4-May-08:
Today, I was woken up by my bro early at 6.00am. I had no plans to get up early but then woke up and accompanied him to Agara lake on Kanakapura Road. We took the road which goes to right after the road to Valley school. This took us to the Agara, which at the end will lead to NICE road.
We were happily greated by Peacock, good number of bulbuls and other birds. Had a stop over near the lake. Check out the photos on the Gallery page.
Last week I had visited Bandipur and GS betta with our boyz. This week it was around the same route but with the entire family. The group consisted of 4 generations. My grandparents, my parents, bunch of my cousins and myself and the 4th generation were kids of my brothers, sisters. My wife Rama and son Aniruddha were unable to join the tour as ‘Aniruddha’ is just 1.5 months. I was in the verge of dropping the trip but finally gathered momentum. I visited Rama on friday just to see her and the prince and was up on the next day. The tour was of two days 12 and 13th of April 08.
Day 1:
Me and my parents reached my aunts place early morning at 6.30am, after our daily chores and pooja at home. We had to wait for sometime for the rest of the troup to pick us up. They picked us up at 7.15am and we were noisly treding Mysore road. We were around 35 people including kids. It was just fresh for me from the last week’s trip.
My aunt started opening her juke box of games inside the bus and everyone njoyed the games so much none of us realized that it was time for breakfast. My uncle was fast enough to spot a nice spot for us to fill our empty stomachs. After a royal serving of uppittu and kesaribath (Spicy and sweet upma) my eldest brother demonstarted his skills on acrobats climbing a tree which the kids followed by never succeeded 
Journey was up again. We stopped at Huluganamaradi temple. This temple is a old temple. I will post the history once I collate it from my mom and the recordings I got while the priest was explaining. As it was saturday there was heavy crowd in the temple due to special pooja. We spent good time seeing the Lord Venkateshwara who is situated on the hill top. The view is amazing and I have no words to explain.
After the pooja we have lunch at the temple. The priest and family were kind enough to prepare food for all of us. This temple being the home god of my uncle, the arrangements were made prior. My dad had a good walk in the burning sun (dont ask me how he does it) from the hill top to the bottom and he boarded the bus when we reached the bottom of the hill.
Next stop was Nagavalli. This is a nice small place. One of my uncle stay’s here. When we reached the place, they were waiting for us with hot bonda servings. We had enough and my equipment was out. All this while I was shooting with my kit lens.
We left for BR Hills as the gates close at 5.30 pm and we still had around 10 kms to reach that place. As soon as we entered the forest we saw peafowl, good number of magpie robin, scaly breasted woodpecker, babblers, etc…
We were greeted by wild boars and a barking deer. I could get a full frame of this guy, but before I could aim for his close up someone in the bus had a flash on and the deer disappeared. We stopped at K.Gudi temple and then at K.Gudi JLR for few mins and were off to BR hills. Nothing much happened on the way.
We had our place booked at BR Hills. After quick refreshment I went to the temple with my cousins who were now interested in birding and wildlife. I was lucky enough to carry the pallaki of Lord Ranganathaswamy (along with my dad).
Again, history I have it recorded, will update it soon. One interesting fact is that, there is a pair of slippers which is designed for the Lord. Each one of these are made by a different cobbler from a different place. But at the end both come to the same size and pattern. How? That the miracle.
This slipper is re-made every year. In a year the old one will have undergone wear and tear even though it is preserved in the glass box. Why and How? The story says that everyday the Lord wears the slippers and take a walk, which is the reason for its wear and tear. Its just amazing and surprising fact.
The day ended with some bhajan at the Lords forum, we hit the bed after dinner.
Day 2:
Started early, with everyone gathering their brushes, towels for refreshing. I was out searching for some birds. After a brief session we visited the temple again and got started to decend the hill for breakfast. On the way back we saw an asharam of a saint who maintained 13 years of silence .
Next place was even more interesting and facinating. Dr. Sudharshan has opened a hospital and school for people who live in the hills (called ‘Girijana’). This is really good. The people who are backward get lot of facility at this place and free medical treatment.
