Road Trip to Chikkamagaluru-Agumbe-Shringeri : A Photo Blog Part II

(Click here to read Part I)

After peaking the highest point in Karnataka, it was time to refuel our car and our bodies. We went back to Chikkamagaluru, finished lunch and stepped on accelerator to rush towards Agumbe's famous sunset point. We reached there just 5 minutes ahead of sunset. For the kind of expectation we had, what we got to see was rather disappointing. Within a minute clouds swooped in to cover any of the orange shades that were visible. May be it was just out luck, but we couldn't sing Aagumbeya prema sanjeya mareyalaare naanu endigoo..

We spent some time in the lake nearby and started towards Agumbe town trying to find a place to hit the sack. We were told that Dodda Mane will be the best choice. It is a unique homestay where you will be treated as a part of the family and they don't demand any particular amount when you are leaving. You can pay as much as you want and there will be no question asked. Their hospitality and delicious dinner is a wonderful experience. It is a traditional big old Malenadu style home which city dwellers will find unique. Our plan was to catch sunrise in Kundadri hills next morning. We were thoroughly amused when the route was shown to us with the help of i-pad! It had the pictures of the place where we had to take turns. Without the help of those photos showing landmarks precisely, it might have gotten difficult to reach the place as you will not find a soul to ask the route in early morning in that route.

Kundadri was absolutely magical for me. But for my friends who just had witnessed sunrise in  Kodachadri few weeks back, this was not up to the same level of excitement.

 

 Once up on the hill, Mangata is something we boys can't avoid!

Sirimane Falls was our next destination. It was a scenic stretch.

There is entry fee for Sirimane Falls but as soon as you enter, first thing that will come to your notice is strong stench of excreta. Some of us didn't feel inspired to get in the water. This falls doesn't have anything distinctive about it. It was heavily crowded though.

First photo above is clicked by Rajeev Komar.

Our next stop was Shringeri. On the way we tried a coffee shop which was inside an estate but the coffee there was not as satisfying as filter coffee of darshini's of bangalore!

May be it is because of "Mangalore tiles", the road leading to the temple had this old world charm to it which I found beautiful.

At the entrance of Shringeri temple you will find a big hoarding with a photo of Bharathi Teertha swamiji with a welcome. But with a considerably big space allocation for Indian oil, it seems more like an advertisement hoarding! It felt very out of place to me.

Last time I was here, Sai Prakash's Navashakti Vaibhava was getting shot here. A scene with Ram Kumar and Sudha Rani was getting canned. I waited for that movie but for long long time I didn't see it being released. And when it did, it didn't last long in theaters.

It was afternoon time. So, we caught up with free lunch served in the temple. It is fantastic how they operate the serving of the meals for so many devotees everyday.

My displeasure against boring smoke filled skies of Bangalore manifolds whenever I am travelling on the roads of Hasana/Chikkamagaluru. They always provide enough fodder for my sky fetish

Now that rainy season is here again, hoping for many more wonderful unplanned road trips like this one!

Capturing The Light Rays

Most of the people who pick up the camera try to find the nearest flower to click. Is it just it's beauty? I don't think so. It is the deep focus/ small depth of field (Blur in the background) that one can obtain using 'macro mode' that attracts the most, if you ask me. It is the same reason that makes photos in DSLR look attractive. They give deep focus making the subject in the front sharp. This is the first obsession that most of  the camera owner will have.

I am obsessed with taking Black and White pictures with high contrast, having large portion of the background in black, taking pictures of cloud formations,grungy looks, backlit etc. But ever since I saw the sun rays captured in Pramod Pailoor's this photo in Facebook, Dinesh Hegde's this photo in NatGeo and Shailesh Makwana's this photo in Flickr in quick succession, I fell in love them all over again.

In my childhood, dose used to be baked using firewood, little far from the kitchen. Every morning, these light beams would sneak in to that room. I used to be fascinated with it. I was playing with it while waiting for the next dose. I had even tried to take pictures of them when I had got my hand on digital camera but I was unsuccessful. These photos I saw, rekindled those memories of my childhood in a way and created strong urge to capture similar kind of photos.

But it's not as if it will be readily available! One has to wake up early in the morning and have to set out in search of it. These rays are very alluding in nature. Besides, Who would want to get up early in the winter of December, huh? But the desire to capture something similar was so strong that I kicked my laziness out and caught hold of few such pictures. It was not as difficult to find them as I thought it would be. First few are taken in Sirsi and rest are in Bangalore. Hope you like them as much as I do! I would advice you to click on the pictures to see them in full screen. Please avoid mobile screens to see the photos.

 

 

I would like to deviate a little from the topic here. Just observe how litter has been accumulated inside the park in the above picture. It is this kind of lack of civic sense that makes us Indians ugly. An European man Xaver Xylophon made a short animated video based on the days of riding around in rickshaws in Bangalore. You can see that he has made a point to include litter in so many frames. It is such a shame!

