The Poonam Parihar Blog...

Belum Caves & Gandikota, The Grand Canyon of India

2012-01-27T11:30:00.005+05:30

slide through the photos using horizontal slider. all photos on flickr

These aren't the days of Marco Polo's or Robinson Crusoe's. Thanks to Columbus and his look alikes, There is nothing big left in the world to explore and our generation is best left to explore Avatars and Pandora's floating mountains. We don't write books based on our travel. apparently books are worth only if we are doing around the world in certain number of days, you know! so we write blogs to fulfill our quest of sharing our experiences or just blabber about our achievements and then throw in the big blue sea called Internet. We, the paper-free generation. There is not much left to readers' imagination either. since we, the Modern-Day Columbus who know how to use every damn kind of camera ( yup ;)) in the world, provide enough photographs from each and every angle. Still, somehow, since we do believe in Prophet Muhammad's saying "Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled" and DIY ( Do it yourself, i.e. you know what i am saying. it actually applies to everything in life) We keep up with our titbits of exploring what we like and dislike including small things and small places.

Before I go ahead, here is a disclaimer, whatever I wrote above, with a We is totally I, me and myself. You don't want to own it. don't ! that's perfectly all right. So well, as you can already see above with pictures and title of this post, this writeup is all about places. I doubt if they are unexplored anymore. atleast one of them. but 2 years back when I visited this places, it certainly became a super-hit in our network and we sure sent few bunch, running and sweating all wanting to jump of the cliff ~500ft down in the river pennar, and if not, explore a river running deep down the ground which took the shape of 3.5KM cave with natural formations all over, i.e. a truly psychedelic escapade to two of the natures' finest wonders. All this in about 250-300Km distance from hip and happening International city of Bangalore. India indeed is full of surprises.

After we did our initial research, saw a photo or two, we, a small survivor not so roadies but lets explore all jungles and mountain peak in the world gang, set out in a very modern day AC taxi aka Toyota Innova, on a friday night with 6 of us plus our driver, that does make us 7 Yes we do treat our driver as human being and as one of us. we started at about 10 w/ out dinner, but it took us about 12 to reach Andhra-Karnataka Border, and when we stopped at one small shop on National Highway 7, I think they had pretty much nothing to offer except India's ever favorite poor man's drink, Tea. (Its my favorite too btw and no I am not poor, handle the contradiction, please!)

The onward overnight journey had nothing specific to offer, we kept stretching our legs left right making muliple crosses inside the car, changing seats often and some crazy songs in the same CD since all other CDs refused to play and we had no heart to listen to Kannada songs at midnight while riding under the stars. however, it was definitely one kannada song, the horror kind, which helped us wake the driver up when he stopped the car took a forced nap, in an old petrol station with no petrol, located somewhere, in the middle of Anantpur and Tadipatri state highway. ( we ofcourse dint want him to sleep but go on and reach belum asap, how inhuman of us).

The road till Tadipatri is alright. Belum and Gandikota in different directions from the main junction of the town where the straight road state highway takes you. if you go right, you reach Gandikota, if you take a left, you go to Belum caves. What we did was to book one room (6-8 beds) in Punnami lodge at Belum for 2 days, since there were no other better option around the area, including tadipatri of course. So we continued our Journey towards Belum and I still remember it was still dark, when we saw the Ultra-cement plant approaching, and with all the lights and sparkles from so far, it did look nothing less than one approaching San Francisco. ( Totally me again, you might think otherwise) it sure was like a small city on on the hilltop. and fortress perhaps, and I loved it. I still regret not stopping and taking a photograph since i kinda thought we'd be coming back from this side at about same time, so i could take a night shot later. but as you know or will know soon. we dint.

Nothing else interesting at dawn that I could remember, and by the time sun rose, we were at Belum Caves. I have to say, I liked the place almost instantly. almost impossibly peaceful, surrounded by small hillocks, (not many actually) which we thought first were the caves ( yup you wont think since you'd read it already) the famous kurnool black tiles and few tractors splashing sand, and oh a beautiful Buddha Statue. Top it all, the big clean and fresh room in the lodge, Oh it was such a blessing ( considering we are jungle men/women and we crash almost everywhere sometimes yes!) If it wasn't for golden sunlight and yellow-red sun shining on Buddha, I wouldn't have got off the bed and went for a shoot. few did prefer to stay in the room though, others went on shooting spree (only shoot photos, we aren't killing types really).

There was a downside too though, I think there wasn't no tea early morning, the restaurant was closed and there is pretty much no other facility in the entire vicinity of " happy making tea sort" so we have to wait till 10 AM for the restaurant to open, and we starving to kill ( not in literal meaning), ate everything put on our table. hold on, it was all veg. I remember. Andhra style food. some found it spicy but I cried with happiness. since I, Rajput Northy, love anything chilly in any form. but here to your giggle. its been almost 2 years, and i m sure you'd be well pampered there. (happy? )

Now that I have been there, Wiki or any other page, I can understand, it was a little blurred to me though, Yes the caves were first explored about 130 years back. they came in to APTDC (Andhra tourism in short) notice in late 1980s and they decided to shake hands with ASI ( Archeological society, i.e. the official explorer, and protector of all history) and I agree the caves are in good hands. since the timing is maintained, there is no food items allowed, not even water. so absolutely nothing to throw inside, and a Guide is mandatory. someone to look over the naughty you eh. there is only half part of the cave, which is open to public, I have no idea what they are doing with the rest of it. but whatever is open, is well illuminated and its a better sight than any Disney created caves and Dinosaur houses, in which they take you in train. this is not for kids, or grown up kids this is one real deal.

In case you're still wondering whats big about this 100+ feet down under passage, then let me tell you. there is history, there is mythology, and ofcourse there is natures old and long process which has made this underground caves wall, take different formations such as stalagmite and stalactite. these formations resembles so many things, some gets as close to as a shivlinga. there are freshwater spring deep inside one of the chambers which you need to go climbing iron stairs and then in to a narrow gauge. and there are simple meditation halls created as well. once you go you realize its important to go exploring with a guide, else you, wonder kid of the new world, might get lost into well lit and semi lit passages. while the heat takes every ounce of your body water, you keep jumping from lions gate to musical chamber to patalganga.it took us about 2+ hours to see the entire cave and be back to the opening. we practically drank 10l water each plus sitting under the handpump cooling down the burning skin. we were this thirsty. Apparently our guide told us we were supposed to lose about 2KG weight in the cave. hmm. did we feel light, I have no idea.

After coming out we did some munching session, including having a lots of ice creams and junk food, (we had a breakfast plus lunch already) and rejoiced our moments inside, with many bottles of mountain dew-dar ke aage jeet hai. I wonder if I have to really explain that in words how you feel inside, its different for everyone, and as I mentioned earlier a little should be left to imagine. the Pictures I was posted in above slider, are low light shoots since I did not want to show people inside or take the focus away on the pathway etc. this is the pure visualization of the place and how gorgeous it looks in different color lights. Well, You have to see for yourself.

There must be few other things come up by now around the cave, as planned then, we however, took a tiny little rest, in that really hot afternoon and then began our drive to Gandikota the same day. we took the Jammalamadugu route to reach the reservoir. which is about 60KM. the road is/was bad then, there is nothing much around. so while we are on that road, I should rather take you to history of Gandikota and what its all about.

Kota in most of the languages means fort, Gandikota is ruins of a fort built around 11th century, by a Chalukya king, The fort I believe was impassable because of the surrounding hills and the deep valley and certainly the deep gorge by Pennar and one more river, was its saving pass, since no one could win the fort, until it was later conquered and exploited. There are two beautiful temples towards the north, next to the gorge, built in 1100 and another is built in Vijayanagara style temple architecture. there is a mosque as well and a big deep pool which I was told was used for bath after killings, or something like that. this fort is still inhibited btw. the town Jammalamadugu is just 15kms. however you wouldn't find much rides until unless if things have been drastically changed in past two years.

So one is about the fort, and second is about the canyons which we are about to see. lets not ruin the surprise, we did the entrance from the east. i.e. just after crossing the town , we took the bridge and an actually good road on the hills after certain hickup, it took us not much time to reach to the gate of the fort. till now thing was really visible, except some water bodies far right. which we thought was gandikota reservoir but it wasn't since we came from the opposite side. it took us about 2 hours or so to reach this place from Belum Caves, not to far really. this is when we dint anticipate the 40KM of the roads to be this bad. Anyways, No tea again, we had some coconut etc water from the shop before the entrance and then we headed inside.

Gandi is Gorge in Telagu, the canyon which you cant see even if you roam around the small fort, but view of the barren dry red land is still amazing. a little walk inside the fort towards west takes you to the pigeon tower, and there you realize, oh people are still living in the fort. but does anyone knows where our canyon is, i guess not. perhaps they do, but we are unable to exchange a word with them. language problem huh. we can certainly see a temple on our left and something high further on our right but where is the river flowing. hmm.. is this the right place? or we need to cross the mountain and then only we can see our so called grand canyon. ( no one called it that before actually until we saw it and shouted our lungs out, so its all okay uhmm)

some of us left behind, some went to see the temple, and me and another fellow, jungleman walked on the road ahead, to see if we have any luck finding what we came here for. there was big mosque and a van standing up on the road and lots of school/college boys and girls too. we wondered if they came to see the fort or the gorge. we tried to pass our confusion forward to the maruti van driver but he dint understand either. so I thought of taking a short right, uphill before we go further down on that straight road which does point to a curve in a hill pretty much looking like if a huge river ran over it.

