My first Vehicle

This one thing I always wanted since I was a kid. Remember having an option to either buy a cycle or a Video Game when I was in 8th Standard, I chose otherwise and this thing remained for a very very long time. My mom was always against it saying you don't know riding. 

Going for cycling rides in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the winters of 2012 was a frequent thing. But as the time passed, the cycles which we used to get on hire deteriorated. Hence was left with no choice to stop going for it. Only option left was to buy a cycle and keep it well maintained.  Soumit, my friend who used to come to hit the greens in the winters bought a cycle, continued the weekend rides and I thought I will buy it soon.

Time passed, it was on May 5, 2013, another friend from office, Jay Shah one more Cycle enthusiast (whose cycle was stolen recently) and I visited this Firefox service station in Vileparle, an authorised dealer closest to the vicinity and bought my ride partner - Firefox Target. When conveyed about my thought of buying a cycle, my mom was laughing at me saying buy a car, this is not an age for a cycle but I said this is what fits into my budget and I am going to go for it. Weekends are fun since than. Its been a couple of months, the rides have become regular thing on one of the days over weekend. 18-20kms is not so strenuous thing to hit. Personally I feel still need to gain big time on fitness and need to identify some different routes to ride long distances.

The one in front is my Firefox Target one behind is Soumit's ride partner.

The "Gujju" festival and a "known stranger" family!

Day 3 - on the day of "Makar Sankrantri" ("Uttarayan" or the "Kite Festival"), walking in the lanes of raipur darwaaja at Ahmedabad, in the winter of Jan 2013,  my friend Shishir and myself, walking in these small lanes, with old architecture on both sides, shops selling the festival stuffs [kites, manja (thread)], enjoying the festivity and finding moments to capture, I heard a tap on my back.. says.."do you guys want to capture the festival from the terraces, it is a different experience up there". Yes certainly!, I said. The next moment he asked his wife to take us to their house terrace, while he parked his car that he had stopped in the middle of the road seeing us. 

Nainesh Pandya and his family it was, total stranger, turned into a known group of people in just couple of hours. The family treated us absolutely selflessly, allowed us to climb on their roofs, arranged for the ladders to go up, click on a couple of terraces, gave us access to all possible places on terrace, local festive food and what not! Talking about their experiences and festival a decade back and now, Naineshbhai turned out to be from the same professional fraternity which I belong to. Naineshbhai had travelled quite a few places across the world and seeing and experiencing the hospitality that people extended towards him, he wanted to extend it at his home and that's reason we were here he said. 

We walked these lanes the previous night around 11pm, thats when Naineshbhai had spotted us and thought of calling us on their terrace. There was a complete mad rush of the  gujju people of Ahmedabad to buy kites and manja for the next day. The scene was something similar to "Ganpati Visarjan" at  Chowpati in Mumbai. 

A very nice and warm gujarati family, thanks for treating us!

Day 1 - On the first day of the trip, we caught up with a new friend, Maulik, a local amdavadi,  MWS member and an enthusiastic bird photographer. Maulik and we visited a nearby bird sanctuary - “Thol”. Nice and quiet place, in the arms of the nature, we spent the whole afternoon here, walked around 5 to 6 kms in lookout for birds and headed back to the hotel. Thol we got to see some nice birds, some of them were a bit far and needed better lenses to capture.

Day 2 - we visited the Akshardham temple and the Gandhi Ashram in the morning. Afternoon, we spent with a mumbaikar, Sneha Trivedi, a pleasing personality. Sneha guided us for a local “Kathiawadi lunch” near the highway, and post lunch we headed to the heart of the city, where the festivity was overflowing, a place called “Raipur Darwaja” in the hunt to watch the busy kite streets of Ahmedabad - you just read about in the beginning.

Thanks Maulik & Sneha for spending some time with us. 

Very much sums up the trip. A great "Travel" start to 2013.

A set on Flickr 

Pushkar - A vibrant city from Rangilo Rajasthan - Incredible India!

