A short bad blog. I was covering the immerssion of Durga Idol. All the press photographers were also present. It was much crowded place.
We were taking photos from a roof, when I tried coming back; I could not find a way.
I had to jump because the other way was heavily crowded with Durga idols and people waiting in the line fo immerssion.
I jumped, then realised a terrible pain. Later on found that the height I jumped from was 11-12 feet.
Doctor confirmed this as Ligament tear..
Just now postponed the ticket. Have to take complete bed rest. So bad, that I am in kolkata but I will not be able to do any photography!!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Kolkata: City of Joy
I came down to Kolkata for Durgapuja.
The next day was Eid. Went to Red Road in the morning to capture some moments.
Next day went to Murshidabad district to catch something very own to Bengal's villages. Did not get much time and could not cover much. Still enjoyed the change.
The day I came back from Murshidabad, Sourav came from Tamluk for puja shoot. Next day on Saptami we went to North Kolkata, Hatibagan, Sovabazaar, Kumartuli, Ahiritola side. Saw some beautiful works of art. We took snaps as many as we could.
Came back in the evening and other shutterbug friends joined us. We were nine in the gang. At night we covered some selected area like Ekdalia, Falguni Sangha, Park Circus, College Square etc. Overall the output is good, met my expectation.
Shot on all the 5 days of Durga Puja, including Vijaya Dashami. On Dashami, I jumped from a height and got my ankles badly injured...
But there are lots I need to do. I am going for shoot like crazy, not sleeping at night, walking long stretches..... and clicking all the time.
I am trying to capture as much as I can. Kolkata is a city which is heaven for photography in my view. Here you can go on shooting all the time, you will never be out of subjects.
The next day was Eid. Went to Red Road in the morning to capture some moments.
Next day went to Murshidabad district to catch something very own to Bengal's villages. Did not get much time and could not cover much. Still enjoyed the change.
The day I came back from Murshidabad, Sourav came from Tamluk for puja shoot. Next day on Saptami we went to North Kolkata, Hatibagan, Sovabazaar, Kumartuli, Ahiritola side. Saw some beautiful works of art. We took snaps as many as we could.
Came back in the evening and other shutterbug friends joined us. We were nine in the gang. At night we covered some selected area like Ekdalia, Falguni Sangha, Park Circus, College Square etc. Overall the output is good, met my expectation.
Shot on all the 5 days of Durga Puja, including Vijaya Dashami. On Dashami, I jumped from a height and got my ankles badly injured...
But there are lots I need to do. I am going for shoot like crazy, not sleeping at night, walking long stretches..... and clicking all the time.
I am trying to capture as much as I can. Kolkata is a city which is heaven for photography in my view. Here you can go on shooting all the time, you will never be out of subjects.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Great Green Trek: Sakleshpur... A Dream.
One Saturday, I was feeling tired since morning. Little upset and had no plans in mind. Srikanth called me.. "Hey Ayan, I was thinking of going to Sakleshpur... do you have any plans?"
I was so sleepy, I could not respond properly. After couple of hours I called him and he told that he was about to drop the idea if nobody is going.
In less than 10 minutes I started getting ready to join him.
Had a quick lunch at Dera and caught an auto to Town Hall (somehow Town Hall got associated with my life and almost every weekends I am visiting Town Hall once. It has become a proper designated meeting place).
Srikanth was waiting for me in his white Palio. I jumped in and off we were on the way to Sakleshpur.
It was a nice road more or less, but Srikanth was driving slowly, we were enjoying the long drive.
After Neelamangala, we took a left and after driving down little ahead of Kunigal, we saw a hill, and stopped.
There was a little Tea Stall, a Temple under tree and few locals chatting. It was a wonderful afternoon. We climbed the hill, started doing some shoot.
The sky was very cloudy.. and we were busy shooting the sky and world down there... fields, cows grazing and small ant-sized people.
Suddenly one eagle came flying to our side. It was clearly an indication to go down, we knew that it would rain. Nature always has her own way of communicating, you need to just interpret it.
We came down and within moments it started raining.
There was a little pond and a canal nearby. We enjoyed the rain and drops of water on that still water sitting there, chatting; we did not have any plan fixed in mind, and took it as a bliss. It was wonderful.
At Hasan, we had a good dinner at Kamath, then drove and stopped only when we reached
Sakleshpur. It was 11 at night and we checked in Hotel Ashrita.
I googled a little about the Great Green Trek on my cell and found a station named "Donigal". It was enough information for us and we called it a day and slept.
Morning at around 6:30 we parked the car in hotel and started for Donigal. The bus stand was 5 minutes walk from hotel, we caught a local bus and it was just a 15 minutes journey.
