This is the concluding part of our walk towards Dudhsagar waterfalls.
After few more hard walk, we reached the Dudhsagar station and we could hear the plunge of waterfalls from station itself! People who have visited during peak monsoon season describe it as sound of ocean from station :-). But we heard the normal sound of plummet. The sound indicated that there is considerable flow of water :-). We also enjoyed the view of beautiful western ghats from Dudhsagar station.
ATLAST, WE ARE IN DUDHSAGAR STATION!
MAY BE OUR LAST TUNNEL
WE ARE ALMOST THERE :-)
500m later, Hurray! we made to it to the milk of ocean at 3:30PM :-). We took nearly 5:30hrs to complete the stretch including almost 90 minutes of break+photoshoots. We were really delighted to complete the 15km trudge ;-). At waterfall site, we could see considerable water plunge and as predicted not as much seen during August monsoon season. As a consequence of walk, we were tired and sweating profusely. There was ocean of milk on the ghats while ocean of sweat on our body! Nevertheless it was delightful to watch the geography of Dudhsagar waterfalls.
HERE WE GO!
The four tiered waterfall plummets from height of 310 mts before reaching the valley. The water gathers high kinetic energy due to this height coupled with multiple rocky divisions as it reaches first level of plunge. The source of water is Mandovi river which meets Arabian sea somewhere in Goa state. A dam is constructed across the Mandovi river before the waterfalls whose excess water also let out which gives more vigor to the ocean of milk during monsoon. This has been prominent tourist attraction from many years and one can see thousands of videos floating around Youtube mainly the trains passing the waterfall. As we reached waterfall site, we rested nearby the initial reach of water to ground. The camps were already setup for night stay. The pond at the first plunge is around 3 feet deep but suddenly dips to 30feet. So be careful if you wish to venture into water. Rajesh is a good swimmer and he could manage very easily. I did not knew swimming and hence only enjoyed the landscape and joy of people. One can also walk down the valley to have full view of the 4 tier waterfall alongside enjoying in water. We did not visit the valley point because of tiredness. The other reasons were lack of vigor in waterfall and excitement reduced further as we saw heavy garbage dump everywhere :-(. We also skipped view point due to same said reasons.
ONE OF STAGE ENDS HERE!
THE START POINT
BEAUTIFUL MANDOVI RIVER VALLEY
As dusk evolved around the region, the clouds started hovering on sky. Also there was beautiful sunlight on western ghats shimmering the Mandovi river valley. I grabbed some shots and bracketed few HDRs. We were planning to have start trail timelapse however clouds ruined our enthusiasm. I had especially taken the nifty-fifty f/1.8 to grab start trail timelapse and now everything in vain. We did not carry tripod but our Australian friend offered his tripod for few hours on request. Now with clouds covering sky, there was no point in grabbing any star trails. The region was completely dark by 7:30PM and we were getting ready to have dinner. The organizers had carried pre-cooked chapathis along with MTR ready to eat food items. We also had carry bags to collect the our garbage back. There was one more group of campers who prepared food on their own. The other group were also making merry and too much noise near the camp :D. Whenever we had to move around the place, torch was only source of light. It was also soothing to hear the sound of waterfall plunge. This was mainly due to total internal reflection at night and deep silence. At night due to TIR, the sound is reflected back to earth surface by atmosphere which echoes the sound back to earth. Please refer some physics article to know about total internal reflection ;-).
THE CAMP SETUP
SPARKLING WESTERN GHATS
There is only small tea shop situated near waterfall site. Earlier they used to serve only tea. Now they serve bunch of other stuffs like water bottle, cool drinks, biscuits and food on demand. Everything is sophisticated now. The shopkeeper is from Kulem and has been in business from past 5 years. He also suggested us to visit during peak monsoon time. The shopkeeper said that the water plummets with tremendous amount of energy during the monsoon season that one has to cross railway bridge bending the body! Otherwise the generated wind can push you into valley :D. He also mentioned that the water sprinkles generated due to fierce plunge on the rocks can reach even beyond tracks. One can have bath just with sprinkling water itself :D. He sleeps on the platform and opens the shop shutter early next morning. Not sure if he stays here during monsoon season too. Since this is exclusive shop here, the charge is also too high. Even people have no choice! Most of his goods arrive via the trains which halt at Dudhsagar for few minutes. Eventually, something is better than nothing. There are also toilets behind the shop for urgent nature calls :-).
We had good dinner and setup a campfire for just rejoicing. Camp fire was not required since the weather was too humid. I was surprised to feel the untidy weather right in middle of dense forest despite being autumn! The sudden gathering of clouds may have increased the humidity of region. I slept early around 9:30PM. Despite the noise created by the other campers, the fatigued body provided good sleep for sometime. Later we could not sleep due to ocean of sweat flowing on our body. Midnight, despite the foggy weather, it was sweating terribly. Me and Rajesh were sleeping in one tent and we decided to open the tent zipper to have free air flow. Later on, I had very good sleep till morning and ready for next day activity.
CAMPFIRE IN LONG EXPOSURE!
NORMAL FLAME
20 Oct 2013,
Early morning we woke up around 6:30AM and had to get ready to catch the Amaravati express which briefly halts for 2-3 minutes at Dudhsagar station.After having great sleep, we were fully refreshed and ready for one more long walk but we were catching train to Castlerock to reach Bangalore as early as possible. We had to get refreshed and later pack up the tents and walk towards the station which is around 0.5-1km from waterfall site. The energy of waterfall seemed like little bit increased relative to previous day. It was time for one more photo shoot-out ;-). Captured some pictures and videos before packing our stuffs. The organizers had brought ready to eat pulav for morning breakfast but none of us were ready to eat it :-). Consequently we thought of having breakfast in Ramanagar itself. We also thought of going down the valley but did not have ample time and hence skipped it.
EARLY MORNING, EDITED WITH DARKTABLE
EARLY MORNING SHOT
SHOT FROM RETAINING WALL
END OF A STAGE
INTERMEDIATE STAGE SHOT
GUESS, THE FINAL STAGE
SOME COURTESY ;-)
HEY GUYS VISIT EVERY YEAR TO FEED ME :-)
Around 8:30AM we were ready to leave the place and it was time to say Goodbye to the majestic waterfalls located in middle of dense western ghats. We moved towards the Dudhsagar station with our luggage as well as tent baggages. In one of the tunnels, water dripping from top directly fell down on the power button of camera. The camera failed to power on further :-(. It had faced heavy rains in past but just for little drip it broke down :-(. May be the impact was on prominent location which made it to break down instantly. My assumption was that battery power board would have gone for toss and needs replacement. Not sure, will have to diagnose once reaching Bangalore.
9:30AM, Amaravati express arrived at the station and started moving towards castle rock. I wanted to grab some videos but camera was in vain :-(. There was supply checking also but we did not have tickets. Previous day, Rajesh had inquired organizers whether they have bought return tickets and answer was yes. Unfortunately it was not. We were annoyed to hear that :-(. Rajesh got raged hearing this but kept silent. This is first time I was traveling without tickets and such small incidents makes railways to incur losses too! Fortunately, the ticket checker never returned and we safely landed in castle rock station without any fine but that was really bad experience and we were feeling guilty too :-(.
The train reached Castlerock in matter of 15 minutes. We then boarded our bus towards Ramanagar. We reached Ramanagar around 10AM to the same hotel as previous day. So did we have breakfast here? Alas no breakfast at all :-(. The hotelier said they would prepare on demand but only limited stuffs. Three of us decided to skip the breakfast and had apples with cool-drinks. The coordinator promised that bus would again stop at Kamat Hotel near Hubli for Lunch. It is obvious that places like these have feeble human movement and consequently hotel men prepare less food. On prior notice, they would have prepared something for us may be.
The bus started moving towards Hubli and reached Kamat restuarant at 2:30PM. We had good lunch here. The place was heavily crowded since 2-3 buses arrived altogether. After having lunch the bus started moving towards Bangalore. Surprisingly, Hubli-Dharwad bypass is also two laned! People in bus were having entertainment to pass time but I was happy to sleep :-). I slept in batches at times to be fresh for next day work. I also enjoyed lush green meadows and coconut plantations from Haveri to Chitradurga along with beautiful sunset. I could not grab any pics since my camera was down. Our Canadian friend had captured some good snaps of vivid patterns in sky. The bus stopped again at Tumkur for light snacks before heading to Bangalore again. We reached Bangalore around 11:30PM and thus ending our small journey.
Great experience once again. I never get bored traveling. This time I was pretty much lamenting since I had left macro lens at home. Later I realized after watching beautiful wild butterflies, I should have carried the same instead of tele lens. The other thing which annoyed us was lack of co-ordination by the organizers. People were seen scattered all along during our walk. There was never feeling of one group. Coordinators were never bothered to inspect if people of group were in comfortable position or not. Fortunately none of them broke down and everyone was fit. They were also not checking for all people in group before moving the bus. As said before, the incident of traveling without tickets was irritating :-(.
