Street of Three Stations

Aallo !!! :)

Yah... Long time no see... I know. In case you are not in a mood to listen to any excuse, just jump to the next para. In case you are... here are few: # I had to work a few weekends (office work I mean) so, no new picture to show you. # [I guess, one excuse is enough!].

Sohh.. apologies done. Now, some sharing. (btw, I could not find any other logical order in which I could put these pictures, so I will go in the order they were clicked).

July 3rd,2011 was the Rath Yatra festival. Rashmila, Sounak, Sayani, Sewoti and I made a plan to get some of the Rath Yatra pics on that day. So we all decided to be at Park Street Metro Station (the first station from the title) at 1pm. When I came down from the bus at around 12:55, I got this man.
I was just checking my camera's battery and calendar settings when I found him lighting that cigarette. He probably had sensed that this guy with the camera is trying to take his pic, but he didn't move a muscle more than it was required to blow out the smoke. The way he ignored me, I got a feeling that he will look wherever he wants to but will never LOOK BACK.

I was there near the station and had just started to wait for others to join in, when I felt a little thirst looking at these colourful bottles.
Although I took only a glass of mist coloured Nimbu Paani, my real intentions were now turned to use my camera here. I asked him if I could take his picture. He should me an open palm [meaning: Stop!]. I stopped. Then he said, "When you take it, take the whole." and took out his full beard (those two long locks). I clicked happily. For me, this was the best catch of the day. I call it WATER COLOUR.

One thing I must confess, before we even started for Park Street, Rumki [my would be sister-in-law!] gave us the information that the ISKCON Rath will leave from Minto Park at 1pm odd and will reach Park Street not before 4 in the evening. [What is Rath Yatra?]Even after knowing this, we five gathered near the place and simply started walking towards Maidan Metro Station (the second one).
It was a Sunday afternoon and the streets were quite empty. So we five were a little more free to be a little more of ourselves. In front of every multistoreyed building, in our way to the station, the girls were screaming their own names and we two boys would get inside every ATM counter just to catch some low temperature air. And yes, when we crossed the road to the cathedral, I got this. That is the dome of the Birla Planetarium, that is the top of the St. Paul's Cathedral and that statue is of Indira Gandhi, OVERLOOKING.

After a few photo sessions (only I was not from St.Thomas School, rest of the four were and it was a long awaited reunion of Sewoti with Sayani), we walked inside the shade of a bus stand where I (and everybody else too) found this.
I wish you could read the lines directly. Just try. But in case you are not able to, here is what it is written: Through many years, / At great expense,/ Journeying through many countries,/ I went to see high mountains,/ I went to see oceans./ Only I had not seen, / At my very doorstep,/ The dew drops glistering/ On the ear of the corn. I will leave the interpretation of these LINES AND A SKETCH on you.

It was not 3:00 till then, so the gates of the church was not opened yet. And this was the time when Sewoti decided to treat us with some ice cream. The me in me was more than delighted! After the break, we all kept walking on the pavement behind the church and before we could feel tired about the walk, we were behind the Academy of Fine Arts premises. From there, before we could enter the Nandan campus, I got this [Nandan is a West Bengal Government sponsored center for cinema and other visual art facilitation and awareness and is very near to the Rabindra Sadan Metro station (the third one!)].
They say, the time of the machines or Kaliyug started with the death of Krishna when a hunter wounded his feet, mistakenly, with his arrow. This is a poster of a play called 'Krishna, the man alone' just outside the premises of the academy. If you see clearly you will see the very moment when the times of compassion ends and the times of mechanical emotions begins casually leaving behind some WOUNDED FOOTPRINTS.

Inside the Nandan campus, I too had a little reunion with my college friends Anirban and Anirban [Banerjee and Ghosh, (AB and Maha)]. But, I will say it openly, I did not stay with them for long showing my own reasons (its okay, you can be judgmental.). Then a few more pictures got shot, then people started to leave. After a little snacks at the Exide Haldiram's we went to the cathedral. Sewoti was in her usual super charged up mode and Rashmila was too being herself!

