MoNuMeNtAl InDiA

I had so many ideas, to write about this post when i initially thought of  it. But to put it to keyboard was very tough job. There is just so much to start with and write about. I will try and showcase what ever i can that makes this the most culturally richest and diverse country "INDIA"

But no matter how much i write, its just too less for people elsewhere to understand what it is to live, know and enjoy this experience. 

So....a while back, a close friend of mine suggested we travel to north India. His plan was to visit the vaishno devi temple. This, in itself was a treacherous trek. Treacherous because i did not trust my body to complete this by itself. Well i took it as a challenge, as the only way to reach the shrine was to walk  up to it, IN THE NIGHT. Now the temperature gets pretty cold here but the warmth that's generated walking is can heat you up pretty well. I do not have any pics from this trek as cameras are not allowed near most shrines in India. But again i had to give a build up about this place as from here on the great indian adventure begins. 

We left from Vaishno devi temple to Amritsar. Now before i could speak anything about this city, i would like to talk about the food. Man, its amazing or what. Everything here is either fried in butter/desi ghee or made out thick curd :-P.

Our stop here were gonna be for3 things.

First up, (no its not the golden temple) was the Jallianwala Bagh:

91yrs ago, 50 British officers, at the command of General Dyer started to fire at a peace gathering in this Bagh. The only exit point to this park was sealed and the officers were ordered to shoot to kill as many people gathered there.

Memorial built at the park

Bullet Marks

we sat there for a while thinking of what could have gone through the people there and moved on.

Next up was the Golden Temple: This place, is all that General Dyer did not find in Jallianwala Bagh. Love, Peace and Brotherhood. Gurudwaras are always built with all that the people donate. This is why, a few complexes are still under construction. Donation does not mean, money alone. You can even carry a few bricks yourself at the site, or cook food for others etc., etc,  Everyday food, simple yet tasty food is served for all, barring caste, creed, gender, religion.

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After a sumptuous lunch here in the temple, i was looking forward to the most exciting part of this trip.

Very close to the city of Amritsar is a place that gets any Indian.....Goose bumps!!!!!

Its called Wagah border.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, below is exhibit A and to the left is a Heaven called India and to the right is...Ummmmmm, we all know what that is, right????

There is very big parade that happens every day, closing of International Gates between 2 countries and man its a pleasure to watch the intensity with which its done by both sides. It looks a little too over done on you tube, but unless you are there, it may not mean a lot to you.

Boy what a day this was!!!!!.


Next up was the Taj.... We all have seen so many travelers go "woooow" "amazing" blah..blah blah....on travel and living channel and i was all prepared to do that when i reached there.
When i did, that wasn't the case...
To really enjoy it, you have to sink in to the place, fight with the guides and then give it a little more time. Only then you start realizing what an amazing piece of monument this is. Building this for a loved one who is already is dead is so dreamlike (but not at the cost of 20K pair of hands that was cut of so another one like this could never be built again)

 

  

 

Carvings on marble

 

Agra Fort

 

ShahJahan spent his last days, looking at taj through this window

 

One of the 4 towers

10days of vacation was almost coming to an end. So we decided to leave to Delhi and go around spending time eating food. Here in Delhi, like Amritsar, you would find food only fried in butter/desi ghee.. i guess its really required considering the cold.

2nd Day (Photography Session)

 

                       We went to the driest of the parks to check how good we can capture it!!

 

 

View of the entire lake

 

 

Nandu admiring the prints

 

 

I was excited that i decided click right in the middle of traffic :-)

Macro Photography

Here it goes..i'll try and keep writing to a minimal. :-)

This is my fav macro shot yet... Clicked in 'coonor'!! boy what an outing this was!!!

Now this one is from garden in my house.. i guess the background is dark cos of shade.. Otherwise u can also get it through the burn tool :-P

Its so amazing that these flowers are very small and the only place where you observe closely and enjoy them is in Macro.

this is the Macro pic, Sudhir in his photography class checked to see my understanding of tricks..... I am sure he wouldn't have been very happy with it.

liked the colors!!