Miscellaneous stuffs [Boredom ;-)]
One has to visit the waterfalls just for fun during these days. The actual visit should be during July-August monsoon season when you really experience milk of ocean. It will be raining heavily but the glory is incredible especially from view point.
Overall happy that I am fit to walk for 15kms ;-) and spend some night in wilderness but not so much excited since could not feel the ocean of milk. Also too much garbage around the place somehow reduced the excitement about the place. After experiencing thunderous roll of Hanumangundi and Sirimane waterfalls, I am used to enjoy only waterfalls with exuberant flow. Walk during peak monsoon season will be unique experience with heavy rains and region covered with many water stream and greenery. Also water falling from tunnels will be enjoying experience too ;-). We plan to go during peak monsoon season but no plans to walk again though! Last Note:
My prediction was near right about camera break down. The service center personnel informed that battery power board was blown out and had to be replaced. Some parts of the board were burnt due to short circuit created by water inflow. Since PCBs can't be repaired (due to molding), there was no option other than replacing entire circuit board. That would be costing bit more but I had really tough time without camera for 2 weeks :-(. Anyhow I gave them green signal to replace the PCB and decided to be bit more cautious from now onwards especially during rainy season. After repair, the camera is alive again :-) with fully serviced.
Could have captured dusk to dark timelapse but realized only after night :D. Wanted to grab star trail timelapse at night but could not due to reasons stated in blog. Two videos this time:
1) Vasco-Hazrat Nizamuddin express passing through Dudhsagar waterfalls
2) Small compilation of Dudhsagar waterfalls
Credits:
From this blog onwards, I am including this new section to appreciate people who have helped me during travel and review my pictures and blogs. The lone credit goes to my friend +rajesh singh for his thorough review. Great thing about him is more than appreciation he provides constructive criticism which makes me to think a lot before I publish any content. He is far more experienced traveler and trekker than me and has been to many unexplored destinations in and around coastal Karnataka. I am grateful to him for sparing some time to review my work :-).
My credit also goes to beautiful open source image editors DarkTable and GIMP
Hope you enjoyed the two part blog. If you wish, leave feedback for any improvements.
These shots were taken during bright full moon day of Raksha bandhan. Just casual shot. After noticing the moon, I was tempted to grab some pictures of the bright shining energitic moon. Consequently pulled my camera, mounted the tele lens and started snapping the moon. What are those colors then? They were taken with varying white balances ;-). That creamed moon with vivid colors ;-). My primary intention was to learn how white balances work. I am still amateur photographer and needs lot of practice to strengthen my skills. This is one such practice carried out to learn a concept. Hope you enjoyed the picture. You can additionaly splice moons with a string to transform it to rakhi ;-).
COLORFUL MOON SEQUENCE!
The colors represent daylight, shadow, tungsten and cloudy white balances correspondingly. So what is WB? It is amount of color temperature shift required to retain white object as white in picture :-). What is color temperature? Back to physics :-). It is the color emitted by black body at particular temperature. If you recall concept of black body radiation, more the temperature, higher is the frequency emitted by the body [how? please read Neil Bohr's atomic model ;-)]. So at high temperature, the color is violet while at lower ones its red (visible range). Similarly when you increase color temperature of picture, the photo turns violet and red as you lower it. White Balance is amount of shift involved in balancing the color temperature. So lower the white balance, more bluish the color while red on other side of temperature. Both WB and CT are measured in in Kelvin
Today I am sharing few travel experiences from our Mysore visit during Dasara timeframe (nearly two months after visit). The write-up was basically delayed due to lack of time. Primary time eaters are picture editing. However, pictures reveal stories and hence there is no charm in writing without pictures. I have kept this travelogue relatively short and concise. Hope you will enjoy reading our experience!
Oct 13, 2013
Many of us have already visited Mysore numerous amount of time. It is familiar hangout place for Bangaloreans during weekend. Except me, none of travel gang members had visited Mysore during Dasara time. Finally the journey to Mysore was on during this weekend. We all agreed to the plan and booked the same 7Rs/km cab. This time we were four of us. The planning was done just 2 days before the journey. Since I had some personal work on Saturday, the plan was fixed for Sunday. Unfortunately, I caught ill on Friday night and it threatened to spoil travel plans. But things were fine on Saturday with no loss of enthusiasm ;-). Thats the best way to keep away ill-health as per my father! Sunday, we had planned to start by 7AM and return after watching lighted Mysore palace. Even this time, the cab person delayed the start and consequently commenced journey 45 mins late. Not much traffic on bright Sunny day and it seemed many had traveled to Mysore to have glimpse of town during last day of Navaratri.
To pass time in cab, as always we discuss few topics during our journey. Most of the times it will be based on politics, science or architectural marvels [No junk movie stuffs ;-)]. This time discussion topic was our one and only category-4 storm 'Phailin' :D. The 1999 super cyclone had devastated Orissa killing almost 10000 people. It was one of the worst ever cyclone faced by India. This time a slightly lower intensity cyclone was about landfall on Orissa coast with 220kmph wind speed. Fortunately the effect was restricted to 6hrs and casualities were less due to preventive measures. Myself and Rajesh are very much interested in geography :D and were discussing some of physics behind cyclone formation. Even Sudhir showed interest which boosted our discussion. We were discussing science behind the frequent cyclonic formation over Bay of Bengal compared to Arabian sea. The other topics were usual politics and few religion related. The cab was moving at normal pace and we halted for breakfast at Kamat Ruchi near Ramanagar. We had hefty breakfast here despite of high cost. The breakfast was tasty too :-).
Our plan was just to visit Brindavan gardens and Mysore town. The driver asked if we wish to broaden our visit in and around Srirangapattana as well. Oh, I had totally forgotten about that ;-). We said yes to driver and our first stop was Srirangapattana Temple itself. Around 11AM we reached the place. As expected the place was heavily crowded. The temple also was under renovation. It is believed that the Ranganathaswamy temple along cauvery river considered to be holy along with two more temples. I am not sure about the other temples. Some devotees visit these temples in a single day which is considered to be more sacred. There was long queue for darshan of Lord Ranganathaswamy. After being in queue for 20mins, we had darshan of deity. Quite old temple but has good architecture constructed out of stones. The array of pillars were looking awesome! We bought and had tasty laddus from temple too! Outside the temple there were many healthy horses fostered by local people. People could climb into horse with fee of Rs.20. I believe they were also taking for ride with a hefty fee. Rajesh and Sudhir enjoyed the hop into horse and felt like emperors and I enjoyed grabbing their pics ;-).
Next is the confluence of two rivers, Sangama. It has been long time since I visited this place. Again too much crowd and shops. These shops seem to be only present during Dasara times. The place is confluence of two rivers Sangama and Lokapaavani. Lokapaavani flows from North direction towards south to meet Cauvery river. The place is good if you want to have swim along the river. The surroundings are garbaged too much and not well maintained. Confluence of rivers is considered to be holy place in India and hence religious activities are carried out here.
CONFLUENCE POINT!
After Sangama, we visited Gumbaz a monument where TippuSultan constructed for his father. Nothing much to be seen here but relax for sometime. One can enter the tomb and have a look. The main attraction is the garden spread for quite large area. After this our plan was to visit Balamuri water stream. We skipped summer palace and nimishamba temple due to lack of time.
THE VISTA
CLOSEUP VIEW
GUMBAZ
Balamuri is on the way to Brindavan gardens along Madikeri route. Enjoy the beautiful rural landscape throughout the journey. Few minutes drive, we reached Balamuri. The cauvery river flows here. A place looks like small waterfall. Again huge crowd enjoying the bath in flowing stream. Both Rajesh and Sudhir felt jealous watching them since they had not brought alternate clothes :-). Finally bit of relief with small coracle ride. 50Rs is the charge per person. After ride, we went along the falling stream to enjoy the flowing water. Later it was time to savor churumuri :D. We had 2/4 churumuri with pineapple. Churumuri was tasty but pricy too! This is the time small vendors mint money. Later we left for Brindavan Gardens.
PACKED BALAMURI
It was time to revisit Brindavan gardens. It was nostalgic feel for me when I visited with my parents enjoying the musical fountain. 10yrs back, we were even allowed to enter top of dam to have magnificent look of reservoir. We had even experienced the times when reservoir was full. The gravity pull of reservoir and gusty winds were awesome and fearful experience at those times. Due to frequent suicide cases or terror threats(?), the authorities do not allow to top of reservoir. There is nothing here to enjoy other than musical fountain nowadays. It has become mere place of relaxation and we only did that on this day :-(. Atleast some part of year, authorities should allow public to visit the top of reservoir. After few hours of relaxation, we started towards Chamundi hills.
