Kolkata visit , Oct 10,2009.

Finally got a chance to visit home and on the way kolkata. In the mean time my Durga puja Leaves were cancelled and I had to cancel my train tickets. So I made a point to reach home on kali puja and Diwali. And hence the visit. I and Debalina boarded the Falaknuma exp from Secunderabad and reached kolkata on time. Believe me on time. I had taken my camera with me and had a desire to take some shots at different locations in Kolkata. First I started with Laketown foot bridge. Mitul and Dr.Subham, my cousins accompanied me. It was evening and I got good shots from the bridge of the road and the vehicles.

Then we moved to Citycenter shopping maal and had a nice Adda among us and later joined by Mithu and Kamalika di. I took some snaps of citycenter but was prevented by guards to take some more of them. Reason not well explained. We went for clarification from the management and we were asked why we were taking shots. On explaining they asked us to come the next day with formal letters. Daam with there process, we decided not to take any more shots over there. BTW I thought taking pictures in public places is allowed, but I am not sure about Bengal.

Next day Amritendu asked for a meeting which I agreed with pleasure, after all he is my childhood friend. We decide to meet somewhere near Victoria Memorial. Mitul and I reached the venue and didn’t waste a minute to shoot the Victoria Memorial in evening lights. Amritendu was late by an hour, and I was fed up waiting for him. After we meet and had a chat we decided to rope in Maitrayee who was working in a nearby office. We waited near the AC market and after calling her a number of times she arrived with her typical smile, u may also call it a half laugh. She is also my childhood friend and it was a double delight for me to have both of them together. We exchanged ideas and had a lot of fun chatting. Maitrayee’s friend joined us and we moved to Nandan. It was getting late and we decided to have something and disperse. Amritendu took us to a Chinese restaurant. Finishing the dimsum we dispersed to our own destinations.

It was truly a memorable evening, it made us rekindle out friendship and showed that we still have the same bond among ourselves even after so many years.

Capturing Birds through my New Lens

I haven't updated the blog for quiet a long time and I don't know why. May be that I became a bit lethargic, may be. Well I bought a new 70-300mm Tamron Lens for my Nikon camera and was waiting for an oppurtunity to use it to the fullest zoom available.So on 5th of July 2009, Sunday, I and Bazooka went to hunt birds with our lenses. Location : Manjeera dam near Sangareddy. We started after noon and on reaching Sangareddy had lunch. It took us almost an hour to reach sangareddy, but the road was awesome. While we rode through the countryside we found some cranes on a field and started our job. Villagers present at the field must have had a weird feeling about us. After almost half an hour we again started our onward journey, on our way we found a kingfisher and didn’t waste a moment to shoot it. Reaching the dam was not tough but reaching the desired location took a while and we had to trek through the rocks towards the water body. Bazooka set his camera on my stand and we patiently waited for the birds which didn’t made us wait much longer. Soon we found kingfishers and flock of harpeice.
It was happy shooting time for us. But wait, whats that at a distance. We instantly focused our lenses towards the moving object in the water. Oh ho, it’s a croc, I mean a Crocodile, and its heading towards us. Time to run focks, just RUN. We ran through the rocks passing through the tall grasses, bazooka fell and had a scratch on his left ankle but saved his 500mm lens.

From safe distance we watched the croc enter the grasses near the water. We shot a few more birds and left for Hyderabad.