We came back to Nagavalli and left for GS Betta via Terakanambi. Terakanambi is the place where one of our family members (long ago) had taken deeksha at Sringeri temple and had become a saint. His body and soul resides in this place. We paid our regards to the great person and were moving towards GS Betta.
The forest guard recognized me immediately and we were off the way in a matter of seconds. At the temple, being a Sunday it was crowded. The priest Gopalakrishna was fast enough to greet us. I had a quick chat with the RFO and we were seen taking snaps after snaps.
It was time for us to turn back and call it a trip. On the way we still njoyed Mysore palace which was lit with all the fantastic lighting, had our dinner at Indraprasta at Mandya. Before reaching Bangalore we shared our thoughts on the trip, promised on an another one soon (how soon was a question unanswered)
We reached home at 11.30pm. The day next was the best. I could not get up but had to as I had scheduled calls. At 2.30pm I could not control my sleep so much that I dozzed off for an hour before I could continue with my official work. WFH (work from home) helps!!!
Day 1: 4-Apr-08
Once again, hitting the road at 3.30am from Bangalore was cheerful. This time it was me, Ganesha (my lil bro), Nata (my close friend, more of a bro) and Suneeth (friend of Ganesha).
As usual Ganesha and Nata were home the previous night, picked up Suneeth on the journey morning from Lalbagh west gate and was on our way towards Ranganatittu in Nata’s Zen Estilo. Took the NICE road to reach Mysore road in less than 10 minutes. It was Nata who was at the wheel. I shifted the seat when we stopped at Cafe Coffee Day on Mysore road at 4.30am. I was dam hungry and we had a brief stop to fill our stomach, should I say my stomach 
Reaching Ranganatittu was not difficult at all. We were greeted by white breasted kingfishers. Me being the experienced (among the group) in identifying birds was explaining the winged beauties on the way. We were the first entrants to Ranganatittu bird santuary that day @ 6.30 am.
My equipment was out in no time and I had taken my first shoot at a black kite. Our priced catch was pied kingfisher (full frame) with cattle egret, painted stalk, pellican, spoon bill, open bill, cormorant etc… I happened to see Pramod starting his series on the boat when we were returning. All in all good start to the trip.
Next destination was Nanjangud for breakfast via Mysore. Had a stop over at Ramprasad hotel @ Nanjangud circle famous for masala dosa. We had our dose of dosa and packed off to Bandipur. On the way I spotted black and white Ibis in the paddy fields and had some brief shots.
As scheduled, we reached Bandipur JLR on time @ 12.30 pm just in time for lunch. Gangaswamy, Nataraj and Venkatesh gave us a warm welcome. We had our rooms ‘Sambar’ and ‘Gaur’ awaiting us. Me and Nata took the room at the end ‘Gaur’. I got refreshed while other had a way on my equipment shooting.
It was time for lunch and some rest. Before we even were ready it was evening and everyone geared up for the safari. With Gangaswamy taking the wheel and Pradeep guiding us in sighting.
Jungle fowl was the first we sighted, then came chital (spotted deer) and then a heard of Indian Gaur. Had some good images here. We were again lucky to find another heard of Gaur while I spotted few turtles. When the group were cribbing of no signs of elephant, behold we had a small heard in front of us, few of them crossing the deep track and vanished into the undergrowth before getting a good image.
Luckly we spotted a mother and a calf in the next few minutes who happily gave us enough time to take snaps to our heartful. Other sighting included sambar, crested hawk serpent eagle, scaly brested wood pecker and mangoose.
Day 1 ended with the boys recapping the memories of the sighting and hoping to see the majestic Tiger or the lovely leopard on day 2.
Day 2: 5-Apr-08
We were off on safari again, not much sighting to our luck today except for Indian roller, Paradise Flycatcher, few sambar and spotted deer and an elephant herd deep inside the undergrowth.
Our JLR booking was just for a day. I had to use my contacts to get something up and running for the next. Met Shankarappa the RFO and the accomodation was set for the day @ GS Betta forest guest house. We had to adjust in one room as there was construction going on at the guest house.