Now, you will let me know which one did you like the most. Wont you? :)

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Baaginakatta. A remote village in Uttara Kannada. It is about 20KM from Yellapura town. From medical treatment to any major commercial transactions, one has to travel to Yellapura. KSRTC bus plights twice a day. Once in the morning and then in the evening. There are only 20 families living in 5KM radius. 90% of them are Havyaka Brahmins. It is believed that their ancestors settled there after fleeing from North India during the attack from Ghajini Mohammad. Interestingly, people who live there say that a lot has improved in a last few years as they have got electricity, phone line and tar road now.

First thing that strikes you as you near this village is its natural beauty. It is surrounded by thick forest. Fresh air and abundant clean water enough for any city dweller to feel each cell of the body coming alive.There are water falls, no network for mobile phones. A very secluded place but without any naxalite issues.

I went there with my parents to visit my missus' grandmother's house. Her uncle Shivarama (Shivanna as he is fondly called) is a teacher in the primary school there. We went to meet him at the school as we were in a hurry to go back. The school is situated in the midst of arecanut plantation. But only when I reached the school to visit him, I realized that it is a single teacher school!

This school has always had a single teacher. There were total of nine students. All were sitting in the same class but they belonged to different classes. From 1st standard to 5th standard. As soon as I entered the classroom, they stood up and greeted us with " Hiriyarige Namaskaragalu" (Greetings to the elders). It brought back the memories of my childhood where standing up and greeting whenever an elder person enters a class was fun. More so, when someone enters the room in the middle of an ongoing class.

I did my primary schooling in Madakatte primary school. A village situated 35KM from Mangalore town. It had six teachers for seven classes. Over the years, the number of students have reduced considerably resulting in the decrease of number of teachers. According to the govt rules, there should be one teacher for every 30 pupils. There are only three permanent teachers left now for 77 students.

Nobody is ready to send their children to Kannada medium govt schools. Only very poor people who can't afford an English medium school send their children to these schools. In spite of management bringing in honarary teachers to add computer classes and English classes, there has been no increase in the number of students. I certainly won't blame the parents for sending their children to English medium private schools as long as they instill sense of pride towards Kannada. In a few years, my school may have to be shut down. It may remain only as a memory. That thought somehow makes me feel queasy. But 'change is permanent'!

Lets come back to Uttara Kannada from Dakshina Kannada. I instantly liked the classroom. It was decorated with paintings made by students, simple paper cuttings, charts etc. The classroom was newly built with the help of donations from the people of the village. Brightly lit classroom and happy faces of the children were delight to watch. Shivanna was beaming when he said that his students are excellent in extra curricular activities. The sense of pride was apparent when he gleefully told us that they had won several prizes in taluk level competitions.

These students may eventually go to cities to continue their education and settle somewhere far from their native. One day after many years if they see this post and the casual photoshoot they were part of, tugs their heartstrings in any way,  I will be the happiest person.

PS: The title for the post was suggested by my close friend Rajeev Komar who studied in this school till 4th standard. He now works at Broadcom.

Merry Christmas

An account of my encounter with a drunk man outside the church on Christmas eve

Yesterday was Christmas. A day of celebration across the world. I was Home Alone! My missus has been in her native from last few days and she won't be back for next ten days either. Sigh! I had some errands to run in the morning. As the night approached, I got an idea to go to the nearest church and see what goes on. I took my camera in shoulder, hopped on my bike and reached St.Joseph' Church, Chamarajapete. I didn't know what to expect. I was thinking that there will be no one as everyone would be celebrating it in home with wine, cake and turkey. But when I reached there, I saw a good number of people outside. I started taking pictures of church from outside the gate. I was not sure if I could go in with a camera. Besides, I was wearing a trouser and not dressed to the occasion.

A guy in faded dress who was passing by saw me and waved at me. He was clearly drunk. He asked me if I know Tamil. I said no. He asked me if I know Hindi. I said I do. He started speaking in bits and pieces of Hindi. I enquired whether he knows Kannada and bingo! He was so relieved. It happens to me all the time. Whenever rickshaw drivers or people in general approach me on the road to ask something, they tend to use Hindi or English even though they are Kannadigas. I make it a point to start a conversation in Kannada with any stranger. Unless they don't know how to speak, I switch. But the trend is opposite in Bangalore. How can you speak Kannada in the IT city! It is considered below the strata. Most of the mothers here speak to their child and dogs only in English. My body burns whenever I see that. Anyway, this is a topic for some other day I guess.

