Bridges and Rivers

I had not planned to travel in March - in fact I didnt have any destinations or holidays in mind . However, a couple of pilgrimages and family trips took me to into some of India's beautiful places. And I crossed several rivers .They were dry , but the sheer beauty of seeing water in a dry landscape is an amazing experience .

There is the River Tunga in Sringeri in Chikmagalur with such amazing fish which are both protected and revered..




There was the River Bhadra in Chikmagalur near the Kandya temple and at Kudre Habbi with some amazing rock formations caused by the force of the water


The two rivers join to form Tungabhadra. We crossed the river at Mantralaya , but there was hardly any water there.We moved on and the River Krishna stopped us , but we couldnt stop by at the bridge to take a picture. However, we were able to take quite a few of its tributary River Bheema in Yaadgiri.



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Images of India - On a hot summer day

 

Of late Ive been driving into rural India more often than once. Almost every trip has taken me into this rustic world where villages and small towns seem to beckon me. This has probably been so over the last six months and probably barring Chennai and Hyderabad, I havent been to a city . I just returned from a weekend trip only to become a casualty to Bangalore's pollution, heat and dust. Maybe thats why Im advocating a holiday to a pollution free world

In a way, I seem to be more inclined towards villages than small towns. I believe rural tourism has great potential - not just portraying the stereotypes or "real India" as the guide books say, but a connect back to the simpler,more basic way of life . What do you think ?

Images of India - a drying yard in a coffee estate

I was in Malenadu last week, on my way to Sringeri and we transited through the coffee country - Hassan, Belur, Chikmagalur.If you followed my twitter updates, you would have got a feel of the journey.

I was at a couple of coffee estates , which have a colonial feel to them.One of the plantations is up hill in Chikmagalur near Balehanoor and we drove into the drying yard. There was less coffee and more spices, especially green pepper in this drying yard .


Persuaded by Gopal and Deepak I've enrolled for the photoblog contest.Pls vote for me here and dont forget to vote for Deepak and Gopal as well.

Faces of Chennai

images from the photowalk - You meet many faces when you walk down the road and some stay with you..

Chennai-moments and monuments

Our photo-walk continues as we walk past the Churches -Wesley and St Andrew's Kirk.It gets hotter, but we pause by capturing a few moments and monuments on the lens.


Pink seems to be the flavour of the season - the Govt Arts college and the Egmore station .




We continued looking at some old houses, offices ,shops, hotels until my battery ran out..






And something that made us go dead in our tracks !

On the street where I live-Chennai

A beautiful Wesley Church lies a few houses away from my house, a part of which faces the Poonamallee High Road . It was just another monument until a few days ago.

A landmark of Chennai

 

Vamsee had tagged me a while ago and the rules were fairly simple. I had to select the 6th picture in my 6th folder and write the story of the picture. To begin with, Ive altered the rules a bit here. Its the 6th picture alright, but its from my latest folder - the Chennai photowalk that started at Dasaprakash and went on till Rippon Building. Ironically the latter is the landmark of the city, but my post speaks of the former.

When Aarti told me that the walk started from Dasaprakash, I couldnt say no . After all, I lived down the road. This was my area and it would be fun to discover it through a lens. Secondly, the hotel has several fond memories - of playing as a kid, enjoying the icecream in the parlour , meeting friends and being treated by parents in the restaurant. The dasaprakash dosa was the most delicious dish ever tasted. This was of course years before fast and junk food took over our lives .


Sadly however, the hotel doesnt offer services anymore .In fact no one knows whether it does or not, but it has an empty look about it.The picture says it all. Family disputes followed by litigation, union strikes have been the cause - but if rumours are to be believed, there is a talk of a buy over and a revival. Until then, the landmark lives on as a reference to the traffic junction opposite the building,as one haggles with the auto driver .