On the right we had that pool and then further up the temple, but i wasnt really looking at it rather trying to find if there is something hidden behind those huge rocks and if at all we are lucky and we find the gorge. in the hope i ignored the temple and walked a little ahead and just couldnt believe my eyes. it was that couple of hundreds feet tall tower, standing on its own on the bank of a river totally on its own, as if it was telling everyone, how strong it is, still. and what next, I started shouting and giggling which i generally don't, but hello, i was the Columbus of the day and I had the right ;)

It was a bit difficult and dangerous too, to climb through rocks to reach this side of the edge of the rock wall to get a good look at our own grand canyon, but we had no issues. the wind was strong on the top, it was helluva scary to hold on to that edge and look down, but it was worth it. the view was something to behold. it was nothing man made really. it was all nature. and it existed in the neighborhood. who thought it was. we took the pictures from every angle, possible of everyone, hanging, flying, dragging and giggling with happiness ( nut cases) , we paved the way for others (college crowd) also to come up
some of them actually went down the wall created to go down to the river, but we were happy up. it was getting dark and when someone came screaming only we realize this is an ASI site, and everything gonna get close to tourists at 6PM. we still had temples to explore. and so we did. paying some bucks and a ride to the town to the caretaker.

so if you haven't got it why we call it grand canyon is because of the red granite gorges and green river. this might not be as grand as grand canyon itself, but it indeed is massive. the river flows along for quite a distance, and we actually saw it from one point. so we can not really estimate how long the gorges are though its deep and wide enough. the caretaker did tell us about the boat ride in the river as well. which certainly dint happen the time we were there. March, the beginning of the summer but yes it was certainly one place we wanted to explore in full. me too. haven't yet got a chance though :-/

We went back to belum because of two reasons. one the direct road to tadipatri was not safe in the dark, we were told and secondly we like the guest house so much, we wanted to crash asap. the dinner was also not available after 9-10PM so we decided to have food in Jammalamadugu ( what a tough name, i m writing it for the last time huh) town itself. and it was indeed tasty not sure it was hunger or something else, we were licking fingers but.

Keeping the second day of this already successful trip easy, we started late, had a nice spicy breakfast, looked around the small houses enroute tadipatri, built with kadapa black tiles, which also reminded me of houses in muraina, Madhya Pradesh, which are made of similar red tiles. we later reached hindupur, had an amazing lunch and then reached lepakshi temple, explored it leisurely and got back in bangalore about 6 easily!. (easy-vizy told ya!)

Route Map :

Below is the route we took. For the return trip, We took a took a diversion towards Hindupur to visit Lepakshi enroute bangalore, and were back in the city by evening 6.

The Place is easily accessible for a weekend trip, from Hyderabad and other cities as well.

View Larger Map

Trip Logistics :

This trip is easy to plan on your own. the best way to travel to these two places is 4 wheeler, hired or your own. however if you wish to motorbike, you can do so. for those who want to visit only Gandikota, there is a diversion from Tadipatri, the road leads you to the reservoir.

Its been two years since I visited the place, I am sure the APTDC Punnami Guest house and restaurant under construction at Gandikota then, must be up and running now. i.e. you must be having an option to stay there. Otherwise, The guest house at Belum Caves is best place to stay. the booking details for belam caves are avilable on APTDC website.

Best Time to Travel : October to Feb since the Belum Caves underground heats up to incredible high and can dry you off very quickly. the food items and water bottles are not allowed inside the cave. such however is not the case at Gandikota. but being in the open dry land, Summer must be avoided.

Responsible and Green Travel : Both the sites, Belum Caves, and Gandikota fort and canyon, including temples and mosque are protected by Archeological Society of India. Hence using the tripod is one thing not allowed at any of these sites. also I wouldn't ask you to tap or not tap to hear the sound coming from stalactite formation. The caves are well lit to see and admire different formations.

Word of Caution for Gandikota : as I mentioned in the blog, Gandikota is a bit dangerous, so be careful if you want to climb the boulders or you want to go down the gorges.

P.S. I am not posting any details about Lepakshi, here, will write another post for that.

Open Show Bangalore #7 Photos & Links

2012-01-09T23:59:00.001+05:30

Links to the OS#7 Jan 7th 2012, Presentations available online!

Abhinav Mathur - http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/77480826?access_key=key-14y1k13vowb2ytlvxh18
Clemence Barret - http://neighbourhooddiaries.wordpress.com/whitefield-films/
Madhusudan Atri - http://www.behance.net/gallery/Life-on-the-moon-Loneliness/2849537

Thanks to Jaaga.in for the space and arrangements. Thanks to the Presenters, Team and above all the people who showed up to the event despite all odds. Thank you very much again. See you all at the next open show...

Straight Lines : The Simplicity of Life

2012-01-09T04:05:00.003+05:30

Those in photography or any art business perhaps have lot of notions about how things should be done, the impact of the tools and their knowledge, being aware of the technology and implementation processes, plus lets say the tricks as well. but the golden rule remains the same everywhere, no matter what creative field you are in. thought process is undoubtedly the same. lets say for example coding is creative, or you think it is not. it is indeed immensely creative. its the repetition of the LOCs perhaps which makes it so boring, but I m sure people like me who do the coding know, if an interesting process it is some charm.

The what it is so different about photography. whats in the name of rules or tools? whats in the name of learning? in one statement if I have to conclude, its just the thought process which matters. it your own imagination, and how you perceive things. ultimately its nothing but bringing your inner thoughts out in a format which others could see, they could be dark or dull, or grungy or smooth perhaps.

About six to eight months back I fell madly in love with Polaroids. The next thing perhaps i was attracted to was filters. aka how to get the vintage effects. so I went on searching for 1970s instant cameras and experimenting with Polaroids and flares, but the fever is soon down, because photography was never about presets, ( with all respect to the "Instagram" users, I too use it now ), and well, I couldnt really get what i wanted out of a shady Nokia E71 phone camera ( I dint want to use my DSLR) so anyways, Bellandur Daily, or The Polaroid Project or The 365project was soon over.

You must be thinking why I brought this into discussion, I do have a reason. the motive behind bringing the tool part is I still believe in "the tool doesn't matter" philosophy and its idea which counts the most. but if it does make a bit of a difference, not iPhone4S, I do have a iPad2 now, and I am exploring the camera side of it. ( not the level of iPhone, but hey I got all apps) So I do expect to have presentable photograph in bright day light, with out the inconvenience of having to use my DSLR all the time and ofcourse the quick sharing as well. i.e. my idea is turned in to a photo and visible to everyone, in absolutely no time.

The Proof of which is This Project I posted on Behance today. Its been a long time since I ve been to my building terrace, it is indeed my favorite place, but I have been a couch potato for as long as six months. and the worst thing about being in the same surroundings like this, is killing your curiosity and making the unusual, the very usual. there is no newness, and absolutely no fresh flowing of ideas or thoughts. So well, my salute to those who deliver brilliant pictures from their kitchen, I got out today, to discover something new, just one thing, and shoot just one photograph to post on page 8 of 366, and voila I ended up shooting about 80 shots.

The bright afternoon sun rays, peeling the colors out of contrast objects and penetrating through the walls in to straight shadows, not only connected me to myself once again but also gave me the same old perspective to life, the simplicity, the direct, child like thinking, connecting dots to dots and building a clear path with out complexities. at that moment I wasn't bothered about if I had the SLR in my hands, or how I am going to put all these image together, or how to process or present, all what mattered was if I was connected to what i was seeing and if at all I as able to capture that.

this tiny grass flower was the last thing I found and shot. and this is actually when the philosophical me woke up to the idea, pure touch and simplicity. the link to the story story is - http://www.behance.net/gallery/Straight-Lines/2822873

however this dyptic represents of the final thought process. which I have presented in project366 page which is in here - http://project365photos2012.blogspot.com/2012/01/day-eight-me-my-shadow.html

PS - excuse my grammar, 4AM and a pack of emotions do that to me :) have a good day/night.

12 Faces of Cochin Carnival

2012-01-09T02:57:00.002+05:30

From Kathakali to Theyyam, from Onam to Gramam, art, folk and festivities is part of Kerala's culture. while the classical dances, ritual folk dance performances, martial arts etc, give glimpses of state's rich past, and how its still carrying on with the years old traditions, there are festivals like New Year Carnival in city of Kochi, which not only celebrates the past but by bringing the modernism home, turns in to the most colorful and joyous event for common people to take part in and begin their new year on a happy note.

A three hour long procession, beginning late afternoon on first day of every year, sees entire Cochin rushing in to fort kochi ground, to witness the celebration. those who take part, equally enjoy no matter, if they are dancing to classical tunes or of Shakira's. Though the female participation is restricted playing drums or other instrument, in groups its the male community who get to have the most fun in a huge cross dressers' rally where you can find guys dolled up as their favorite characters, be it famous mythological characters, or miss worlds or the superhit Hollywood movie characters. at the end its one community affair where having fun matters the most.

Those regular to my blog or flickr stream must be knowing I have been posting a few pictures from the carnival past one year on flickr. I attended the carnival last year i.e. Jan 1st 2011, almost ending my ten days long road trip with it. I have to say, I was lucky enough to be able to shoot, because my Camera gave up on me, just a the beginning and for a fraction of time, I literally thought, this event will be a gone case, but well, somehow it worked and rest of the things too, including getting a royal treatment from the participants.

Obviously I have tons of shots, which I'll keep posting in future, however, this is one set of photographs, of the most attractive faces in the rally, in my personal opinion. I love the intricate makeup, and the attachment to the past. the hindu mythology and the whole act surrounded with it.

here the link to the project - http://www.behance.net/gallery/12-Faces-of-Cochin-Carnival/2801359
reactions, and feedback most welcome...

Fete in Motion : The Korzok Festival Photo Story

2011-12-29T22:35:00.009+05:30

"Fete in Motion" is my very first iPad/iPhone project, which is an amalgamation of Digital SLR and Mobile Photography. the photographs featured in the story are, double shots, or "Shot of A Shot" i.e shot first using DSLR Canon 450D and then using iPad, and aren't a regular transitions but actually newly created shots, with totally different angles. I have not processed the original shots, also to create a single theme, all the photographs are shot using only one specific Hipsta lens, flash and film, each. The Idea was to blow the colors out a little more and provide a texture to the pictures already shot in motion blur, i.e the long exposure shots.

Korzok Festival or Korzok Gustor is annual mask dance festival celebrated near Tsomiriri Lake, The korzok Village in Changthang region of Ladakh. Sacred ceremony is held in Korzok Monastery and Colorful Mask dance is performed to enact the killing of the traitor king by the monk Padmasambhava. The story told is the story of victory of good over the evil. at the end of the festival an effigy is burnt symbolizing the end of all evil forces, in an event, villagers sing and dance outside the monastery in the evening marking the end of the 2 days celebrations.

The entire project with Photos and more details about the festival are available on Behance, here.

