Mesmerizing Mumbai

Back after a long pause, this time to document another visit to the Maximum City (Mumbai). As always a trip to Mumbai brings back some old memories that I have when I had first visited the city.  The beauty of this city among st the chaos always leaves me amazed and mesmerized.

Though I have been to Marie lines many times before, I never got a chance to spend some quality time gazing at the Sea and doing just nothing. One of the reasons for not being able to do this till now is that most of the times I will be in a hurry to catch a train to reach Vashi (where I used to stay). This time I was not in a hurry. I had booked a room in one of the hotel that is right in front of the sea.

Sea Green hotel is a compact little hotel situated right on the main Marine lines road and it commands an unmatched view of the Queen's Necklace. For about Rs.4800 per night its a perfect choice, considering the fact that other hotels in the surrounding area charge very high. Make sure you ask for a sea facing room. Its an amazing experience just sitting in the balcony and enjoying the view of one of the best places in Mumbai.

View from hotel's balcony

Nevertheless my trip started from Bandra terminus, from where I headed to hotel. If you are travelling to South Mumbai and are taking a cab or other private vehicle then do try to take the route via Bandra - Worli Sea link, which is marvelous piece of architecture and one of the first cable-stayed bridge to be constructed in open seas in India. You need to pay a toll tax of about Rs 120 for a car, but its worth paying for one time experience. If you of my kind who likes to take photographs then make sure you have your camera out. Though stoppage is not allowed on the Sea Link you can get some decent clicks from a moving car. This is what I got.

It was almost 12.30 PM, and I checked in the hotel. Sea Green Hotel does not have a dedicated restaurant but there are plenty of choices for restaurants in the surrounding area. I chose Shiv Sagar, which is serves decent vegetarian food or all kinds. After a filling lunch, I went back to hotel to take a nap. Later in the afternoon I took a cab to Gateway of India. One thing that I recommend doing here is to hop on to a boat ferry that takes tourists for a 30 minute joy ride on a short spin around the Gateway. The ride is really fun but if you are visiting during a weekend then do expect a long queue to get on to the ferry. Another thing to try here is to take a Tonga (horse) ride which again is fun. They charge somewhere between Rs.300 to Rs.600 based on how long the ride is. Again, don't forget to get your camera ready.

Horse Carriage ride

Later on I took a cab back to Charni road. There is a small sandy beach near Charni road called Chowpatty beach, where one can get an unobtrusive view of the Arabian Sea and if you are not too much of a hygiene freak then you can even get your feet wet and take a walk across the beach. Seeing the sun go down behind the city skyline is an experience in itself. I spent entire evening here taking photographs, playing with my daughter in the sea and later having variety of street food.

So, if you are a foodie and do not mind having food at open air stalls then Chawpatty is the place for you. You will find varity of food ranging from Pao-bhaji, pulaov, pizza, dosas and finally to top it all with Baraf ka Gola (Indian version of Ice candy ). Having golas make you refreshingly fresh and for me it also takes me right back to my child hood memoirs where we would run out of house on hearing the "Tring tring..." sound of the bottles of the "Golawala". Those were the days...I murmur with a sigh. Here are few photographs I took at Chowpaty.


Soon after the sun went down, I took a walk back to the hotel and about half an hour later it rained for almost 2 hours. I sat back in my hotel's balcony and enjoyed cool watery breeze blowing gently across my face. I just wanted to pause that moment for as long a possible.

No moment stays for long though, and neither did this. I had to catch an early morning train to Bangalore the next day so I to decided to hit the sack, but not before taking couple of photographs of the beautiful Queen's Necklace.

I was up early next morning and just before leaving back this lovely experience I took final few photographs. The early morning sight of Queen's Necklace is equally beautiful, just that there is more peace and serenity in the atmosphere as the traffic is very less.

Here is where my trip ends. Getting back to madness of work and responsibilities will be little easier after such a refreshing trip.

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Visit to Somanathapura and Shivanasamudra

I wanted to document this trip long time back, but somehow was not finding enough time to do it. So here it is. Since the trip was arranged from my office we all gathered near our office and left in a mini bus at around 6.30 AM. Our first stop was for breakfast at Adigas on Mysore road. We had dosas, idli and all kind of south Indian dishes. We also parceled our lunch because none of the place that we were about to visit had a decent restaurant.

Next stop was Somanathapura temple. Somanathapura temple is one of the finest example of Hoysala architecture. The condition of the temple is also pretty good, though there was some repair work going on when we had visited. As we went around and saw the lovely architecture of the temple I took few photographs.