BRINDAVAN GARDENS
PATH TO MUSICAL FOUNTAIN
SOME MACRO SHOTS
The traffic jams added delay to our journey within city limits which was rare sight during our days. This also delayed ascending of hills. There were humongous amount of visitors and consequently vehicles were not allowed to park near temple. We had to climb few steps to reach the Chamundi temple. The temple would open only at 6PM and there was long standing queue for darshan including special entrance. It was only 5:30PM and unfortunately we decided skip the darshan. We roamed around the streets of temple and enjoyed the Sunset too! There was cool breeze passing through the hillock which provided pleasant feeling. It was around 6:30PM, we headed back to city but still the temple had not opened. The queue now had expanded twice as earlier and there were flood of vehicles along the way. We could not visit Nandi, again due to time constraints but enjoyed the city view at night for few minutes from view point.
SRI CHAMUNDESHWARI PALAYAMAM
7:30PM, we were near Mysore palace and could see sparkling palace from distance itself. We were tempted to enter palace immediately but I was hungry :D. We had tasty meals nearby well known hotel and later walked towards Mysore palace. The streets nearby were decorated with lights and it seemed like entire town was glowing. The massive crowd was the eye-witness to festive fervor. Even though I had been to this place many times, this is first time I am photographing glittering mysore palace. Never had tried to take pictures before. Now it is time to experiment ;-). I did not take much shots basically due to plethora of distractions mainly tents and people. Here is the type of occasion where you require UWL lens. I could have grabbed better pictures if at-least pandals were not present. Also flying whistles inserted too much noise in picture :-(. Nevertheless, I was happy with my first experiment. But things needs to be much more proper. Will plan during off-season just to picturize Mysore palace ;-).
9:00PM sharp, authorities switch off the lightings. It was time to say good bye to palace city. We spotted our taxi and started towards Bangalore. It was around 1:00AM when we reached Bangalore. I was really happy with some of palace pictures even though critiques say needs much more improvement. Any skill is all about practice, constant effort and most importantly happiness more than appreciation. That is only thing which makes you master. Experienced photographers say that best picture you will take will be only tomorrow and that applies for everyday :-). That means one needs to enjoy and keep shooting not wait for tomorrow ;-). Moral of story is, needs much more practice and work on better composition to grab better picture. The best is yet to come :-).
Here are some panorama and HDRs composed during journey. Could not find time for exclusive write-up. The HDR pictures
FOUNTAIN AT BRINDAVAN GARDENS
SRIRANGAPATTANA TEMPLE
CAUVERY RIVER AT SANGAMA
Some Panorama shots
SANGAMA
PANORAMIC VIEW OF BRINDAVAN GARDENS
I am not sharing any palace pictures in this post. The pictures are documented here
There is small timelapse of clouds hovering around Brindavan Gardens. Will club all timelapse videos into one on fine day!
Did not grab much videos and hence none this time.
ದೋಸೆ ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಚಟ್ನಿ ಇಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದರೆ ಏನೋ ಮಿಸ್ ಆದಂತೆ ಅಲ್ವೆ ;-). ನನಗೂ ಕೂಡ ಹಾಗೆ. ದೋಸೆ ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಎಷ್ಟೇ ಕಷ್ಟವಾದರೂ ಚಟ್ನಿ ಬೇಕೆ ಬೇಕು. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ತಂದೆ ತಿಂಡಿಪೋತ ಅಂತ ಕರೆಯುವುದೂ ಉಂಟು ;-). ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ತಯಾರಿಸುವುದು ಕೂಡ ಬಹಳ ಸುಲಭ. ನಾನು ತಯಾರಿಸುವ ವಿಧಾನವನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದೇನೆ (ಅಮ್ಮ ಹೇಳಿಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದು)
ಮೊದಲು ತುರಿದ ತೆಂಗಿನಕಾಯಿಯನ್ನು ಮಿಕ್ಸಿ ಜಾರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸುರಿಯಿರಿ. ನಂತರ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಹುರಿಗಡಲೆ, ನೆನೆಸಿದ ಹುಣಸೆಹಣ್ಣು, ಹಸಿ ಮೆಣಸು, ಹಿಂಗು ಮತ್ತು ಬೇಕಾಗುವಷ್ಟು ಉಪ್ಪನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಿ. ಈ ಮಿಶ್ರಣಕ್ಕೆ ಹದವಾಗಿ ನೀರನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಿ, ಮಿಕ್ಸಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ರುಬ್ಬಿ. ಮೊದಲು ನೀರನ್ನು ಕಡಿಮೆ ಸೇರಿಸಿ ನಂತರ ಬೇಕಾಗುವಷ್ಟು ಸೇರಿಸಿ ಮಿಶ್ರಣ ಸಣ್ಣಗಾಗುವವರೆಗೆ ರುಬ್ಬಿ. ರುಬ್ಬಿದ ನಂತರ, ಮಿಶ್ರಣವನ್ನು ಸಣ್ಣ ಪಾತ್ರೆಗೆ ಸುರಿಯಿರಿ. ಇದಾದ ಬಳಿಕ ಸಾಸಿವೆ, ಉದ್ದಿನಬೇಳೆ, ಕರಿಬೇವು ಸೊಪ್ಪು ಮತ್ತು ಬ್ಯಾಡಗಿ ಮೆಣಸಿನ ಒಗ್ಗರಣೆ ತಯಾರಿಸಿ. ಒಗ್ಗರಣೆಯನ್ನು ಮಿಶ್ರಣಕ್ಕೆ ಸೇರಿಸಿದ ನಂತರ ಆಹಾ ರುಚಿಯಾದ ಚಟ್ನಿ ತಯಾರು. ಚಟ್ನಿಯನ್ನು ದೋಸೆಯೊಂದಿಗೆ ತಿಂದು ಆನಂದಿಸಿ. ಹಾಗೆ ದೋಸೆ ತಿಂದ ನಂತರ ನಿದ್ದೆ ಹೋಗಬೇಡಿ ;-).
ಚಟ್ನಿಗೆ ಕೆಲವರು ಕೊತ್ತಂಬರಿ ಸೊಪ್ಪು ಸೇರಿಸಿ ಕೂಡ ರುಬ್ಬುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಇದರಿಂದ ಅದರ ರುಚಿ ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ವೃದ್ಧಿಸುವುದು ಕೂಡ! ಹಾಗೆ ಮಿಶ್ರಣಕ್ಕೆ ಸಣ್ಣ ತುಂಡು ಶುಂಠಿ ಕೂಡ ಸೇರಿಸಿ ರುಬ್ಬಬಹುದು. ಹುರಿಗಡಲೆ ಆಪ್ಶನಲ್. ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಸೇರಿಸಿದರೆ ಚಟ್ನಿ ಸಿಹಿಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ :-). ಹಾಗೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಖಾರ ಬೇಕೆಂದರೆ ಒಂದೆರಡು ಎಕ್ಸ್ಟ್ರಾ ಹಸಿ ಮೆಣಸನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಿ.
ಇದು ಕೂಡ ನನ್ನ ಹಳೆಯ ಬರಹ. ಸುಮಾರು ನಾಲ್ಕು ವರ್ಷದ ನಂತರ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಸೇರಿಸಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ರೈಲಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಅನುಭವಗಳಾಗಿವೆ. ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಇದು ಕೂಡ ಒಂದು. ರೈತರ ಕಷ್ಟಗಳನ್ನು ಕಂಡಾಗ ಬೇಸರವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಈ ಅನುಭವವನ್ನು ಗೀಚುವ ಮನಸ್ಸಾಯಿತು.