"Tomorrow I will fly" - Winged Migration ( Tour de' World )

2011-12-26T19:39:00.011+05:30

It was Christmas. Last night when I went to sleep after finishing three movies back-to-back, calling it the tour de "Water-Mountain and Plains", in the back of my mind, it was that same old thing, my only wish, to see the world, not just a city, not just some mountains or oceans, not a region, not a country, not a continent, but all of it. I don't wish for easy things or do I? perhaps the quickest God could've granted my wish, was by making me watch "Winged Migration", and all I can say is, Now I wish for my wish to be granted in real, even more...! ( God's in bigggggg trouble.)

How I came to hear about this movie, was by one of the sites listing it as a must watch for photography, and they certainly weren't wrong. it indeed is a visual delight, so much that, I couldn't help but get engrossed in each and every frame and pressing hash-command every next minute. but there is lot more to it. there is more than the promise of return. somehow it makes me feel that, human perhaps, is the cruelest and most selfish thing ever created by the God.

The film follows several species of migratory birds through seven continents and all weathers. the movie begins with a bird stuck in the net when released by a little boy joins the others and they take a long flight from their home and ends as they return back home in the spring. In this long journey, few gets injured, few get thrashed unknowingly, and few shot by us humans deliberately, few became the victim of industrial sludge, the pollutants that we are leaving in the name of development, the others of the rest of the predators. few meet their caged friends crying to get out and be free, few of them also witness the other side of human nature, the better side. they survive or not, they continue to fly.

With the birds, you fly miles form pole to pole, through the ocean, to the highest mountains and deserts, to places you can only imagine in dreams. its an emotional treat to see the birds fight through avalanches, storms and wild attacks. the little bird who's injured tries to fight the crab kinda creature attacking here finally becomes their food, a mother sees her little baby eaten in front of her by another bird, and cries...! the endurance that a flock of birds shows and how they keep moving on their hard paths makes me feel how tiny and petty a human being is, in front of these flying little things. of course we envy them, they got wings!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

(few screen shots for ref., don't really do justice to what you see on the screen, so watch the movie instead!)

Something that stuns, yet made with such simplicity is truly remarkable in its own right. I haven't seen anything like this before. while a part of me is engaged with the birds, their tragic and fun moments, other part of me gets totally engrossed b whats going on behind as they music flows. I wish something like this is made again and I become a part of that. how incredibly lucky of me, that would be.

If you've not watched this one yet, please do soon, I believe its something everyone should see, and take a wild ride to this world, perhaps to dream high, or to learn humanity. we are nothing, we have not created this world, we are just a part, like any other living being, we have no rights to ruin it for others. and for what we have done, we perhaps have no rights to complain about whats happening to us either or do we?

PS. I have no idea how the movie has been shot, domestication of the birds, or staging a few scene. for now, I would just hope, the point made in the movie is not doing the same thing all over again!

There are so many lines I can quote from this movie, but I'd leave you with this one.

To be by your side

Across the oceans Across the seas, Over forests of blackened trees.
Through valleys so still we dare not breathe, To be by your side.

Over the shifting desert plains, Across mountains all in flames.
Through howling winds and driving rains, To be by your side.

Every mile and every year for every one a little tear.
I cannot explain this, Dear, I will not even try.

For I know one thing, Love comes on a wing and tonight I will be by your side.
But tomorrow I will fly away, Love rises with the day and tonight I may be by your side.
But tomorrow I will fly, Tomorrow I will fly, Tomorrow I will fly.

Adieus 2011

2011-12-23T03:31:00.015+05:30

Every new year brings something new, this year though went much in hibernation, I learned a lot about myself and the world around me. so Thank you 2011.

Unlike previous years when I have been updating this page and my readers about my adventures and travels and tons of other things I did, this time, I have pretty much nothing new to add to my checklist. I haven't trekked, ( Lets call Balekallu Gudda nothing!) I haven't photographed much ( barring the Jan 1st shoot in Cochin, kerala and the Commercial shoots I have been doing) in comparison to previous year, I couldn't climb himalayas, nor did I make the best out of society and people around me, instead what I did was I got rid of THE facebook. Reason, Lets just say I couldnt handle it. and Oh! I 've been absconding from here as well. so well! whatever explaining I gotta do, here are those tit-bits.

[ My E-absence] or [Facebook Absence]

So first and foremost, here is my Status update. I am no longer on facebook, I deactivated my account in early August, which I believe also deleted my Photography Page and my profile as well. Until a few days back I thought of retrieving my contacts through Trillion app which perhaps in return, activated my profile and I figured you folks can see me now.

[Twitter it is]

Yes, Twitter is my new best friend, I am now using my twitter (handle @poonamparihar) account, (on/off, dont want to get addicted AGAIN...) and tweets are updated to my facebook and g+ profile. I do not plan to use any of these services on regular basis, until i have an assistant, 24x7 at my disposal ;) well may be once in a while, so please get in touch with me on twitter or here or through same old mail of course. however, I am available on Facebook CHAT on trillion to whomever is added in my profile list. ( Sadly I couldn't retrieve contacts on my page, or can I, I really don't know)

[Photography Updates]

The Website page is also up and running for a while now. Flickr is doing good. I hope to shoot something new and bring some freshness to the page, Ladakh is overdone don't you think?

Also, Blurb ( the photobooks - JOTSR) , Behance Projects and 500px, including a Posterous page which only contains interior, architecture shoots I am doing for Airbnb currently, feature some of my work and will continue to be updated along with the blog. Hopefully there is more to look forwarded to in next year in this front. shall i put a target of a TB worth of images? ;) who knows.

[Published Work]

A good year in that front, few articles and photos in Print plus a 40 page Blurb publication, which definitely opens up new venues for the bigger projects I was hoping for. what to be happy about is that, it was for a good cause. But wont brag much, looking forward for some better work, aiming to make a difference towards a better world.

[Pending Posts]

I have been a big liar, I know. I 'vent posted much in past one year. there are tons of pending travel posts and my shoulders are hurting really. can I say I promise, Hopefully 2012. crossing my fingers. Also I do have couple of ideas, I would like to implement here. look forward to a real make-over and lot of surprises. I am excited.

[Open Show]

Not only as an organizer -producer, but as an Artist, Open Show has been one of my biggest achievement in this otherwise stalest year of my life. Open Show Bangalore, as a concept and a platform, has been received so well by the Photography Community and the art lovers in the City and I and The Team can't thank you people enough for being so supported and encouraging. We did 6 shows in 2011 and had some of the most interesting work presented, I personally learned a lot from. I wish to write a report soon, till then hoping to have another great year with Open Show!

( Also we have very first Open Show of 2012 on Jan 7th @Jaaga, Do Submit, Be there. Meet Me!)

[ Books and Movies ...and Music ( Kinda missed that out]

Now, this is something a normal me, don't relate to, you might think. Well, I am an outdoor person, I havent' had much connection to the books except my coursebooks and movies except those on cable TV, yes! but me on house arrest, and on a self-imposed ban from online-life one would possibly reach things which can connect me to where else but the wild. Like you understood, I have been reading and watching lots of adventure classics lately and I have been enjoying 'em thoroughly too. I also got in to loads of soundtracks, whereas earlier I used to listen to only classics, now that has been such a refreshing change. I had been hollywood struck too this year, for the first time in my life...no no..I m not gonna tell you who they are ;) :P well, put these all together, and perhaps this pretty much jot down the best reasons I wouldn't say I wasted a year not getting out into the wild and that I look forward to 2012 with a smile on my face...!

bottom line is, Making me happy, not a tough task really :)

Jewels of The Silk Route : The Book

2011-12-05T12:49:00.001+05:30

Travel brings awareness, it brings experiences, knowledge and it also helps you connect better. It makes you more human.

India is lucky, we have tigers, cobra and elephants and what not. but we are ignorant people, we dont preserve what we got or do we?

Bactrian Camels also known Double-Humped Camels of Cold Desert, are found in Central Asia, mainly in Gobi Desert, Parts of China, Mongolia, Afganistan and India. Used as the Divine Vehicle by the Traders of famous Ancient Silk Route, the Bactrian Camels are now on the verge of extinction, and are declared EDGE species i.e. one of the critically endangered species. There are only 500 Bactrian camels left in the world and in India they are only found in Nubra Valley where the number is just 25 as on June 2010, 20 less than the number in 1984, Not sure or may be less in Dec 2011 unfortunately

Most of them are baby camels, who are also victim of wild boars and wolfs who take them, bactrian camels not only in india but world wide are another engangered species along with snow leopard, donkey, tigers and many more. In Nubra these camels are domesticated and are used for Camel Safari in the Summer. With the growth in tourism in Nubra, this seems to be the only way for survival for these animals as owners are now seeing them as new source of income. These Animals, like all other species need to be preserved and take care of. The world need to be aware of their situation which unfortunately is not so great in China or anywhere else they have a home either. they are victim of hunting as well.

Isn't it out responsibility to save them.. or are they just good for a joy ride? remember out grandkids might not be lucky enough to have that joyride either!

This book though a bit late, is a little effort from my side to help create awareness about these beautiful creatures in need of our help, Please spread the word anyway you can. here is a little preview of the book from blurb.

Jewels of The Silk Route by Poonam Parihar | Make Your Own Book

Though nothing does justice to photography but print. the book is also made available in ebook format for an easy download and share.Thanks! xo.

About Photography - This is my very first book publishing experience, I would love to have feedback, criticism from you all, which can help me improve. Thank you.

There are few UNSEEN pictures from the book on Behance photo project as well. Please have a look.

Thank to you all, for your time and dedication. I would cover the part of my being on hiatus in another post. Thank you thank you... much love.

P.S. Also if you are an NGO or In case you come across any NGO working for animal welfare, Please ask them to get in touch with me, I'd be happy to give them the rights to sell the book or individual photographs if that can get some funds to help these creatures.

Ladakhi Kids - New Set on Flickr

2011-11-17T19:15:00.006+05:30

I am taking my break. With a radiator, I woudn't move!