We got down at some place and started walking towards Donigal Station. Almost after 2 km, we found the railway track and started the trek at around 8:00
We were moving very slowly and before Donigal we found the first bridge. The bridges were really old, and scary. But this was also the indication that our actual Great Green Trek had began.
We stopped many times, took frequent breaks and did photography and went on again. At one part the rail track was divided into two, and the second one was going uphill. It looked abandoned. We took that path to see what was there.
After some time the abandoned track went into jungle and we came back and took a diversion and got the original track which was running parallel.
At that point we were able to see Donigal Station and took a little break.
After Donigal, we managed to travel a little by Train. (that is a separate story and can not be revealed how.. :) )
After Donigal, till Yedakumari there are number of bridges and tunnels and the route is extremely beautiful.
When we reached Yedakumari, it was almost 2:00 pm. We were little tired but ok enough to come back.
Then enquired from Station Master about the train timings. At this time, I should clarify few points.
One, now per day there are almost 8-9 goods trains ply on that route.
Two, there are few bridges which are much longer than others.
Three, there are couple of bridges which does not have any space to stand at all (where one can go running and stand if train comes suddenly)
And the station master informed us that no train is there before 4:00 and that too from Yedakumari side, so we thought at that point that we would get enough time to cross those scary bridges at least.
So we started again towards Donigal. We did not have any option; we planned to go back to Bangalore that day itself. And while crossing the tunnel this time, we realized that we did not have any torch and it was really difficult in that darkness. When we were inside, we saw a torch light and we knew that someone was coming from the opposite side. We waited and found a linesman who was checking the track. He suggested that it was not wise to move without torch at that time. It was already 3.
Srikanth was ready to move but do not know really why I felt something odd and told him that it would be really good if go back to Yedakumari. I told him that we would try to convince any train driver to take us on board or if not possible, we would stay there for night and come back next day (at the most, we would not be able to go back and attend office next day, but it is not ok to play with life). He agreed and we stepped outside the tunnel and within few minutes a train came with much speed.
For a moment I forgot everything and thanked Almighty. We were about to die and came back alive with his grace. That linesman was truly an Angel for us.
And we were so lucky that the long goods train stopped exactly at the position we had stopped. At that time we managed to convince the guard and he took us on board.
After this we crossed a beautiful stretch after Yedakumari till Subramanya Road. It started raining and it looked very very beautiful. With all the falls and rivers full of water, nature was so kind to us; we experienced a complete different world out there.
From Subramanya Road station we took a jeep to Kukke Subramanya. It was almost 5:00
We were very hungry, ate plateful Bondas and Dosas. Then took a bus to a place called Gundiya. From Gundiya, took a bus for Sakleshpur and experienced a pathetic road. It was due to monsoon and heavy trucks plying on that route. But the bus driver had an awesome skill of driving.
Did not do much once we reached Sakleshpur, started for Bangalore at around 8:20 and reached at midnight.
It was so far the most daring trek I did. Thanked god so many times that I am alive to do so many things today. But it was a wonderful experience. Got to know from Station Masters, that Indian Railways is planning to start passenger trains from 2nd Oct onward. Do not know if it is possible to trek on the route after that. But even if somebody goes there in passanger train, he can always experience the beauty of the Nature out there.
I was so sleepy, I could not respond properly. After couple of hours I called him and he told that he was about to drop the idea if nobody is going.
In less than 10 minutes I started getting ready to join him.
Had a quick lunch at Dera and caught an auto to Town Hall (somehow Town Hall got associated with my life and almost every weekends I am visiting Town Hall once. It has become a proper designated meeting place).
Srikanth was waiting for me in his white Palio. I jumped in and off we were on the way to Sakleshpur.
It was a nice road more or less, but Srikanth was driving slowly, we were enjoying the long drive.
After Neelamangala, we took a left and after driving down little ahead of Kunigal, we saw a hill, and stopped.
There was a little Tea Stall, a Temple under tree and few locals chatting. It was a wonderful afternoon. We climbed the hill, started doing some shoot.
The sky was very cloudy.. and we were busy shooting the sky and world down there... fields, cows grazing and small ant-sized people.
Suddenly one eagle came flying to our side. It was clearly an indication to go down, we knew that it would rain. Nature always has her own way of communicating, you need to just interpret it.
We came down and within moments it started raining.
There was a little pond and a canal nearby. We enjoyed the rain and drops of water on that still water sitting there, chatting; we did not have any plan fixed in mind, and took it as a bliss. It was wonderful.
At Hasan, we had a good dinner at Kamath, then drove and stopped only when we reached
Sakleshpur. It was 11 at night and we checked in Hotel Ashrita.