After this, we three parted ways. Strangely enough, none of us ended up returning back to Park Street for the Rath snaps which was the main reason why we were out in the first place.

Well... that was more or less how that afternoon of mine and of four more was spent...

By the way, this post was not intended to show the photograph but to show the little picture of the street inside them. So, if you hate them, I will say, I cannot help it at all coz that is how the place is... :)

Till next time,
Cheers! :)

Whites and Blacks

Hey guys!

Doing good? hmm?? O... great! that's a relief to know! :)
Well... its a summer again and its all humid and hot in the city. So, no outdoors for a couple of months...But, thankfully 2011 has the summer less cruel than 2010...

For a few days I have been taking shots of some very common place objects. Tables , chairs and what not; but could not create a "Mr.P" out of them. Guess I will never know what he actually used to do with the camera. Yah, he is still not back and I am still looking for him. But all the days he was there with me, he made me realize one thing very clearly: To make anything look beautiful, you have to believe that it is already beautiful.

Ahhmm... well... enough of philosophy. Below are a few takes by me very much inside my own room. And yes... there are no colours.

In October 2009, me and my entire family (of more than fifteen members) had a Kerala trip. [You can find the full Kerala travelogue here]. There, our last destination was Cochin. From there I bought these.
I am a little strange kind of traveler who generally forgets to bring back souvenirs. Only get reminded about them when I see someone else buy them. Same case with these. But here is another fact - I got these BLADES for me and they were the only souvenirs I brought back. (yes, you sure have the rights to be judgmental about me...).

The next one is a shot I got holding the camera in one hand (you can SEE why). But strangely, no blur! This one (not the shot but that metallic object in it) was again a thing back from a place (Pelling, March 2011, colleagues).
Nothing new to say about my "bring things for people too" habit. But honestly, I wanted this piece of work for myself. No offense guys, but it was raining in the hilltop and I grabbed and ran with what I could (after paying, off course). The lady who sold me this fake Tibetan MEDALLION was good enough to grant me a good discount even after my poor bargaining for a just a cast on metallic piece.

People say, there is no bigger achievement in this world than to be able to love selflessly. One day, a kitten, barely a few days old and hungry, was found meowing in the little garden of our house. My sister, took it in. Today, if noone, then at least a cat knows that somebody has scored a big achievement in the house where it lives now.
All is fine, but what is with the name?? My sister calls him (him) - Strawberry. (Guess... Spike or Tiger or Killer would have done better.) Anyway, a good part of Strawberry's daily activity includes coming to our second floor, rubbing its torso with the feet of people (like me) and simply DOZE the time off.

Even though it is summer, gray skies and little storms are not very unusual in the city. And for a careful boy like me, closing the windows in time is... well... something of a topic which you should not discuss with my mom. With no more damage than a layer of dust on the floor, that day the wind lowered its velocity leaving one of these in my room:
It is a very very rare habit of mine of keeping leaves and flowers inside books. On seeing this dried and flat guest, few things came back to me. I have no idea if it came directly from a dead tree, or from a nearby garbage bin or it was at all a symbol of A MEMORY of someone, kept inside somebody's secret diary (and later, let go off).


Wohh!! It seems I talked a lot today. Must stop now (you gotta get back to what you were doing!)... Anyway, it is needless to say that it was great, yet again, to spend these minutes with you.

Hopefully, will see you next time with something better to show.
Till then, stay healthy stay cheerful...
Bye! :)

Pelling: a few shots

Hi,

Yes, Pelling is the place where I, along with few of my office colleagues - Manu, Biswanath, Sarbartha, Surya and Soumik da went for a weekend break. To summarize our trip in a evidently poor understatement, I would say that the time was awesome! :)

