ಸಂಜೆ ಚಹಾ ಕುಡಿಯುವಾಗ ನೆನಪಾಗುವುದು ಅಮ್ಮ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಡುವ ಮಜ್ಜಿಗೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪು ಚಹಾ. ಕರಾವಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಚಹಾಕ್ಕೆ ಫ್ಲೇವರ್ ಗಳಾಗಿ ಈ ಸೊಪ್ಪನ್ನು ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಕರಾವಳಿ/ಮಲೆನಾಡು ಭಾಗದ ತೆಂಗಿನ ಮರ ಇಲ್ಲವೇ ಬಾಳೆ ಗಿಡದ ಹಿತ್ತಲಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತದೆ. ಈ ಸೊಪ್ಪಿಗೆ ಆರೈಕೆ ಕೂಡ ಅಗತ್ಯ. ಬಹಳಷ್ಟು ನೀರು ಹಾಗೂ ತಂಪಿನ ಜಾಗ ಅಗತ್ಯ. ಸೂರ್ಯನ ಕಿರಣಗಳು ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಬೀಳಕೂಡದು. ಮಳೆಗಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೊಂಪಾಗಿ ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತದೆ. ಈ ಸೊಪ್ಪನ್ನು ಶೀತವಾದವರಿಗೆ ಮಾಡುವ ಕಷಾಯದ ಅಂಶವಾಗಿ ಕೂಡ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಹಾಗೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹೀಟೂ ಕೂಡ ;-). ಕೀಳುವಾಗ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಜಾಗ್ರತೆ ಕೂಡ ಬೇಕು. ಸೊಪ್ಪು ತೆಳ್ಳಗಾದರೂ ಬದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಚೂಪು ಕೂಡ!
ಮಜ್ಜಿಗೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪು
ಚಹಾ ತಯಾರಿಸುವ ವಿಧಾನ:
ಮೊದಲು ನೀರಿನ ಜೊತೆ ೨ ಮಜ್ಜಿಗೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪನ್ನು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹೊತ್ತು ಬಿಸಿ ಮಾಡಿ, ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಹಾಲು ಸೇರಿಸಿ ಚಹಾ ಮಾಡಿದರೆ ಆಹಾ!! ಬಿಸಿಬಿಸಿ ಘಮಘಮ ಚಹಾ ತಯಾರು. ಈ ಚಹಾವನ್ನು ಮಳೆ ವೀಕ್ಷಿಸುತ್ತಾ ಸವಿಯುವುದೇ ಒಂದು ಸುಂದರ ಅನುಭವ. ಮೂರು ಲೋಟೆ ಚಹಾಕ್ಕೆ ಮೂರು ಮಜ್ಜಿಗೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪು ಬಳ್ಳಿಗಳು ಸಾಕು. ಶುಂಠಿ ಚಹಾದಂತೆ ಕಂಡರೂ ಇದರ ಪರಿಮಳ ಮತ್ತು ರುಚಿ ವರ್ಣಿಸಲಾಗದು. ನಮ್ಮ ರೆಡ್ ಲೇಬಲ್ ಮಸಾಲೆ ಚಹಾದಂತೆ ಇರುತ್ತದೆ ;-).
After having so much fun on Friday along the majestic Western ghats, I had equally bad day on Saturday. I am not stating the reason, however it was too bad :(. I got up with less enthusiasm on Sunday, savored nice tea made by mother. It was not so much raining too. Some intermittent rains only. However there was greenery all over. Both of our wells were full. I just went down the coconut plantation to see the monsoon streams. They were truly great to see which brought my mood up. I grabbed my camera and sleeping tripod walked all along the stream path. Also paddy fields were occupied by pond herons. The sound of peacock was soothing. The flying bees and butterflies added more glory to the monsoon weather.
Let me start off with landscapes of paddy fields and streams. We have planted paddy saplings on small area for festival purpose. Usually we borrow from other farmers the new paddy every-time for festivals. This time, mother wanted self grown one.