2011-11-17T13:41:00.000+05:30

Year 2010 - A Recap

2011-10-31T22:54:00.000+05:30

So this is how 2010 was supposed to start. Me, my partner in crime Pavan ( if trekking is crime for some), Dinesh, and Shilpa, sitting in Captain's Shack at Baga Beach, Goa, having limited food, and unlimited fun. Its happened as we walked from Calangute to Baga, after much shopping and eating appams, everyone ran out of money. and there were no ATMs in Baga, and fortunately, I found 1000 bucks hidden somewhere in my Bag with few hundreds in my purse. We decided not to go back to calangute, and manage with just a check of a thousand. :P LOL

But yes, we enjoyed that limited food and drinks with the glittered sky, awesome music, crazy waves and the lunar eclipse ofcourse, along with the an unforgettable scene right from the movie "Troy" where 100s of people were lying on the beach almost dead, as if the day war was ended, and I was hell scared to walk from Baga to Calangute at 2AM almost hitting the unconscious and dead-alike people who were drank and had no idea where the hell they were on that beach and that time of the night. Well, This is what is called GOA.

That was the closure to the 10-11 days Goa Biking (read Bicycling) Expedition with YHAI, from which we took a little time off to visit rest of the places. as the expedition was over on 30th of December.

Tonnurkere was our next trip in Jan 2010. A long drive to a 200acres spread gorgeous blue lake in Pandavpura Near Mandya, Bangalore. We (Trekmaniax) decided to drive two cars to the lake on a republic day evening, night camp by the lake side, some kayaking or boating and of course swimming in the lake. guess what, the boat we took did not inflate for whatever reason, but we swam with our life jackets on, to the middle of the lake and back, a KM that must be, played in water, climbed the rocks.. and had awesome fun. there couldn't have been a better start of the trips in 2010, loved every moment of the trip, this much as I would hope to start this year also with tonnurkere ( what say maniax? shall we? )

So agumbe, was what we had started the trekmaniax google group with. agumbe i.e. the Narsimha Parvata trek, which is famous for Naxalites activities and king cobras. too much rain or was it then Andhra CM YSR reddy's accident, somehow it dint work
out and we did it in feb end of 2010. the sunrise from the peak was something to die for and we had fun at sirimane falls and at the pilgrimage sringeri. only regret, it was a bit dry and sorry..no king kobra :-/ couple of folks went recently, and they did spot baby king cobra and few other snakes. sob sob :((

gandikota-belam caves should be trekmaniax 2010 biggest find, in terms of how many people we sent to this place after our visit. Pavan first found Niranjan's stream on flickr and the plan was immediately ON. 6 of us made it in a cab to Belam Caves and the Gandikota ( which if we call the Grand Canyon of India, would be nothing wrong ) in march 2010. i still take pride in finding the canyons around the fort first, LOL and I remember jumping with joy and shouting out maniax's names, its here its here. come fast. :P

this also marked our very first trip to Andhra Pradesh. Since march I have got several request to plan for another trip and I am still working on it.. :( lazy me.. :-/

So Niranjan when saw my gandikota photographs suggested me to make a visit to Shettihalli, I was already impressed by the details floating around on net, and when Niranjan suggested it, I was sure its got something interesting for me, and I sure was not disappointed. 4 of us made a day trip to shettihalli, hassan, in Sudhakar's car, reached there around 4 PM and stayed till sunset. it was on peaceful, green space, one could just go an relax. and the honey colored church ruins for exotic enough to shoot. I am still planning another shoot here.. this time a bit different ( but more emphasis .."still planning " :-/ thats me for you )

So My Gurudev aka Anoop Negi arrives in bangalore and three of us, head out to mysore road in Pooja's car. I had been to ramanagaram, and climbed the hill before, but none of Pooja and Gurudev had been there before, so though we had decided to go shoot Janapadaloka, we take a right towards the temple and ramanagaram hill. upon reaching the temple stairs, we found these kids who were dancing, posing and doing what not that we couldn't help but shoot.. it was so much fun to be in their company that we chucked the rest of the plan spent a good enough time at the temple with the kids, had our late lunch at kamath (i hated it) and came back to bangalore.. now striked the tragedy.. once in my lifetime, I pressed format button wrongly. and then I waited till now almost to get those photos retrieved but I couldnt'. sadly while on my south india road trip, I used that 16GB card to the full. so the photos are gone. but I am hoping, gurudev is keeping his shots safe. so you'll see those kids from his eyes sometime in future. sigh!!!

Hmm.. did I say that I left my job around this time. I was tired. coming back from office everyday with a headache. every third day I had fever and I never wanted to see my office building. so when my manager refused sabbaticals I ditched the job. and now I had lot of free time, except relaxing and improving my health. I decided to take a few rounds around bangalore and do some shoots. Me and Sandesh went to pottery town, Sultanpet, butterfly park, bangalore fort, and summer palace etc to do some shooting. we even woke up early one fine day and went to city market with Bangalore weekend shoots members. ( waking up early...very rare of me)

Oh BTW did I miss Kumar Parvata somewhere? ok that was exactly the on the last day of my JOB. the very hot Kumar Parvata in April was not at its best behavior and we got sunburns like anything, but it still was gorgeous, specially the shesh parvata. loved that place..and ofcourse it was a beautiful sunset there, one to remember.

Getting back to the future aka that time's future Chris Pfeiffer arrived in Bangalore for the red bull event, and I couldnt stop myself for going there. I remember I was planning to take some purple lotus shots sometime then so I went to lalbagh and went to kanteerava stadium from there. It was a great event, and specially that I got the standing space right on the media dice, it turned out fun shooting, and rooting for chris. incase you wondering what was the event.. well it was about bike stunts.. and Chris was on his India tour (first one ..umm I guess so)

Now well, I am a bit lost here, did I go to Delhi twice in April-May time, I dont remember, I go to Delhi, and I meet these Delhi Photography groups, Photosplendours, and Dpeg and i go for two photo walks. One was Mehrauli Archeological park and another was the Old fort of Tuglaq. Delhi is where I was born, though after shifting to ghaziabad, that much is the only Delhite I am, i.e. to be born there, and since I have just started photography in April 2009 or so, I had not shot Delhi at all but more than that or anything else I remember cribbing about Delhi Sky then, as It was so hazy that my plans to shoot Delhi monuments or letsay anything was completely gone for a toss. next time, I said.. and thats how it is till now ..next time.

Well June-JUly 2010 would be remembered for years to come, as I went for my first solo one month long trip to a place, I only heard about and not even dreamt to be. yea, you here it right, Khardungla a name I heard in Nov 2009 when I accidentally ended up watching a national geographic documentary about Altitude sickness (AMS) at khardungla. when the whole thing started, there were 7 of us interested in doing Ladakh. but when I got on the plane it was just me and thankfully my phone which I used for regular sms, and updating twitter/facebook heavily. ( ok so now its a trend :P guess people liked the updates and followed too, well m glad as there were lot of times I felt lonely and needed some company)

So More of Ladakh to come still, but one thing I really wonder still, I am not sure how I did it. I still feel I dont have that much strength to just wander around alone in some strange places, but I did it and rest is history.

I spent good enough time in delhi after coming back from Ladakh and then I came back to bangalore. I must have been wondering what to shoot and what not. where to go and where not, and then I was introduced to YPS the youth photography society of bangalore. and I made to a trip to Bandipur National Park with them. My very first wild life safari trip and whoa, I spotted a tiger. couldn't have been a better birthday gift when I knew spotting a tiger in Bandipur is sheer luck. Seeing a wild tusker peeling off his bamboo stick so meticulously was ice on the cake. I realized I do enjoy wild life. and But I need more equipments .. thankfully both tiger and tusker are well caught in 11-200 range, the one which i own :P Lucky me ;-))

Alright so lets count how many treks in this year. oops its just two. there were no trip of trekmaniax organised in this time period. I was wondering around alone and pavan was busy with his new job. so finally we got together and made a trekking trip to Bramhagiri, another memorable one, though some memories around this time are sour enough to even remember. but well. trek was great. and I missed getting a good massage in irupu falls. :(

most of the folks must be knowing, I was planning the shoot Onam in August, and Thanks to my friend Anish, the plans were all in vain. now the next attempt was to shoot Theyyam which happens in kannur, and kasargode, the latter i never want to visit for some personal reasons. so I decided to do kannur, in november, and I was promised by anish, that this time he'd be available, but he ditched me again. and I kept wondering, if I had enough of going solo.. this year, I dont want to go alone and shoot theyyam at night :P guess I was a bit scared too having heard that its a ritual dance, and also that its kinda aggressive.

I took the best bet I decided to go for a day trip ( just a day in kannur) and attend the lady theyyam which only happens once in a year. finally Anish showed some mercy and introduced me to his local friend Praveen, who took me to the place and was a great company. I came to know that this is the last theyyam by Laxmi amma, the lady performer and the next theyyam is gonna happen only in 2015. more reason to feel pleased about the decision of doing a day trip and well now I know 2 people there and also have idea about the place to go and do more shoots sometime.

finally comes the shut down period and if everyone is going for a holiday, whether your working or not, you too feel like going for one, I had brought my car from delhi to bangalore and I was really looking forward to do some long drives and finally the plan of doing a South India Road Trip worked out, I went on the road on Christmas even, with 3 maniacs from my group. we explored every tit bit of tamilnadu, had a crazy time in kerala at Cochin carnival and got back to bangalore in the new year on Jan 2nd evening. the drive turned out to be around 2350kms in total and I became a proud solo driver. LOL. was it fun.... yes it was.. but I guess I realized photography and long drives dont go well together. so we are having more drives in 2011 but maniax, we need more highway drivers.

This does look like one crazy post.. and if you've read it all, you've done a great job.. hats off.. there are lot of incomplete accounts I need to finish both from 2010 and 2009. well I dont know how 2011 going to be in real, but in reel, i.e the blog reel you gonna see and read a lot.. so get set.. we are just getting started here.. chao.

"You can view my pics on Black on FluidR, n track me on Facebook, Twitter, & Blog "
{ Poonam Parihar's Flickr photos by Poonam Parihar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. }

Cascading Amazement - Dudhsagar falls Trekking Adventure, My Article Published in GoAir Inflight Magazine Jan 2011 Issue

2011-09-29T18:41:00.000+05:30

My debut article in Goair Inflight Magazine Go-getter, in its Go-adventure section, published Jan 2011.. do check out print edition if your traveling with GoAir Airline this month. you can read it online here....(feel free to share)

Cascading Amazement - Go Adeventure

PS thanks to my friend Benjamin for the photographs.