Now, about this post. It should not be here. Truly speaking, this blog is liked by people because of Mr.P. And this time, I could not find him anywhere. I discovered that I have lost him somewhere when I landed in New Jalpaiguri Station (NJP, from where Pelling is a 5 hour drive). Was planning to make this post more of a travelogue type of something, but now I can see that I wont be able to. So, a big "SORRY" to all of you for me not being in a position to describe our Pelling trip in a systematic manner. Whatever I could pick up (yes, I had to do it. Mr.P was not there this time!), after learning from Mr.P, here they are:

This one runs along the entire mountainous road which we had to take from NJP to Pelling. To get a proper view of the river, I changed my seat three times in that vehicle, but my luck, the river always showed up its best from those windows which was farthest from me. My adolescent years were spent near places where shallow mountain rivers are not a very uncommon thing. Views of this TISTA river, made me go a little back. Saw many things worth posting in our journey that day but as Mr.P was not there, so, I messed up the shots.

When we reached Pelling, it was definitely not more that 7-8 degrees Celsius there. After Biswanath and Surya played the major part in discussion which we had that night, the sandman came to work very early. Next morning... ... it was worth waking up at 5am with just a couple of degree Celsius of heat around. KANGCHENDZONGA. All of us saw this Himalayan citizen gradually becoming more and more prominent with the sunrise. Take it from me, you have to be there to feel thankful for your gift of sight.

After breakfast, we sat out for some sight seeing. After crossing Rimbi Waterfalls, while going for the Rimbi Rock Garden, we saw this. It is called RHODODENDRON, the state flower of Sikkim. The driver who was there with us, was getting very excited while showing us any such tree. I have never seen anyone becoming so happy while showing a flower, that too not very rare. Undoubtedly beautiful (isn't it??), but not rare! I dont know he was being a travel guide or was really happy.

After the Rock Garden, we were at the Kanchenzonga Falls. It was grand and I got some shots too, but none of them were worth posting. Then we went to the holy Khechuperi Lake. They say that the birds in that area don't allow even a single leaf to be floating on the lake's water. Near the lake there is a monastery and a worship place. Everyone has to enter with their shoes off. But I went as inside as possible with my shoes on (with no ill faith at heart off course) to see this sight. Complete darkness coexisting with a MILLION LIGHTS.

Outside, there was a good crowd of tourists (now pilgrims). But among those tourists there were a good number of locals too. While we were on our way back to our vehicle, these maroon clad PUPILS were on their way towards the lake. (I actually have no idea what to write about them, so wont talk much here now).

And in the souvenir shop just outside the premises, I saw something that I had only heard of and seen in the internet. Do you see that cylindrical thing (with that artistic metallic base) mounted on that black thick handle (behind that wooden horn)? Well, I don't know what that is called in English but in Bengali, it is called jap yantra i.e. a device to aid meditation. The echo of a far away faint Buddhist chants comes to me mind whenever I think of this device. I dont know why it happens. Probably the way I have always been picturing it since childhood, has something to do with it!

After this, we came back to our hotel, had lunch and sat out again. We saw the Dentam Valley (where I messed up the shot) and then we went to the Pemayangtshe Monastery. Only Sarabrtha and Soumik da went inside (photography was not allowed inside, so I, a so-called friend of Mr.P waited outside). He was sitting outside with two more of his fellows. He was the youngest of the three. He was being photographed by a few more. He didnt want to be shot by me. He tried to hide his face. He was curious at the same time. He was the LITTLE MONK.

After Manu took a timer mode shot of six of us in front of the monastery, we left for the the second highest suspension bridge in Asia. Nearing 200 meters in height the SHINGSHORE BRIDGE gives a magnificant view of the valley between the two mountains which it connects. We six took a to and fro walk on the bridge. It was drizzling lightly and a little lonely walk with a calm song in ones earphones didnt look like a bad idea to me. Later I realised that it was worth the time.

We came back and our driver bid us farewell when we all decided to get down at the Helipad. This place has been made by trimming the top of a mountain and gives a 360 degrees view of the place. From the top, I took this. The town of PELLING. 6620 feet high but one frame and thats enough. As Surya had said on the very evening of our arrival "Its only an alley". Standing there, I could not have agreed more. The drizzle was still on after trying for some facebook profile pics, we all descended down.

