Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts

Jabalpur, Bhedaghat and Kanha

2005-12-12T00:49:00.000-08:00

I am posting some pictures from my trip to Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh last month. It was just an amazing experience being in the Jungle, soaking in the jungle sights sounds and smells :)

Kanha is also the setting for Rudyard Kipling's famous Jungle Book.

The trip started with a day out at Bhedaghat, about 30 Km from Jabalpur (base town for our trip). The picture to the left now is of the incredible marble ghats at Bhedaghat and that's the sacred Narmada flowing through those ghats. The river at places is over 300 feet deep and rises much higher during the monsoons. The ghats are home to a veritable potpourri of marble rocks, I had never quite imagined marble in black and pink before.

The river has also cut quite interesting patterns in the marble rocks as can be seen in this close up.

The Chousat Yogini Temple at Bhedaghat

Next day, we were off to see the King of the Jungle , The Tiger. We did manage to spot the tiger, thanks to some spirited efforts of the elephant mounted spotters who scour the jungle from early in the morning and radio back the location of the tiger once it is spotted. That then is followed by a mad dash accross the jungle in an open top Gypsy, to get as close to the tiger by road as possible. We rode the final few meters off the road on the back of our very accomodating elephant, "Jung Bhadhur", to get next to the tiger.
There are usually a horde of tourists on any given day to see the Tiger and I felt rather sorry for it. It seemed to too much of an intrusion into the poOr cat's life. I personally vow not to return to see the tiger in the wild.

Now on to my favourite picture from the trip :) ... I just love the layers of yellows and the green in this picture. And I love that sight of the elephant in the distance grazing sedately in the morning fog. The elephant was still around a few hours later, munching away, after we were done chasing down the tiger.

We also did spot other animals on the trip like the Sambar, the rare BarahSingha , the Chital ( Spotted Deer ) and everyone's favourite, The Langurs :). However, the best part for me on the trip was 15 Km bicycle ride we took in the buffer zone adjoining the main tiger reserve area. Words simply are not enough to describe the beauty of the place, I perhaps will take to my grave, the memory of the golden sunset by the river in the jungle, set against the sounds of the gurgling water and a gentle drone of a thousand dragon-flies (sunlight seemed to reflect off their wings). With the fresh & fragrant jungle smells thrown in for a good measure, it was quite a heady mix for the senses.

I had taken my Sony TRV38 camcorder along on the trip and I was hoping to capture some of the sounds of the jungle. But I am pretty dissapointed with camcorder's internal mic's performance. It's time I invest in an external mic with proper wind baffles to cut out the wind noise. Actually I think I need a new HD camcorder too :D . There is too much a red-shift in my aging TRV38.

The trip to Kanha was very memorable, thanks to the company of my friends, Navneet and Ajit and our wonderful hosts from the Youth Hostels Association of India who did a splendid job organizing the trip. Think I am addicted to this Travel and now I just can't seem to stop dreaming about my next trip.. where when how. ~sigh~

PodiaTricks

2005-08-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to deciding on a pair running shoes. I believe I was born with the proverbial two left feet for I can't seem to find a pair that fits equally comfortably. I actually spent significantly less time deciding on my house than I did for these pair of shoes :D

Gloriosa Superba and Square Cucumbers

2005-08-05T01:56:00.000-07:00

I took these snaps behind my office.

Apparently this is a fairly poisonous flower when ingested, but this flower finds medicinal uses in Ayurveda. It's Sanskrit name is AgniMukhi, meaning Fire Face.

Ever heard about Square Cucumbers?

Quoting a post at ubcbotanicalgarden.com
"A specially developed cuccumber, which is box shaped. This is to facilitate the production of cuccumber sandwiches. The square slices fit on the bread without overhang...."

