Crawling wagons amidst the forest

Traveling through SHiradi Ghat has been smooth experience nowadays thanks to near completion of concrete roads. Even though the original plan is 4 lane, the authorities at least managed to complete single lane. Barring at couple of places, the concrete road work is almost finished. The section of highway where road is left untouched has become primary bottlenecks with vehicles loosing velocity in a flash. The first section is due to railway bridge construction which faces extreme bureaucratic hurdles. The railway line bridges are always under supervision of railway board and their bureaucratic hurdle is awful. The direct impact is on road travelers who have to bear the menace of gliding through the dilapidated roads. The section is nearby Donigal where the road curves through a narrow space which cannot even accommodate two trucks in parallel. The incomplete road work is because of the deep valley situated by the side of road. I am not sure whats the plan here. Whether to construct deep bridge or excavate the neighbouring hill. Nevertheless, the current situation is that the road has deep craters and jerking through it feels dreadful especially when heavy trucks arrive wobbling. Heaven save us from giant trucks overturning on to us.

Navaratri holidays concluding in couple of days. While we had smooth ride till 2/3rds of ghat ascension towards Bengaluru, the patch near Donigal turned out to be annoying. We were taken aback by the out of blue traffic jam extending for 1kms at least. The map showed commute time of 30mins through red area at least for 1km. However, it took more than an hour. Red lanes flanked by green forests!

The car spent unwanted energy idling through the traffic jam. This scene would anyway be encountered as we near city, but this unexpected jam was annoying. Perhaps it was bad omen of further traffic deterioration. The cause of jam amidst the pristine forest was (i) The abrupt transition from four-lane clean concrete road to two lane pot-holed road. (ii) The huge tourist influx to Manjarabad fort nearby. While (ii) may not have caused significant overload, (i) definitely is reason for majority problem. The heavy trucks exacerbated the situation by slowly moving through the craters while the faster cars slowed down drastically as a result. This created too much back-pressure extending to more than a km. Additionally, the narrow roads for 50m along the DOnigal curve halted traffic at one side which along with snail paced trucks deteriorated the situation.

Hope authorities would soon complete the stretch to smoothen traffic!

Clouds crown the western ghats!

On our way towards Bengaluru post lovely stay of 15 days in native, it was poignant return journey back. I miss my native but cant miss Bengaluru which serves my life needs. Nevertheless, saying goodbye for now was inevitable and never know when is next journey. The next journey won't be such prolonged though but I am learning to enjoy even short moments nowadays. Hopefully, my brain gets trained well for short joys of life in long run.

Back to agenda! Monsoon is slowly retreating from region. Mostly night rains nowadays but muggy weather persists. The night weather is not that troublesome like summer but still no where near to wearing thermal clothes. Our  The return journey was nearing ghats. The thick clouds were directly overhead the verdant crest of western ghats. It looked like the western ghats was crowned by the clouds for moment. Aptly so! These are clouds which facilitate vibrant flora and fauna of these enchanting rainforests via heavy rains. These clouds consistently pour to keep the ecosystem of jungle alive. The clouds deserve to be on top crowning the ghats. The crown is primary fuel for gait of king. Here the clouds provide rains to enrich the forests. Here are the pictures caught on drive. Since I had brother-in-law accompanying drive, I had ample time to shoot pictures in transit. However, the time wasn't enough to pull over and get clear shot. Hope you enjoy!

Cloud Mountain

Days between Navaratri and Deepavali, the city skies are filled with cloud mountains which are thick in volume and heavy in moisture. During retreating of south west monsoon, wind instability supports thunderstorm creation in interior and coastal parts of Karnataka. The phenomenon shift has started even in our city Bengaluru with farewell thunderstorms rocking the city. This has been daily affair since festival started and may last for few more days. The instability in both Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea has instigated severe thunderstorms in coastal Karnataka matching intensity of og monsoon season. Here in Bengaluru, even though the rains are intense for shorter duration, the thunder sounds aren't violent fortunately.

It feels like the cloud has created a temporary mountain at horizon of cityscape. This scene looks dramatic as day starts winding down.