Small Paddy Field
The Monsoon Stream
Monsoon stream passing through canopy
There were lot of butterflies and bugs on flower. How can I miss those shots ;-). Here are few. The images were captured with tele-lens :D in macro mode. Hence not so deep. I want to buy a macro lens however requires permission from mother :-).
I Know humans like this but this is my share!
I am busy here, please move away
Shut off that flash please or else I will fly away!
Don't you have any work?
Later I walked a bit more towards one of the major streams where there was tiny waterfall. I am very much tempted to grab long exposure shots whenever I see gushing water. Lack of ND filter makes it difficult to grab such shots since images get over-exposed. However the overcast weather made some long exposure shots possible with a very high f stop. With f/36 and 1s shutter, I could expose the water properly with surroundings. So here is the milky way. The stability is because of tripod. Even father got excited after seeing it.
MILKY WAY!
Finally one more monsoon video. This time I have clubbed some of train journey videos along beautiful western ghats and clips of my village. Also full HD ;-). Enjoy the great monsoon landscape and glorious train journey through dense rain forest. I have not yet started train journey video editing. It may require a month to fully edit the videos due to old hardware. For sure it will be massive upload as earlier one(around 20-25 mins). Hope you will enjoy the short documentary. Feedback on video quality, perception, improvements or any other aspects are always welcome.
Music: Excerpt from 'A beautiful tomorrow' - A perfect trance music by imperfection. What a marvelous work by imperfection. Absolutely gorgeous melody!
Last Note:
Yesterday my father deliberately called me saying, it has been raining very heavily from past 2 days. Also on Friday, there was continuous rain for 3hours. I really felt jealous and sad :(. It does not rain so much when I am there. I will be travelling again after 2-3 weeks. Hope I will have great time with rain at that time. Beauty of this year's monsoon season is, it has not rested even for a single day. Every day we have atleast 2-3 spells of heavy showers!
After enchanting journey along Sakaleshapura-Subramanya tracks, my 32GB SD card was fully loaded. Hence I had no option other than to use the 4GB SD card which came with camera pack. The Magic Lantern firmware is loaded only in former one while latter did not have it. Consequently HDR had to be manually bracketed. The only plus point was tripod.
I was having a monsoon walk around my village on overcast Sunday morning. After seeing this view, I wanted to capture a HDR image. There was no option other than manually compose the images. The major problem was changing light which mangled with exposures. Fortunately for sometime the lighting was steady and I could grab 3 shots. The images were put together in Luminance HDR and it did good job as always. I am happy with composed image. All subjects are properly exposed. Hope you will enjoy the image too! I did the same mistake of not taking RAW shots :(
HDR view via stream
Settings:
Camera: Canon EOS 550D Lens: 18-55mm kit lens Focal Length: 18mm Focus: Manual Aperture: f/22 (Not sure why I went so far) ISO: 100 Picture Style: Landscape Metering: Center weighted average No of images: 3 Exposures: -2,0,+2 (1/8s for middle) Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP
Edit 1:
Now I remember why I went all the way upto f/22. The intention was to capture flow of water which is not possible with higher shutter speed. Hence I had to increase 'f' stop to maximum to get some feel of flowing water. However even f/22 could give me only 1/8th of second with proper exposure. I wanted somewhere around 5 seconds. A ND filter would have been great choice. With a GND, HDR composition would not have required at all!
It has been raining quite a bit in Bangalore and we were uncertain as to travel during these rainy days or not. However the joy of travel during Monsoon is entirely different ;-) and unique experience. One of our colleague did inform us about the place few weeks back and we had noted it down for our travel. Due to certain reasons, Sudhir could not join us this time. Me and Rajesh decided to pierce through Monsoon rain on an overcast Saturday morning. There was sign of rain too!