"Pushkar" - its a small town located about 12 km away from Ajmer - Rajasthan - India. A religious festival is celebrated in the "Karthik"month of Hindu Calendar (generally October or November every year) , about 10 days before the full moon day.  A holy lake is a part of "Pushkar" city and is known to be the only place in the world with a temple of lord Bramha. Entire lake is surrounded by various small and big temples with various Hindu Gods.

In the initial 5-6 days, cattle owners come down to the sand dunes in the outskirts of the city for trading their cattles.  These people spend their days and nights in the tents with their clans. Camels are decorated and sold for money - the very livelihood for which the villagers assemble. Every day sports or cultural activity was taking place in the "Mela Ground". We reached on the 5th day of the festival when the camels had already started departing, though there was a lot of activity in the dunes. By the end of 6th day, most of the camels had already departed back to their homes or with their new masters. Post this a lot of activity takes place around the Pushkar Lake as people from various part of country gather in thousands of numbers to pray, to take a bath in the holy lake and to get the blessings of the lord.

Activity log

Day 1 - Flied to Jaipur - took a cab to Pushkar - breakfast at a Dhaba restaurant - Reached Pushkar - 2-3 kms walk to find out the hotel as the vehicles were not allowed to enter - lunch and introduction session with the group - walk in dunes to catch some magical light - spotted a beautiful sunset - walk back to the hotel - dinner - chitchat - some knowledge parting by the Mentor - CRASH for day 1!

"Was here with "THE FOOTMARKS" one of the most knowledgeable and wonderful group of people, mentors, and to sum up in a word - photo enthusiast. To name people from this clan - Mehul Pithadia - my friend from office, Jassi sir, Maggu sir, Manpreet Ahuja, Kapil Singh, Kishore Kumar, Bharat Dudeja and Harjeet Singh Chaddha."

Day 2 - Early morning walk into the dunes - some magical morning light - clicks of the camels coming in to the dunes - back to the hotel for some rest - afternoon walk into the dunes to see the last clan of camel and witnessed the last camel deal which materialized for 15,000 - evening around the city - back to the hotel and EOD.

"6th Day of the festive, activity in the dunes was almost over, most of all the clans were already on their way back to their homes. It was than time to catch the action in and around city"

Day 3 - Morning in to the mela ground to see "Kushti" scheduled to start at 8 which eventually started as per IST at 12. In the meantime we took a walk in the interior where lots of cows and animals were tied with ropes - took a Tea break to find a group of south indian movie makers from Kerala to shoot some sequel for their movie - Back to hotel for a break - Went up the hill - sawitri temple (some 600 odd steps)- it was a tiring trek - went up in the anticipation of a  super fabulous sunset (which didn't happen coz of the hue) - late evening was a walk back to the town to take candid glimpse of people in the town. 

Day 4 - Photo Klinic - a cirque session by Footmarks mentor on some select photographs - afternoon back into the the market and around mela ground - Pushkar was crowded today - later afternoon lunch - Evening attended the "maha aarti" at the "Ghaat". 

Day 5 - Last day of the trip. Roads were filled with thousands of people - as much as at places only one way movement for people was allowed. From the top of the hotel we took some glimpse of the activity on the ghats - Back to jaipur and back home with some vibrant colorful memories.

"Entered this  town without any knowledge of whats going to come on the way, departed with sweet, colorful and vibrant clicks and memories with some new friends from Delhi - Good Fun!!"

Ganesha - a warm welcome and a warm parting

This is the festival of devotion, belief and faith of people in India. Its generally about those 11 days when lord Ganesha is welcomed by every one - be it their home, housing societies, private colonies or big stage called "pandals". For all the devotees, its the most awaited festival of the year as their beloved "Bappa" is believed to be visiting their lives. 

The City of Celebration - Mumbai, has its own ways of celebrating and enjoying the festivity. Preparations here begins months back from the main festival - its about making of the Ganesha idol, its about the decoration and its about preparation of the stages or mandaps and joining all those small and tiny bits. 