The next day, we came even more down to NJP in a somewhat 4 hours of Hollywood-action-sequence type of ride and from there, on Monday early morning, to our very dear Kolkata.

I know, this was not the best of the posts you have seen. But still, it would be great if you could tell me how was it. :)

Till next time. Cheers!

P.S. If you happen to see Mr.P anywhere, please let him know that I am looking for him. 

The Sundarbans

Hello,

How you doing? :) Me? Trying to be good! :)

Well, many of you know that I was out of town last weekend (I mean 18Feb to 20Feb, 2011). And many of you know where I was. For those who don't... it was the magnificent Sundarbans. Mamondi, Asit da, Rajat da and Bipasha di luckily didn't mind to carry me with them. Well, I wont bore you with something that can start like "as you all know that the Sundarbans is the home of the Royal Bengals ... blah blah blah". You can get ample amount of information about this one of a kind mangrove forest here.
As of now, please let me show you the sights we enjoyed (and Mr.P captured). Even though there are more than 45 photographs in total and keeping in mind the patience I myself will need to go through them, I have clubbed the pictures as per a somewhat logical group (could not afford to miss out a single one!). So I think, there need not be any official warning to be issued as far as the length of this post is concerned.

Okay, here I go. Below is the collage of the changing scenes throughout our journey. We were in a four wheeler which went through the changing urban picture and dropped us at the ferry ghat of Gothkhali.
Please go clockwise, you will find an order. This was our two and half hours of CLOCKWISE JOURNEY.

On that very day, we went for some sightseeing around the Gosaba-Rangabelia island. This was the island where we were lodging too.
Among the major rural industries, one is of hand made garments and one of the important such producer is the Rangabelia Mahila Samiti, a small scale industry run entirely by women. Even after the cyclone Aaila devastated the delta, people here TODAY are continuing to look forward.

If you happen to have a look at the southern most portion of the Indian state of West Bengal and the southern parts of Bangladesh, you will see enormous tributaries and distributaries of many river running to merge into the Bay of Bengal.
People here have taken the rivers as a part of their society. A lot comes from it and a lot goes into it. But no matter how fair or unfair is this natural transaction, people here are completely DELTA DEPENDENTS.

People like us, who were tourists, were looking at the place from the perspective of a reader of a book with glossy paper and lots of pictures. But like every other place on this earth, there are ruthless truths of lives besides the singular beauty.
Although tourism is something promoted by the state government itself and gives a good deal of employment to the locals, but besides that people there are engaged in occupation like fishing, agriculture, woodcutting, honey collection etc. EVERYDAY in everybody's life is for its continuation.

Now, our main sightseeing began the day next. We had to take the permit from the Forest Department at Sojnekhali Post to enter the jungles. We had Mr. Manas Mondal as our guide. Setting foot in any of the open jungle is strictly prohibited by the Forest Department, so whatever was seen, was from the boat itself.
After a certain distance, there was completely open and untamed forest on both side of the river (the river kept changing its names from Matla to Bidyadhari, Basanti, Piyali and what not from place to place). But its the forest which gives this place its name - SUNDARI. The unique respiratory system of the vegetation, the ecological society is completely a wonder there. (By the way, that single plant is a Sundari plant).

From the boat and from the watch tower and canopy walk at Dobaki, we could be legally closest to the open forests. Although, the picture below took more than a just a few shots by Mr.P, but I am presenting it to you all in the most summarized way possible.
I am extremely sorry if this group of picture is somewhat not very clear. From top right, its a Spotted Deer (behind the bushes), to its left is a Monitor Lizard (yes, that deep grey four footed thing). Below the lizard its a Rhesus Monkey (and its baby) and in the bottom right, we have a Saltwater Crocodile (a portion of its head and back can be seen outside the water). All these photographs of these CITIZENS have been taken in the open wild, in their natural habitats. Trust me, its a different feeling to be in this raw kingdom.