ಏಪ್ರಿಲ್ ೧೨, ೨೦೦೯,
ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಇದ್ದರಿಂದ ಸಂಜೆ ಹೊರಡುವ ಬದಲು ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ೬:೪೫ಕ್ಕಿರುವ ಮೈಸೂರು-ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಚಾಮುಂಡಿ ಎಕ್ಸ್ಪ್ರೆಸ್ಸ್ ರೈಲು ಹತ್ತಿದೆ. ಹಿಂದಿನ ದಿನವೇ ಚೀಟಿ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದರಿಂದ ಸೀದಾ ರೈಲು ಹತ್ತಿದೆ. ಮೊದಮೊದಲಿಗೆ ಜನ ಇಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದರೂ ನಂತರ ರೈಲು ತುಂಬಿಹೋಯಿತು. ನನ್ನ ಎದುರು ಒಬ್ಬ ೪೦ ವರುಷದ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯೊಬ್ಬರು ಕುಳಿತಿದ್ದರು. ಇನ್ನೆನು ರೈಲು ಹೊರಡಬೇಕೆನ್ನುವಷ್ಟರಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರೊ ಒಬ್ಬರು ಬಂದು ಮುಂದಿನ ಆಸನದಲ್ಲಿ ಕುಳಿತಿದ್ದ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯನ್ನು "ಇದು ರಿಸೆರ್ವ್ಡ್ ಸೀಟ್, ನೀವು ಏಳಿ" ಎಂದರು. ಆ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಗೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕಾಪಟ್ಟೆ ಕೋಪ ಬಂತು. "ಅಲ್ಲಯ್ಯ ಸುಮಾರ್ ವರ್ಷದಿಂದ ಇದೇ ರೈಲಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋಗ್ತಾ ಇದೀನಿ, ನೀನು ರಿಸೆರ್ವ್ಡ್ ಅಂತ ಜಗಳಕ್ಕೆ ಇಳಿತಿಯಲ್ಲಾ. ರಿಸೆರ್ವ್ಡ್ ಬೋಗಿ ಕಡೆಗಿರೋದು. ಬೇಕಾದರೆ ಟಿಟಿಇ ವಿಚಾರಿಸು" ಎಂದು ಜೋರು ಮಾಡಿದನು. ಸರಿ ರಿಸರ್ವ್ಡ್ ಚೀಟಿ ಇದ್ದವನು ಹೊರಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಟಿಟಿಇ ವಿಚಾರಿಸಿದಾಗ, ರಿಸೆರ್ವ್ಡ್ ಬೋಗಿ ಬೇರೆ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿದನು. ಇದು ಮುಂದಿದ್ದ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಗೂ ತಿಳಿಯಿತು. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹೊತ್ತಿನ ನಂತರ ಅಲ್ಲಿದ್ದವರಲ್ಲಿ "ಸುಮಾರು ವರ್ಷದಿಂದ ಇದೇ ರೈಲ್ನಾಗೆ ಹೋಗ್ತಿವ್ನಿ. ಅಲ್ಲಾ ರಿಸೆರ್ವ್ಡ್ ಅಂತ ಜಗಳಕ್ಕೆ ಇಳಿತಾರೆ. ನಾವು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಕಮ್ಮಿ ಒದೋರ್ತರ ಕಂಡ್ರು ಜಾಸ್ತಿ ದುಡ್ ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಹೋಗೊರ್ಗೆ ಈತರ ಮೋಸ ಮಾಡಲ್ಲ. ಇವ್ರು ಬಿಹಾರದ ಕಡೆ ಮಂದಿನ ನೋಡ್ಲಿ. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ರಿಸೆರ್ವ್ಡ್ ಅಂತ ಇದ್ರು ಅಲ್ಲಿನ್ ಜನ ದಬಾಯ್ಸಿ ಸುಮ್ನೆ ಆಚಿಕ್ಕೆ ಕಳಿಸ್ತಾರೆ" ಎಂದು ತನ್ನ ಬೇಸರ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸಿದನು. ಹಾರ್ನ್ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾ ನಿಗದಿತ ಸಮಯಕ್ಕೆ ರೈಲು ಹೊರಡಿತು.
ಪಾಂಡವಪುರದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ರೈಲಿಗೆ ನಿಲುಗಡೆಯಿದೆ. ಅಲ್ಲಿಯೊಬ್ಬರು ರೈತರು ರೈಲನ್ನು ಹತ್ತಿದರು. ನಮ್ಮ ಬಳಿ ಆಸನ ಇದ್ದರಿಂದ ಅಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಕುಳಿತುಕೊಂಡರು. ಅವರು ಕೆಂಗೇರಿಗೆ ಹೋಗುವವರು. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಸಮಯದ ನಂತರ ಮುಂದಿರುವ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ ಆ ರೈತರ ಬಳಿ ಮಾತಿಗೆ (ಸೌಹಾರ್ದ) ಇಳಿದನು.
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಇಲ್ಲ ಗೌಡ್ರೇ ತಂದಿದ್ದೀನಿ ನೋಡಿ ರೈತ: ಬಹಳ ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತ ಕಣಪ್ಪ ನೀನು.
ಬಿಸಿ ಬಿಸಿ ಮಸಾಲೆ ದೋಸೆ, ರೈಸ್ ಬಾತ್, ಇಡ್ಲಿ-ವಡ, ಕೇಳಿತು ರೈಲಿನಲ್ಲಿ ತಿಂಡಿ ಮಾರುವವನ ಧ್ವನಿ. ಇತ್ತೀಚಿಗೆ ನಡೆದ ಕೆಲವು ಘಟನೆಗಳಿಂದಾಗಿ ಸಮವಸ್ತ್ರ ಇಲ್ಲದವರ ಬಳಿ ಪ್ರಯಾಣಿಕರು ತಿಂಡಿ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಅಕ್ಕ ಬಿಸಿ-ಬಿಸಿ ರುಚಿಯಾದ ದೋಸೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದರಿಂದ ನಾನೇನು ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳಲಿಲ್ಲ.
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಒಂದು ಮಸಾಲೆ ದೋಸೆ ಕೊಡಯ್ಯ. ಎಷ್ಟಪ್ಪ ದೋಸೆ ಮಾರುವವ: ತಗೊಳ್ಳಿ ಸಾರ್. ಹತ್ತು ರುಪಾಯಿ
ಮಸಾಲ ದೋಸೆ ಪೊಟ್ಟಣ ತೆರೆಯುತ್ತ ಗೌಡರತ್ತ ಮುಖ ಮಾಡಿದನು.
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ನೋಡಿ ಗೌಡ್ರೆ. ಎಷ್ಟು ಕಮ್ಮಿ ಚಟ್ನಿ ಹಾಕವ್ನೇ. (ದೋಸೆ ಮಾರುವವನ ಬಳಿ) ಏನಯ್ಯಾ ಚಟ್ನಿನೇ ಇಲ್ವಲ್ಲಯ್ಯಾ? ದೋಸೆ ಮಾರುವವ: ಗಟ್ಟಿ ಚಟ್ನಿ ಸಾರ್. ಹತ್ತು ರುಪಾಯ್ಗೆ ಅಷ್ಟೆ ಬರೋದು ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ನೋಡಿ ಗೌಡ್ರೆ ಇವ್ರೂ ಹಿಂಗಾಡ್ತಾರೆ
ದೋಸೆ ತಿಂದ ನಂತರ...
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಏನ್ ಗೌಡ್ರೇ, ಯಡಿಯೂರಪ್ಪನವ್ರು ನಿಮ್ಗೆ ಫ್ರೀಯಾಗಿ ಕರೆಂಟ್ ಕೊಟ್ಟವ್ರೆ. ಖರ್ಚ್ ತುಂಬಾ ಇಳಿದಿರ್ಬೇಕಲ್ವ ರೈತ: ಹೆಸ್ರಿಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿ ಕಣಪ್ಪ. ಯಾವಗ್ ನೋಡಿದ್ರೂ ಸಿಂಗಲ್ ಫೇಸ್. ನೀನೆ ಹೇಳು ಗದ್ದೆ ಮೋಟಾರ್ಗೆ ಸಿಂಗಲ್ ಫೇಸ್ ಸಾಕಾಯ್ತದ. ಮೂರು ಫೇಸ್ ಸರಿ ಮಾಡ್ಸೋಕೆ ಕರೆಂಟ್ನವ್ರಿಗೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಕೊಡ್ಲಿಲ್ಲಾಂದ್ರೆ ಏನ್ ಕೆಲ್ಸನೂ ಆಗಲ್ಲ ಕಣಪ್ಪ. ಪುಣ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾಲುವೆ ನೀರು ಇದ್ಯಲ್ಲ ಅದ್ರಿಂದ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಸುಧಾರ್ಸ್ಕೊತೀವಿ. ಈ ರೈತರ ಪಾಡು ನಿಂಗೆ ತಿಳಿಯಾಕ್ಕಿಲ್ಲ
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಹೌದಾ ಗೌಡ್ರೆ!! ಅಂದ ಹಾಗೆ ನಿಮ್ದೆಷ್ಟು ಜಮೀನ್ ಅಯ್ತೆ. ಏನ್ ಬೆಳೆಸ್ತೀರಾ ರೈತ: ಮೂರು ಎಕ್ರೆ ಕಣಪ್ಪಾ. ಭತ್ತ ಬೆಳಿತೀವಿ
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಒಳ್ಳೆ ಬೆಳೆ ಬರುತ್ತಾ ಹೇಗೆ? ಈಗೀಗ ಅಕ್ಕಿ ಕೂಡ ಬಾಳ ಕಾಸ್ಲಿಯಾಗೈತೆ ಅಲ್ವಾ, ತುಂಬಾ ಸಂಪಾದನೆಯಾಗುತ್ತನ್ನಿ ರೈತ: ಹಾಗೇನೂ ಇಲ್ಲ ಕಣಪ್ಪ. ಕಾಸ್ ಮಾಡೋರು ದಲ್ಲಾಳಿಗಳು ಮಾತ್ರ. ನಮ್ಗೆ ಇನ್ನು ಅದೇ ಹಳೇ ರೇಟೆ ಹೇಳ್ತಾರೆ. ಗದ್ದೆ ಮಾಡೋದು ಸುಲ್ಭ ಅನ್ಕೊಡಿದ್ದಿಯಾ. ಮೊನ್ನೆ ನಮ್ ಭತ್ತಕ್ಕೆ ಸುಳಿ ರೋಗ ಬಂದಿತ್ತು. ಈತರ ರೋಗ ಬಂದ್ರೆ ನಮ್ ಬೆಳೆ ಎಲ್ಲಿ ನಿಲ್ತಾವೆ ಹೇಳು. ಗದ್ದೆ ಕೆಲ್ಸ ಮಾಡೋಕೆ ಜನ ಸಿಗ್ಬೇಕಲ್ಲ
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ನೀವು ರೈತ್ರು ಅದೇನೊ ಕೆಮಿಕಲ್ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಹಾಕಿ ನಾವು ತಿನ್ನೊರಿಗೂ ಕಾಯ್ಲೆ ಬರಿಸ್ತೀರಾ ಅಲ್ವಾ. ಮುಂಚೆ ಕೆಮಿಕಲ್ ಬದ್ಲು ಬೇವಿನ್ ನೀರು ಬಳಸ್ತಾ ಇದ್ರು ರೈತ: ಮೊನ್ನೆ ಸುಳಿ ರೋಗ ಬಂದಾಗ ನಾವು ಕೃಷಿ ಇಲಾಖೆಯವ್ರನ್ನು ಕೇಳ್ದ್ವಿ. ಅವ್ರು ಯಾವ್ದೊ ಹೊಸ ಗೊಬ್ರ ತೋರ್ಸಿದ್ರು. ಎರಡು ಸಲ ಹಾಕುದ್ರೂನೂ ರೋಗನೇ ಇಳಿತಾ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಅದಾದ್ ಮ್ಯಾಕೆ ನೀವ್ ಹೇಳುದ್ರಲ್ಲ ಅದನ್ನೇ ಬಳಸ್ದೆ. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ದಿನ್ದಲ್ಲೇ ರೋಗ ಮಾಯ್ವಾಯ್ತು
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಅಲ್ಲಾ ಗೌಡ್ರೆ, ಕೆಲ್ಸಕ್ಕೆ ಆಳು ಯಾಕೆ ಈಗ ಮೆಶಿನ್ ಬಂದಿದ್ಯಲ್ಲಾ ರೈತ: ಹೂ ಕಣಪ್ಪಾ ಬಂದಿದೆ. ಅದಕ್ಕೂ ಕರ್ಚಿದೆ. ಭತ್ತ ಕಟಾವು ಮಾಡೊವಾಗ ಭತ್ತ ಏನೋ ಬೇಗ ಸಿಗುತ್ತೆ ಆದ್ರೆ ಅದ್ರ ಹುಲ್ಲು ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಪುಡಿಯಾಗುತ್ತಪ್ಪಾ. ಸುಮ್ನೆ ದಂಡ ಆಗುತ್ತೆ.