City Market, Bangalore - A Mini Photo Shoot & A Morning, Worth an Early Wake-up

2011-09-27T02:00:00.000+05:30

Locally known as City Market, KR Market, is a century old, and is one of the oldest wholesale markets in Bangalore. Tightly packed with mass selling and buying almost everything from flowers to vegetables, fruits/dry fruits and anything in the world you might use in your daily lives, This market in Chickpet area of Bangalore, wakes up as early as 5 to 6 AM, and soon while the dawn breaks, you can find the riots of colors scattered around all over the streets, and with that increases the hustle-bustle of the traffic, which could be consisting of anything from overwhelmed people, to peddlers to rickshaws and thelas to our modern days vehicles fitted with heavy horse-engine-power.

Soon that it wakes up, sooner is that it goes back to sleep again, or should I say that should specifically be applicable to the streets selling fresh flowers and vegies. that is when the sun brightens up and streets get heated, people get off the street and who I am guessing, get back to their respective place, only by the evening.

From Koramangala in south bangalore, to City market, in North Bangalore, for me its like a time-travel to good old Bangalore. A city which is busted with Shopping malls, and other fancy food outlets, City Market reminded me of the same old Ghaziabad Ghantaghar market, which after 25 years still looks and feels the same.

Waking up early morning, is not my cup of tea, no matter how much I try to persuade myself, something or the other brings me back the sleep and if I don't, the day gets full of not so charming aftermaths of lack of long hours sleep and/or dreams. Since last few weeks I have been trying to cover a few places, specially markets in bangalore, for which the only good time to shoot is in the mornings, but have not been able to just all because, I 've not been able to get up early.

Another hinderance in shooting markets for me, is the shyness I still abode, Well, I don't know, if folks around me would believe it, but thats so true, Its very difficult for me to be alone and shoot in the market etc areas. so when Peevee planned for a morning shoot with Lakshmi, i hoped in, and as energetic as he' is, He woke me up in the morning, so however late for a half of an hour, but I and Sandesh, made it to City Market, by 7AM finding Raghu, Ranjit, Peevee and Lakshmi already busy shooting in, the flower Market.

We browsed through the flowers selling street, to an old multiple story building, pretty much looking like an old mall, inside which is home to many shops selling steels, plastic home carrys', to vermilions of different colors and street sellers making fresh flower garlands, which I believe, are ready to be exported to various parts and places in Bangalore.

Entire shoot was good fun, with Raghu finding a flower-lady on the streets, and handing over her B&W portrait, he clicked an year back, Peevee looking for the morning news-paper copy for the shoot@sight article, and the ghostly jump as the ritual at the end of the shoot. oh FYI, Raghu is going again, as the flower lady has demanded him a colored copy of her portrait ! ;-)

PS. I am yet to explore the corner areas of this Market, so hopefully few more visits and shoots and blog posts, in this series, and also on Tipu Palace and Bangalore fort, the two historical places nearby, which I visited 2 weeks back.

My Top 10 Trekking Moments ( In no order )

2011-09-11T22:54:00.000+05:30

So its been close to 2 months since I have trekked last. though not so much time, a self imposed ban makes me miss trekking even more. I am not really a veteran trekker and not a hardcore (if fast and furious are those who feature in this category) but I manage all the time, like a tortoise, as mostly I reach the peak when rest of the group is done with their photo shoot from every nook and corner and every single angle possible. huh.. anyways, thats not the only memory, I think every trek has been a memorable one for some reason or the other but few I would remember as really high moments of my trekking life. here is a small recap post of ten experiences, which I would like to read after 10 years as some of the best/worst ( I really can't define) memories of treks.

10. Ombattu Gudda monkey climbs and walking in an out of the river almost all night.

Ombattu Gudda, is probably the toughest trek i have ever done. now ask me why! I havent' done any trek where I have to trek for 14 hours a day for two days, not even roopkund himalaya. now walking for 14 hours wouldn't have been that difficult but walking on rocks in the river and than in the bamboo jungles on the streams side and jumping in the water again, climbing the rocks and then going back in to woods, what was that ? crazy I guess. then I sleep in wet clothes in wet tarpaulin sheets entire night. next morning I climb like a monkey holding small plant on a mountain of 80 degree slope. this wasn't enough, my pants were all torn, there was no place to change, and I was literally hiding myself with my camera bags and backpacks.. most embarrassing situation ever. then the wounds i had got in ankles from roopkund trek were open again, My feet and my legs were swollen I was not able to walk and I was made to run for my life. hadn't it been pavan around, I guess I were literally dead on one of those nine hills. It took me 10 days of bed rest to get back on my feet, and then learning about the silly thoughts of few silly CTC members who thought I was a queen or acted like one ( how funny).. was a total turn off for me. Guess I really want to do venketeshwara sometime in future, but I dont think I need to die to prove I can be a true CTCian :P Like Ombattu Gudda, I sure wouldn't.

P.S. I dint even carry my camera, even if I could have, you wouldn't have seen any picture and it would have been dead.. glad I dint.

9. Narsimha Parvat Sunrise

After a bad experience, now lets remember a good one. its totally a matter of luck that you see a epic sunrise like this, and I sure was lucky. it was a chilly night, we hadn't had a "nice" sunset either, so 5:30 in the morning when we woke up and ran to the edge of the hill, little that we expected a scene like this. as I remember writing the slices of thin white clouds were turning my imagination on..

and I dont remember what all I was imagining, several stegosaurus dinosaurs relaxing together, many small hills, some rivers flowing .. dont remember what all. All I remember I was hooked. I think none of us left the place until sun rose completly and clouds were all gone.

8. Tadiyandmole peak

Its simply impossible to forget how beautiful it was a 7:30 in the morning at the small peak of Tadiyanmole, The third highest peak of Karnataka. It was my first climb too. and I frankly had no Idea what to expect from Trekking. but this scene ( which captures just a fraction of the beauty of the mountains around and the valley ) which is shot by my Nokia E71 mobile phone, answered all my question. I think this was very much what inspired me to trek and photograph as well. and well I guess I am forever hooked.

7. Tadiyandmole Camping

haha.. I have to mention this small incident in particular. at any point of time, I can go back all my emotions, of shock and surprise and anger and what all, when I was asked out for a small night trek. LOL. I have no idea how wild my imagination ran that time. I think my thoughts dint settle for few days. It was such a trauma but sadly I let the opportunity go, ah, how much I miss having a short night trek date.. lol

6. kodai-munnar bus rides

Well to all those who plan to do Kodai-Munnar trek, please check that one photo on my trek post of the guide whom we hired, remember his face, and don't you ever ever hir him. Oh God! the trouble you take today for n reasons, makes you laugh at your experiences in future like I am remembering what happened. Now I can't even say that he ruined our trek by taking us to a different path, delaying us for a day, and as such that we had to take 5 buses to reach back to bangalore. It was a crazy crazy night from Munnar to Bangalore, changing buses, waiting for buses, hanging in the buses, listening to disco rides and i dont know what all loud music and of course no one reached office that monday. last I remember we were discussing various excuses to give to our bosses while sitting in one of the restaurant in Salem 8 am on Monday morning.

5. getting drowned in meenmutty falls

Thats probably the only accident I had in my life ( Apart from meeting wrong people which are major accidents), A water accident, in a deep deep pool, with no swimming knowledge whatsoever, few people trying to be heroes and save the girl, few making fun enjoying standing outside, few cursing me for sitting on a slippery rock and few getting shocked of me coming out of water fully conscious with no litre of water in my belly. quite enchanting, and my basic motivation of learning to swim and keeping my life thread in my own hands. wow.

4. Rain in Chembra peak

This was the day before the above, and this isn't that extraordinarily special types like the above experiences have been. but unique in every way. It had already started raining when we were at the Chembra Peak Wayanad, and as we were getting down, it went stronger and stronger and simply dint stop till we reached at the so called guest house. I don't remember the count of how many times I slipped but how the raindrop pinched like thousands of needles piercing your body at the same time. I think drowning was the only thing left which apparently happened on the second day. but before that I need to mention the jeep ride back to the town, rainbows and white cotton clouds floating through the tea estate. I dont think I can ever forget.

3. Harsha getting lost in Bramhagiri Jungle.

This had to be the longest "lost" episode I have ever watched. Live.. Yes.. Well. no I am not talking about the HBO series ( its HBO right? ) I am talking about the episode which happened to be the most interesting part except leeches, of the Bramhargiri Trek last September. The veteran trekker and the leader of all who was in bramhagiri 2 times before, was lost in the jungle and had decided not to get out but scaring away the only deer and sambars out in that jungle on Kerala-Karnataka border. Most of the trekkers were ahead and its just 3-4 of us left behind with one lost inside the little forest (or was it big), and I was constantly shouting my lungs out thinking a high pitch voice travels more the distance, and he'd probably hear me. which he chose not to respond to. people so enjoy calling out their own and lovers names specially and I think it was self imposed punishment for me. Now i think why did I do that I should have left that ******* there, lost in that jungle only. would have been more a pleasure. :P
He would have anyways gotten out by himself. :-/
Umm I am just kidding..Sadly, I am too good a human being.