:)

Thunder Flash and Lighting

2005-04-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

I love this country when it rains. It seems to come alive. I haven't quite seen this exuberance in any other place, where rains are normally struck down as bad weather. I remember when I went to Disney (California Adventure) in CA, crowds stayed away because it was drizzling. I wasn't complaining though, since I got the whole park to myself. The best part about the rains in Hyderabad are the mirchi bajjis, the onion pakodas, and the chat stalls that seem to spring up every where. You can smell them all over the place when you drive around. I also love to smell the earth. It is said, that only here in India the earth smells so good. I doubt if the scent is so border-discriminative, but there is something about the way the earth smells that conjures up a feeling of good life. It doesn't help though if you are trying to meditate on the chemical compostion of the water lapping at your feet. You don't want to know all the things that the rains washed away.

If there is one activity that I absolutely love doing in rains, it is swimming. I love how the water in the poOl feels warmer than the coOl rain drops tickling your back. It is a funny coOl feeling.

I was so facinated loOking at the lighting that I wanted to see if I could capture it with my teeny Sony DSC P10 ( and it took quite a bit of effort and time).

The first picture is the night shot (for a perspective) outside my balcony without any lightning or flash ( the small white streak is from a street light):

In this next one, there wasn't a single lightning streak, instead the whole sky seemed to light up as if day light.

And finally the pièce de ré·sis·tance.

Pictures from the Nagarjuna Sagar Trip, over the weekend.

2005-03-20T23:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday March 9th 2005 : set out for ride to Nagarjuna Sagar, about 160 KMs from Hyderabad. Nagarjuna sagar is the site of one of the largest masonary dams in the world and is built across river Krishna. The Sagar itself is an artificial lake covering an area of about 380 sq. meters.

One thing I regret is not taking my swimming trunks along, the water was cool and inviting.

The Thapas - round boats at Nagarjuna sagar. These things are hard to paddle, I failed fairly miserably at trying to row them in any one direction. Our boatman got the boat to spin round really fast; it was just lucky that I hadn't had my lunch yet.

The Boatman : He described himself as a "Gaja Ethagadu" or master swimmer. Apparently the Govt. employs him on occassions to dive to the bottom of the lake to retrieve any articles of interest. The lake reaches about 500 ft in depth and as can be imagined, diving at those depths can be pretty hazardous.

My Bike - Thunderbird

Sunset

Some pictures from New York trip last year

2005-02-02T01:49:00.000-08:00

The other side of New York

Sanitation trucks with Chrysler building in the background

Central Park

Brooklyn Bridge - A view from the Top

Metlife and Grand Central

Statue of Liberty - A view from the Helicopter

Bombay Dreams on Broadway

Time Square (One)

Times Square (Two)

Indian Prime Minister is Big News at Time Square

Madame Tussadds at Time Square

People flock the Avenue of Americas for a Street Fair ( Radio City in the Background).

The Grunge Muse

2005-01-27T02:48:00.000-08:00

I feel numbed and dazed and strangely refreshed having soaked myself all night in coruscating sounds of some of the best known grunge albums of our times. Nirvana's Nevermind album will un-doubtable go down in the history as one of the defining albums for the late 20th century with an eclectic blend of sounds from grunge, funk, metal to even soothing timbres of new age. Kurt Cobain's vocals are violent, coarse and yet endearing and almost hypnotically persuasive and given that lyrics are at places meaningless and often repetitive, that is strange. With Dave Grohl's inclusion in the band in his capacity as a drummer, this second album of Nirvana was perhaps destined for greatness (Nirvana's germinal Bleach album featured Chad Channing on the drums). Post Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl formed Foo Fighters coming out with their self titled debut album featuring hits like 'Big Me'. The album features Dave on both vocals and on lead guitar and though Dave is no Kurt, the band holds its own .

Next, it was time for grungy élan of The Smashing Pumpkins and their smash act Siamese Twins. The band's front man, singer songwriter Billy Corgan, apparently took over the guitars too on some of the songs on the album ( much to James Iha's consternation I would presume. Billy's dominance might well have led to the band splitting in 2001. Billy actually admits to differences between Iha and him on his web-site ). Whatever be the case, Siamese Twins is an aural high.