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ನಿಮ್ಗೆ ಭತ್ತ ಸಿಕ್ರೆ ಸಾಕಲ್ವ ಹುಲ್ಲು ಯಾಕೆ ರೈತ: ಏಏಏ.. ಅಷ್ಟು ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ವೇನ್ಲಾ. ಒಣಗಿದ ಹುಲ್ಲುಗಳು ನಮ್ ಹಸುಗಳಿಗೆ ಆಹಾರ ಕಣ್ಲಾ. ಅದ್ರಲ್ಲೂ ಒಂದು ಗದ್ದೆ ಹುಲ್ನಿಂದ ೨೦೦೦ ರುಪಾಯಿ ಆದಾಯ ಕೂಡ ಬರುತ್ತೆ
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಹೌದಾ ಗೌಡ್ರೆ. ಕೂಲಿ ಎಷ್ಟ್ ಕೊಡ್ಬೆಕಾಯ್ತದೆ ರೈತ: ಕೂಲಿ ೬ ಜನ ಬೇಕಾಯ್ತದೆ. ಅವ್ರಿಗೆ ಕಟಾವು ಮಾಡಕ್ಕೆ ಒಬ್ಬೊಬ್ರಿಗೆ ೧೦೦೦ ಹಿಡಿಯುತ್ತೆ ಕಣಪ್ಪಾ
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ನೀವೆ ಕಟಾವು ಮಾಡ್ಬಹುದಲ್ಲಾ? ರೈತ: ೩ ಎಕ್ರೆ ಕಟಾವು ಮಾಡೋದು ಸುಲ್ಭ ಅನ್ಕೊಡಿದ್ದೀಯಾ. ಅದ್ರಲ್ಲೂ ಮಧ್ಯ ಮಳೆ-ಗಿಳೆ ಬಂದ್ರೆ ಬೆಳೆನೂ ಹೊಂಟೋಯ್ತದೆ ಗೊತ್ತಾ
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಮಳೆ ಬಂದ್ರೆ ಮುಂದಿನ ದಿನ ಒಣಗಕ್ಕ ಬಿಟ್ರೆ ಆಯ್ತಲ್ವಾ? ರೈತ: ಒಂದ್ಸಲ ನೀರ್ ಬಿದ್ರೆ ಮುಗ್ದೋಯ್ತು ಕಣಪ್ಪ. ಇನ್ನು ಅದು ಬರಿ ಮೇವಿಗೆ ಹುಲ್ಲು ಅಷ್ಟೇ (ಬೇಸರದಿಂದ)
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಒಂದ್ಸಲ ಬೆಳೆ ತೆಗುದ್ರೆ ಎಷ್ಟು ಇಳುವರಿ ಬರುತ್ತೆ ನಿಂಗೆ ರೈತ: ಒಂದ್ಸಲಕ್ಕೆ ೪೦ ಮೂಟೆ ಬರುತ್ತೆ ಕಣಪ್ಪ ಅದು ಯಾವ ರೋಗ ಬರ್ದೇ ಇದ್ರೆ. ಒಂದು ಮೂಟೆ ೭೦ ಕೆ.ಜಿ ಲೆಕ್ಕ. ಅದ್ರಲ್ಲೂ ಕೂಲಿ ಕರ್ಚೆ ಜಾಸ್ತಿ
ಅಷ್ಟೊತ್ತಿಗಾಗಲೆ ಮಂಡ್ಯ ಬಂದಿತ್ತು. ಇಬ್ಬರಿಗೂ ನಿದ್ದೆ ಬರುತ್ತಿತ್ತೇನೊ, ನಿದ್ರಾದೇವಿಗೆ ಶರಣಾದರು. ರೈಲು ಬಹಳ ವಿಳಂಬವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ದ್ವಿಪಥ ಕಾಮಗಾರಿ ಮಂದಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಗುತ್ತಿರುವುದರಿಂದ ಹಲವೆಡೆ ಕ್ರಾಸಿಂಗ್ ತೊಂದರೆ. ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕಡೆ ಇವನೇ ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ. ಬ್ಯಾಟರಾಯನಹಳ್ಳಿ, ಹನಕೆರೆ, ಶೆಟ್ಟಿಹಳ್ಳಿ ಹೀಗೆ ಮೂರು ಬಾರಿ ಹತ್ತು ನಿಮಿಷ ಕ್ರಾಸಿಂಗ್. ಒಟ್ಟು ೩೦ ನಿಮಿಷ ಸಮಯ ವ್ಯರ್ಥ. ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ತಲೆಕೆರೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ರೈಲು ಕೂಡ ಬಹಳ ರಶ್ ಇತ್ತು. ಮೈಸೂರಿನಿಂದ-ಮದ್ದೂರು ವರೆಗಿನ ಪ್ರಯಾಣ ಬಹಳ ಸಂತಸ ನೀಡಿತ್ತು. ಸಣ್ಣ ಕಾಲುವೆಗಳು, ಭತ್ತದ, ತೆಂಗಿನ, ಕಬ್ಬಿನ ತೋಟ, ಆಗಾಗ ಸಿಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಮಾವಿನ ತೋಟಗಳು ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಉಲ್ಲಾಸ ನೀಡುತ್ತವೆ. ರಾಮನಗರದ ನಂತರ ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣ ಡಬಲ್ ಟ್ರಾಕ್. ರಾಮನಗರ-ಚನ್ನಪಟ್ಟಣ ಮಾರ್ಗದಲ್ಲಿ ತುಸು ವೇಗವಾಗಿಯೆ ಕಾಮಗಾರಿಗಳು ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿವೆ. ಬ್ರಿಡ್ಜ್ಗಳು, ಟ್ರ್ಯಾಕ್ ಗಳನ್ನು ಬೇಗನೆ ಮುಗಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಕೆಲವು ಕಡೆ ಎತ್ತರದ ಪ್ರದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಣ್ಣು ತೆಗೆಯುವ ಕಾಮಗಾರಿ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿದೆ. ರಾಮನಗರದ ನಂತರ ರೈಲು ತುಸು ವೇಗವಾಗಿ ಹೋಗಬಹುದು ಎಂದುಕೊಂಡರೆ ಸಿಂಗಲ್ ಟ್ರಾಕ್ ಗಿಂತ ನಿಧಾನವಾಗಿ ಚಲಿಸುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಹೊಸ ಟ್ರಾಕ್ ಅಲ್ಲವೇ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಸೆಟ್ ಆಗಲಿ ಅಂತ ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಡಿ. ಇದೇ ಟ್ರಾಕ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಮೈಸೂರು-ಚೆನ್ನೈ ಶತಾಬ್ಧಿ ಘಂಟೆಗೆ ನೂರು ಕಿ.ಮೀ ವೇಗದಲ್ಲಿ ಚಲಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ರಾಮನಗರದ ನಂತರ ಮತ್ತೆ ಇಬ್ಬರು ಮಾತಿಗೆ ಇಳಿದರು.