2. walking alone for hours from bhaguwasa to bedni bugyal

This is for people who think I love to walk alone. let me tell you folks, I do not. I do not enjoy being left alone, while everyone else just cruises away, I do not enjoy being the last one to reach the peak or the base and missing out on the group photos. But I do like taking my own sweet time enjoying the beauty around me rather than rushing and trying to be first one to reach and later tell the story that Oh I was ahead of all. I guess I am fine with the speed I am capable of and stretching only up to the point that group is not delayed because of me. gladly it never happened. but again here is the truth.. I am dead scared of walking alone.

and I think it was a nightmare walking in hailstorm from kaluvinayak to Bedni Bugyal. its like your dying and your whole life is playing in pictures, in front your eyes. yup pretty much the 127hours sort. I am just not in pain and stuck. I was rather moving slowly on a thin trail crossing one mountain after the other. from why to how I remember asking me every single question, Why am I doing it...what was the need, what I am getting out of it.. almost all I could think I remember asking me there. at one point of time. I do remember Deepak and Smita walking in yellow rainponchos like 2km ahead of me, and me thinking and crying out. I remember the thunders and I remember looking back and front of me and finding no living being around.. Ah.. this can get to you.. it really can!! but I am me.. still have not learned my lessons :-/

1. sipping hot tea sitting on rock at galikere

Wow. This is the end of the post and this is my most favorite one. guess what, this is something I had never seen before in my life and this is the only one in this whole entire list, which I would like to repeat LOL yes, sitting in Galikere overlooking the ocean of clouds and sipping my favorite chai. this experience can only be bettered in one way and that is to carry a red-label tea pack , a good-life Milk pack and some ginger, which is my ingredients of the best tea in the world. and I am happy sitting on the clouds feeling like a real miss world.. ;-)

Open Show Bangalore #4 Photos and Videos

2011-07-24T01:08:00.006+05:30

Open Show #4 Bangalore hosted by photoindia.com

Presenters:
Nishant Ratnakar - Fistful of dreams
Arati Rao - Faces of resistance
Kshitiz Anand - Dadi
Shreyasi Kar -ALTlab Experiments
Arun Bhat - Chadar Trek

Photos: couple of shots from Bangalore Open Show #4 Edition, will add more as I get. feel free to share.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Videos :-
Part of Altlab presentation by Shreyasi kar ( A presentation on revival of original practices in photography, please find more details at http://www.goa-cap.com) and also the QA session. will update the page with more videos as I get them in this post and also flickr.

Please note, the video is just a trial and uploaded on request for reference, we plan to record them better, and put across entire show online for folks who have missed it for multiple reasons, and for those who would like to use 'em for reference for their story submission.

Volunteers (locals from bangalore) who'd like to help in this activity, please reach me at openshowbglre@gmail.com

The Polaroid Projeqt

2011-06-10T19:16:00.008+05:30

Some of you might remember me posting a few photographs with polaroid effects sometime back. The so called vintage fever in the winters is back in summer ( did i say summer when its monsoon in bangalore :) ) and its here to stay.

( crossing my fingers, I 've this habit of getting bored of same thing after sometime) There is just a little of history I would like to share, and that is, after months of not touching camera, I wanted to start shooting daily. obviously as I am not traveling anywhere right now, I had to find the subjects around me. tiny, ignored, sometime unattractive, everyday subjects we are used to of seeing everyday to the usual and unusual scenes but again from the daily life. As bangalore weather had turned awesome for few weeks, and I was witnessing beautifully textured and colorful clouds every day, I first thought of doing a cloud project and soon realized, it might get a bit monotonous for a person like me who needs variety.

The Idea of doing polaroid came, when I figured, I can't run around carrying DSLR in my hands, besides I am not going anywhere these days except Home and Clubhouse, neither I can spend time shooting with SLR and later processing with PhotoShop or anything else. besides I wanted to reduce the part that the technical parameters play in a photograph and focus solely on the subjects and the compositions. Hence the polaroid.

Well just to clarify, I do not own a Polaroid camera yet, though I feel I am going to soon, for now, I am using my Nokia E71 phone, which is about to die, ( may be SLR sometimes if I had it handy.. basically camera doesn't matter) and clicking everyday things like a novice. I'd later be using free softwares to create some polaroid effect.

From whatever I have seen and shot in last few days, there is no limitations to the subjects, a polaroid can capture a small pencil in a such a way, an digital camera can never do . while clicking landscape I do check out every single detail in all parts of photograph, but its the big picture for me that matters the most there. here I am trying to find a big picture in a subject, I never looked at with so much interest before. So here I want to go a little more towards the -X axis and try being minimalist ( not macro )

Since this is a daily photo upload and part of experimentation, I am introducing a new photo blog, and would like to keep it going as long as possible. ( this has been the reason I have renamed it from "Bellandur Daily" which was based around the area I live in, to a generic title "The Polaroid Project", I shall update the URL soon to make it a part of poonamparihar.com) also If I haven't said this before, this is more to keep my interest going in photography and try learning something different, since nature of this project is highly experimental, I would request everyone who follows my work to keep their expectations low. do critique and provide feedback as much as possible, Let see how it turns out , hope we can all learn and share something new from this.

P.S. One of the thing I forgot to mention, its all about Square frames. :)

South India Coastal Drive Travelogue Series: Why should I be writing it if at all?

2011-05-31T04:03:00.004+05:30

I have been reading a lot lately. specially the arguments, critiques, supporting defending sort of articles. as a break I decided to start with my first post including the plan and a little history before the trip. While I was writing it, something made me stop and think. Why am I writing the whole entire story about how I come up with this trip plan, is the background necessary? am I committing a crime of overloading information on readers? am I giving too much emphasis on how and what triggers a trip? after all, that varies from people to people. am I trying to influence you to make the same trip as I did? well that could be true, but what am I gaining from that after all?

Blogs are simple pleasure writing, sharing experiences lest the money and respect and popularity or what-so-ever more you could earn from showing it off. I find it really difficult to pen down a passage if I m forced to do so for example last time i was asked to write for a magazine, I realized it wasn't as much fun as it is to write the blogs. since One doesn't need to follow certain objectives or let say no one is questioning you're flow of words. more to it.. No one is chopping it off so that 'crap' you add in the middle in the name of your flow of emotions just for example, remains intact. having said that then whole objective of writing a travel blog is what if not that? I mean if one is research oriented and knows how to google, can easily figure out the few info you need to reach her destination with out going through 500 words written about someone else's personal life.

I remember writing description on one of my flickr photos, where I stated that all experiences are different, and everyone perceive the very same thing in different way. so while all of those writers who are writing a travel article ( sticking to only one form of writing), even if their style is similar, even if they are sticking to certain code of writing, i.e. the must written info, or the details about the place, the typical road map or what to see etc, they might end-up with something different from the others. Now what could possibly influence the readers the most, is how your experience in its entirety can connect to 'em.

Did you notice the word 'influence'. Yes, I had been saving this for last, because, this is all I want to talk about. In practically all situations you come across in your daily life, you are influenced by something or some one or do take the plural of it. so is true with reading as well. how long you remain influence, or how much, i.e. the force is what makes much of the difference. When I write something, I am not actually writing but talking to myself. its like pictures running in my brain..one after the other..( yes its a slideshow of both videos and photographs with lot more added) and all i am trying to do is to type the thought running in my mind nonstop. this is specially true with the trips, because until I go back in time and do a google cast I probably will not be able to put through those things happened in the past and most importantly not even I, myself will be able to visualize the whole story If I come back and read, what I wrote' later.

So yes, I am sharing a part of my life, for one or all above reasons, which in turn can either trigger you to do so yourself or perhaps just remain as the form of entertainment or if time-pass is the prefect word to mix certain level of cruelty with pun intended.. whatever be the case. "sharing is sexy" as those sharing button people call it. and since its a blog, its totally up to the writer what he wants, to influence people, to entertain 'em or just wants to help 'em out with his/her words of wisdom.

So writing all this, most certainly has helped me to find out my objective to write next ten thousand words ( Ah...don't worry that would be the entire series utmost, not this one post) from this post, my plan is to influence you hypnotize you, sit in your head and force you to make a trip to this part of india do it the way I did. and while you travel, I am virtually traveling with you. No No ... Thats not really my plan. it is just the logically opposite of what I stated and that is to make you part of a trip which you never went on to. make you travel along with me and make you experience what I have had, if not all a little inspiration would do for sure. :)

Many of you would or would not have thought of a coastal drive to South India. which is one of typical cases of travel ambitions You have heard of it, You want to go. You heard of it, never thought of going there, and third, and last but not the least, that you never heard about it. ask me, I never negated the possibilities but I never thought of going there, I mean what was there? I never explored and thats precisely the case of Exploring the unexplored for me. The Idea still wasn't mine. One of my trekking friend was planning for a biking (cycling) trip along the coastal lines of Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Goa and when gave that a deep thought to the possibility of the trip, which is pretty much like dreaming or imagining about it. I felt it was a great idea and felt like I should be part of it too.

This was sometime in november-december 2010, when Satya was planning the trip and when for some reasons, not from my end, I could not be part of the trip, I was disappointed. after all I had sacrificed the opportunity of being the official photographer and going for a free ride of, TFN Niligiri Biking expedition, and Some Kannur trips for Special Theyyam to top the rest of all. meanwhile the idea of this trip kept making rounds and rounds in my mind for another few weeks, and as obvious as it sound, I had by far researched and memorized entire google map down-below bangalore. ( Yes, that is the perfect example of how nutty I can get about things)

Well, So I wont give much credit to anyone except me for finding out what I want to see where I wanna go and How and all, the funniest part is, I was doing all the search and stuff, while I had no idea of this trip being materialized soon, but I love to explore and so what if its on the internet only. I was watering the idea of me making this trip in future. as it later happened, Since I had brought my car from delhi, and few trekmaniax members seemed interested making it an year end trip. I called upon friends and asked for opinions about places and routes and what I should not miss things.. I am not sure if Lonely planet had that all, I hadn't touched it so far.

So now that you know the 'emerging of a plan' part of the story, lets just skip the part where mail thread went on discussing when and who all etc and rest of the hows. Since this was my first Long(gggg) Drive of about 2500-3000KM. there were few things to be taken care, I'll include a short list of what all needed in the next post for the folks who plans to do this trip in future, and later we'd go back in to the time machine, relive the moments from 'our' trip.

South India Road Trip : 2 States : Dec 2010 - Jan 2011

2011-05-26T05:35:00.010+05:30

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Long trips are often victims of laziness or lack of time to put the experiences together. as it happened with Roopkund when I was writing my summit day experience, The browser ( Safari ) was crashed like it does all of a sudden, and I lost all the data. never felt like writing it again. Then was Goa Biking Expedition, which I couldn't complete, blame the lake of time or loads of work, later last year, the Long-Long Ladakh Trip and most recently the South India Coastal Drive in the beginning of this year, All of 'em are waiting to see the light of the day. more or less this happened to the short trip too and it seem, its going to continue the same way for some more time.