I googled a little about the Great Green Trek on my cell and found a station named "Donigal". It was enough information for us and we called it a day and slept.
Morning at around 6:30 we parked the car in hotel and started for Donigal. The bus stand was 5 minutes walk from hotel, we caught a local bus and it was just a 15 minutes journey.
We got down at some place and started walking towards Donigal Station. Almost after 2 km, we found the railway track and started the trek at around 8:00
We were moving very slowly and before Donigal we found the first bridge. The bridges were really old, and scary. But this was also the indication that our actual Great Green Trek had began.
We stopped many times, took frequent breaks and did photography and went on again. At one part the rail track was divided into two, and the second one was going uphill. It looked abandoned. We took that path to see what was there.
After some time the abandoned track went into jungle and we came back and took a diversion and got the original track which was running parallel.
At that point we were able to see Donigal Station and took a little break.
After Donigal, we managed to travel a little by Train. (that is a separate story and can not be revealed how.. :) )
After Donigal, till Yedakumari there are number of bridges and tunnels and the route is extremely beautiful.
When we reached Yedakumari, it was almost 2:00 pm. We were little tired but ok enough to come back.
Then enquired from Station Master about the train timings. At this time, I should clarify few points.
One, now per day there are almost 8-9 goods trains ply on that route.
Two, there are few bridges which are much longer than others.
Three, there are couple of bridges which does not have any space to stand at all (where one can go running and stand if train comes suddenly)
And the station master informed us that no train is there before 4:00 and that too from Yedakumari side, so we thought at that point that we would get enough time to cross those scary bridges at least.
So we started again towards Donigal. We did not have any option; we planned to go back to Bangalore that day itself. And while crossing the tunnel this time, we realized that we did not have any torch and it was really difficult in that darkness. When we were inside, we saw a torch light and we knew that someone was coming from the opposite side. We waited and found a linesman who was checking the track. He suggested that it was not wise to move without torch at that time. It was already 3.
Srikanth was ready to move but do not know really why I felt something odd and told him that it would be really good if go back to Yedakumari. I told him that we would try to convince any train driver to take us on board or if not possible, we would stay there for night and come back next day (at the most, we would not be able to go back and attend office next day, but it is not ok to play with life). He agreed and we stepped outside the tunnel and within few minutes a train came with much speed.
For a moment I forgot everything and thanked Almighty. We were about to die and came back alive with his grace. That linesman was truly an Angel for us.
And we were so lucky that the long goods train stopped exactly at the position we had stopped. At that time we managed to convince the guard and he took us on board.
After this we crossed a beautiful stretch after Yedakumari till Subramanya Road. It started raining and it looked very very beautiful. With all the falls and rivers full of water, nature was so kind to us; we experienced a complete different world out there.
From Subramanya Road station we took a jeep to Kukke Subramanya. It was almost 5:00
We were very hungry, ate plateful Bondas and Dosas. Then took a bus to a place called Gundiya. From Gundiya, took a bus for Sakleshpur and experienced a pathetic road. It was due to monsoon and heavy trucks plying on that route. But the bus driver had an awesome skill of driving.
Did not do much once we reached Sakleshpur, started for Bangalore at around 8:20 and reached at midnight.
It was so far the most daring trek I did. Thanked god so many times that I am alive to do so many things today. But it was a wonderful experience. Got to know from Station Masters, that Indian Railways is planning to start passenger trains from 2nd Oct onward. Do not know if it is possible to trek on the route after that. But even if somebody goes there in passanger train, he can always experience the beauty of the Nature out there.
Monday, October 1, 2007
K.R. Puram Bridge Sun Rise
While coming back from the Manchinbele Shoot, we were discussing and planning for a low light or long exposure photography.
As the sky is almost always cloudy these days in Bangalore, star trail was not possible.
Nothing was really coming in my mind and Shreelesh called me and told about Shooting Sun Rise on K.R.Puram Bridge and we went on a Saturday.
We probably reached a little late but tried to cover as much as we could.
Kolkata's Howrah Bridge was coming in my mind, same type of Hanging Bridge this K.R.Puram is, though a small one.
I am going home during Durga Puja, will try to cover Howrah Bridge one day.
As the sky is almost always cloudy these days in Bangalore, star trail was not possible.
Nothing was really coming in my mind and Shreelesh called me and told about Shooting Sun Rise on K.R.Puram Bridge and we went on a Saturday.
We probably reached a little late but tried to cover as much as we could.
Kolkata's Howrah Bridge was coming in my mind, same type of Hanging Bridge this K.R.Puram is, though a small one.
I am going home during Durga Puja, will try to cover Howrah Bridge one day.
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