I hate to do a top whatever list of songs and albums because my lists tend to change with my moOds and with time. However here are some of the songs that I particular enjoyed listening to yesterday night ( in no particular order ):

Nirvana :
Love Buzz , Breed, Drain You, Stay Away, In Bloom, Lithium, Come as you Are, Lounge Act (*****), Something in the Way, Negative Creep, School

Smashing Pumpkins :
Geek USA (*****), Silver Fuck, Soma, Sweet Sweet, Today, Cherub Rock, Disarm, Luna, Mayonnaise (*****), Quiet (*****) , Rocket (*****), 1979, Tonight Tonight, Zero

Pearl Jam :
Even Flow (*****), Black, Alive, Jeremy, Given to Fly

Radio Head :
Karma Police (****), Idioteque (****), Creep

Offspring :
Self Esteem

Stone Temple Pilots :
Interstate Love Song, Plush

Soundgarden :
Black hole Sun

Foo Fighters :
Monkey Wrench, Everlong, This is a Call, Big Me, Learn to Fly

Ride to Pocharam

2005-01-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Friday was a holiday for me. That makes in two long weekends in a row. I decided to set out on a motorcyle drive to the Pocharam forest reserve with a few guys from work. Pocharam is about 160 km from my place, so the drive is fairly short compared to the ones that I have undertaken recently. None the less, I was fairly excited about it and we set out around 5 AM in the morning.

Enroute, we stopped at a church in Medak that was built about 100 years ago when a famine struck the region. The church is famous for its stain glass work on the three huge windows and they loOk beautiful in day light. The picture below is from the east facing window, depicting the birth of jesus christ.

The locals at Medak suggested that we also visit the Medak fort. The fort apparently was built during the Kakatiya period and it served as an outpost to the Telangana region. On top of one of the mounds at the fort is a 17th century cannon, about 3.5 meters long, made with solid iron. Its remarkable that the cannon still survives today, being exposed to the elements as it is. In the picture below you can actually see the fort in the background. What you cant see though, are the beautiful trident engravings on the cannon.

On the top of this fort is a Masjid, built during the reign of Aurangazeb. There are steps leading up to the terrace of this Masjid, which if you look up from below seem like they are leading straight up into heaven, for all you see are white-steps and blue sky at the end of it. I can barely describe the exhilaration I felt when I first saw it.

We then proceeded towards Pocharam which is about 15 km from Medak. Pocharam forest was the favourite hunting ground of the Nizam and he declared it as a wild life sanctuary in the early part of 20th century. We hardly saw any wild-life though. Infact there wasn't much of the forest left to see too. The approach road was however breath-taking and was among the high-points of the ride. We stopped for a breather at a government inspection bungalow. The picture below is taken on a bylane from the main highway leading upto the bungalow. The picture hardly does justice to this scene below. I wish there was a way to even capture the smells of the place.

Right next to the bungalow is the Pocharam dam, a peaceful and serene sight. If only there was more water there. Missing also (in the picture) are the sights and sound of the numerous birds that we saw there.

Ditching our earlier plan of going into the Pocharam forest, we decided to proceed 40 km further down from Pocharam to Nizamsagar, a reservoir constructed across a tributary of the Godavari known as Manjira. One of the best sights at the place is a view of the 5273m long masonry dam ( thanks to a little research on goOgle ) with a narrow motorable road on top, on which I rode my bike full-clip. What a rush. The next three pictures are from Nizamsagar :

1. Beautiful rock island bang in the middle of the reservoir.

2. Fishermen at Nizamsagar.

I watched them for about half an hour tugging at the ropes, which moved only about a few feet in the process. Seemed a lot of hardwork for a lot less in return.

3. An old boat stranded (?) on the lake bed.

The reservoir has clearly held much more water in the past. The exposed lake bed has now been turned into farm lands, clearly visible in the background.