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಅಲ್ಲ ಗೌಡ್ರೇ ಭತ್ತ ಬೆಳೆಯೊಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ತೆಂಗಿನ್ ತೋಟನು ಮಾಡ್ಬಹುದಲ್ವಾ? ರೈತ: ಅದ್ರಾಗೂ ಕಷ್ಟ ಇದೆ ಕಣಪ್ಪಾ. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ವರ್ಶದ್ ಹಿಂದೆ ನುಸಿ ರೋಗ ಹಿಡ್ದಿದ್ದು ನೆನ್ಪಿಲ್ವಾ. ಆವಾಗಿಂದ ಮರಕ್ಕೆ ೨೦ ಕಾಯಿ ಬಿಟ್ರೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು. ಅದ್ಕಿಂತ ಮುಂಚೆ ೫೦ ಕಾಯಿನಾದ್ರು ಬರೋದು
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ನಿಮ್ಗೆ ಮರ ಹತ್ತೋಕೆ ಬರುತ್ತಾ? ರೈತ: ಇಲ್ಲಪ್ಪಾ. ಅದಕ್ಕೂ ಕೂಲಿಯವ್ರನ್ನೇ ಕರಿಸ್ಬೇಕು. ಮರದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಯಿ ಎಷ್ಟಿದ್ರೇನು ಒಂದು ಮರಕ್ಕೆ ೧೦ ರುಪಾಯಿ ಕೊಡ್ಲಿಲ್ಲಾಂದ್ರೆ ಯಾವನೂ ಬರಕ್ಕಿಲ್ಲಾ
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಹೌದಾ ಗೌಡ್ರೇ!! ಮತ್ತೆ ಕೆಲ್ವುರು ಕೆಲ್ಸಾನೇ ಇಲ್ಲಾಂತಾರಲ್ಲ ರೈತ: ಅದೆಲ್ಲಾ ಹಳೆ ಕಾಲ ಕಣಪ್ಪ. ಈಗೆಲ್ಲ ಯಾರ್ ಬೇಸಾಯ ಮಾಡ್ತಾರೆ. ಎಲ್ಲ ಸಿಟಿ ಕಡೆಗೆ ಹೋಯ್ತಾವ್ರೆ. ಅದಿಕ್ಕೆ ಕೂಲಿಗ್ಳ ರೇಟ್ ಕೂಡ ಏರ್ಬಿಟ್ಟಿದೆ. ಹಿಂದಿನ ಕಾಲ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಮದ್ವೆಗೆ ಬಂದೊವ್ರು ನಮ್ ಕಡೆಯವ್ರ ಅತ್ವಾ ಹೊರ್ಗಿಂದ ಬೇರೆ ಯಾರ ಅಂತ ನೋಡ್ತಿದ್ವಿ. ಈಗ್ ನೋಡಪ್ಪಾ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ್ ಅಯ್ತೆ ಬನ್ನಿ ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರೂ ಯಾವನೂ ಬರಲ್ಲ ಅಂತಾರೆ. ನಾವೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಕರ್ಚ್ ಮಾಡ್ಕೊಂದು ಫೋನ್ ಮಾಡ್ದ್ರೂನೂ ಯಾವನೂ ಬರಲ್ಲಾ ನೋಡು.
ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ: ಅದು ಸರೀನೆ ಬಿಡಿ. ಎಳನೀರ್ ಮಾರೋರ್ಗೆ ಏನ್ ಲಾಭ ಅಲ್ವಾ. ಬೆಂಗ್ಳೂರ್ನಾಗೆ ಎಷ್ಟೊಂದು ಮಾರಾಟ ಆಯ್ತದಲ್ವಾ? ರೈತ: ಇಲ್ಲ ಕಣಪ್ಪ. ನಾವು ಎಳನೀರು ಮಾರಿದ್ರೆ ನಮ್ಗೆ ಬರೊದು ಬರಿ ಮೂರು ರುಪಾಯಿ ಅಷ್ಟೆಯಾ. ಉಳ್ದಿದ್ದು ದಲ್ಲಾಳಿಗಳಿಗೆ. ನಾವು ಮಾರೋದು ೩ ರುಪಾಯಿ, ಅದನ್ನ ಕೊಂಡ್ಕೊಂಡೊವ್ನು ಮೈಸೂರ್ನಾಗೆ ೫ ರುಪಾಯಿಗೆ ಮಾರ್ತಾನೆ. ಗಾಡಿ ಚಾರ್ಜ್ ಕೂಡ ಇದ್ಯಲ್ಲ. ಬೆಂಗ್ಳೂರಿಗೆ ಹೋದಾಗ ೧೦ ರುಪಾಯಿ ಆಗತ್ತೆ. ಕೆಲ್ವು ಬೊಂಬಾಯಿಗೂ ಹೋಗ್ತಾವಂತೆ. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ೨೦ ರುಪಾಯಿಗೆ ಮಾರಾಟ ಅಂತೆ.
ಆಗ ಕೆಂಗೇರಿ ಬಂದಾಗಿತ್ತು. ರೈತ ಮಿತ್ರರು ಅಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಇಳಿದರು. ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ "ಬರ್ತೀನ್ ಕಣ್ರಪ್ಪಾ" ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿ ಹೋದರು. ಬಹಳ ಇಷ್ಟವಾಗಿದ್ದು ಅವರ ನಯವಾದ ತಾಳ್ಮೆಯ ಉತ್ತರಗಳು. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಬರೆಯಬೇಕೆಂದೆನಿಸಿತು. ರೈಲಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಯಾಣಿಸುವಾಗ ಬಹಳಷ್ಟು ಅನುಭವವಾಗಿತ್ತು, ಆಗುತ್ತಿದೆ ಕೂಡ. ಇದೊಂದು ರೀತಿಯ ಅನುಭವ ಅಷ್ಟೆ. ರೈತರ ಮಾತುಗಳು ನನಗೆ ಹೊಸತಲ್ಲ. ನಮ್ಮ ಹಳ್ಳಿಯಲ್ಲೂ ಇದೇ ವಿಷಯ ಮಾತನಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ.
ಮುಕ್ಕಾಲು ಘಂಟೆ ತಡವಾಗಿ ಅಂದರೆ ೧೦:೧೫ಕ್ಕೆ ರೈಲು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ತಲುಪಿತು. ನಾನು ಇಳಿದುಕೊಂಡು ಸೇರಬೇಕಾದ ಸ್ಥಳ ತಲುಪಿದೆ.
Three of my company staff including me had booked trek to Dudhsaagar falls organized by Bangalore Mountaineering Club. The trek was scheduled on 19th of October while the journey had to happen the previous day. We had packed all necessary stuffs required for the trek (as prescribed by club) and ready to cruise :-). Even though we were aware that the waterfalls will not be at full energy as July monsoon, the main interest was to walk for 15kms from Castle Rock to Dudhsaagar falls. This walk is on railway tracks and cannot be called as trek technically since most part is straighter without any grades. Nevertheless it is unique experience altogether. I have split the blog two 3 sections to depict the three day activity. The volume of sections will vary as per the activity during corresponding day. Get ready to start the walk along beautiful briganza ghats towards the ocean of milk. Hope you will enjoy the virtual stroll ;-)
18 Oct 2013
My friend who booked the trek, had received a mail with list of items to be carried for the walk. Accordingly we 3 distributed ourselves some of the items since 2 of us had heavy camera luggage. Main items were food and water to sustain the long walk under the Sun. We reached Domlur bus stop around 5:30PM and had snacks nearby restaurant to satisfy our hunger. There were many people who planned to alight here. We also had nice chat with canadian friend who also had booked the same. It seems he had trekked in four continents :D including the ice trekking. We were having good times with our co-passengers and introduced ourselves. The trip was scheduled to start at 6:15PM at Domlur bus stop. Rajesh did proper prediction that it would start exactly start with minimum 30 minutes delay as per Indian standards and it happened too :-). The bus arrived around 6:45PM and we were ready to start :-). Some more pickups along the way and we had one more friend from Australia with heavy backpack who joined us for trek. That was mighty backpack weighing more than 20KG I believe. He had carried his own tents and food and also seemed to be more experienced trekker. 9PM sharp, we were in Jalahalli cross toll gate and bus stopped at one of the hotel along NH-4 near Dabaspet. After having good dinner, it was time to sleep and get ready for next day. Altogether we were batch of 32 people + 2 co-ordinators + 1 driver.