Most critical of all the preparation is the making of Ganesha idol which begins at least a couple of months back and in some rare cases immediately post the current years festival's end. The Ganesha idols are from 1 inch to 35-40 feets huge so one can easily imagine the scale of preparation that undergoes in festival. Near festival day, most of the streets are lit and decorated with Ganesha idols, decoration items, variety of lightings etc. All these is being sold in the shops and on the streets. 

In Dadar - mumbai, we spotted one such lane, filled with Ganesha idols on both side of the lanes, literally thousands of them, these are villagers from Maharashtra who brings / makes their idols from their villages to earn their livelihood. Here is a sad part, the villagers go back to their homes on the first day of the festival with their unsold stuffs. 

One can spot big huge workshops in various parts of Mumbai where small and big Ganesh idols are made.

Welcome Day - Ganesh Chaturthi

Generally the welcome day "Ganesh Chaturthi" (A day in the Hindu Calendar) falls around end of August beginning September. On this day all the people get their Ganesha at the destination with the regular rituals and aarti's (Prayers) installation of the Ganesha idol is done. For all these 11 days, aarti is a daily ritual, and a lot of other social and cultural activities are a part of the actioned packed festival.

Parting Day - Emersion - Anant Chaturdashi

Eleventh day is the day of parting of the lord Ganesha from the devotee. On this day, people take their beloved Ganesha to emerse in to the water with a hope and prayer to Bappa to come back soon next year. Here its a grand celebration of an event, the music of dhol, dancing on the street, crackers bursting - its one crazy energetic madness on the Mumbai streets. There are special arrangements by the local authorities, traffic is redirected, lot of routes are closed for the traffic and there is no stopping for the devotees on the streets. This is a visual delight, one heck of a celebration - just be here next year at Girgaum Choupati in Mumbai, here takes place a grand celebration of thousands of Ganesha emersion into the Arabian Sea.      

For more information - do a google and you will get to know all about the festival.

Please see the below link for few clicks from the festival. These are from the days of preparation, a workshop where Ganesha idols were being made, the pandals and emersion with a hope for a new welcome.

Ganesh Festival 2012

Ladakh - one more visit to the heavens...

Julley (means "hello" as they greet in Ladakh)!!!

After a year, its time to write again.  Its been quite some time since I last wrote, rather its a consequence of a break which I eventually took up after a year. Ladakh after Ladakh - sounds foolish to few, but I was quite enthused about the trip and to my expectation it turned out to be one more memorable trip.

27th August, 2011 to 7th September, 2011 was the gap we chose this year. The intention was to be the part of "The Ladakh Festival", which takes place in the first fortnight of September every year. Once again with team Jungle Lore, along with my friends Vinit, Rima, Prashant, Kishore his wife Kavita and a bunch of 20 odd unknown but now known buddies, we were heading to the beginning of our trip - Srinagar.

Srinagar - Serene and Simple!

Its one of the places on the planet, which is at present serene, simple, silent, colourful, vibrant and beautiful. 27th noon we went from Srinagar airport to the Nagin Lake, where we were to stay overnight on the House Boats.  Bijoo Khan was present to welcome all of us.  Bijoo Khan is the man from Ladakh, who owns a hotel in Leh city and one personality as great, as simple and as enthusiastic which one could rarely come across.


After an early morning flight, some rest in the house boats was inevitable in the afternoon. Post break, we took the shikara ride for next 3 hours. The ride was filled with scenic beauty of the place, lake filled with green patches on all the sides, flowers, birds beautiful people of srinagar and to add to it was the mighty rain, which made the whole shikara ride all the more pleasant. Late evening dinner was called for after the soothing shikara ride. Post dinner was the time to crash as we had to leave for the real trip of Leh city early morning the next day.

Srinagar to Leh - Scenic ride!

The night of 27th August, was filled with rains, rains which Srinagar rarely sees as told to us by the locals. The morning was silent, fortunately, the rains had taken a halt. There was  a little worry and skepticism about the journey forward, which was to be filled with rough terrain and some high passes amidst which the rains could have been a bit of trouble on the route.