Kumaraswamy (forest ranger) and Kullappa (the guard) were courteous enough to serve us lunch at the guest house. We had a good walk in the jungles around the place. Then we visited the Gopalaswamy temple.
History: The temple is old. It is called Himavad Gopalaswamy (meaning lord gopalaswamy covered by snow/water) because of the fact that there is water dripping on top of Lord Krishna’s head. You can actually see water on top of the door inside the garbhagudi.
The temple was constructed by …….. (will fill the gap here) soon. There are 77 ponds surrounding the temple in a radius of 1-2 kms. It is said that in one of the ponds called “Hamsa kola” crows had a sip of water and were turned into swans. From then on there are no crows at the top of the hill and anywhere near the temple. We tried to find one but there were none 
It is believed that if married women who has not had a child takes a dip in this pond she would conceive and will have a baby. This information was provided to us by none other than the priest of the temple Gopalakrishna.
Day 3: 6-Apr-08
We had our share of trekking in the path that evening and the next day morning before we bid goodbye to GS betta. On the way to Bangalore we visited Nanjundeshwara temple at Nanjangud, stopover at Kamath lokruchi for late lunch. Were in Bangalore before 7.00 pm.
After I got my new equipment and some sessions from my bro on photography basics… the results are here for everyone to see !!!
Its been a loooong time since i have updated the blog. Squeezed in few mins to write this sentence and promised myself to be regular 
After a long gap I am updating the blog. I have the other blogs but have not found time to update them. You can see them shortly. Now for the best part. I have been transfered to Bangalore and am saying Goodbye to Gurgaon. Today flying Kingfisher for the first time. Am happy and excited.
Traffic jams, masala puri, pani puri, the chats, the pollution, the slangs in Kannada, home, friends and what not….. have been missing these for a long time. Now the time has come.
Yesterday, the movers and packers (Agarwal) came home and packed all the household materials. It was pretty fast and the charges are reasonable. I had asked the guys to pick my car today from office. The guy (Gajanan Sharma) was very serious and looked into each and every detail of the vehicle to find a scratch etc… Finally was satisfied with the documentation and drove the car giving me the receipt.
My flight is at 8.50 pm. I have just completed all my paperwork and the procedures in office. Currently using the team laptop (support purpose) as i have surrendered the assets and got the sign-off. Also what better work than to update the long pending blog. Prajith will be joining me to airport as he is leaving to Mumbai. 2 is company. Now we can spend time chatting till the flight boarding
This would probably be the final blog at Gurgaon. Ca’ Gurgaon…… hey Bangalore I am coming……
28-Jan-06:
We had no toothpaste, toothbrush to start the day. Hotel had provided us with towel and soap. I took bath and then went in search of both. Luckily I found a small shop very next to the hotel. After all our chores and breakfast, we checked out from the hotel and moved to cover other places of interest.
First stop came on Agra Fort. We got lost to find the entrance to the fort and when we approached a policeman he misguided us. Finally a local buy showed us the right way. Agra fort is magnificent. It is better to hire a guide even it is expensive. Hire a government recognized guide, they charge Rs.250/- (this rate is standard almost in every place wherever we hired a guide).
Places inside Agra fort are Diwan-I-Khas, place where the King used to have meeting with his ministers (similar to our Lok sabha), Diwan-I-Aam, a common meeting place of the King and public, Sheesh mahal, etc…. Part of the fort is occupied by the Indian Army barrack and the rest is open for public. View of Taj mahal is good and the foundation put for Black Taj is also visible from here.
After Agra fort we moved to Fathepur Sikri. The road to this place is pathetic and very small for around 5 kms… the people are nonsense and do not have the basic human behavior. Fathepur sikri is a small place, which was initially capital of Akbar. As the water in this place is salty he shifted the capital to Delhi later. Even now there is problem for water. In this place we saw a darga, Buland darwaza, etc…
It was time to get back home. We had a break for lunch around 3.00 pm. By the time we reached Faridabad it was already dark and we lost track. Thanks to the person who misguided us. Finally we managed to get to Gurgaon-Faridabad road and were home by 9.00 pm.