19 Oct 2013
We reached Ramangar around 5:30AM. The club people had booked small lodging nearby the place to refresh ourselves before we could start the trek. Castle Rock railway station is about 30kms from here. We refreshed ourselves here for 90minutes and had decent breakfast. We also bought few water bottles required for the long walk. The bus started heading towards CastleRock railway station. It seemed like the rains have receded completely in this region. The water streams with no intensity were examples for the same. However, the extended monsoon is keeping water streams of Shiraadi ghats and Kuduremukh ghats still alive! The road is National Highway 4A which runs between Panaji and Belgaum. The condition of highway was really bad mainly because of torrential monsoon season but not as worse as shiraadi ghat road. Few kms later, we reached Castle rock cross. From here, 5-6kms interior along narrow ghat road is CastleRock railway station. The road is very narrow that it is difficult even for 2 LMVs to negotiate. We were stuck in between when our bus encountered brick loaded truck. He was adamant to avoid slipping down the road due to heavy load and we were facing a tree. Somehow after reverse and forward, both could negotiate. At some places there are steep hairpins and one has to honk gently to get rid of surprises. 9:30AM, we were in Castle Rock. The sky was crystal clear and Sun was striking the place with full energy. The weather was similar to coastal weather during summer with high humidity. We had small gathering and introduced one another. Later it was time to start :-). Exactly at 10AM, we started walking towards Dudhsaagar. Our baggage seemed to be very heavy (may be exceeding 8KGs) which included camera pack, necessary stuffs, sleeping bags and lunch food. The other stuffs like dinner and camping materials were carried in Chennai-Vasco express from CastleRock which briefly halts at Dudhsaagar station.
Sunrise at Ramanagar
There are two options altogether to walk. One from Kulem which is around 11kms and other from Castle Rock which is 15kms. Most people prefer the latter since transport is good enough. Few people from Goa, take Kulem route. Our walk began with normal pace and we kept moving on. It is pretty much uncomfortable to walk on tracks due to presence of ballast. At some place, trails are present as a brief comfort. As our walk progressed, we encountered our first train which is Chennai-Vasco express :-). After the train passed, we had energy bar before we could proceed. Now comes the first tunnel :-). Had this been monsoon season, there would have been water flowing from top of tunnel. That would have been great experience :-). Nevertheless, watching those tunnels cannot deter excitement! Few photographs here, we moved on. At middle of tunnel, it was complete darkness. We had torches to walk along the darkness. Few people were screaming with joy as they walked along the tunnel. Even inside tunnel, there is small area besides railway track to have safe stay in case one encounters train. Not sure what how will be the condition during monsoon season since water falls from everywhere from nook and corner of tunnel :D. It was really unique experience under darkness without any ghosts ;-). Watch out for human waste along the tracks. They can be surprsing while you walk along the tunnels. In monsoon season, they would be automatically cleaned up by heavy rains and streams ;-). There were many groups who had planned the walk along with us. There were considerable crowd all along the track. I was even surprised see the enthusiam of people with varying age. There were people from kids as young as 10yrs to elders as old as 50yrs :-).
Castle Rock Railway Station
The tracks
One more view!
Few kms later, there we see the glorious vistas of western ghats. We enjoyed the distant view of beautiful rain forests and grabbed pictures too! Western ghats are never boring place to visit and they are paradise on earth during monsoon season. Be it trekking, driving or train journeys whatever you think of, the western ghats are the best place to rejoice. Wherever we had to enjoy the beautiful hillocks, we stopped by and grabbed some snaps. You may stumble if you need to enjoy the hillocks while walking ;-) basically due to uneven surface and scattered ballast. Few more kms, we came across the first alive water spot which had considerable flow. It was flowing behind a small arch. With this we were relieved that we could see considerable amount of water in Dudhsaagar. Till here, all along we could only spot dead water spots. Meanwhile, due to humid weather we had exhausted 2ltrs of water already and there was still around 9kms to walk. Myself and Rajesh drank water here and filled our bottle. That was so great in taste and pure which was straight out of western ghats :-). Rajesh said that this was far better than mineral water! All along the journey we could spot beautiful/colorful butterflies but did not take any pictures :-(. They were pretty much larger in size than which we see in town limits. May be these are kind which could be spotted only in jungles.
THE VISTAS OF WESTERN GHATS
OUR FIRST TUNNEL ;-)
exit(first_tunnel) ;-)
One more!
Out again!
Finally some water! Phew...
Amazing rain forests
After first tunnel, here comes the first viaduct :-). There are trails along these viaducts to cross them safely in case we encounter a train. Small platforms are also constructed to have safer distance too! We encountered a cascaded 3 engine loco honking loudly and I grabbed a video too ;-). We encountered few more tunnels and viaducts during our walk. I guess there were about 10 tunnels in number and may be 4-5 viaducts. In one of the major viaduct with tunnel, there was full flowing water spring. It was nearly small waterfalls plummeting through the rocks. Some people were having cool afternoon bath here. After crossing the tunnel cum viaduct we encountered our second train Amaravati express which runs from Howrah to Vasco. I shot video of even that and people were screaming on board to have their presence in video :D. We later resumed our journey and I was photographing both railway tracks and western ghats. Whenever I got opportunity, I shot water springs as well tunnels. In middle of walk, we reached station called Caranzol. I had friendly chat with one of the gangmen of station and he suggested us to plan during 1st or 2nd week of August. Dudhsaagar was around 6.84kms from here as per label painted on station walls. From Dudhsaagar station, the waterfall is around 0.5 to 1km. Few kms back from here starts the Goa state jurisdiction. There was also a welcome board erected by Goa administration. So it is clear that Dudhsaagar lies in Goa state.
Welcome to GOA state!
The Hillock again!
The side view with tracks
Still so much :-( from caranzol
How do you describe :-)
And this one ;-)
The Viaduct
The major water spot
There is always light at end of dark tunnel if it not monsoon season :-)
5kms before Dudhsaagar, hunger started haunting us and we were only 2. We had lost the other person behind. We thought of having food and sync up with him before we could get started. Just before we were having apples. By the time I could eat 25%, a monkey snatched my apple :-). There is no point in fighting with them :D. Even Rajesh lost it but after healthy 60% consumption! My deep photography session had eaten up time more than eating and consequently monkey ate majority of apple :(. Moral of story is finish off eating before you do any activity or else monkeys will finish for you ;-). One can spot myriad of monkeys all along the tracks. I guess they are well aware of trekkers and people who throw food items from train. May be they want different taste of food than what is available in jungles :-). Back to lunch break, the packed food provided by club members was hell spicy with water spots originating from our eyes :-(. Unfortunately we could not finish the lunch due to terrible spiciness :-(. Fortunately for us, monkey nearby started eating them and we were relieved that food was not wasted. We tried to eat as much we can but eventually gave up since it may lead to adverse health problems. There was no possibility to have any emergency health facility nearby here in middle of jungle too! In middle of lunch, we encountered mighty goods train with clanky engine sound. Of-course there were more engines fit to the train (front and back) to power it up the ghats. Usually in ghat areas, trains are fit with engines front and back. They are basically to power the train up the ghats and act as automatic breakers while down-hilling to limit the speed.
You enjoy watching me snatch other's food and now enjoy for yourself :D
Amaravati express along briganza ghats!
The remnants of dead bogie
Once third member arrived and after he had short break, we resumed our walk towards dudhsaagar falls. Hereafter we could see actual signs of water with water dripping from top of tunnel! Their intensity will be very high during monsoon season. The intensity was reduced to droplets now mainly due to feeble moisture content in hills and lack of rain. The spicy food had increased our thirst and we filled our bottles with water dripping from hills. Infact they were really good and tasty. We had plenty of water and kept on constantly re-filling ;-).
Let me write in reverse way and dispose off the feelings I felt in western ghats first and then get back to preparation.
Yes I made it :-). As planned, finally I sailed into the ghats along beautiful western ghats with monsoon rains and through tunnels. OMG, what an experience which I can never forget in my lifetime. You get to see dripping water along every curves. The streams, tunnels, water falling from tunnels, the water falls, the landscape is simply mesmerizing. I forgot my lunch too in middle of this beautiful experience. It was raining heavily at some places while drizzling at some. At times we and train had natural wash from the water dropping atop the tunnels.My camera as well as me got drenched but still both of them were not down ;-). Especially my camera withstood heavy monsoon rains. Of-course, I used to wipe lens frequently to grab proper video! People were screaming with joy everytime the train cruised through tunnels and streams. My 32GB SD card was full as train neared Subramanya Railway station.
As said in my previous write-up, commuting to Bangalore is not good option. Hence I decided to commute from Bangalore. This time many people in train were excited about the ghat journey. I could predict it far early [sixth sense ;-)] and hence grabbed foot-board at Hassan itself :D. The journey from Hassan to Sakaleshpur was also wonderful with lush green paddy fields. The scenes of birds trying to hunt fishes from fields with farmer ploughing farm land was ecstatic. The delight increased as we entered Ballupet where actual Malnad region starts. It was raining a bit while the ghats and coffee estates were heaven to watch.