Other than these land and aquatic dwellers, we were lucky enough to get a few glimpse of their aerial counterparts. Most of them, again, were spotted at the banks of the river, walking, feeding or flying.
Well, I am again sorry if this picture is not clear and here I cant even help you out to recognise, which one is which one. They all are some kind of egrets. (Trust me, all are different!). May not be as appealing as the Mammalia or the Reptilia counterparts but they sure are a bunch of FEATHERS IN THE CAP of the Sundarbans.

It was Bipasha di who took drew our attention towards a rather small but astonishing world at the mud on the banks. After we got a glimpse of it, no doubt was left that there is no way these mangroves are going to stop surprising us.
Hopefully this picture is clearer than a previous few. Clockwise from top, first is one of a kind yellow crab (beautiful, na?), a one clawed red one, a hermit crab (in that borrowed shell) with probably a purple friend beside it and finally, in the bottom left, with some of the most marvelous survival adaptations, the mudskipper fish (if possible, please read about it). Undoubtedly, the MUDWORLD is itself a wonder.

And what is Sundarbans without the Royal Bengals. But, sadly enough, we five could not spot any. Our guide said that even though we might have seen tigers in zoos, but watching one walking in the forest (from safe distance) in its own royal demeanor is a sight to remember.
But we were lucky enough to be able to see a fresh pugmark of a Royal Bengal Tiger. To its right is a Bonobibi temple. Local fishermen, honey collectors, wood cutters and everybody who enters this dangerous forest for a living, first offer a prayer to Bonbibi, the deity who is believed to protect one and all in these islands, and then enter the forest. You can read about Bonbibi here. To prevent the tigers from coming out and swim to the human localities, such nylon nets are used (Yes, they do work. Tigers are known to fear these nets for their own safety). These forests are undoubtedly beautiful but also are mysterious and a TERROR'S TERRITORY.

The (permitted) sightseeings were from sunrise to sunset. But what was bonus to the amazing diversity of the these mangrove forests was the sky when we were tired after the day.
I know, I have said this a lot in the past, but the scene of a setting sun never grows old. And please trust me when I say that none of these photographs have been enhanced (none!), all are here as they were seen. Along with the forest, its inhabitants, the people, these CELESTIAL GOLDS at the end were worth a wait.

In total, we were there for three days and two nights. Our hotel had the minimums in plenty. The hospitality was unbelievably good and so was the food. Electricity was only for five hours 6pm to 11pm (out of that diesel generator). Left no area to really complain, we all had a fantastic and relaxing yet exciting holiday at the Sundarbans. Take it from me, its worth a visit!


That was more or less of what Mr.P and I had seen there. Please let us know if you enjoyed this little tour. We will be waiting! :)

Till then... Cheers! :)

A Walk in the Graveyard

Hi,

Today (Feb 12th, 2011) Rashmila, Sewoti, Deepak and I (and Mr.P) were out again. Among us, Sewoti was excited the most. It was again Rashmila who planned out the entire outing. The place where we had gone to visit today was a graveyard in the past The South Park Street Cemetery. The burial ground was opened in 1767 and was in use till mid 19th century. In the last more than 150 years, there has been no funeral on these grounds. There are more than 2000 people resting in peace in the cemetery. Its currently a heritage site and a tourist's place in Kolkata. The place has got graves of people like Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (poet and teacher), Sir William Jones, founder of the Asiatic Society. The tallest obelisk of the cemetery is of his grave.

Lately, the site has been made famous ten folds by a Bengali movie: Gorosthanay Shabdhan [beware the graveyard]. The movie is based on a detective story by Satyajit Ray, of same name, featuring Feluda.

Okay, after the history and the facts, now lets get to our outing. First, I must mention that the pictures have been put here with all the respect to the ones who are resting in peace and those who love them. I wont let my talkative nature come in between coz its the silence which is the real sound of such a place.

