There are few places where I go more than once, this circuit is one of them. It is so easy to book accommodation and go to these places. Now probably it has become more like my extended family.

Few tips if you want to go. If you are adding Zuluk to your wishlist, book it via Mr. Sebastian Pradhan of Reshi (Reshi Khola some call it). He will be able to do the bookings for Zuluk and Sillery on behalf of you. Quite hassle free process it is. But if you are planning to drop Zuluk and only want to stay in Reshi and Sillery (if you have less time in case) you can call either Mr. Pradhan or Mr Dilip Tamang of Sillery Gaon. He is quite a nice guy actually. He will again book the rooms for you at Reshi.

We reached Reshi around lunch time. Had an awesome lunch and found a big rock by the riverside. While my friends were busy finding objects and subjects; I slept on the rock for quite a few hours.

Last time identified these rocks but people did not allow me to sleep

Sometimes I love to do nothing, not even photography. Completely soaked in the mood, woke up only when a boy got one plateful of fish fries (caught fresh from flowing river Reshi) for us. Amazing, is not that?

Next day it was Sillery. Our bad luck, it was full of clouds. Just like the last time.

This time, wandered through the village. Old ladies and little kids were chatting by the small fire they lit up. Shot a couple of portraits.

Mingled with kids and had a long walk towards Remiti view point. On a fine clear morning, you can actually see Kanchendzonga, Macha Puchare, Bhutan peaks and Chinese peaks (I did not get to see, this is what Mr Tamang told us). Need to go back again and again till we can validate.

It was really cold at night. We had arranged for Sikkimese rum and mouth watering chilly pork. That made the evening excellent. Then we joined the group of guys on the other room. Eventually it turned out that some of us were colleagues earlier. It was an amazing experience for rest of the night.

Some notes on the places:

Reshi: Riverside. Just relax primarily. Have fresh fish dishes. Get a chilled Hit Beer (local favourite). Shoot some of the frames of the flowing river. Some unknown flowers and insects. Night time, light a candle and start sharing your ghost stories! The place is absolutely safe and free from maddening crowd as of 2011 October.

Zuluk: Hill top. Decent valley view. Really chilled and snowy nights during winter. Pit stop for Jelep La (The old silk route).

Sillery Gaon: A magical hamlet. A very romantic place. They are naming it “New Darjeeling”. Absolutely no crowd here. Safe again to get lost in the jungle. If you get a clear sky, do call me. I am missing it every time. Want to see Kanchendzonga from this side of Bengal!

Some tour plans that you can do on a long weekend:

Plan A

Day 1: Night - start from Kolkata to NJP
Day 2: Morning - reach NJP. Start for Reshi. Reach Reshi by noon (Approx 4 hours). Stay at Reshi.
Day 3: Start at noon for Sillery (Approx 1.5 hours). Stay at Sillery.
Day 4: Start at noon for NJP to catch train OR stay one more day at Sillery.

Plan B

Day 1: Night - start from Kolkata to NJP
Day 2: Morning - reach NJP. Start for Reshi. Reach Reshi by noon (Approx 4 hours). Stay at Reshi.
Day 3: Start at noon for Zuluk (Approx 3.5 hours). Stay at Zuluk.
Day 4 (Bit hectic. Can be broken down): Early morning start for Jelep La, Old and new Baba Mandir, Tsomgo Lake (Changu Lake few Bengalis call it!) and come back to Zuluk at afternoon (Around 14:00). Have your lunch at Zuluk and start for Sillery Gaon. Reach Sillery in the evening.
Day 5: Stay at Sillery.
Day 6: Start at noon for NJP to catch train.

And of course some contacts:

Mr Sebastian Pradhan (Reshi Khola)
+91 9932744407 / +91 9932680170

Mr. Dilip Tamang (Sillery Gaon)
+91 9635005318

http://www.hydeparkphotography.net/issue-n-1/

My original post in flickr is here.

Sadhus in India and photographers always make a great combination. This one I took long back in 2009. This is one of those occasions when at the time of setting the right exposure you know you are about to create a permanent frame in your collection. In fact I was a bit obsessed with this photo sometime back and while visiting a friend’s place (who is a brilliant painter), I took up a pencil and tried to see if I had forgotten the art of painting! The result was this …

What I see is that flickr has really evolved as a great medium for communication between people interested in photography. Probably it is by far the best and easiest user friendly network available now.

Another by Bengali daily Ekdin …. and worst, with some political view points. We got really embarrassed. This should stop. We photographers should form a big group and protest. It is difficult fighting it alone, I tried earlier. But these people are pathetic.

Got two days extra on Easter eve. There was no second thought. We were eight in the group. I did not know all of the people. Partho Da had planned and made the arrangements this time. It was very smooth for me. Just a cab to Sealdah and board the train on Thursday night.