And then it was time to get back to the real-world. Overall a great experience. I am now looking forward to my next ride, perhaps to Kuntala falls in Adilabad and perhaps some time real soon.

Reality Bytes

2005-01-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

I must congratulate myself on getting half way through the book (see my post earlier) . Only reason I didnt finish it was because I had to return the book. It was borrowed, you see. I gladly note however, that my interest in reading books has been rekindled. Today, I walked accross the Sunday book bazaar at Abids and picked four boOks (no less), one of which again is a book by Frederick Forsyth, 'The fourth protocol'. I remember watching the movie based on Forsyth's best beseller, 'The Day of the Jackal' as a kid . There used to be a movie theatre close to my school ( and house ). I must have been about 16 or so and I used to buy myself a ticket for the evening show on the way back from school. It was one of the thrills in my life to go watch a movie alone, something which I find impossible to do today. I guess to an extent the adolescent thrill of catching glimpses of skimpily dressed blondes drove me on 'my adventure'. The cinema-hall I used to visit also on occassions played soft-porn movies and I would try to sneak a peek at the posters when no one was loOking. I honestly think that the blondes ( and babes in general ) were lot more thrilling then. Either that or I know too much now.

ICON

2004-12-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

I have just got my hands of Fredrick Forsythe's Icon. I haven't read a piece of fiction in a while. I hope the book is interesting.

15th December was my birthday. I kept it under wraps as much as I could, but folks at work found out about it, ending in the usual cake cutting. It was a gay ( as in happy ) affair. But I generally dislike my birthdays. I hate getting old.

Last weekend was fun. I went for trekking down in the woods near my place. I did some river crossing and sliding using ropes and I also got to swim in a pond. The water was coOld brrrrr.

And then it hits you...

2004-12-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

I think it easier to accept the fact that you are mortal than the realization that you are ordinary. Maybe the fact that I dreamt about being everything and everybody complicated the matter. At one time I wanted to be a Shennai player, an archaelogist ( I still remember digging up my colony lawn to find some rare elusive dino-bone, I even got my friends to do it), a geologist, a guitarist, karate kid, neil armstrong, Amitab Bachan.. I could go on and on. I would still like to be most of these things if not all. Maybe its the realization that the life is too short for everything that stings.

Evening, I decided to get out of the house and get myself a movie to watch. I took a different route today, going through narrow crowded by-lanes, instead of the main-road. Enroute, I saw a colourful marriage procession, a bent old man limping (to?), saw kids on the street playing, fighting .. I was thinking this is what Gautam Buddha might have felt like when he left his place and when what he saw changed him forever. Unfortunately no elightenment for me on my little trip.

I got myself 'Big Fish' to watch. I knew nothing about the movie, expect that it it had some fairy tale aspect to it. Now I am not into such movies, but having recently seen Amelie, I was willing to give this one a try.

The movie couldnt have been more relevant to the mood I find myself in today. It talks about an old man, who tells fabulous stories around his life to his son. His son gradually gets fed up with these stories especially when he becomes old enough to know that they are impossible. The movie suprises with its clever ending, that which I shall not reveal, to let you enjoy the movie on your own if you haven't seen it yet. Yes, it has my express recommendation (*****).

Back to sulking :'(

What's with the Pigs, Peasants ...?

2004-11-07T23:42:00.000-08:00

The title of my Blog is taken from an album by 'Kula Shaker'. The reason I like this name is because it represents to some extent the randomness of content that I'd like to create in here. Also, because this album is really one of the cool alt-rock albums I have listened to in a while.