The plan was to start as early as 7:30AM and reach early to beat the peak hour traffic. Also the Dam site is around 90kms from city and hence we wanted to reach early. As always we delayed by 90minutes :(. Some mandatory commitments made me to delay start by certain time. At last we started around 9AM from Marathahalli bridge. What a surprise! Not a single traffic jam. We had seamless journey towards gorugunte palya. The underpass at BEL circle & Kammanahalli, the flyovers at Kalyannagar & Nagashettihalli helped us a lot. The only bottleneck was the usual railway crossing near gorugunte paalya. Fortunately Railways have finally agreed to build a flyover across busy railway crossing. Foundation work has started and few pillars also have come up. But as per railway standard, it may take years to complete. Nevertheless it's good news!
We started our scinscilating journey along Jalahalli cross elevated highway and beautiful 6 lane thereafter (NH-4) till Nelamangala bypass. From Nelamangala bypass we took Mangalore National Highway (NH-75) which is also four lane. The traffic was very much less along NH-75. The major attraction was beautiful landscape all along. I handed bike over to Rajesh far early to capture some landscapes in between :-). All along journey, we experienced intermittent sprinkles of monsoon rain. It was really fun except for I had to guard my DSLR which does not have weather coating. Apart from enjoying the landscapes, I did some trial panning too along NH-75! The travelers were perplexed at what I was doing though! Some panning came out really well :-). Also no fee for bikes at both toll gates. I remember we have to pay 3 tolls till Bangalore from Mangalore one each in devihalli junction, nelamangala bypass and NH-4.
KUNIGAL BYPASS
LANDSCAPE FROM KUNIGAL BYPASS
This came out very well but front portion of figo was cut out
FREEZE BUT OUT OF FRAME
I am happy with this too but not as frozen as previous one
NOT AS ACCURATE AS PREVIOUS BUT GOOD ONE ;-)
We reached the Dam area around 12PM. There was not much water but landscape was too good. The storm at the distance was really eye catching with thick monsoon clouds. You can only have view from top of Dam. If you want to understand the engineering marvel behind construction of this site, there is entrance fee of Rs.20/- per head. One of the employee will take you to the interior of Dam site and explains how the trick works.
MARKONAHALLI RESERVOIR
The main attraction here is the automated siphon designed by Karntaka's pride Sir M Vishweshwarayya. This is to prevent flooding of Siddalengeshwara temple of Yediyur town. When the water level in dam reaches upto a certain level (I feel 2.5feet less than danger mark), the siphons activate themselves and the extra water flows out. There are also manual crest gates. The total dam capacity is 90feet and spans into an area of 3.5hectares. The dam is basically built across Shimsha river however excess water from hemavathy river also stored here. The water in reservoir is meant for irrigation purpose and there are plans to extend facility for drinking water to nearby villages. Constuction of Dam started around 1938 and commissioned on 1940. It's cost was around 30lakhs during those days. The materials used for construction are lime, honey, sugarcane juice, jaggery, cotton-legume and one more which I forgot. The design of automated siphon is true engineering brain. One has to visit the dam site to feel it ;-).
THE DAM OUTLET
FRONT VIEW
THICK MONSOON CLOUDS!
THE WATER OUTLET FOR SIPHON
The employee informed us that dam site would be crowded on Sundays and we did right job by visiting on Saturday.The crowd was very less when we visited. He also suggested us to visit after a month or two when reservoir will be full. Copious rains in Malnad may even fill reservoir far early. We also took his number to enquire before we could visit next time. After having peaceful 4hrs in Dam area we had lunch in Mayura hotel near Yediyur town along NH-75. The lunch was very good too! Later we visited Yediyur Siddalingeshwara temple for brief period before heading back to Bangalore.
SIDDALINGESHWARA TEMPLE
Overall a wonderful experience. The rural landscape is so much enjoying and the rains decorate these area with lush greenery. The sugarcane and paddy fields are so much eye-catching. There was heavy breeze too blowing on the dam area. There were thick monsoon clouds at a distance with passing rain. I felt like riding all the way till Sakaleshpur which is still 130kms ahead watching those monsoon clouds. The western ghats are heaven to watch during monsoon rains.
