Sahasrara

Lotus, as in is divine when they bloom. The Ganesha idol decorated with Lotus for Ganesha Chathurthi along with Ganesha's favourite grass Dhruva or Durva at home.

Oh, these petals and the colours of the lotus petal made me stop by the man who was plucking the petals before closing for the day. They are so beautiful, I started clicking pictures of these petals. Pictures clicked at KR Market, Bengaluru.

Sahasrara means thousand, infinite! In this context thousand-petaled.

Happy Women's Day!

Women...You’ve Got Everything To Take The World In Your Stride

Few flicks of the women of substance. #OneDayIWill see that there is no gender stereotyping, discrimination of any sort between the two genders - Men or Women.  #HappyWomen'sDay

Happy Women's Day!!!

World Wildlife Day!

Today’s World Wildlife Day! 

Conserve nature and protect wildlife, making them comfortable in their environment. Few days back in Bangalore, there was an entry of Leopard into a school or vice versa there was a school in the Leopard’s environment. In the last few years Bangalore is developing drastically resulting in destroying the forest, cutting down the trees; moreover we have scorching hot summer, no rainfall, absolutely no winter in the last few years.

Wildlife, they need their environment and isn't it our responsibility to conserve nature bit by bit? 

PC: Prashant Bhandare

Wedding Moments: Silver Anklets – One of the sixteen adornments

PC: Nithin Suvarna

Jewellery is something that has to do with emotion.

That aspect of jewellery really interests me. - Ann Demeulemeester

Anklets (Payal in Hindi) is one of the sixteen adornments (Solah Shringar) of an Indian bride. I always believe that there’s some reasoning in  Indian beliefs so here’s a transcript of my understanding about wearing silver anklets. I’ve referred many blogs or website’s from where I got this information and translating as per my understanding.

Majority of women wear silver anklets and I believe this is the right metal to wear on your ankle. People say by wearing silver anklets one’s energy is not wasted and re-vibrated back to one’s own body. The wind chime like effect of the anklets might be the reason and Silver is a good conductor of energy and work as a mediator between the two forms of energy, earth and human body, it makes a woman more energetic while sending the negative energy to earth.

Anklets improve the womb, reproductive system, stomach, liver, and the feet. Women usually are involved in a lot of work more than men, who have to do a lot of running around or have to work standing up wear heavy anklets as it increases activeness.

Wedding Photography by: Dreamframes, Balmatta, Mangalore

Wedding Moments: Your word!

We do not remember days. We remember moments.

Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence. - Minor White

PC: Nithin Suvarna
Wedding Photography by: Dreamframes, Balmatta, Mangalore

Kaiga Bird Marathon 2016

Image of the White-bellied Sea-Eagle which was spotted by almost every team. 

This image was photographed by Prashant Bhandare near the Kadra Dam. 

P.S: Image is copyright protected to Prashant Bhandare. Anyone who wants to publish or use these images for any purpose, please contact the concerned for permission.

Early in the morning, before the sunrise, while I entered the lawns near the Nisarga Guest House at Kaiga, there were hundreds of birders assembled at their respective transects with their group members. All were wide awake, exited for the Kaiga Bird Marathon. I joined my group, Group A - the transect which was within the Kaiga forest. And yes, I’m one of the privileged birder who was lucky to be in this transect for no one is allowed inside this forest otherwise including the site co-coordinators who were visiting this forest for the first time.

At 5:30, they had a flag off session and few words of encouragement and each group left the lawn area to board the bus. There were four teams in my bus, where everyone were dropped in their respective transect areas and we were headed towards the Kaiga site area. It was a beautiful route, peaceful and serene. I so envy the people having the chance to live in such a beautiful place.