GUARD


GATEWAY


REST


HONORED EVER AFTER


SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS


HEAVEN'S OWN

The epitaphs on a few were really a work of poets, even though all of them carried the endless emotion which the loved ones had for the person. At a few places, there were husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, fathers and sons together. Sometimes, the whole family has been buried at the same place, side by side. As Rashmila told us, they are called the talking graves. There were soldiers, high ranking officials, civilians, fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, artists, poets, leaders, teachers and who not. But all appeared to be same once they were done with this world.

Although the last shot may make you think that we were there till dark, but we were not. The place closes at 5 in the evening. Even though we had to have some heated arguments with a few "official"s there over some mindless issues, but we all came out in a cheerful mood. We walked the entire Park Street (with a halt for a "little" snacks, thanks to Sewoti!) till the metro rail stations and from there, we four took off for our homes.


The South Park Street Cemetery was more of an experience than a mere outing for us. If you get a chance, please pay a visit to this place.

Till next time,
Bye :)

Fakesperiment

Hi,

Yes, its us again. Me and Mr.P. This post is gonna be a really small one (just two pictures, only). Nothing much to fill in between. Here is the first one.
This is a shot taken from just outside the "container" in which this thing was SMUGGLED in. [Please don't laugh. We need your co-operation with the imagination here.]

The next one is here below is after the thing gets past the "black" hands and passes to more respectable hands, often with an entirely different story of its discovery/arrival to go with the present genre of admirers.
Raised in degree and after gone higher in CLASS, these things become the reasons for the change in characters and intentions. Even elementary science is able to categorizes these only as a chunk of crystalline carbon, just a degree fairer than its cousin-the pencil lead.

Okay... time up... please come out of the imaginary envelope (if at all you were there!). These two were the best from about fifty five shots by Mr.P. And the shots were nothing but a lazy afternoon diffused flash experiment with something... [please refer the title of this post].

We will be glad to know your comments on this postlet.
Bye! :)

Mr.P in the Wild

Well, almost he was there.
Other than the wilderness of the city itself, there is a dedicated area in Kolkata for those stunningly beautiful creations of God called animals. That area known as the Alipur Zoo. (and... Mr.P wanted some 'wildlife photography' in his cards and a zoo was the best option when only a couple of hours are there to spare)

The plan was by Sayani to spend the holiday of our Republic Day in the zoo. She is the twin sister of Saunak (yes, the same one!). Another very old and dear, Sumana joined us. But unfortunately, Saunak had to finish some urgent work and he could not be part of the little time out.

Mr.P has tried not to get the cages and bars in his photographs. But at places he was helpless (high cages, stuffy crowd, dust, insufficient camera zoom, mood of the animals, etc.)

Okay, enough of the preface. Lets get on with Mr.P's collection of the day. It was 11:45 am when we were inside the zoo premises.
This animal was the first on our list. Its a NILGAI. Well, there is apparently nothing NIL (Blue) about it, but its ultra-great-grandfathers were also called so. So there is nothing much that our generation can do about its name.

Next was a remainder that we had two bottles of Coke in my bag and two packets of pop-corns with us. We started with them and came here.
The label near this animal had SLOTH BEAR written on it. We saw there is a yellow "V" around its neck (not visible in the picture). These typical bears are used by those people who put up the road side "Bhalu Naach" shows (Although, it is banned now).

When we reached the next animal, it was showing the entire crowd in front of its cage its... well... "back side". But later it changed its position a little.As tried by Mr.P, no cage or bars. I have heard a few experts say that ZEBRA is one of those animals which is really tough to tame and also that the stripe patterns of each zebra in this world is as unique as the finger prints of each human being.

I don't know but due to some "unknown" reason, Sumana was getting very curious to get to the monkeys and apes. We reached near the Chimpanzee's area, but it was not outside its shelter. We walked on and reached the other cages.Even though it was terribly dusty near this BABOON's area, but the look it was holding in its eyes, was something that Mr.P just could not leave unshot. I have no idea what the animal was thinking/looking at but by the looks of it, it could not have been just a crow that he might have been trying to spot.