DISTANT RAIN WITH THICK MONSOON CLOUDS
How to reach:
Travel along NH-75 and just 2.5kms before yediyur, the sign board is crisp and clear to reach Markonahalli reservoir. From highway take left for about 6kms to reach dam site. Ask locals for help if you get lost. The roads are very good including the rural part. Only caution is to watch out for the uneven pavements at the periphery of bridges along NH-75. They can be really problematic for bike riders. Also watch out for the racing cars along this free highway :D
Food:
Mangalore-Bangalore NH is busy highway in terms of tourist attraction and routine passenger flow. There is no problem finding good hotel along this path. The Mayura hotel near to Yediyur town is good option.
When to visit:
Well there is a caveat here. If you want to see the engineering behind automated siphon, you need to visit when there is less water. Alternatively if you wish to see reservoir with full water, you have to visit during August or September end timeframe when hemavathy water is released to dam (provided we have healthy monsoon). If you want to see construction of automated siphon, April-July timeframe is better. Both cannot be visited at the same time [Either water or dam construction, Heisenberg's uncertainity principle ;-)]. I took number of dam staff to enquire about the reservoir water level. We plan to go again when reservoir gets full!
What's special this time ;-)
Two HDR images which are documented in my previous blogs.
1) HDR of Kunigal Bypass: http://paadooru.blogspot.in/2013/07/hdr-of-kunigal-bypass.html 2) HDR landscape through siphon: http://paadooru.blogspot.in/2013/07/hdr-landscape-through-automated-siphon.html
Whenever I see growing clouds and forming into thicker ones, I am tempted to capture timelapse. Even though, it is time taking, they give great results thereafter. Watching those clouds at horizon I was well aware that it would turn into a storm. I miss my tripod so much and feel jealous of it which is sleeping in my village under monsoon weather :-(. The video of time lapse of storm building up at a distance has come really good :-). Here is the video and hope you enjoy the same!
Here is some a video captured for fun along Kunigal Bypass in hurry. It is the KSRTC Mercedes Benz bus passing along NH-75. Watch and enjoy!
Muthyala Maduvu as known as Pearl Valley is situated in Anekal Taluk of Bangalore Rural District. It is around 50kms from Bangalore City. This is great place to enjoy landscape with beautiful nature and small water fall and streams. It is one of the weekend hangouts for many people.
We wanted to start by 8:30AM on Saturday morning. However due to routine glitches, we started around 9AM from silk board junction. We chose Saturday this time so as to have some rest on Sunday. As per data collected from Internet, we took Hosur road via elevated highway to reach Attibele. We had to seek help from locals so that we do not miss the route. The problem with missing route along 6 lane highway is the U-turn is hard to find unless you are in town. Fortunately we took left road towards Attibele beneath NH-7 fly-over. Right turn from attibele junction takes you towards Anekal. It is about 10kms from here. Once we reached Anekal, we sought locals help to reach MuthyalaMaduvu. Locals are really friendly and guide you very clearly. 2kms past Anekal, one can spot the petrol bunk which has a small right turn which leads you to Pearl Valley. From junction it is hardly around 3kms. The roads are not so good but landscape is simply gorgeous.
EN-ROUTE
After an hour of bike journey, we reached the destination. Since we started early, not many people could be seen. There is an entrance fee as well parking fee. There is also a restaurant maintained by KSTDC and also small ice cream shop and local vendors. There are steps (around 100) to reach small water-fall. There was not much water in stream and small amount of water falling from height. One of the worker of this place requested us to visit during October time frame when streams will be flowing with full vigor. There is path way along the valley which runs parallel to the stream line. One can walk along the route to enjoy the nature. We followed mountainous path which led us to an elevated point. We had snacks and refreshed there for about 30 minutes before walking down again to follow the stream path. Bad thing was all along the path, one could see crushed alcohol bottles. Also so much of plastics and bottles being thrown ridiculously. You need to be really careful to avoid glass pieces. People have even not spared streams for littering :-(. We were very much annoyed by dirt around the place.