My team:

I was in the 1^st transect which is Group A who were all lucky visitors to Kaiga region. Other teams have visited the nearby villages like Hattuga, Virje, Halga-Ulga, and so on. Our team was also lucky because we had Dr. Raju Kasambe from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) who heads the Important Bird Areas (IBA) Programme and Indian Bird Conservation Network (IBCN) along with the coordinators who worked at NPCIL. We were 12 in our team, of which only 4 were visitors and others were working in NPCIL. Dr. Raju Kasambe has every minute detail about the birds and we had Harish Kulur a birder who works at NPCIL who could identify each and every bird. We had a great team and with our team effort we could identify 76 species with the Kaiga forest area.

We were allowed inside the Kaiga area after verifying our identify details. Yes, we had given prior permission to enter the Kaiga forest, our Photo ID and electronic equipment details were provided earlier to the management. An escort from the NPCIL team who knew the forest area was with us. Only our team coordinator and the escort had the phones with them, we were enjoying our time without mobile phones. We were dropped at the NPCIL site gate and we were not allowed to use our cameras until we entered the forest area.

As we entered, we could hear a danger call from the Monkey. Our guide alerted us there should be a leopard and that’s the reason the Monkey is afraid. We were all looking the other side of the fence while my team members witnessed leopard running in front of us. I missed that sight. As we moved around, we had birders who were able to identify the bird species with their calls and some birds we could spot. The sun was out by then and birds had started their daily routes.

The birds which we spotted initially were among Barbets, Bulbul, Swifts and Swallow species. To make our day even brighter, the Great Hornbill flew over our head. All were so excited to see this bird and I was very much excited as I was seeing this great bird for the first time. Later as we moved further, we spotted couple of Great Hornbill sitting on a tree and few Malabar Pied Hornbills flying at the height. I was also blessed to find the Stork-billed Kingfisher, such a beauty. God has created variety with the colors, marvelous creations.

Bonus to the trek was the pug marks which we found on our trek route. The pug marks indicated that must have walked against our direction after the night patrolling.

All in all it was a great day with well organized birding event. The organizers at NPCIL have taken care of each and every minute requirement and we did not find any difficulty or issues in this event. We were very glad to be part of the annual Kaiga Bird Marathon and hoping to be there for the next bird marathon. Special mention to the NPCIL team who were with us during these two days, they were all down to earth, loving people. We must appreciate them for the knowledge they have in birds, everyone has utilized the opportunity of being within the nature. I was really surprised for everyone had great knowledge of birds and that’s the reason bird marathon gets great response with every passing year.

List of birds from our transect – Transect A – Kaiga (List taken from eBird posted by Dr. Raju Kasambe)

6	Indian Peafowl
2	Grey Junglefowl
3	Woolly-necked Stork
1	Indian Cormorant
1	Gray Heron
19	Cattle Egret
1	Indian Pond-Heron
1	Black-shouldered Kite
2	Oriental Honey-buzzard
2	Crested Serpent-Eagle
1	Legge's Hawk-Eagle
1	Rufous-bellied Eagle
1	Black Eagle
1	Shikra
1	Black Kite
1	Brahminy Kite
1	White-bellied Sea-Eagle
3	Spotted Dove
2	Emerald Dove
2	Gray-fronted Green-Pigeon
2	Asian Koel
1	Brown-backed Needletail
8	Crested Treeswift
1	Eurasian Hoopoe
3	Great Hornbill
4	Malabar Pied-Hornbill
1	Stork-billed Kingfisher
2	White-throated Kingfisher
4	Green Bee-eater
1	Malabar Barbet
2	Coppersmith Barbet
1	Brown-headed Barbet
1	White-cheeked Barbet
1	Brown-capped Woodpecker
1	Black-rumped Flameback
5	Plum-headed Parakeet
2	Malabar Parakeet
4	Vernal Hanging-Parrot
1	Common Iora
3	Orange Minivet
1	Brown Shrike
6	Indian Golden Oriole
2	Black-hooded Oriole
3	Ashy Drongo
1	Bronzed Drongo
2	Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
2	Black-naped Monarch
1	Rufous Treepie
5	House Crow
7	Large-billed Crow
60	Red-rumped Swallow
4	Gray-headed Bulbul
2	Flame-throated Bulbul
2	Red-vented Bulbul
4	Red-whiskered Bulbul
7	Yellow-browed Bulbul
20	Square-tailed Bulbul
1	Greenish Warbler
1	Blyth's Reed-Warbler
1	Zitting Cisticola (Zitting)
1	Common Tailorbird
3	Plain Prinia
10	Jungle Babbler
50	Asian Fairy-bluebird
1	Asian Brown Flycatcher
1	Oriental Magpie-Robin
2	Verditer Flycatcher
40	Southern Hill Myna
16	Malabar Starling
3	Jungle Myna
3	Golden-fronted Leafbird
4	Thick-billed Flowerpecker
5	Nilgiri Flowerpecker
1	Purple-rumped Sunbird
2	Crimson-backed Sunbird
12	Purple Sunbird
20	White-rumped Munia