The train reached Sakaleshpur around 1:30PM on time. The Hemavathy river was flowing with full vigor. What a sight to watch 8-). It started raining heavily when train departed from Sakaleshpur station. All along the journey we were enjoying beautiful western ghats, streams and tunnel. It is eye-catching to see the beautiful rain forests during monsoon season. At many places we could even see clouds kissing the hillocks and deep valleys. The curving of train all along bridges was simply breath taking with streams beneath. I was capturing every moment and as said earlier my camera was fully co-operative with no glitches in between ;-). I am really thankful to it which withstood continuous rains, fog and wind. At times, train stops in middle to check for any landslip. The sections where frequent landslip occur had inspectors who provide green signal once the things are clear by whistling. This time battery drained in between ghat section, however I did not make mistake of not having additional battery. I had charged both battery fully and started using camera only after Hassan :).
It was around 4PM when train reached Subramanya Road station. Again we were greeted by heavy monsoon rain. The scene thereafter was also truly amazing especially the majestic Netravati river basin at Bantwal. We were again greeted by heavy rain at Mangalore!
I reached around 8PM to Udupi where my father was waiting to pick me up. I drove till my village with so many memories. As I reached village, the heavy monsoon showers greeted me again :-). I convinced my parents to at-least travel till Sakaleshpur during July monsoon season to enjoy the scenic western ghats.
The day, I started around 3:30AM in morning and reached my village around 8:30PM at night. Some people questioned the necessity of wasting entire day. However I believe there are somethings in your life you do without expecting any returns and that is your happiness. This was also for pure happiness. Moreover, the journey from Hassan to Mangalore is worth the day long journey. The ghat journey relieved lot of anxiety and stress from me. We were completely lost in this wilderness and gorgeous rain forests. I wish to travel again and every year along this route during July monsoon season :-). Anyone wants to join for next year's journey, self sponsored though ;-). We can also have journey from Mangalore to Goa alongside ;-).
Finally the train journey video is here :-). Took a bit time to sort and edit :D. It has been 4 months since I traveled but delayed composition mainly due to slackness of hardware [including me ;-)]. Later I had to self-motivate and everything was ready in 2 weeks ;-). Enjoy the magnificent train journey through rain forests, viaducts, tunnels, streams and get drenched in heavy monsoon rains ;-). Enjoy the wilderness with blanket of thick monsoon clouds.
Altogether it was around 90 minutes of footage but trimmed it to 24mins. 90 minutes would have been short movie ;-) and now it is short film :-). The video editor is same as usual. Had easy going editing videos. Since all parts of the video contained lush green western ghats, it was easy to edit bumping up the green color balance. Also kit lenses exhibit too much chromatic aberration and I thought it would be difficult to get rid of all of them totally. After few evaluation, most of the frames had no blue appearance. Tearing down blue color balance had vanished all chromatic aberration :-). Had to increase saturation in some clips and decrease brightness in some. Also increased contrast for some clips. If you know much better video editing tips, please leave a comment below! Eventually, it took whopping 8hours to render 1080p, 30fps clips with all edits and 2 pass encoding to satisfy YouTube video upload criteria. If you do not follow rules of YT, the YT butchers the video heavily to spoil your creativity! The final size turned out to be 1.3GB.
Some tips from my side:
Whatever I mentioned in my old blog still holds good except for the following ones ;-)
Monsoon season, it is difficult to decide which foot-board to grab. While moving towards Subramanya from Sakaleshpur, left side has myriad of waterfalls diving on you while right side has many water springs originated out of the waterfalls and hillocks. If you have two people and two camera, shoot from either side ;-). Also beware of water entering inside camera. Have protective cover before hand since heavy rains are definite. I did not possess any protective cover and camera under rain was imminent. The water source easily shorts circuit board inside while camera is powered on.
Having sufficient food is must if you do not wish to enjoy the scenery of gorgeous western ghats under heavy rains ;-)
What mistake did I make this time :D
Everytime I execute something, some or other mistakes pop-up :D. This time it was no different ;-). I unknowingly inserted ear-phone into microphone jack of DSLR. Alas! audio fully down :D. Thats the dumbest thing I did ;-). At the time I was writing this blog, I could not stop LOL :D and bit disappointed too! I lately realized the stupid thing I executed :-(. But audacity to rescue :-). After increasing gain of audio in audacity and removing noise, my video is back :-). There is still some problems but manageable ;-). A lesson learnt for one more time to read user's manual properly when you buy something big ;-)
Altogether this journey was fun while traveling and editing too :D
Apart from this, there are some more great train journeys to cherish during Monsoon season. I am not sure when will it materialize but I have plans.
1) Mangalore-Roha along konkan belt. I have traveled in this route but not recently 2) Train journey along Briganza ghats (where we can catch up Dudhsaagar falls)
Here are two more clips shot along train itinerary. First one is the clip from Netravati River basin of Bantwal and other is of heavy rain at Mangalore.
There were lot things lacking in my first experiment of star trails. I am not kind of guy who achieves success at first attempt. Most of the time it is long hard journey. Initially, even though it creates disappointment, the joy of struggling is more exciting once we reach appreciable level. There were many faults in my recent experiment as mentioned. Time to correct those and build on top of that. The mistakes were spotted while reading write-ups from professionals. Following are the mistakes ;-).
Long exposure noise reduction should be turned OFF (my settings were ON)
Do not get illusioned by camera light metering. My image was shown as over exposed by light meter :-(. Ultimately they looked darker. So I should have exposed shutter for bit more longer time (around 25s).
ISO should have been around 1600
Should have focused upfront. I was struggling getting focus right at night. Many people suggest to focus to infinity around twilight and prepare to shoot at night.
There may be many more. Need to experiment lot more to get it right. However the experiment can be carried out only in my village and there is less scope in Bangalore. Hope will improve in my next trial :-).
Here are two start trail images created using StarStaX free software. There are gaps in between the trail which I need to rectify. The software is available for linux also but has some bugs. So I ran windows version on top of wine emulator and worked perfectly :-).
THIS IS BRIGHTEST BUT MORE GAPS!
THIS IS DARKEST BUT LESS GAPS. A SLIGHT INCREASE IN ISO WOULD HAVE HELPED
The extended monsoon season seems to be finally over :-). It has been raining almost everyday since the onset of monsoon in June. It did rain till 3rd week of October and now almost clear sky to enjoy. However the hot and humid still remains which indicates winter is still not here. Nevertheless, clear sky provided me to shoot some night sky. Consequently I tried some star trail timelapse at night.
Star shoot requires utter darkness :D. It means no external light noise at all. Otherwise your photo would be full of light pollution ;-). In my case, the village environment provided perfect studio for star shoot. Initially the light at pump house and front light of house infused severe light pollution in photo. I had to switch off both the lights. My father was astonished to see me switching off lights :D. He was making fun of me as what would I capture at night and I may require Kaup beach light house to have sufficient flash to expose sky :-). I asked him to wait till experiment ends ;-).
The initial setup created out of focus pictures with stars looking stretched out. After few more experiments, I realized that my focusing distance was not enough. Next I found a place at distance and shot again. Aha yes! there are those stars in the frame ;-). It was irritating to focus at night with so many failed attempts but fun eventually when focus was right ;-).
What was the lens used. The cheap nifty-fifty (50mm f/1.8) lens. This was the only fast lens I had. The effective 80mm focal length made it tough to focus under darkness. Also the lens does not have much sweep angle on focus ring to focus properly. The initial settings were f/1.8, 10s and ISO 800 with tungsten WB. Actually sensor evaluated this as over exposed image but it was bit dark. This made me to increase shutter to 15s which increased the brightness in image. The stars in sky looked like stickers :D but could see some more stars which could not be seen by eye ;-). I just scrolled the images and excited after seeing the rotating earth ;-). Even my father was excited too ;-). It was already 10PM and thought of carrying out some trials next day too with bit more long exposure! As of now enjoy this small trial of star trail timelapse carried out for first time.
After brief pause, I have uploaded a timelapse video. But there are lot pending too. Since this was of different kind, I uploaded to YT to receive some feedback. The editing was done in KDENLIVE as always. Did some white balance, contrast, saturation and RGB corrections! The brightness is not so much since more longer shutter was required (may be around 25s). Overall I am happy with first trial ;-). They say before you can make someone happy, you should be happy first :-). Hope you also enjoy this first experiment.
Also don’t miss the sensational preview of new work "Beyond the stars" by Kelly Andrew. On similar lines as Soundlift and Andy blueman enjoy his brilliance in orchestral and synthesizer blend!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf8zqnu-Xfg
Last Note:
The next two days were flop shows :-(. The crystal clear day was overridden by clouds with heavy thunderous rain in subsequent days :-(. Despite fogged morning weather, it rained at night. It is difficult to predict nature. Deepavali fireworks was replaced by fireworks in sky :D. Consequently no more star trial was possible. But there are still few more days for winter to pass by ;-). Hence I may carry out trials in coming days :-). Also may be an elevated place is required to capture our milky way. I wanted to grab some lightening shots but was chased inside by mother :-(.