FIRST VIEW
TINY WATERFALL DOWNHILL
THAT SEEMS TO BE ONE MORE WATERFALL
LANDSCAPE OF HILLS
THE PLANT
We kept on walking along the valley path and at one point met forest worker. He warned us that there has been wild elephant menace few months back and requested us to return. We could confirm his warning since we spotted elephant dung! As we returned from valley walk, monkeys had started occupying the place :-). I guess they know the right time humans visit this place. We did not see them earlier since it was early. Now they have come as herds and snatching eatables from visitors. Monkeys are so much adamant and violent if you have food in your hands. Do not dare to offend them or they may damage and cause injury to individual.
SATURATED SKY!
FLOW OF WATER
TRACE OF ELEPHANT!
GUEST APPEARANCE :-)
STREAM WHICH IS EMPTY NOW!
After returning from valley walk, we had lunch in KSTDC restaurant. The quality seems to be good with reasonable price (compared to Bangalore). The restaurant serves both Veg and Non-Veg and if you wish alchohol too! The hill view from restaurant is marvelous. I took many snaps of landscape. The restaurant open view is grilled to prevent monkeys from entering the premises. One can see monkeys looking at you innocently begging for food. We felt pity by looking in their faces which compelled us to feed food to some of them. After having lunch, we enjoyed the nature for an hour before starting our return journey.
THE GREAT LANDSCAPE FROM RESTAURANT
BONUS VIEW ;-)
DO YOU HAVE SOME FOOD FOR US PLEASE?
In the return path, we traveled via Chandapur as guided by locals in Anekal. This saved us almost 10kms. We halted at Chandapur market to buy some vegetables for weekend cook and some fruits. The vegetables were very much fresh and clean. There were lot of varieties as well as options. It was very much cheaper than in Bangalore city. We did see the market during our journey and wanted to visit the market on return. This market is vast and really worth buying. It was around 4:30PM we reached Silk Board again. How to reach:
We went via Attibele, however that is detour. Drive along Hosur road and reach Chandapur town (beneath NH-7 fly over). Sign boards are well laid. From Chandapur, take the right turn towards Anekal. In Anekal, ask local people for directions to pearl valley. 2kms past Anekal, you will see a petrol bunk as well as KSTDC board. Turn right towards narrow road for 3kms to reach Pearl Valley. In middle of village road, you may get confused near a junction. Do not take the road which has milestone. There are no proper signboards along village path. Ask local people if you get confused.
This was captured in Markonahalli reservoir near Yediyur inside Automated siphon designed by Sir M Vishweshwarayya. When looked through bear eye, everything is neat and clear. However, camera cannot see everything at one shot. Hence HDR was necessary. This is again 3 exposure bracketed HDR taken inside siphon! Hope you will enjoy the image too!
HDR through siphon
Settings:
Camera: Canon EOS 550D Lens: 18-55mm kit lens Focal Length: 18mm Focus: Manual Aperture: f/7.1 ISO: 100 Picture Style: Landscape Metering: Center weighted average No of images: 3 Exposures: -2,0,+2 ML firmware version: v2.3 Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP
Travelers commuting towards Mangalore, understand the importance of Kunigal Bypass which saves almost 20 minutes compared to commuting inside town. As we travel towards Mangalore, we enjoy the glorious landscape of Kunigal Bypass which is only 2yrs old. I feel like taking so many snaps. Due to some or the other obstacles (usual excuses!), the plans had to be dropped. This time on our return journey from Markonahalli Dam, we stopped at Kunigal Bypass for some time to enjoy the landscape. The puddle after rain, snaky national highway 75, beautiful landscape and monsoon clouds tempted me to grab a HDR shot. The problem with normal images are either sky will be exposed or the land. If we need both of them in the frame, only option is HDR. I somehow became fan of HDR nowadays. Although not many of them are successful, I am happy with successfully composed HDRs. The natural world can only be enjoyed with HDR! However cameras cannot match human eye. Hence we have to grab bracketed shots to compose an equivalent.