The journey was amazing and filled with some heavy rains, scenic beauty on all four corners of the road, cloudy snow patches, and little close to zero visibility near the Zozilla Pass and not to forget the scrumptious lunch at Sonmarg - in a dhaba atmosphere.  Lovely and scenic ride for day one.


Night we spent in the tents at small village 40 odd kms from Kargil - which is worth of an experience. One could see million stars in the sky at night - eye soothing experience. Next day we visited Lamayuru monastery, moonland (the patch that resembles the land on moon), magnetic hill (that claims to be only place on earth which defies gravity!) and Pattharsahib Gurudwara. At Gurudwara, it was almost the end of the day and we had a beautiful and magnificent sunset which filled the sky with shades of yellow and orange. Post this, we reached hotel Bijoo to camp our baggage for the rest of our trip.

Leh City, in and around, the Festival, visit to Tso-mo-riri and Nubra Valley - Baron Paradise.

The next day, 30 August, was to be spent in and around the city, visiting various monasteries, Hemis Monastery, Thikse Monastery, Shanti Stupa and the Hall of Fame Museum with rest of the day to be at leisure.  31st August was the day to visit Pangong Lake which I skipped for the festival day.

The next day, 1 September, was the day of beginning of "The Ladakh Festival". Early morning at around 10 a.m., we left to see the rally that was to leave from the main market (Bazaar). The rally, was divided and filled with various parts / region of Ladakh, vibrant colours, traditional outfits, culture of ladakh and but ofcourse people from those various parts. The rally lasted for about 1 hour and the whole cultural event was to happen at the Polo Ground in the Leh city, after an inaugural session. The inaugural session and the cultural event lasted for about 3 hours and its an indescribable event which I would not want to attempt. In the evening we saw a friendly polo match which ended up one sided in favour of the Army team who defeated the scouts team with a score of 6-0.

Next day morning, was a day to visit the Nubra Valley, and en-route is the worlds highest motorable road - Kardung-La. The journey is long and tiring and we had to be at Nubra Valley overnight in Nubra Organic Retreat tents. The camp site is a delight in itself, where every meal is an organic meal, made of the vegetables grown in the camp site and fresh apples and apricots, which we could have as many as we wanted. Later we had a good night sleep at the camp site and the next day early morning we were to return back to the Leh city.  The return journey will remain as memorable one, since there was a good amount of snow fall at the Khardung-La which made the whole journey majestic, with snowy patches on both side of the road. The return journey became a visual delight.

For last destination of our trip, we were to leave early morning next day for Tso-moriri, my favourite destination and by far the best, a longest drive of about 240 kms from the City. Very few tour operators takes up this destination and the beauty still remains intact. The journey was filled with cloudy patches and sign of heavy rains at Tso-moriri. Unfortunately, the cloud covers did the trick and the lake was greyish blue instead bluish blue.  Inspite of the clouds, evening and morning sun rays from the gaps kept the lake and the surrounding beautiful and magestic.  Evening we went for a trek with Bijoo bhai, who encouraged the enthusiastic bunch for a trek.  After every 10 steps each one of us was limping and still a handful of us did make it to the top of a smallish looking huge peak. It was a heavenly feeling for all of us who completed the expedition.  The next day early morning was a planned walk around the lake for a little bit of birding and to capture the sunrise. With near zero temperature early morning at around 5, a handful of us managed for the most pleasant and memorable early morning walk.  Tso-moriri - by far the best destination.


The next day was a planned day for a rafting experience, which we opted to skip and rested at the hotel and did some shopping. You get lot of handicraft and artifact stuff at this place for which you need to be a good bargainer to avoid being fooled.  7th September, 2011 was the day we returned with memories of the best ever break that one could get. Just one last takeaway from the trip - Ladakh - we will be back again!!!