After spending about an hour and half at the temple, we moved on to 2nd destination, which was Talakad. Talakad is a small village situated at the bank of Kaveri river. There is also some history associated with this place. For us, it was all about having fun bathing in the river. I took a boat ride and also spent some time photographing my friends who played volleyball in river.

Sometime later we move on to the last destination, which was Shivanasamudra. By far this was the best and the most scenic place. I also managed to get few decent shots here.

Soon I followed my friends to the place which you see in the photo just above and this was when I slipped on a wet rock and fell in water. Luckily I managed to keep my hand out of the water because of which my camera was saved from getting dipped in water. Nevertheless it did get wet because of water that was splashed around when I fell. To prevent any short circuit I removed the battery and the camera remained out of action for rest of the trip. After a while we went to another water falls nearby called Gaganachukki. We had to climb down about 100 stairs to reach this lovely place, but the effort was worth it. Here we spend about half hour bathing under the water falls. It was really amazing experience, last time I remember I had such fun was about 5 years back when I had visited Khandala with my friends.

This was pretty much end of the trip. When returning back we stopped at Adigas for dinner and reached Bangalore at around 9 PM. Visiting so many places was pretty hectic for a one day trip, and place like Gaganachukki itself is such that one can spend entire day without getting bored.

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Rainy evening at Nariman Point

14 Oct, 2011

Last year I had visited Mumbai with my family. One place that I usually never miss to visit when I am in Mumbai is the beautiful Nariman Point. I still remember those days when I joined a company in Mumbai some time around 2004. Invariably we used to spend evening during weekends at Marine Lines or Colaba. Watching the sun go down behind the city skyline was such a fulfilling experience. This time around I witnessed another angle of nature's beauty amongst the high rises of the Mumbai city. As soon as I reached Marine lines, I realized that there was a massive cover of rain clouds which seemed to engulf the city skyline. Never ever had I seen such massive formation of clouds. Luckily now a days I always carry my camera along, because of which I was able to capture this amazing phenomena. Just within few minutes after I got these shots, it started raining and it rained heavily for about 2 hours.

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Macro madness at Hebbal lake

Off late I have kept my telephoto aside and am using my macro lens for good amount of time. I thought I was getting into a rut shooting birds all the times and looking at my  recent shots from trips to Hebbal lake I realized that I was not capturing anything different. It was same old shots of the same birds. So I decided to take a break from shooting birds and move on to shooting macro subjects.

Also, these days the mornings are not really dramatic. Its cloudy most of the days, so no point in shooting birds. However I found such cloudy and wet conditions really helpful in doing some macro photography. The cloudy sky provides nice diffused light and the wet conditions brings out the colors in the green foliage really well. During last couple of visits to Hebbal lake I have been shooting only macros, using my trusty Sigma 150mm Macro lens. I have also started putting my cheap tripod to good use. Now I have realized the benifits of using tripod, especially when doing macro photography. Doing macro work hand holding the camera really tires you out and under certain conditions it becomes virtually impossible to take a sharp shot.

Here are some shots taken during my last couple of visits to Hebbal lake. I have been lucky to get some rain the previous night, so the following morning  provides nice refreshing scenes.

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Roar from Ranthambore

3rd to 5th March, 2011

The first thing that the word Ranthambore brings to one's mind is tiger. Ranthambore National park is one of the largest national park in India.  Ranthambore sanctuary is known for its tigers and is one of the best places in India to see these majestic predators in the jungle. For me it was the first encounter with the tiger in wild. This place it self is awesome and seeing it makes you feel engulfed with low rolling hills, open grass lands, steep cliffs and crumbling ruins of a historic past. The wildlife reserve derives its name from the fortress of Ranthambore.

My trip started by taking a morning 6.00 AM train from Jodhpur to Sawai Madhopur. I reached Sawai Madhopur by 1.15 PM. Soon I checked in to my hotel, freshened up, had lunch and then decided to head to the Ranthambore fort. I hired a jeep from the hotel at a pretty expensive rate (Rs.800) to visit the fort. The fort is adjacent to the national park so the ride to fort itself was amazing. Surrounded by dense trees I was already getting the feel of the forest. In my opinion, if you have more time on hand and have good company then a walk to fort would be fun. I was in the fort at around 3.30 PM and it was pretty sunny and hot. I was looking for some nice shots in the fort but because of harsh light and plain sky, I did not get much. The fort itself is huge and there is a Ganesh temple on top which is visited by many local people throughout the year. Few common local birds like Red-vented Bulbul, Jungle Babbler, Common Peafowls, Indian treepies and Common Kite can also been seen here. Here are few shots that I got at the Ranthambore fort. (NOTE: Click on the images to view the larger version)

Red-vented Bulbul

Jungle Babbler

When returning back from the fort, I also spotted a Sambar deer sitting peacefully.