While I am all muddled up in "other" things. I am also beginning to forget the tiny-miny details of those trip and that reminds me of my heavy twitter updates. certainly helpful if you need to put together all days happenings aint these. So cutting it short.. the SIRT posts will be up soon one by one as i get short breaks..... and I am hoping to put of few new pictures as well cant promise a bulk though. for now here is a slideshow of some of the shots I have uploaded in flickr in the past. ( I dont think it shows the hidden shots... you must go to flickr to see those shots in the comment boxes then)

A Quick recap of the entire trip through the map, which changed a little bit towards the end, from what was planned originally, and that was because we kinda ran short of time and so skipped Calicut and came back to bangalore via trichur, coimbatore and Salem marking it about 2350kms.

here is google road map of the trip....

View Larger Map
Also the google screen-cast video of the entire trip here

I am thinking to append the twitter updates ( 10 days feed it is) to this post just for fun....and some other info.. so this post is going to be updated in few days time and the upcoming detailed posts of the trip, in another 2-3 days hopefully.. ... so cya around this weekend..have fun!!

One forgotten Art and Its much debated Origin

2011-05-26T04:15:00.007+05:30

I had almost forgotten about it, till one day I found this picture in my friend's album. it was shot sometime back while dining in an ethiopian restaurant called zeni.

Yes!, in this picture, that one sitting in the front is actually me. but thats not what makes it so special and as important as to write a blog on it, its something else. now as much as I should be hating this friend of mine for cutting me off in the middle, is as much as I should be thankful to him for clicking this (which I guess I dint know/remember then) because this made me rethink of something important and worth mentioning, I had in mind for a really long time.

the dining experience at Zeni came as a suprize to me, since I found everything from food to ambiance so awfully familiar to my own roots offcoz except the names fo the dishes. what i call sarson ki bhujiya, is some zmzmz in their ethiopian language. the funniest was what we eventually ended up ordering as per the manager's recommendation had the curries from north indian and the bread from that of south indian region. a perfect blend as i say. since I love mangalorean neer dose, I fell for it all over again in there.

Anyways, All I wanted to talk about was this basket thing in the picture, and i was overwhelmed in food and stuff.. this is something pretty much indian as well. this art is practiced in mostly all north indian villages and some south indian's as well but am not very sure. I had been seeing my grandmother and aunts and cousines making all this stuff, specially used to keep grains and beans and all sort of food stuff. while in village its mostly done spending long summer afternoons. the resources are some sort of dried grass grown in fields called kaans and moonj in hindi. Kaans is something is been used after coloring or plain (wheatish shade) for holding it up and moonj is something that goes in. I too tried making one but left in half since my summer holidays were over and that little pot you see in the picture on the right, was finished by my grand mother later.

In the hot summer afternoons, this is one of the favorite pass-time for the ladies in the villages in north India specially plain land areas e.g. flat lands of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh..as I mentioned before, I think its more or less dependent on the season of this special grass plant too.. other than the regular usage, these handicrafts make excellent gift items for functions specially marriages, when most of the grains and even cooked food times are packed in these baskets and are sent to the groom's side.

Seeing it been promoted as a african art I was quite suprized. not that there had been no mention of this been practiced in india, but no promotionals as well. I did a bit of searching the links too. but dint really succeed. I actually dont know the real connection of similar food or art been these two continents, and as of india specifically which has a long royal history, all I find worth mentioning is its ours too. and if somehow we lack promoting it and bringing it up. we sure should work on it now onwards.

thats it for now:

would add up more, just few interesting links and information i found on net appended below:

http://www.nyfolklore.org/images7/baskets.jpg

http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/486/images/bird_design_woven_basket.jpg

http://babs.selfip.net/~www/images/Crafts/baskets.jpg

http://www.folkart.com/swenty/logo-basket.jpg

http://www.resonanceonline.co.za/Zulu-Baskets.jpg

http://www.treehugger.com/woven-bag-baskets1.jpg

http://www.7loaves.com/ShopCat.aspx?catid=14

http://www.ilri.org/ILRIPubAware/Uploaded%20Files/2004811911510.02BR_FS_BeefBreadAndBaskets.htm

Wickerwork: Ethiopian women made a variety of items by winding bundles of palm leaves together.
Excerpts from one of the links "These pieces included colorful straws, allowing the creation of complicated and dynamic geometric designs. Using this technique they would create: baskets, plates, 'mosav'-a table to serve 'injera'-traditional Ethiopian bread, jewlery boxes, etc. Changes in wickerwork traditions occurred when colored threads of cotton began to appear in the market. The women preferred these threads to the hard work of creating their own. In Israel today there are still many Ethiopian women practicing this handicraft."

russel market - ulsoor lake : A Photo Essay Part 1

2011-05-26T02:53:00.000+05:30

As a migratory bird, though I have had spent quite sometime in bangalore, Koramangala in precise had been "Bangalore" for me. In my very first stay, All I would have done was to do weekly trips to forum mall or grocery shots and kill machines in the office. In my current stay, I actually got to explore a bit, thanks to photography. in the summer of 2010, I made a few trips with a friend and a photography enthusiast Sandesh to few parts of the city like city market, pottery town, butterfly park etc. one of the evening we headed out to russel market and ulsoor lake area, sandesh to find some camels hanging and me to look out for some old city charm.

Russell Market was built in 1927. One of the city's biggest supplier of fresh flowers, fruits, poultry, meat and vegetables, spreading over from Saint Mary's Basilica to the Mosque, russell markets go bustling by the crowds from the moment the dawn cracks till the twilight.

with the intend of buying nothing, but clicking some unique images, we too reached the market palaces around 4 pm, it was slowly picking up, in b/w the shouts and calls from the shop owners and bargaining tactics, we found our ways two kittens ( 6 days old) named sushma and swaraj, who's mother wasn;t around and one lazy cat sleeping in the vegetable rack. lots of people and conversations to share, here I present you first few shots from the shoot.some more coming up in next post.

apple anyone? me ofcourse :)

the mosque inside the market, view from the butcher street.

shot from the main road

to be contd......
(PS Just because its really tough to process 10-15 images a day. and my blog is feeling a bit ignored :P )

Once upon a time

2011-05-26T02:52:00.001+05:30

Blogger's Dynamic Blog Views: "http://blog.poonamparihar.com/view"

2011-05-16T21:07:00.009+05:30

I hear many people complain about the limitations in blogger platform, specially when it comes to variety of fancy templates "not" supported by blogger and this discussion always directs to wordpress. I have been blogging for 4 years or so. and I started with blogger. I sort of tried almost all the platforms including typepad, wordpress, tumblr and prepost or something similar, but what kept me hanging on with blogger was the simplicity. I have a little knowledge of xml ( i.e. I can make good enough changes and do whatever i want in the template) and I can modify webscripts like js etc, that means I can control almost entire page (not sure if there is some hidden scripts) and posting in blogger is easy. well, what I never tried was css, which is recently been introduced, but google search help works. so it does pretty much make sense for me to stick to blogger.

Now I am not here to put up a comparative review of why blogger and why not other platform.. I am just about to put some info on "Dynamic Views" which blogger has introduced. and I found it really interesting. ( as per my knowledge this feature 's been added only recently. as I am pretty active on blogs so to tell or, even otherwise, since I have discovered it now. I would love to have people explore this blog in better ways then it can be now. )

http://blog.poonamparihar.com/view/ :- so as you see, /view is only addition to your default blog address. which the blogowner can enable this feature with one click in his blog-setting and the hyperlink can be accessed then.

/View as suggested by the name is a better way to go through the blog. except the posts on the main-page which are readily available for you to read, the rest of the info can only be accessed through archives which is REALLY BORING. yes for me too.. I never look back in to my posts until unless I have to link back or make some really important changes, just because its so time consuming for me to go through the list etc.. This however solves my problem.. remember the flickriver which shows the entire photostream on one page ( forget the fact it being heavy on bandwidth for timebeing), here we have something sort of better than that for blog-posts.. imagine all your 400 blog posts on one page and you can have a cool look at all your posts at once!!! if it does nothing else it sure gives a good idea of your/someone else's blog overall..

Flipcard - so incase your still wondering what I am talking about, here are the snapshots of this story.. there are 5 viewing options for your blog. I am starting with the last one in the drop down menu (which you'd see on the page when you open /view ) and its called flipcard. This one 's got thumbnail views of the post starting from the most recent ones to older posts as you scroll down. if there is a picture in the post, it'd show the picture thumbnail as you can see, otherwise the title of the post.....not only this, when you take move your mouse over the thumnail it flips and give you more info like the Title, date of posting and even the number of comments.. pretty cool eh!!! what more, you click the thumbnail and you can read the entire post right there. wow!!!!!! you want to come to thumbnail view, there is a link on top saying "back to all post" and you go back.. you want to comment, click on post title and you should be able to.. well why I am i telling you in details.. i am sure you can figure this out yourself..

Mosaic - Now this one is too cool.. specially after seeing so many wordpress photogallery themes and try hard to put them in to blogger ( yes I keep trying all that when I am free :-/) I feel great blogger getting it here.. not only that it looks cool.. the post pops up as you move your mouse, you can click the post and read it right there in clean background.. and everything else just goes as above.. !!!

Snapshot - Third one is Snapshot which is tad different from the above two views.. this one is based on pictures in the post.. and as you can see in this snapshot picture below, each picture from the post is shown on the webpage and if incase there is no picture in a post.. the post is not there.. kinda like a little tricky in here.. so does nt get the wow from me.. but let me tell you... this one is built keeping in mind the photo blogs which have only one photograph each post and so here this work the best..just to add one more point, you can read the post content when you move the cursor and bring it on your snapshot pic, and pretty much in the same way as above..

Timeslide - Well, Timeslide seems best for the folks who like reading blog like a magazine.. not that I am saying blogs are not magazine (sometimes they are) but as you can see below, you get three column view of the page. In first you have picture and snapshot, second one's got the headlines post and some content and the third one as only the post links.. and you can pretty much scroll down for more and more and more content..!!! hmm..

Sidebar - and the last one huh.. the easiest, the simplest, the htmlest :P yes ... one side bar, and first post open by default, keep clicking the post links from the side bar and read whatever post you feel like.. no need for you to be geeky at all..this seems the best one for the only text blogs..and still a better way to read the blog then going rigorously through heavy on load archives specially if the blog is really old. and just one more point if you wondering ... you cant scroll for the post links.. if you click on the last post on the page, e.g. "russel market" in the page snapshot below, it'll automatically scroll up and give you some more links from the blog.. ...thats it...