Link to the Pics - 
Serene Srinagar
Festival and the Polo Match 
Rest of the Album
Gang who made it to the Heaven

My First: A visit to the “Paradise” - Ladakh

Had heard a lot about this heaven on earth, for which the plan was to visit during July 2010, but better late than never, the plan got executed towards end of August 2010, with my favorite adventure group these days, “Jungle Lore”. The whole trip was a little uncertain mid  August, due to recent flash floods in some regions of Ladakh, which took approx a thousand lives. Few of us were determined to be there, with some cancellations on the cards, 16 of us ultimately turned up for the trip. We spent some 10 days of life in heaven and are back in time to face the grounds.

26^th August 2010 was the day of execution. All of us headed in three different flights to reach Srinagar by afternoon and to stay in the “house boat” in Srinagar in a lake named as “Nagin Lake”.  There was an utter silence in the air in this place due to recent unpleasant events; there appeared enough protection and police force on the streets. Evening of 26^th we visited market area on “Shikaras” for about 3 hours. The market is also called as floating market, because of its very nature, as most of the stuff being sold in Shikaras or on shops which are built afloat. The climate in the evening gets really chilly across this lake. The day ended with lot of chit chats, lots of photographs and some spicy food from chef of the houseboat.

Leh to Srinagar

Morning of 27^th we were on our way from Srinagar to reach Leh with majestic view all over on route. 

During this trip, we spent a lot of time travelling in Innova. On 27^th August, we visited Vijay Smarak (Kargil War Memorial) and got a magnificent sunset view of the “Tiger Hill”. We stayed overnight at hotel Siachen in Kargil, which is supposed to be the best hotel to stay in Kargil. 

Morning 28^th we proceeded to Srinagar via Fotula top (this is at a height of 13479 ft and is the highest point of Srinagar Leh road). We visited Mulbekh Monastery, Lamayuru Monastery which was apparently closed in the afternoon.  From Lamayuru Monastery, one views the “Moon land”, the patch which resembles land on Moon and therefore the name. In the evening we got a majestic view of the confluence of Sindhu and Zanskar rivers. We visited the Magnetic hill, which is said to have magnetic properties. The magnetism, we observed with our eyes, when one of our drivers drove the Innova for like 50 mtrs without starting the car. Post this, we visited Pattharsahib Gurudwara (managed by the army force). We learnt that this place was almost drowned during the recent flash floods. The attendant (who also are the army men) at the Gurudwara told us their experience of the recent flash floods and the way they rescued the holy books “Guru Granth Sahib” from drowning in the water. 

Leh, recent happenings and in & around the city 

28^th August, ended with the tiring journey of approx 450kms from Srinagar to Leh, reaching our base camp for the entire trip, Hotel Bijoo, which is located near Leh City market area. 

Coming to the flash floods, it has done a good amount of damage to the region. Destruction could be seen while we travelled across various places. But the destruction, so to say is not as much as hyped by the media, so as to collapse the whole tourism industry in Ladakh. I cannot comment on the amount of damage caused by floods, since I had not seen this place ever before, but, to see a place like Pangong Lake, Nubra Valley, Tsomoriri, one has to travel 100s of kms, which are quite remote to the location of flood affected regions, which are still as beautiful as one could see by doing a image search on google. It is not an end of tourism in Ladakh, as one sees these days in the news channels and other medias, CRAP!! There is a strong urge to set up tourism industry back to its normalcy, since a major economic dependence of the people of Ladakh is on this industry. Beauty of this place is still intact, while some patches of the region and lives have been affected due to floods, which can be back with the pick of next tourism season. There has been a good amount of relief work being done as we could see, but apparently, I felt, a shortage of manpower to rebuild and rehabilitate the affected areas / people. We got to know from our driver that the affected people have been given tent accommodations to stay, and food has also been supplied by the government. Hopefully, things come back to normal for these parts of Ladakh. 

Coming back to the trip, 29^th August, was a day to relax and take a visit to the most adjacent places of the Leh Market. We visited the ancient Tibet Refugee market, which was located near our hotel. Post lunch, we visited the Leh Palace, Spituk Monastry, Hall of Fame Museum and Shanti Stupa.  Spituk Monastry will remain in the memory for one of my camera lens which fell down and stopped working for a while, needing a repair now. At Shanti Stupa we also got a chance to attend the evening prayer by couple of Buddhist monks. 