Here is HDR composed using Luminance HDR of Kunigal bypass. I am really happy after seeing the results. The bracketed shots were composed using magical open-source Magic Lantern firmware for canon EOS DSLRs. What a great add-on it is! It automates everything once adjustments are done. The Fatal operator did again very good job in Luminance HDR. Some saturation and alpha values were adjusted to tone-map the image. Later GIMP was used for color correction and luminance adjustments. Hope you will enjoy the image too! I should have shot images in RAW but could not remember :(
KUNIGAL BYPASS ALONG NATIONAL HIGHWAY - 75
Settings: Camera: Canon EOS 550D Lens: 18-55mm kit lens Focal Length: 18mm Focus: Manual Aperture: f/13 ISO: 100 Picture Style: Landscape Metering: Center weighted average No of images: 3 Exposures: -2,0,+2 ML firmware version: v2.3 Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP
Wondering why no swanky title this time :-), enough of bragging ;-). Here is one more SUNSET picture captured on our way back from Barkoor town situated 20kms from Udupi. Everytime I travel along this way, I think of taking a picture of beautiful landscape from Barkoor bridge along with Swarna River. Coastal Karnataka is blessed with such beautiful landscapes all along and monsoon season adds more glory to the nature. There are so many unexplored nature which Rakesh Holla writes in his blogs. As stated in previous blogs, the winter SUN is wonderful to watch. This was taken sometimes during early winter (Deepaavali time). Finally I stopped for some time at Barkoor bridge to grab some pictures including this SUNSET. The picture was captured with Canon's nifty-fifty lens :-), the cheapest OEM lens available for Canon ;-) (50mm f/1.8). Watch and enjoy the SUN god for one more time!
SUNSET ON BANKS OF SWARNA RIVER
Don't miss Rakesh Holla's magical blogs on Udupi and Western Ghats and appreciate his crave for exploration: http://rakeshholla.blogspot.in/
Picture Editing notes:
The picture had power lines in the composition which I noticed after downloading. That really spoiled entire composition. I tried with GIMP clone tool to remove the power line but in vain. After extensive search on the internet, I found a great resynthesizing plugin to remove unwanted object in GIMP. There is an option in plugin named 'Heal Selection'. That did a fantastic job of removing the distracting power lines :-) without mangling with composition. If you are on linux box, install with 'sudo apt-get install gimp-resynthesizer'. The default repo of linux mint has this plugin. I am not sure how to install for windows.
Here is link for GIMP Resynthesizer: http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/resynthesizer Here is a tutorial: http://blog.patdavid.net/2012/08/getting-around-in-gimp-heal-selection.html
From trance music to carnatic classical music, I have been enjoying the two extremes of melody. I have been listening to trance music since I got introduced to Rank1-Airwave (original mix). The primary attraction in trance music is the melody and progression in between. Initially the music has only the bass involved, however you need to hear them full length if really want to enjoy. It does not mean all of them are good but there are people who create great music all the times like Andy-Blueman. Unfortunately Andy has left trance music way back but musical work he left is really amazing and eternal.
Coming back, the music I enjoy on Sunday morning is the Sooryamoorthe Namosthute, a music composed by Sri Muttuswamy Deekshitar in Sourashtra raaga in Sanskrit language. It is perfect for me on SUNday morning. The great part of Deekshitar composition is the intelligent use of name of Raaga in his compositions. Also his Sanskrit knowledge is unquestionable especially the grammatical approach. The abhayamba vibhakti kritis created out of specific vibhakti are simply marvelous.
From Sunset-Beautiful Life to Sooryamoorthe Namosthute, here is the picture taken 3 years back. The winter SUN is magnificent to watch and photographers love it a lot :-). The SUN shows off with vibrant colors sometimes and beautiful rays. There may be physics behind it but I am not aware of it properly. Hope you will enjoy the picture!
SOORYAMOORTHE NAMOSTHUTE
If you are fan of carnatic classical music, do hear the music here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZjgS82oEMY
It is wonderful to here in slow pace (Vilamba kaala).
I found one more great remix of Sunset-Beautiful Life by Innes Erthser. Do hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtx18zsD6wk
