Deepavali-2008

Today South India celebrates Festival of Lamps as we call it Diwali or Deepavali. "Deep" in Hindi means Lamp or rather earthen lamp. North India celebrates tomorrow. For Bengalis it is worshipping of Mother Kali- another form of Goddess Durga. You can get the information on this activity in my earlier post.
Actually I first tried with an animated gif then Flash but after posting it became still. So am now testing how to do this.

Heyyy!!! I GOT IT ! Yesss!! Yesss!!. The problem was not with the codes or my file. Problem was I was not using a direct link to my file on the servers. Since I use free servers, I was using mediafire.com and esnips.com but now I used http://www.snapdrive.net/ which has free and paid service. The free once allows people to direct link. Good ehh! This is a flash file. By chance the link gets disconnected please tell me someone... thanks..

Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Here are a few photos of Jaipur City. Since I went for work there I could only take photos wherever I went. I had visited this place as a tourist when I did not have a digital camera and so all my old photos still need to be scanned (dont think it will ever happen-- or maybe after I retire !!)

The Road to Jaiour from Delhi

The gate to Pink City -Hawa Mahal (the palace ) and the market. They are trying to maintain the colours. The Hawa Mahal (Hall of Windis- the umpteen windows were for the several queens to look out from their chambers and the design is such that during the heat of Summer in Rajasthan air circulation was maintained and hence the name.)

The busy market place during off period. This market was the bomb blast target recently.

The last one is a National Library I think, if I am remembering correctly. Or maybe the University.

I need not tell anyone about Jaipur. Foreign tourists know more of this than me!! LOL! They can be seen here in plenty. I have heard that some women fall prey to local love and marry locals - some of them just guides [who in Indian society are from the lower strata in terms of economic and educational status) (half of these women do not know probably that the locals marry to go abroad and of course the fascination Indians have for white skin (Alas!).

Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary, Nellore District, Andhra Pradesh, India

I am on a wild life visit spree. I wanted to visit Pulicat Lake Bird Sanctuary in Tamilnadu. This lake is near Andhra Pradesh Border reachabled via Ponneri but I thought the best part of the lake will be the part inside Andhra so went futher ahead till I got a telephone number on a board. Rang up the person and he told me better go to Nelapattu as Pulicat is not in season yet. So there I was. How to reach?
Just drive straight on NH-5 from Chennai to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. NH-5 goes to Calcutta/ Kolkata. Or you can come in the opp direction as well. When you go just drive straight to Nellore. Cross TADA and then reach Sullurpet. There will be a toll plaza (if you are travelling from Chennai to Nellore) after that 15 kms ahead will be a flyover- do not cross that take the side lane and turn right under the flyover.. And there on the left side after you come on the other side of the flyover is the entrance to Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary. It is a fresh water lake and not salt water like Lake pulicat. And unlike Pulicat where you can boat (I am yet to check that) here you walk on the side of the lake inside a covered pathway and see the birds.
By the way after you cross a rail crossing you see the entrance to the Nelapattu bird sanctuary and then on the right side you see some forest offices. Do not stop there go ahead some 500 mts and then you will see the gate on the left side. 50/- for car, 2/- or Adult and 50/- for camera.
Useful phone number 08623 242158 Wild Life Management Division Sullurpet. This is the number who told me to go to Nelapattu and not Pulicat this time. Helpful.

Well the season just started one day earlier and so here are the first birds.. I guess they are Open Bill Storks [from the boards and pictures there]


But some openings need to be... err.. opened...as usual nobody to take care-- our inefficient Govts!!!! The chair is supposed to look out on the lake but the plants have grown and covered. Actually you get very limited view of the lake!! So there!! If you are a discerning visitor do not visit.




The one above is Pond Heron or paddy bird

These are Open Billed Storks. You can identify it by its beak having a gap when closed

But after these photos I see that most of the Birds Sanctuary I will need a 500 mm or higher super telephoto lens if I want to shoot larger photos. But considering that I was hand-holding the camera and the birds were moving so a bit of fudginess for the first time is excused.. Yes I excuse myself!!

There were also a variety of beautiful butterflies. The most beautiful one was red and black but never sat still and so I could not shoot it. These I could.

Common Butterfly - Plain Tiger above and Blue Tiger below

By the way I would like to tell the world that whoever comes to India to do business, even if the Japanese, they probably think the Indian Market is seller friendly. They are right too. Unlike USA where they are careful here they are not. I have found many deficiencies in such products and services. The latest one is that Canon cameras have started a simply club canon edge, where they allow only people who have bought canon cameras from Jan 2008 (EOS 400D and above) to be members. Not that I am losing anything by not being able to become member of this online club but why this discrimination? Would CANON have done this if it was USA? There is nobody to answer my queries even from Canon India Office. So much for Japanese service!! ha!

Gingee Fort, Tamilnadu, India

Gingee [Pronounced as Chee-n-jee here] Fort.

Historians strongly believe that the Jains lived in Gingee from 200 B.C. to 500 A.D. Then Pallavas from 600 AD to 900 AD. Then under Cholas from 900 AD to 1103 AD. Then Gingee came under the supermacy of Pandya, Pallava and Hoysalas from 1104 AD to 1330. Therafter Gingee was under the sway of chieftains, Anandha Koan, Krishna Koan and Pullia Koan and Anandha Koan built "Anandha Giri" and afterwards it became "Raja Giri" His son Krishna Koan built "Krishna Giri" . Hence there are actually two forts -Rajagiri Fort and Krishna Giri Fort. The Chennai-Gingee road passes through the middle with two fort areas on both sides of the road. Then Vijayanagar Kings ruled the fort in 1400 AD. Then Nayakka Rulers for 150 yrs. Then Bijapur Sultans attacked and took over the fort in 1649 AD. Then Marathas in 1677 AD. Then Mughals in 1700 AD to 1750. Then the French took over in 1750 AD.


I could not reach the top of the Rajagiri Fort because it takes two hours to walk up, see and come down. You can estimate the height of the Hilltop portion of the Fort from this picture.

And the next two are shot by Telephoto at 300 mm from the road outside the fort

The next one was shot from outside the fort area against the sun with a telephoto again.

Where Eagles Dare ..Oops! Where crows dare!!

I reached Gingee via Tiruvannamalai but this can be reached from Chennai via Tambaram-Chengalpattu-Tindivanam (here one road goes to Pondycherry via the NH-45 and is 160 kms from Chennai. Visiting hours is 9 am to 5 pm. Try to reach before 2 pm if you want to visit the top. Old people may find it tough to walk that much. Youngsters will enjoy.

A terrace and the stairs to get onto it.

A water Tank. All Indian Forts have this type of tanks for bathing etc. The stairs to go down into it.

You can read more about it here. http://www.gingeefort.com/fort.asp