Sambar deer

After returning to my hotel, I took some rest and went to bed early as I had to wake up early next morning for  safari.

4th March (Morning safari)
The jeep arrived sharp at 6.30 AM, I was the first member to be picked up and then moved on to pickup 4 other members. They were 2 couples, one from London and other from Arizona. Our guide Devendra told us that we will be taken to Zone-II. Apart from tigers and other mammals I was also looking forward to spot few birds. One of the guest Bev was also interested in spotting birds so she formed a good company. We were about to enter the national park which is right in front of the Ranthambore fort. I saw a Common Peafowl lazing around the fort and clicked a shot.

Just a few minutes after we entered the park, we heard some commotion and our guide told that some one has spotted the tiger. He skillfully asked the driver to maneuver to a probable place where tiger could be spotted. In no time we saw this majestic tigress strolling under the thick cover of forest and slowly coming towards the main path. This female was called T-17 and it seems that this is the only tiger that was collared by officials to study its behavior. I started clicking trying to compose different frames each time rather then getting tons of similar frame. Here are few shots of this fantastic creature.

Having a sip of water, before moving on

Appearing out from the bushes

Strolling casually on the main path

Leading the way. We were the only people who were in front of the tiger. Rest all were behind it. I should thank the quick thinking of our naturalist Devendra for this.

Soon she disappeared in the thick cover of the forest. This amazing moment of seeing this lovely animal in wild  just can't be described in words, it has to be experienced in real. Now that we had seen the beauty of the forest, we concentrated on other aspects of the forest. Deep inside we saw a small pond where there were few Black storks and plenty of monkeys. The morning light was not too harsh and the monkeys were nicely backlit with soft light. I got few shots there.

Later on we saw Red-wattled lapwing and a Bay-backed Shrike, which I happily photographed.

Red-wattled lapwing

Bay-backed Shrike

It was 9.00 AM and now we were heading out of the reserved area. Suddenly we saw the same tigress right in front of the road and she later moved into thick cover of grass very close to a herd of Chittal deers. We were told that the female was hungry and it was looking to stalk the deers. For some reason the deers suspected the presence of the tigress and they moved away quickly to safe grounds. I managed to get a shot of the deers running for cover.

Chittal deers running for cover

Chittal deer peeping through the forest undergrowth. Amazing how well camouflager they are and still the tiger manages to stalk them.

One more shot of T-17 when we saw her for 2nd time, right in front of our jeep

 This was pretty much the end of my 1st safari. I went back to my hotel, had breakfast and strolled around for a while. The hotel had a nice garden with lovely flowers and there were few birds around too, so I picked up my camera and took few shots.

Red-vented Bulbul seen in our hotel garden

Pair of Rose-ringed parakeets

4th March (Evening safari)

This time were were assigned Zone III. Just as we started I spotted a Common Peahen and took a shot.

Common Peahen

We did reach to a spot were T-17 tigress was resting, but it was way too far to take any shot. The tigress did not budge from its place and we did not see it for the whole of safari. This time around I concentrated on taking shots of deers. Here are some shots I got from this safari.

Sambar deer with  Hunting palace in the backdrop

Another shot of Sambar deer

Chittal (Axis deer)

One more shot of Axis deer

Indian Treepie

Hunting palace

5th March (Morning safari)
Last evening was pretty disappointing as I had not spotted any tiger. I was hoping to see one this morning and  was thinking that it will be great if I can spot some one other then T-17. Today again we were alloted Zone- II. The safari started with spotting a Grey Tit perched high on a tree.

Grey Tit

  Later on we again stopped by the pond where I had shot monkeys before. This time around the Black stork was little near by so I got a decent shot.

Black stork

We went little further down the road and we spotted pug marks a tiger, we also saw fresh tiger droppings. The naturalist informed us that a tiger could be around. Suddenly we spotted a large tiger approaching right towards our jeep. Soon it came close and our driver kept on reversing the jeep and I kept on taking shots. This was not the T-17 for sure as there was no collar around the neck. Later on we were told that this guy was a male and he was named T-24. Here are few shots of this huge guy.

Male tiger approach our jeep

Moving across our jeep

About to scent mark its territory 

This was the high point of the morning safari. Later on we did not see much. Once we got out of the reserved area, I spotted a pair of Blue rock pigeons perched with the Ranthambore fort at its backdrop. This is the shot that I got.

Pair of Blue rock pigeon

Group of monkeys monkeying around

This was end of the safari and pretty much the trip to Ranthambore. I left for Jodhpur the same day afternoon. The glow of the striped coat, the silent and unhurried walk, the power and the beauty of one of the most beautiful animal still lingers in my memory.

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