While theories apart, here are some shots I captured from terrace of North East monsoon season inception thunderstorms. These clouds look massive and drenching.

During Deepawali day, the rains arrived pretty early and poured for nearly 20mins with high intensity. The next day, rains arrived even more early during afternoon. Perhaps the southern part enjoyed the most since they had lengthier cloud shafts than us.

It's bewildering to watch the contrast weather as below. The distant north east horizon is clear while distant south east is pouring.

An illumination at intersection. A silver lining after heavy duty day. The cloud is guaranteeing peaceful days after storm concludes!

Kitties by the road!

On blazing SUNday , I had to go out on second round of vegetable shopping since the item unavailable during early morning. I didn't find again unfortunately which pushed me to yet another store. Despite getting closer to winter solstice, the heat in city is considerable with intermittent rains. I had to park the vehicle on other side of road due to heavy traffic and debris lying on road nearby store.

In midst of parking, I saw cute kittens and it's family perhaps. Majorly white resonating mothers and few oranges. From historical knowledge, oranges are bold and outgoing but it didn't seem so. The whites were unfazed by photography session while oranges were reluctant. Going by intuition I felt that father cat also orange since it was nowhere in scene.

There were three adults watching my movements. Perhaps to protect the kittens. This guy was watchful of kitties and had sharp eye on me. He was staring at me like enemy

The one watchful perhaps informed the other two that I am just a photographer and nothing worrisome. But one of them seemed still skeptical :-)

The kitties seemed to be basking under intense sun to heal their wounds perhaps. I had quite good session with them without harming their peace. Here are some random impromptu shots The tilak on their forehead confirmed that they are being fostered by the home at which they residing

Others were grabbing sun, this guy was carefully watching my movements

The orange cat was still skeptical, the whites were in playful mood. The other two adults lost confidence in me and ran inside house. The one stayed was drowsing.  Meanwhile, the orange cat seemed to have gained confidence in me but still watchful

I had to leave once sufficient pics were shot.

The evening was coloirful but non deterministic

The vagaries of weather was killing the immunity system with recurring viral fever. My kids had another round within a month. This contagious disease spread to my wife as well. Hopefully it heals soon

The cyclone is expected soon which marks end of monsoon season. The coast still gripping under heavy rains unusually destroying crops and plantations. The extended rains have been harsh and frustrating for farming community.  Quirky weather haunting the farming community and the residents as well. The city is set to brace for yet another cold and gloomy weather due to cyclone. The constant streaming of rudderless clouds with lousy weather is set to transform city climate to polar alike. Hope there will be full stop soon

Photo Blog - Dry on Wheels!

Bengaluru is city of hustle. People barely have time for anything extra. With available time, people tend to optimize parallel tasks as much as possible. People have meetings, lunch amidst the stubborn traffic. Here is one such case of "Drive on wheels" and "Dry on wheels".

Look at the taxi driver! He is drying the towels in-flight. That's smart or perhaps inevitable way of drying clothes for taxi drivers. When Bengaluru weather turns gloomy and chilly or when drivers don't have bandwidth, this is the way to dry their clothes. The dry air, dries the clothes in-flight, faster than the Taxis need to be clean on every trip. Be it rainy times when car turns ruddy or dry times when dust & pollutants spread on the car, there is every occasion the cleaning needs to be done regularly with wet cloth. Hence there is no room for drying for next iteration. This is the makeshift drying setup taxi drivers have found amidst busy life. Something interesting but not unusual!

Mithai Array

This is the line of confectionary I saw while shopping for ice-cream in Southadka temple. They were aesthetically placed which tempted me to snap an angle. I term it as an "Array of Mithai"! Mithai means confectionaries in local language. Mostly they comprise of plain sugar candy, groundnut wrapped in sugar candy, Jeera wrapped in sugar candy and other variants. They are packed with multiple colours too for which ingredients may not be natural but enough for kids to pester parents :-). These were cheap confectionaries we enjoyed during childhood days. Even though these are scene as cheaper and unhealthier confectionaries in contemporary age, they relive our childhood moments for sure. Those colourful candies with multiform  shapes were the most affordable and attractive option during our childhood.