Lal Bagh, Bangalore

Today morning, me and my wife decided to check out the annual flower show at Lal Bagh Botanical garden, Bangalore. Even though this garden is just 2 k.m. away from our house, we rarely spend time there in fresh air.Today is the last day of the famous flower show, so I was expecting a quite a lot of people along with regular walkers and joggers. But to our surprise I could spot very few visitors like me, which was nice for us. 

We headed towards the glass house where we could see the creativity of mother nature amended by human imagination. Yes, I'm talking about "Flower pouring out of a pot" kind of exhibits and other floral displays.The main attraction of this year's flower show is Buddhist Stupa.

The Glass House

We moved around and could also see the riot of colors surrounding the glass house and believe me the colors are so vibrant that you will be forced to capture those as I did....

I call it "Riot of Colors"

There were lot of activities going on with stalls being put up for vendors and exhibitors. One kind of stalls were able to catch attention of my camera lens. It is Bonsai, living dwarf tree.

Bonsai

It is reported that almost 2.25 lakhs of people visited Lal bagh on 26th Jan 2012, excluding the hundreds of humble pigeons ofcourse. I have been to Lal bagh several times in the past but I have never seen such numbers. May be the flowers are responsible as it was in our case today.

A lot of people say that the Lal Bagh is not complete unless you climb the Hill which is made up of 3,000 million year old peninsular gneissic rocks. It is believed that one of the four cardinal towers erected by Kempegowda II, also a major tourist attraction, is seen above this hillock. I'm trying to capture the Kempegowda tower in the below picture as a silhouette.

kempegowda Tower

It felt very pleasant to witness this colorful event and we could only admire about the creation of nature as we slowly walked away...A small amount of time worth spent.. Have a nice day.

Mesmerizing Masinagudi

Masinagudi is a dense sub-tropical nature reserve on the foothills of the Nilgiris bordering the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu. The Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary has varied mixture of flat land, undulating parkland, open grassland, swamp, valleys and nullas. Mudumalai is famous for its elephant habitat and this is one of India's best sanctuaries. It is sandwiched between the Bandipur and Anamalai Sanctuaries.  It is rich in bio-diversity and dense vegetation. It has thousands of varieties of flora and fauna in the beautiful forests and is a truly mesmerizing experience in itself. There are three beautiful rivers that flow through the sanctuary.

On the way to Masinagudi

We have decided to spend our weekend at a jungle resort called The Tamarind Tree. This resort is beautifully located on the foothills of the so called Blue Mountains, The Nilgiris.

View from the resort

They have different kinds of cottages. We have booked Studio Machan which was worth paying for.

The Tamarind Tree

Studio Machan

Morning at Masinagudi

The best thing you can do when you are in Masinagudi is arrange early morning jungle safari at Mudumalai Wildlife Reserve. The entry point of the Wildlife Reserve is at Theppakudu’s reception range forest office. Entry fees vary for Indians and foreigners. At the reserve you find tigers, jackals, four horned antelopes, hyenas, wild dogs, mouse deer, leopards, chital, macaques, common langur, dhole, panthers, gaur, mongoose, porcupine etc. So next day early morning we decided to check wildlife.

Jeep waiting for us to take inside the forest

Deer

This temple inside the deep forest is believed to be the worship place for Veerappan.

Tiger Range. Worth only for lucky few...We were not :-(

Funtime at the resort

Sia with her friend

After spending 2 wonderful days with nature, we were not happy to go back to the same hustling and bustling city life. I guess Sia was also thinking the same....

 

Trip to Ahmedabad

It was a bright and sunny day when Jino and I stepped outside the Ahmedabad Airport at 9:10 a.m.Let me introduce Jino; he is my colleague and photography partner. Manish from Epoch Research Institute was waiting for us outside to take us to the Hotel. It was a short business trip and we preferred to stay some place close to the central district. So, Hotel de ecobiz was ideal as it is located opp. to Akashwani, Income Tax Circle. It is a nice business hotel with warm and friendly staff.

Ahmedabad is a gastronomic paradise. You will find at least one restaurant in every nook and corner.We decided to try traditional gujrati "Thali" meal for lunch.We went to a restaurant called Gordhan Thal on Sarkhej Gandhinagar Highway. This place is very nice and has a traditional ambiance.

Restaurant "Gordhan Thal"

A thali consists of variety of concoctions including salads, appetizers, snacks, breads, pulses, vegetable curries and sweets. This is a very unique experience in terms of not only taste and quality but also the way the items are served.

Gujrati Thali

It took us some extra time to finish our work. It was 7pm already, so we decided to check out city night life. A bit of shopping will be a good idea as Ahmedabad is well known for its textile industries. Be sure to look at the traditional hand embroidered and tie 'n die clothes. We could see plenty of road side stalls near Law garden. You can get traditional gujrati dress within reasonable price. But of course, you need to bargain a lot. For fixed price garments there are various Handlooms or emporiums available.



If you are a foodie, you have too many options to try from roadside stalls at the Khau Galli in Law Garden area.

You can get mouth watering Paani-Puri (GolGappa), Indian Chats, Ice creams, Pizza (they call it Pizzo), Sandwiches, Indian-Chinese and some continental cuisines for a reasonable price and available till late night.

Food Stalls at Khau Galli

After eating at Khau Galli we became more excited to visit the old places. So we headed towards Teen Darwaja, Lal Darwaja and Delhi Darwaja. We found these places very crowded even at night 10 o'clock. On the way you could see a very old mosque called SIDI SAIYYAD'S mosque located near Lal Darwaja. This mosque was constructed in the year 1573.This mosque is world renowned for its intricate stone carvings, especially for its ten unique and splendid semi-circular tracery windows.

Stone carved window of Sidi Saiyyad's mosque

We got up early next day morning to explore this colorful city. We could not make a proper plan due to the fact that we need to catch a flight to Bangalore in the afternoon. We started with Sabarmati Ashram as it was not far from our hotel. We were the first visitors on that day. We saw staffs cleaning ashram premises. It was a very calm and peaceful atmosphere and a beautiful landscape. We started taking photographs without disturbing the silence.

I enjoy clicking flower close-ups.I was happy I could find few shots.

The primary attraction of this place is Hridaya Kunj (Gandhi Ji's House). Inside Gandhi ji's room we could see few elderly people taking strength from Bapu to keep their hope alive.

Hridaya Kunj


Gandhi Ji's Room

After spending 1 hour at the Gandhi Ashram (also known as Satyagraha Ashram) we headed towards our next destination which is called Adalaj Vav (Step well) of Adalaj. It is located almost 19km from north of Ahmedabad.It is a seven-storied structure in the shape of a well. It has several chambers, and the travelers and caravans usually made use step wells as halt point along their business ways. It was built in A.D.1498

This place is a architectural marvel and looks mysterious.The lone care taker of this place were very keen to tell us stories about this place which you can not find it in any book.

Adalaj Vav Care Taker

Our next destination was the famous Akshardham Temple at Gandhinagar. It is a must see for any tourist visiting Gujrat. Six thousand tonnes of pink sandstone was used in building the monument which is regarded as an architectural masterpiece. Unfortunately we could not take any pictures as the temple management does not allow you to take any electronic items inside. They have cloak rooms where you can keep your mobile phones, camera etc. Be prepare to keep alteast 2 hr to visit this amazingly beautiful temple.

We have almost come closer to our short trip to this lively beautiful city. We are heading towards the airport and looking outside from the car, hoping to make it again...