by the window-sill looking at the sky above and searching for its limit somewhere and being conscious of the burning water filling my eyes to the brim in the process...wished of not being disturbed...wished to meet my soul...

Sigh...I wonder when all my dreams would be fulfilled. I dont really see the possibility of owning a private beach. At such times, I wish I had Veronica Lodge's Dad (affluent Mr. Lodge) as my father (from Archie Comics). Owning a private beach...so much fun!

Oh well, someday!!
;-)

But my recent trek to a wonderful place got me a little close to my wishes! Yep, my trek to Chinchoti in Vasai was an awesome experience. I could say its been my first official trek; or would u call scaling the heights of Badrinath, Kedarnath and Yamnotri as treks?

Umm..well, the trip was lovely with a dense covering of something resembling a jungle and a waterfall, not to forget the raindrops that almost didnt touch us because of the heavy green foliage. It turned out to be more of a memorable experience because I had eight other friends and an extremely knowledgeable and somewhat professional trekker with us. Otherwise, we were all assuredly coming back home with broken bones and fractured body pieces. Or maybe not even return at all!! LOL!

Saw a lot of wonderful sights, which reminded me of the villages I have been to and the rural imagery from my poems all coming to life. The village women going about their work, carrying logs for firewood, hacking small branches, the rural dogs (which i noticed to be quite calm and quieter as compared to our city dogs), the children playing about, looking with eagerness at our gadgets (digicams and cellphones), the long blades of lovely green grass, definitely a treat to sore, smoke and pollution-habited eyes, wading through the water, wading through the swaying tall, green grass...my list will never end!

As we ventured deeper into the woods, the scene changed from an open, blue, welcoming sky to dense, tall trees as if protecting us, which I observed to be a bit twisted as they went higher up. Pakka and kaccha roads gave way to pebble-ridden, boulder-infested paths and we had to tread carefully. There were quite a lot of crabs too-black, white, red, brown...unfortunately, they wouldnt wait for me to click their pictures and would scutter away at the mere sound of our footsteps. Gosh, the only sound that there was, was that of stray twigs crunching beneath our feet and the pebbles stumbling downwards as we stepped on them. Or, ocaasionally, one could hear the rain falling and not feel it cause the trees were dense enough not to let the drops drench us!

Thanks to our knowledgeable trekker's (who has been here 3-4 times before us) dyslexia or amnesia or whatever shit that is, we lost our way. No, we actually made a full circle to the start point and trudged all the way (grrrr...) to the new path with some villagers help, who were most eager to tell us about their profession of making wine from jaggery...oh man!! *shakes her head*

And we finally reach our destination, taking pictures all along the way of bored village doggies, big spiders, beautiful landscapes, and a hollow tree trunk!! So, after a few bruises, an aching joint and a half-healed back, I am here with this post and some pictures!

I can visualise a content Aditi lounging in her chair at her work station and reading this post! :D

Wired Up!

Trudging Along!

The Lush Greens...

The Falls

Bed of Green Blades...

Doggie too bored!

Spidey!!

("Spider web is tangled up with me..."
thats a Coldplay song called "Trouble")

Wanna to this someday....
Reminds me of Heidi...the cartoon TV series!

Another vast expanse...

Lone Tree

(the tree is actually quite far away...
atop the source of the waterfall-see 3rd last pic)

A clearing to the way we came from,
from the waterfalls...

Small stream in the dusk

Rox!

Chinchoti

An outta da blue snap...

One Tree Hill

So many times during this trek, I felt like I was actually living Kaal and KingKong, but thanks to the absence of giant squids and other creepy creatures and a ghost for a guide, the experience was incomplete.
:P