These were some wild tomatoes in yercaud!! very very small :-P

This again is another fav of mine.. Dont really know what this is.

Slow responsive nature of snail's let me take this pic easily..[hahahahahahaha}

Now this is a flower from garden. I placed it on top of a black cloth on the couch and experiments began.

Day 1 -Session by Wildlife/Bird Photographer Sudhir Shivram

Finally the day that i had been looking forward to, for over 2 weeks now. A photography talk and session by Mr.Sudhir  Shivaram. He is been around in photography for a very long time and it really shows.... in all the pictures that he has clicked...As said earlier u'll just fall in love with the way he sees nature and mostly gets his camera to see the same.

Do note: My pics gets better as time passes, which means i am learning already:-D

Sudhir talks about aperture

See this??? no major modifications, no tripod.... just hands and lot of thinking....don't you think i am getting better at this???

Class watches on

Now, this is Nandu's D300..

And here we go... its a canon 800mm lens that Sudhir clicks in the wild with.. when he took it out the first time, i thought it was a bazooka and he was gonna kill us all. Its such a sweeet thing..
You can check his work out at:
http://www.elephas.in/
and at
http://www.thejunglelook.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2698



UP NEXT: Putting things we learnt today to use

Itch for New Camera

Sooo....,  been clicking pictures for about 3 years now....and i felt the need/urge to upgrade from an existing Bridge camera...

"The FUJI Finepix S9600"

Tell you what, this is just a wonderful camera for the price that it comes with. Just about 3 yrs ago it cost me  over INR25000 and the colors that it captures with its super CCD sensor, is just so great. And it works sooooooo super on macros, that i have decided not to buy a lens for macro, but just keep this as a back up macro camera now....I will feature a different post for all the pics that have come out good with this camera very soon.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...again off topic..i could go on bragging about this for ever...but lets just come back right on track...

So...need for a new camera...plenty of cash in hand..Internet to read through reviews and lot of time to waste....... and ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.. its the D90. Cost me a fortune, this.

All excited, hyped and charged up...got this baby back home. and i was all set to take the best pics ever....
Welll give me a minute on that...actually No i wasnt ready at all.... there was just so much clutter in there and i did not know what to do with it... this was like a ipod user getting a windows 7 OS just to  play songs..... (again fuji wasnt a point and shoot at all..it offers most of the things that my D90 does too...only at a smaller scale)

Internet to the rescue again..this time another close friend pitched in to learn how light actually works on digital cameras....cos no matter how vast and informative internet is, we still need some one pushing stuff into our brains..and that's exactly why a lot of schools and colleges are still making a hell lotta money.

Finally we decided to attend a photography session which really never was...it was more than that..it was a experience....trust me... u see this guy and his photos and u ll jus fall in love with nature.....and guess what... alll of us there DID!!!!

YaaaaaaaY.... Finally i found courage to write a blog!!!!

Phewwwww... after about 2yrs of "thinking" to write a blog, i have finally found time, and most importantly courage to do that. Being a lazy bum that i am, spending many many many hours on the couch watching TV, eating, sleeping, watching a little more TV, eating a little more and sleeping a lot more is the best i could get out of my life..

Having said that, i am just writing this as an "intro" to what this blog is all about.... Following posts on this blog will mostly feature the photos that i click, the places that i visit (again on photos) etc etc..

Now comes the history to this blog...although i hate to take up space on the internet telling what is not important, like the history itself, this is important, is because i don't have anything else to write today. All the photos i want to put in here are either already on the internet (FB/Orkut) and i really want to start uploading new pics on this BRAND NEW blog.

Okkkkkkkk...back to the topic.... for about 2yrs now i wanted to upload photos, talk about the trips we always had........but for the beautiful country that India is, the more that was written, the lesser it would be...so i choose an easy way out of it and decided not to write at all....not until recently a close friend suggested (for THE 1000th time), we create some sort of an online account to showcase our talent (:-P)... that's when the enthusiasm came out kicking and wellll.. here i am.......

Following this post will be the birth of new beginning of sorts: Actually a very good photography session that i got a chance to attend this week...

Please do post comments/suggestions if you have so i could try and improve...!!