Images from lazy afternoons

early mornings in lonavla

the streets are empty, an occasional auto breaking the silence...

a group of men
appear out of nowhere

running in unison

and then i get to

see this abandoned car

my hands work

i jump all around

to get as many images

but the spider

who has made it her home
ran away

The lake behind the dam

a few days back
i had a chance to go on a boat ride
at the lake formed by the tehri dam

for the past four years
i had been crisscrossing the area
watching the lake fill up
drowning the abandoned town of Tehri
this trip had an eerie feeling
like visiting a place after a great flood

at the centre of the lake
now it is almost one and half kilometers deep !
(near the dam the markers show 800 metres)
as the boat chugged along
i looked down into the waters
searching for the clock tower
that stood out for so many years
as the dam filled up

in Robert Edric's Gathering the Water
set in the mid 19th century
the protagonist is sent to a
rural area in England
to oversee the filling up of a dam
and ensure that the population is evacuated

i almost felt like
i had been sent by
someone to file a report on the dam
after the land has been filled by the lake

so why am i writing about
the tehri
on this blog?

well most of the project
has been aimed at providing electricity and water to
the NCR (Delhi and cities nearby)

true that New Tehri
is well planned
and the displaced people have been compensated
but recent news about the dam is disturbing
it has been filling up too fast
the policeman was pointing out that
they will have to move out their chowki further up
next summer

as of now they have no clue how high
the waters will rise
i just hope it doesn't
become a situation when they will have to release waters
during the monsoon
and flood cities downstream
like it happened with Surat last year

at that time there were normal rains in the city
but dams upstream overflowed
when the waters were released one third of the city
drowned

the Tehri dam
is supposed to hold enough water to flood
upto Delhi
and remember it is on an earthquake prone zone

as my ride came to an end i was left with the feeling that
each time we build a large project
it is time for us to pause and think of alternatives

fast....

Trek to Hamta Glacier

beyond Rohtang
the land is sparse
barren
the road
long and winding
broken only
by the wind
that keeps whistling once in a while


the landscape
is such a contrast
just an hour back we were
climbing up from Manali
it was full of trees

base camp consisted of tents at chhatru
where we huddled in anticipation of the trek ahead


the trek along chandra river
into the hamta valley
up towards the glacier
when you are far away staring at the thing
it looks close
when the ascent starts you realize what
you have talked yourself into


of course like proper gora sahibs
you have porters to carry your stuff
still you struggle up the hill
while they skip along
slowing down only when you lose your way

















the sky is always moody
threatening to rain
sometimes letting the sun come out
we reach the camp at the foot of the glacier
time for some for chai, biscuits
and quickly we jump into our sleeping bags
who cares we have to trek the whole way back tomorrow?

sarnath

a few minutes away from banaras
is sarnath
where buddha is supposed to have given
his first sermon

the stupa built here over two thousand years ago
had been in a state of neglect
till a Sri Lankan monk
decided to revive it
and built a modern temple

today
there are modern buddhist temples
built by tibetans, burmese and chinese (complete with the swastik sign !!)


the stupa is the most imposing site here
but among the ruins
are parks with
well preserved group of animals
deer, crocodile (although he refused to move for us)
exotic birds and fish

i cannot fathom who thought
of developing this place
into a fifteen minute tourist walk

most of the gardens
have groups of pilgrims
listening to sermons
a couple of kawarias also decided to pay respects to the temples here !!!!

everyone wants to leave a mark
so
the pilgrims tie pieces of cloth
near the tree
(actually it is a graft of the original tree)
where the Sermon had taken place

but the Thai pilgrims have a unique technique
they rub gold leaves onto the outer walls
of the stupa

monsoon in banaras

around this time
when the river swells up
the devotees come in thousands


the boats ready to ferry you
after the rains to subside
and the trip is worth the wait


the locals wait
for the crowds to go away
so that they can claim the ghats
once again

for the children
its time to play

Banaras

banaras is many things to many people
am still not able to figure what it means to me

last evening
sitting at one of the ghats
watching the people
walking in to pray
or bathe
or just sit around


it struck me that
i've never been to this place
never felt the need till now

does that make me a bad hindu?
an unbeliever?