Well.. so If you've been feeling like the blog is cluttered with information and posts and widgets and labels and you are not getting it at all.. here I welcome you to explore the blog in your own way, the way you like it the best.. you can always go back to the default page "if you like the template too much :P" and for any other reason, and you can get back to your view mode again if you like..

I as a blogger, would really like to thank blogger.com, for this feature, cuz I find this, a great way to make my reader aware of what the blog is all about and what its got. the older posts are getting more visibility than ever before and the accessing is superb. I loved exploring my blog in mosaic and flipcard view modes, I hope you enjoy 'em too.. :))

'OPEN SHOW : Bangalore #2' & 'Bangalore Weekend of Photography'

2011-04-05T14:34:00.028+05:30

OPEN SHOW Bangalore #2 will be part of *Bangalore Weekend of Photography*, an event of events, running from April 8th-10th 2011, aimed at encouraging public participation in various photography activities e.g. documentary, photojournalism, wildlife, fashion..etc. no matter how deep it runs (amateur, artist, professional), you'll find a way to spend your weekend in great company! The Event is organized in Association with Jaaga and Pageturners.

The OPEN SHOW Bangalore #2 PRESENTERS are:

Deja Vu - Aniruddha Chowdhury
India - Often Seen But Rarely Captured - Vishesh Bajpai
Yatnena Paripaalaya - Preserve With Effort - Raghuram & Sreenivasa
Behind the Tin Sheets - Ekta & Yashaswini
Livelihood - Sabir Ahmed
Coracle Fisher Clan - Sam Mohan

You can read more about the open show here.

Bangalore Weekend of Photography Event Details and Calendar :

(courtesy - citizen matters)

April 8

Photo Exhibition: Bangalore - Pressure to Globalize

Curated by photographer Mahesh Bhat, this exhibition of photo prints is to give an opportunity to the general public to look at the voices of visual thinkers of the city in an informal setting. Submissions are currently invited. Please send few low-res images (1000 pixels on the longest side, jpegs) from your collection to maheshbhat67@gmail.com . It will be the photographer's responsibility to print, mount/laminate/frame and deliver the selected images to Pageturners. There would be about 25-30 pictures from different photographers.

Location: PageTurners Bookstore 89, Kannan Building, MG Road (next to Lake View Milk Bar)

Time: 8 - 17 April; 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Meet the Photographer / Sohrab Hura

Hura, a fast emerging photographer often seen in international photo festivals, is best known for his (still ongoing) very personal photo diary, Life is Elsewhere. He will talk about how he began in photography, how he got here, and where he's going with it.

Links:
Sohrab Hura http://www.lightstalkers.org/sohrabhura

jaaga http://jaaga.in/

Location: jaaga No. 16/1, Rhenius Street, Off Richmond Road, Opp. Hockey Stadium, Shanthinagar

Time: 8 April 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Blow. Up - Taking Photography to the Streets

Blowup, a photographic street intervention by Blindboys.org, wants to take photography to where it belongs - to the streets of our cities. Most of us have been shooting on the street at one time or another. Now's let's turn the street into our gallery. Let's meet outside jaaga at 5pm, shove our hands in some adhesive "wheatpaste" glue, and plaster away on the urine-stained walls of the hockey stadium. You can help by coming or inviting people who can volunteer.

Location: jaaga No. 16/1, Rhenius Street, Off Richmond Road, Opp. Hockey Stadium, Shanthinagar

Time: 8 April; 5:00pm - 7:00pm

April 9

OPEN SHOW

Open Show is a free monthly event that provides photographers, filmmakers and multimedia producers the chance to present their work in high-profile spaces. Up to five curated presenters (from students to professionals) have 10 minutes each to show their project and field questions from the audience.

Open Show Bangalore http://openshow.org/bangalore/ PageTurners Bookstorehttp://pageturners.in/

Location: PageTurners Bookstore 89, Kannan Building, MG Road (next to Lake View Milk Bar)

Time: 9 April; 6:00pm - 9:00pm

The World of Photobooks

Photographer Mahesh Shantaram throws open his library of photo books and takes you through an intriguing world where art, design, and photography meet. Discover the intellectual pleasure of photo books

Location: PageTurners Bookstore 89, Kannan Building, MG Road (next to Lake View Milk Bar)

Time: 9 April; 3:00pm - 5:00pm

Meet the Photographer / Tarunn Solanki

Tarunn Solanki has a secret to share: "Glamour photography is hypocrisy. It's subtle, sophisticated, suave, creative, legal, socially and publicly approved version of porn. It's aimed at the debonair and in an attempt to make stimulation legal and acceptable, an array of interesting solutions and styles are the end result."
Links: Tarunn http://www.tarunn.com/ jaaga http://jaaga.in/

Location: Jaaga No. 16/1, Rhenius Street, Off Richmond Road, Opp. Hockey Stadium, Shanthinagar

Time: 9 April; 10:00am - 12:00pm

April 10

Meet the Photographer / TNA Perumal

"Pictures help in creating awareness. Our forests are a rich natural resource and we have a tradition of worshipping Nature and living in harmony with her. But, somewhere along the way, that has all changed," says TNA Perumal, often known as the father of Indian wildlife photography.

Location: jaaga No. 16/1, Rhenius Street, Off Richmond Road, Opp. Hockey Stadium, Shanthinagar

Time: 10 April; 10:00am - 12:00pm

Documentary: The Impassioned Eye [2003]

An interview with Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) late in life. Cartier-Bresson pulls out photographs, comments briefly, and holds them up to the camera. A few others share observations, including Isabelle Huppert, Arthur Miller, and Josef Koudelka. Cartier-Bresson talks about his travels, including Mexico in the 1930s, imprisonment during World War II, being with Gandhi moments before his assassination, and returning to sketching late in life. He shows us examples. He talks about becoming and being a photographer, about composition, and about some of his secrets to capture the moment. There is a surprising Bangalore connection in the end!

Location: PageTurners Bookstore 89, Kannan Building, MG Road (next to Lake View Milk Bar)

Time: 10 April; 1:30pm - 3:00pm

Panel Discussion (topic to be announced)

Location: PageTurners Bookstore 89, Kannan Building, MG Road (next to Lake View Milk Bar)

Time: 10 April; 3:00pm - 5:00pm

The After Party

This is one networking event you wouldn't want to miss. After a hectic weekend of discussions and parleys with fellow photographers, what better way to unwind than to party with that same bunch of people. This will be a ticketed event.

Location: jaaga No. 16/1, Rhenius Street, Off Richmond Road, Opp. Hockey Stadium, Shanthinagar

Time: 10 April; 7:00pm - 10:00pm

- Poonam Parihar
Open Show
Bangalore Co-Producer

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! What makes you a lucky person today?

2011-03-17T01:31:00.050+05:30

Oh, I woke me up this morning and I heard a joyful song

From the throats of happy Irishmen, a hundred thousand strong

Sure it was the Hibernian Brigade

Lining up for to start the big parade

So I fetched me Sunday bonnet and the flag I love so well

And I bought meself a shamrock just to wear in me lapel

Don't you know that today's March seventeen?

It's the day for the wearing of the green...........

St. Patrick's Day anthem and its familiar strains are heard on the occasion around the world annually on Saint Patrick's Day, a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, and a day widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora, especially in places such as the Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand, among others.The day is generally characterised by the attendance of church services wearing of green attire (especially shamrocks and the lifting of Lenten restrictions on fasting and drinking which is often proscribed during the rest of the season.

Reclaimed as a church festival St Patrick's Day is a day to bring the piety and the fun together. It is celebrated in various cities, towns and villages as a week long festival where by holding parades and rallies. The festival sees lots of participations, performances by bands, artists and school children, those are watched by thousands of people.

locals participating in the festivities at galway city, ireland on St. Patrick's day March 17, 2011

Prayers for Japan

Indian Community coming together joining the celebration in Galway, Ireland

Belly Dancers performing in the parade in Galway, Ireland

So I am an Exhibitor now ;-)

2011-03-16T13:16:00.008+05:30

( the framed shot is my favorite, but this pic is even more, guess why )

I am not very much into contests, less because I don't believe in the system, the rules they follow, that I am afraid of failures, and that I am running my own race with just me in there, but more because I never find anything in my archive which I'd feel can make everyone happy. I' click what makes me happy. and I shall be doing that always. as I believe in a critic best, and that is me.

But its always great to be the part of community, not only because you get the recognition right there, but also because participation is the key to learning, and is the best way to encourage and create art. so though I'd be on many solo trips in future, like I had always been, I'm sure looking forward to get out of my house, socialize a bit more, and do some collaborative projects with some like-minded people. one of the such project is "Open Show" which I am co-producing with Madhu Reddy and Roy Sinai. fortunately we got great response in our launch event and 2nd the 3rd edition of bangalore are already marked in the Calendar. ( Check out openshow/bangalore page or my posts on this page, for more details on participation)

PCA Womanhood Exhibition was a great way to know Ahmedabad and its people and meeting 'em virtually. Glad to know the exhibition was a grand success. Thanks to PCA for making me a part of the gala and providing me an opportunity showcase some of my work, amongst 26 Talented Girls from all over India and abroad. honored I am. This being my first, and 'all women' event, will stay special in my memories for a long time to come.

With the couple of photos and few articles also published, These past 2-3 months have been pretty productive to say the least. Though there is tons of stuff lying half cooked in my plate, and I haven't been able to shoot much. I haven't been able to write much either, this page has been dormant mostly. But I am hoping the second half of the year would be quite eventful in-terms of travel and travel photography which is my most favorite of all kind.

This March 22nd/23rd marks two years with my first an only DSLR Canon 450D as well. guess time to get another body soon. :P meanwhile my kitty has grown a little more with Tokina 100mm and Raynox 250's arrival. looking forward for lots of portraits, macros, micros in the future. :)

Now that I have to get back again to something far more important than this post :P leaving you with some images from the Hutheesing Art Gallery Ahmedabad ....cya around!

(my "lady in red" with my friends Chitra and Kalpana's creations.)

( the little visitor in the gallery)

apr 2011 Better Photography Issue

More photos on Facebook Page here .

and Oh BTW.. shall be posting few pictures from Ireland, courtesy my brother who's currently in Galway. Though I cant really control the content, as he doesn't listen to me much when I ask him to shoot this or that.. :-/