About Kaiga Bird Marathon:

Every year the Kaiga Bird Marathon is organized and enthusiastic bird watchers come in huge numbers and participate in counting the bird species of the surrounding areas. There are 8 transects and each transect is allocated to a nearby village around Kaiga Generating Station.

Towards the end of November, I found an Invite regarding the Kaiga Bird Marathon in the Yahoo Bangalore Birders group. Without any second thoughts I had registered for the event for me and Prashant. Later on due to wedding preparations I had totally forgotten to check about my registration status. End of December I received a message from ESP team at Kaiga regarding my confirmation as they were having many participants on waitlist. Me and Prashant confirmed our participation on 10^th Jan and were excited that we were selected for the Bird Marathon.

The organizing team had made all the necessary arrangements for all the birders including accommodation, food, and transportation for the marathon. This event was very well organized and I was amazed with the coordination among the organizing team. We were also given the participation certificate and memento. I am eagerly awaiting my next participation at the Kaiga Bird Marathon.

The most discussed bird at the Kaiga Bird Marathon Himalayan Griffon - Juvenile which was earlier confused as Indian Vulture. Thanks to Ramit Singhal for the right identification.

P.S: Image is copyright protected to Prashant Bhandare. Anyone who wants to publish or use these images for any purpose, please contact the concerned for permission.

McDonalds Drive Thru @ Kasturba Road

These stones tell you many stories…

After an exhausting evening at Avenue Road, on our way back we stopped at McDonalds at Kasturba Road for a quick bite. Being 10.30 at night we thought McDonalds would be a convenient option. As usual, we grabbed our meals and headed upstairs. The best thing here is the usage of pebbles as part of the restaurant interiors. Whoever gets in here, have something or the other to pen in these pebbles. Their feelings, emotions, friendship, love, fun, illustrations, graphics and so on. You get to read many stories from these pebbles.

Imagination has always been a favorite hobby or pastime for me. It is somewhat interesting observing these pebbles and imagining the stories from the engraved illustrations or names. Some scribble about their emotions to their partners, the depth of friendship with their names engraved in blue, red ballpoint pens or even using a permanent marker. Creative thinkers would scribble or illustrate creative graphics on them. Its like, when you pick each pebble from the box, you get to imagine a story behind that. 
 

At times, I get back to my college days where we used to have such fun when with friends. A couple of year back, I had come to the same McDonalds and my friend had done a portrait on the pebble. I remembered that and I was trying to find that particular pebble. After few minutes search, I found that pebble and I started laughing looking at the pebble. My friend had drawn a girl’s portrait and someone had added a mustache on that. That was funny! Things will not remain the same when you next find them. This is what I thought at that moment.
 

I love to visit this place always, cherishing my memories and creating stories from someone else’s memories.

Here is the link to the pictures taken at the McDonalds drive thru… https://plus.google.com/photos/107767421120953479303/albums/5680325651489142209

P.S: All the images here are copyright protected to Prashant Bhandare. Anyone who wants to publish or use these images for any purpose, please contact the concerned for permission.

A village visit! ಗಂಗ ರಾಜನ ಹಳ್ಳಿ... ಒಂದು ಕಿರು ಪಯಣ...