lets see what i discover on this trip...

lazy weekends in bourges

Bourges
is a town drowning in history

a walk along the streets
leading up to the cathedral
is like a quick lesson in
what happens to a town
once it recedes into the background
gets overtaken by events beyond its control

the houses are caught in a time wrap
its seems like no one has touched them
in the last hundred years



we landed on a saturday
it seemed like the
the locals has disappeared
leaving this life sized museum
for us to wander about in

every corner
every turn
surprised you
with
the little details











i guess like in delhi
for the locals these sights were
a daily chore
so the occasional bystander
would look at me mystified
as i turned the camera
onto the houses they pass everyday

to the country

before returning to paris
we were able to squeeze a couple of days
in the country side

off we went to a friend's farm
who is a vigneron
that is someone who makes wine

the place just blew me away
it was summer
but always cloudy

as we sat under the sky to have a meal
each time time I turned
the sky turned colour
painting another image
right out of a painting

skateboarding at Bastille

reached Bastille early morning
and saw some kids skate boarding
in the square in front of the opera
(photos when i return)

this was serious stuff
them against the gravity and the concrete

i sat to watch them practising
jumping over the steps
occassionally falling on the ground
waving to me when they saw the camera

up and down the steps
they stumbled
falling and then picking themselves up
immediately

once in a while
an older one would
make a point
to the younger lot
much like a karate teacher
in a park in GKII

not for them the history of the city
for what the tourist come
nor the Seine
flowing underneath

nothing would break their dream
of sailing in the sky

this was their space
this was their world
this was their time

street food in İstanbul

tried to stay away from uppity restaurants
all day
to see what the Istanbullus eat

the basic idea is to
grill the stuff - mutton,chicken,fish or vegetables
and wrap a thin roti
or stuff this into a bun

the local method of cooking the meat
results in a
döner kebab
probably the national dish

here slices of lamb
with herbs and spices
is wrapped around a thick skewer
and cooked in front of a gas fire

later
pieces of meat
are sliced off from the block
and served with vegetables & yogurt

in the evening
they prefer fish sandwiches
bread stuffed with grilled fish

once i calculated
a man made 20 such sandwiches in a minute
at a kiosk by the Bosphorus where the ferries land
that's how fast they were being gobbled by the
people rushing off to their boats

among the tour guides

in india
i used to find tour guides an embarressment
and would often wonder whether
those hiring them really enjoy the experience

here the problem is
multipied many fold
with each group
and its guıde
japanse
spanish
english
chinese
you name it...

from a distance you can recognise
the group
with the guide
describıng
a door or a pillar
animatedly
his group nods
and then
all take photographs

sometimes
when you catch
the English guide
speakıng full sentences
you really don´t want to know
how the others are
murdering the language

p.s. It gets about 30 degrees C durıng the day. Only the European tourısts are bare headed. Everyone else wears a cap. I wonder why?

Up the Bosphorus

went on a day long cruise up the Straits
the ship touches varıous points along the shore

i decided to take it till the last poınt
Anadolu Kavcagi
a small fishing village
that had the ruins of a Byzantıum fort overlooking the entire city

had an animated French family sitting with me
the parents definitely neck deep in research about the journey
pointing out to various locations
but the kids were like
when is this getting over ?

the locals
watched the tourısts wıth amusement
for them it was all so borıng
they probably saw it everyday

all along
there were these pretty
disembarking points
with tourists waitıng to get on

the climb up the hill
to the castle - Kavagi Kalesi (as the signs insisted)
was steep
wıth children sitting at intervals selling water

at the top

the view opened out
to the mouth of the Black Sea on our right
and the Straits to the left

sat there watching the ships for a while
missed the first ferry back
as a result

on the walk back
i decided to try
an internet cafe
it was full of kids playing
some version of
Prince of Persia
or Battle Zone

tried playing
but was beaten hollow by Ahmet
who claimed he was seven years old