I ran across this album quite by accident. I did previously listen to Kula Shaker's other album, simply called 'K', which I enjoyed immensely too. Back when I was in Cincinnati, my office was almost next door to the Cincinnati Public Library. This library has a really amazing range of books, video cassettes, DVDs, software titles, etc, etc. On occassions the library also hosts various exhibitions, like one time they had model aircrafts used in world-war two (I love anything to do with flight). My favourite lunch time activity used to be browsing the library's music collection. It is there that I first found this album. If you are into the grungy sounds mixed with Indie themes, then this album carries my express recommendation. I might add, that the Indie influence is not on all songs and the album represents a good mix. And if you do take me on my recommendation, try also the 'Bleed American' by 'Jimmy Eat World'. Thou shall not be dissapointed.

This weekend I saw a really really cool movie 'Amelie'. This is a french movie and I believe it was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Oscars. It is easy to see why. Each and every shot is carefully planned and is a pleasant sight for eyes. I love the use of saturated colours throughout the movie. I am not much into colours and fine-art, but the movie is simply so captivating that you cant help but be impressed. The story as such is fairly simple, but the narration makes it remarkable. Another "must see" recommendation from me.

Times we live in

2004-10-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

Just got up about half an hour ago and I am sitting in front of my laptop browsing news and sipping my morning cuppa. One of the headlines stands out immediately, announcing the execution of the Japanese hostage, Shosei Koda. I try and read other news articles, reluctant to make this sad piece of information the first thing I read in the morning. The article, when I finally get to it, is a fairly short description of the incident with a small picture of Shosei kneeling in front of his captors. To have died this way perhaps must really be one of the worst ways to die. I hate to think of all that must have gone on in Shosei's head while he was held hostage. The murder astounds me with sheer scale of brutality. What is it that motivates these people to commit murders in cold blood ? To what cause and to what effect ?

I find it very hard to believe that the only motivation of the terror groups involved in these executions is to drive the coalition forces (read US and the British) out of the country. Behind the facade of the "jihad" to drive out the "infidels", there must be a more compelling reason. Any Pam, Pussy or Mary (R) would know it as a fact that Iraq sits on one of the world's largest oil fields and controlling them must mean a lot of money and great power. Could that be the motivator, the corruptor ? And would you believe Dubya is immune to these temptations too ? One of the real cool documentaries I saw off late was Fahrenheit 911, a must see that touches upon the politics of the Iraqi war. My guess is if Dubya's mommy sees it, she wouldnt vote for her own son. I also recommend a book, O Jerusalem, by Dominique Lappiere, about the Arab Israeli conflict.

I'd rather not go about spinning conspiracy theories anymore. The fact of the matter is that it is a sad day and I strongly comdemn this killing.

Of a good movie and piracy

2004-10-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

This is my initiation into blogging. It will be interesting to find out where it goes (atleast for me).

I am kind of guy who barely remembers a movie that I watched a day or two ago. Yet, I remember this one cool movie I saw over the weekend, "The Insider", starring Russel Crowe and Al Pacino. The movie apparently is based on true story of Jeff Wigand, a former research executive at Brown & Williamsons tobacco firm. As the story goes Russel Crowe gets fired and seeks to tell all. Al Pacino plays a hot shot news producer for CBS' 60 minutes who is out to encourage Russel Crowe to tell his story to the world on the show. What follows is high drama and tension as Jeff Wigand deals with threats to him and his family, his break up with his wife and bouts of delirium and despair. Certainly worth a watch. It kind of reminded me of 1976 classic "All the President's Men" .

As it turned out, I had rented this DVD. The DVD was pirated from the looks of it, but the quality of the video however was as good as original. That got me thinking about piracy. I firmly believe that movie industry cannot just seek to end piracy by imposing their standards of morality on people. We have all heard about how piracy increases the costs of the product. But the fact of the matter is costs are increased for those who are willing and are able to pay for it, the rest buy the cheaper pirated stuff. The end to this vicious circle of finger pointing is not by imposing moral standards (because that never works on a larger scale) but rather by research and development of new technology that makes it virtually impossible make pirated copies in the first place. That way everybody would be forced to buy the original movies and the prices would automatically find their way down.