This guy I met, Mani asked me to come inside and take his pictures. When I asked him is it okay to come in trousers and take pictures, he said anyone and everyone is allowed inside the church. I saw a Muslim man selling groundnuts outside, a man in orange dhoti, towel (Bhajarangadala uniform if I can call it so) enter the church and felt happy. Mani made me buy a candle. There were people outside chatting and inside I saw a lot of people capturing pictures with tablets, phones. People were lighting the candles and praying. It was a nice happy environment.

Mani would request me to take his pictures in various poses of him praying. I had to oblige. He photobombed lot of my pictures. He was happy to see the pictures on the camera screen. Just before leaving, he said that he does iron works and he is made to work like a donkey. Drinking a is habit with which he is ruining his life. He can't stop it no matter how he hard he tries as it is his friends who drag him to the bar. They even offer to pay. I asked him to take care. He said that he doesn't have anyone to share anything, but this is the best Christmas he had and he is very happy. I felt good even though I knew that it was the drinks inside him that was talking. 

A Street Photography Experience

I took photos of strangers on street, gave them printed copies the next day. This is an account of the contrasting experience I had.

Few days ago during the night time, there was constant power outage in my area. I decided to take a stroll outside with my camera. I came across an export company and the security guards were sitting inside a room with wire mesh near the gate. That frame caught my eye and I desperately wanted to capture it. It looked straight out of Anurag Kashyap movie. But I haven't done much of street photography especially alone. I feel that I am invading the privacy if I take people's photographs from a distance. In reality it is just a fear of being questioned rather than consciousness about other's personal space :P But if informed about photographing them, they tend to look at the camera and the candour will be lost. I was so fascinated by the frame that I went ahead and asked the security guy whether I can take the picture. They asked me why I want to take their picture. I said it's just a hobby. They asked me to go ahead. As I started taking the pictures, one of the guard asked me to wait and came out. He said that the mesh is blocking the view. He asked the other security person to stand for the photo with him. I obliged and took few photos of him. He was very happy. There were few people coming out of the company by now. He started to introduce them to me. People started to gather and everyone was amused that why I was taking the pictures of some random people. It may be common for the people of market, commercial street etc to see hoards of photographers roaming around, clicking pictures. But for the people of a galli in an obscure street of Chamarajapete, it was something new. The security person then asked me to take pictures of the people there and they all started posing. I spoke to them for some time, found out that they are exporting leather jacket, purses to European countries. It felt so good to see excited faces on the prospect of getting photographed by a stranger.

I was excited for meeting with the the next set of people. After few meters of walk, I saw an elderly couple preparing "Bajji's". I started taking their pictures from a distance without informing them. The lady saw me and smilingly gestured what I was doing? I walked upto her and told her the same story as I did to the security and asked if it was okay. She said, No problem. I started getting few close up shots as a person who may have been a son/acquaintance of the couple started questioning me. He felt that something was not right about it. Even though I assured him that I don't have any kind of malicious intentions, he wouldn't simple listen to me. I showed him the pictures and told him that if he doesn't like it I can delete them. He said go ahead and delete. All this while the lady tried to keep him quite and said its okay, what is wrong in clicking the pictures. I didn't want to argue with him as I felt that I am disturbing the environment and walked away.

The contrast between first and second experiences were stark but really enriching. The stranger photographer can be perceived as a friend or enemy. But going up to them and telling that they are being shot seemed like the best way. It brought people together. It may ruin a candid shot but it could help in bringing new joy. I would love to hear stories from pro street photographers on this.

Then I thought, if taking the picture itself can bring so much joy, what if I give them the photos by getting them printed. That thought itself gave me goosebumps. "Random act of Kindness". I patted my own back and started imagining teary eyed people. But the reality was definitely not as mushy as I imagined it to be :) I got the photos printed next day. It just costs 25rs for five 5*7 size pictures. I was not really happy with the print as it had come darker than the shots I had taken. I went to the security first. As I opened the envelope, security guy announced that "photos are here" as if he was expecting it all along! I handed over the photos to him. I told him that photos have come darker to which he said that they themselves are dark and there is nothing wrong with the picture and said thanks :) I asked him to share it with others. I went to the couples now. I said the same thing. Photo has come dark. I had taken only one copy of the picture (The first one posted here). Boy, was she disappointed! She said it is indeed dark and asked me if I have got the pictures I took of her alone. I said I didn't get them printed as it hadn't come that well. For me, the picture I gave showcased the couple's livelihood and their being together was important to me. Picture was dark but for me it was quite artistic. I like my pictures dark. I never use flash and try to get dark shades in my photos as much as possible. But all these "artsy" things meant nothing to the lady. She wanted to see fully lit face of hers. This gave me practical lesson on why hatke movies hardly get any commercial success. Love story, action, 'hero' are the most important things to them. They can't enjoy a movie without it. Well, most of them. I dropped the expectation of getting a free Bajji and left.

In spite of my shattered dreams to become an unknown special person in these people's lives, I left contented with having a satisfaction of doing a good thing.