All these monasteries are filled with vibrant colours and awesome architecture. Prayer wheels and the Buddha statues are common across Leh and all the monasteries. The prayer wheels are of different sizes, vibrant colours and designs and are rotated clockwise by the devotee to pass on the message to the heavenly abode. All these monasteries are located at heights, on different mountains, which led these unaffected during the flash floods. 

30^th August was again a day which involved less travel and we visited Hemis Monastry, Thikse Monastry Shey Palace (at which photography is prohibited L ) and Sindhu Ghat. 

Nubra Valley 

31^st August, was the day on which the real trip was to begin, when we were to proceed for Nubra Valley, a deserted area (cold desert as people call it) via Khardungla Pass, which is Worlds Highest Motor able Road and is at a height of 18360 ft. We experienced the double hump camel rides in the evening nearby our resort and some playful time at the sand dunes. Overnight stay was in comfortable tents at the Nubra Organic Retreat, which is a real organic place of it kinds. There are apple and apricot trees all over this hotel along with variety of vegetables. These are served in cooked and raw form to the visitors for lunch dinner deserts and breakfasts.  On our return to the base camp, we visited the Diskit Monastry where we also got a chance to see a huge monument of “Maitreya Buddha” which has been put up at this place only a year back. We returned in the eve of 1^st September to our base camp for taking a nap and look forward for some more fun for rest of the trip. 

Pangong Lake 

Next day, September 2^nd, we were on our way to Pangong lake which is at a height of 14500 ft, acclaims to be the Highest Salt water lake and is considered most beautiful place across Ladakh region. Only 30% of this lake is said to be in the territory of India while the other part being in Tibet. As it is said, the lake is beautiful, peaceful, calm and soothing. Evening we returned back to base camp, Hotel Bijoo.  

Tsomoriri   

The next on agenda, was another beauty of Ladakh, Tsomoriri, which is at a height of 15080fts. The place is quite far from Leh, approx 220 kms drive from our base camp, with the most difficult and challenging roads with majestic beauty on both the sides of the road. 

As we approached the lake, we saw this green, blue, white crystal clear water in the lake (for about 40-45 minutes drive across the Tsomoriri lake), which to me was the best moments of the entire trip. The view as we saw, is the one which I cannot describe but it’s just worth of an experience.  Evening of September 3^rd, we all reached the tents at Tsomoriri. This, was the most challenging destination of the entire trip. The evening we reached, a cool breeze was already there to welcome us. The temperature we learnt, would drop to approx 4-5 degrees midnight. While the night passed sleepless, we decided to do some photography at 4 in the night / morning, out we were and we had the magnificent view of the moon and thousands of stars. 

Morning  4th September, around 10, we headed back for our base camp and by evening we returned back to the resort. The next day was the day of rafting and resting, while few of the group decided to go for rafting, few decided resting. Sunday, was the day to be in the market.

Next day, September 6^th, the day a wonderful journey ends with wonderful memories for a life time!

Link to the Pics -

Pics on Flickr

Vasai Fort

One more addition to My First....Treasure of Maharashtra.. A gift by Portuguese... its a history... as old as 16th century!!!!

It has been 11 years I have been staying in Vasai and missed the mystical historic treasure, which is just about 30 minutes drive from station. Well, they say, its better late than never :), so here I was, with the Mumbai Weekend Shoot for a photo shoot, on a heavy rainfall day, to experience the Portugal architecture, the Fort of Vasai. What an architecture, the whole fort, its architecture, look and feel of the fort, walls, surrounding place, environment, nature, rains, it was all perfect!! Majestic!!

The structure of the fort is kind of deteriorated but its being rejuvenated by the Indian Archeological Department.

We spent about 4-5 hours in and around fort, clicking various things, like walls, the structures, the literature (only one which we could see and capture :) ), snails, rain drops, boats, anchors, waterbodies, etc. etc. etc. and to sum it up, we were clicking the whole motherly nature!!

Keeping the description concise, as the images speak better

Here goes the link - Click for flick