Next is the one for which Sayani found the perfect spot for Mr.P to shoot. he was at a different place, but he ran down to the new found area around the boundary to get this shot.
This GHARIYAL is Mr.P's one of the most satisfying pick of the day. Three of these were basking in the sun and this one was giving just the correct pose to be shot and published here in this post.

Then came the animal which features behind the 10 rupees currency note and 25 paisa coin of India and is an enlisted endangered species.In spite of that heavy and thick skin and the signature horn on his nose (not in the one in this picture), the RHINOCEROS are not very tough to hunt down if ambushed properly. This one though was generous enough to show us its running capabilities inside its boundary itself.

Well, apologies first. The Royal Bengal Tiger was not out of its (fully covered) shelter, so no opportunity for Mr.P to shoot it. Although, a close cousin of it was in a mood for a stroll in the winter afternoon sun.A little discussion made a recollection that a WHITE TIGER is a very close cousin of Panthera Tigris i.e. a common tiger (although they are not very common anymore these days). Its just the skin pigmentation that differs this type from the rarest one.

But one lady was surely out and was enjoying the mild sun. Mr.P is sorry for not being able to avoid the cage in this next shot.The metallic board on its cage read INDIAN LIONESS. Thanks to the auto focus settings (for the crowd and pushes) the cage became more prominent than the queen herself. No matter how many people come and see her in her royal slumber, she just refused to get disturbed.

Next was a bird. Honestly speaking, even a decade ago, I was not as tall as this bird in its fully standing position. Its not an Ostrich (there was a zoom problem and the ostriches turned out to be camera shy, so no ostrich pic).This bird here is called an EMU. Although its a completely flightless bird, but still its cage was completely covered (another helpless situation for Mr.P). It was estimatedely about...aaa... 5 feet tall.

Then was this shot. Something that was not shot by Mr.P but by Sayani. The animal was too far away for even a full 10x zoom.Guess its quite old, that's why the manes are not bushy enough. Its a LION. I had a special request from my friend Sujay when he called me up in the morning, which goes like "I need the pictures of a lions teeth". Well, sorry dude, his majesty didn't yawn (or tried to eat us) the time we were around his territory.

Now for the most intelligent group after the ones who were outside the cages. There were three, and were in a slightly playful mood.No doubt these ELEPHANTS had to be in an artificial setup, but in comparison to the elephant shots in Kerala by Mr.P they were a little 'not so catchy'. By the way is it only I who can see that gentle smile on this ones face?

Now for the most idiotic one. Although Mr.P can blame it on the thick crowd in his left and right. Moving along the Jaguar and Panther cages, Mr. had to somehow hold his hand high and shoot.Yes, yes, I know. The face of the CHEETAH is hidden behind the stupid log. But, this little embarrassment (for Mr.P) is worth the show of the beautiful skin for this fantastic creature. This skin, again, has turned out to be the one for which poachers are after this animal.

Initially, the next animal was not visible to the eyes. But later a few shouts of "there it is, there it is" revealed its position. Only the mouth of the animal was not open, or else it would have made a typical Nat Geo frame.Once, one of the group member was spotted, the others were discovered just below and around it. But this ALLIGATOR, somehow wanted to be clicked separately, so it came out of the huddle and sat peacefully in its own sun.

In the next one also, there were bars which were possible to be avoided only by a helicopter shot (so, it was not avoided by Mr.P today!). When we reached this area, a weird calmness came upon all of us.There was a father, a mother and a child GIRAFFE. These animals are mute but not a bit less beautiful than the Cheetah or the Tiger or the Lioness. When we reached, the entire giraffe family was out. Strangely, it was feeling great to be standing there.


We moved out after some more time. No doubt the day was great. I went to the zoo after almost a decade and still found the same magic working in me as I had always remembered it to work. Also I am lucky enough to have this "Mr.P" to accompany me now-a-days! :)

Please let us know about your thoughts about this post. We would be really glad to know if you still feel the same way about the zoo as you did when you were a child.

Bye for now :)