ಗಂಗ ರಾಜನ ಹಳ್ಳಿ... ಒಂದು ಕಿರು ಪಯಣ...  
January 26, 2010; republic day this year did not fall on a Friday or Monday. We, especially the ones working in IT sector will be waiting a year ahead for long weekend. So, this January 26th I did not go to my hometown and I was in Bangalore. Usually, spending a week day holiday will be like going to a mall in the evening or spending the day lazily at home, cooking, washing clothes and so on.

Gangarajanahalli, is the village where we landed after two hours of journey from Bangalore on January 26th. A serene place, free from pollution – those annoying noise of vehicles, replaced with chirping of birds, children playing – their cry, people's curiosity when we landed withbags and charts. The journey from Bangalore city to this village was tiring with scorching hot sun but worth visiting this place; ride from the nice road was ultimate.

We entered the village, where we reached a place where there were house on both the ends of the narrow roads. We spotted a very old house. In fact, most of the houses in that village were very old, which were more than hundred years old. Simple house, very old ones, looks amazing. If we ever compare those houses with the modern houses, houses built in the olden days are the best ones. Tiled houses, vintage designs but irreplaceable, the items used in these houses were more than hundred years old still capable of using another hundred more years.

I was still admiring the structure of that house when my friend started pulling out the pencils and chart papers. People from the nearby houses had surrounded us by then, curious of what’s going on. We sat in the veranda of one of the house and we received good hospitality, they started talking to us, gave a mat to sit down. My friend was busy with the sketches of the houses and I started clicking some pictures. I then felt awkward to click more pictures as people started gaping, which made them think what is she going to do with our pictures. I was then imaging if any strangers like this come to our house in Bangalore, would we treat them this way. Even, if a salesperson comes we would be scared to open the door and talk to him. But in the villages, it’s a carefree life.

After completing the sketch of one house, we walked little further where we found some more curious villagers asking who we are and why have we come. Even here we got good hospitality, they told us stories about the place, and they led us the way to a hill. When you pass through Rama Nagar near Mysore, on the opposite side you could see a big rock mountain. It’s called Aane Gundi Betta in kannada. This betta was walk able distance from this village. But we did not want to get into this betta as it was almost 4.00PM and it would get late. We then walked towards a field with one of the village boy. Few boys were chit chatting, waiting for their friends to join them to play cricket. A farmer was scattering the ragi grains from the dust particles. When we reached this spot, the boys started teasing asking the farmer to give a good posture, and we have come to shoot his pictures and draw his sketches. This remembered me of my school days, enjoying to the core with my cousins.

The farmer started telling stories about Aane Gundi Betta (It’s named after an Elephant fell from the top of the mountain), like he saw a bear standing very close to him one night, tigers come down to village once in a while and so on. He also picked and gave me some berries which were fallen from the trees. It was nice talking to them; they were nice people with good heart. We then had our lunch which we had packed while coming in the midst of the nature. I enjoyed my time there, clicking pictures, talking to people, holding cute lamb in my arms.

All villagers who came and spoke to us had one question in common. Why have we come to visit their village? Any project? Any news channels? And so on. We answered all their questions saying we have come for relaxing in a calm place and photography and art is our passion. They were very humble people, they had a heart to listen, curious about so many things. It’s a nice experience to experience different things. We felt relaxed, out from all city chaos. Feel good to stay in the villages, it’s kind of meditation. Hope there’ll be villages in ample in the coming days. Civilization has reached such a state that we hardly find hand counts of villages. We all are responsible to save trees, save atmosphere and save earth. In some or the other way, we need to put some effort in saving our planet. Please think twice, before you take a print!!!

All in all, it was a day so pleasant and relaxing.


Few images of the village visit..


An old house in the village..

Waiting for the wind...

                         

The farmer scattering the ragi grains..

View of Aane Gundi Betta..

The sketch of the old house.. 

Sketch with the Fountain pen..

I can work only if there is wind...

Sunset...

Trying it out myself...

Holding the cute lamb...