Padatik Express as the name suggested was very late. After getting down at NJP, it took four hours to reach Rishi … and it was amazing.

Next day we started for Zuluk. It is near Jelep La which is the gateway towards China on the forgotten silk route. Zuluk had many offerings for us - hail, flakes and snow!

It was a new place called Sillery Gaon that was next. Locals are calling the place New Darjeeling to make it popular. It was a nice little hamlet. There is no electricity in this place but we never faced a problem. Instead the home-stay was wonderful. I fell in love with this place, completely.

To be continued…

It really feels great to know somewhere in a distant land people are appreciating Indian works and culture. I was not able to attend physically but I got the charm when I saw snaps of enthusiastic visitors queuing at the venue. The exhibition was held at Durga Puja & Diwali time. Prof. Tushar Ghosh, one of the main organizers, had informed me that the event was attended by 14000 visitors. This is something huge.

The same photograph was stolen by Big Bazaar last year.

And the original

The older post here…

It was a much longed breather; I was really getting tired of the usual schedule. Life though has become a routine; disparately wanted to break free for few days. Initially I thought to book couple of tickets in Ship. Later I came to know that the process is long and full of uncertainty given the fact that the frequency of sailing is very limited.

Andaman is experiencing heavy downpour this time of the year. We had to play a hide and seek game in true sense to get to the wonderful beaches and many other places of historical importance. Absolute white sand, calm sea, knee-deep water, all shades of blue and green if you turn your head three sixty degrees!

Our very first stop was at Cellular Jail and I seriously do not have many words to describe it. Free people of India should go there and understand at what cost we got the freedom. Most of the people were not talking much; were shocked or deeply thinking at the sight. Come here and you will understand I mean.

People of Port Blair need a special mention. Auto Rickshaw drivers, shop owners, hoteliers, bus conductors, cab drivers, local boys on street; I found everyone so co-operative and eager to help others - we will remember this definitely. Port Blair is a little hilly area with a great sea surrounding this island. Probably this is one of the major reasons why people are so good which is much different from many of the tourist destinations of the world.

Port Blair and surrounding islands are full of historical places. Most of these are someway related to India’s freedom struggle. Our next destination was Havelock Island which took two hours by ship. It was a first time by ship (though a small sized) for me. Another thing, it does not take you to deep sea, you will continue to see land on one side throughout the journey.

Havelock Island has a major Bengali population; during the partition era many refugees were sent here to settle. We had chance to interact with couple of families who are quite happy with their situation. Though right now few hotel chains and large tourism companies are trying to buy as much as land they can. It may not be long enough that the settlers’ lands will be bought or encroached by some other means by this group of businessmen of there are no regulations.

Havelock Island currently sends vegetables in huge quantity to Port Blair and other parts of the group of islands. Farmers were telling me that the soil was so rich that they hardly use any fertilizers. Havelock and its beaches have got a permanent place in world tourist map for its pristine beauty. Foreign tourists in large number throng this place throughout the year. There is a slight decrease in inflow due to a crocodile incident couple of months ago. Locals were very concerned now as we saw. Snorkeling and scuba diving are not permitted in many of the places now. You can see the news here.

Though Radhanagar is considered to be the most beautiful beach in Havelock; I found the beach adjacent to Dolphin Resort (we stayed in this Andaman tourism accommodation) better.

I experienced snorkeling in North Bay. It was a place where we chased beautiful fishes and corals. We have been to Red-skin Island at later part of the journey when we came back to Port Blair. This one and Jolly Buoy are two beautifully maintained coral islands. Our definition of corals got shaped here ultimately. The different types of coral beds were so distinctly vibrant; we were again at loss of words.

I will go back again to Wandoor and Vijaynagar beaches some day soon. There are a plenty of corners in Andaman where I will like to be lost again.

I am traveling to random places at random paces.
Hardly getting time to take out dedicated slot to shoot.

One more month or so; I will be back and shoot I pray.
Last weekend, been to Puri with office colleagues.

This weekend, visited a nearby place with my group of shutterbugs - Kolkata Weekend Shoots. Enjoyed a lovely sun set, the same event is happening everyday; still we explore it from different angles; every time.

Years back, I went to Benaras (Varanasi) for the first time. It was a wonderful experience. I recall when I was coming back, I walked up to the river and told her that I would come back again and again.

To keep the promise, I went for the second time. This time around the year, weather is very hot. It was really difficult to roam around the ghats. Still, we tried our best.

This time my primary focus was not on the ghats and I was going through the alleys. I walked down the old areas adjacent to the ghats. Went to the place where they were weaving silk sarees.

Very often I was chatting with people and on one such occasion, we met one Bengali poet who had settled in Varanasi decades ago. He runs an inn called Kumiko Guest House near Pandey ghat. He was very friendly and allowed us to see his marvelous house. I was lucky to get to hear some of his poems. Those were very much in sync with the preachings of modern science and the origination of life.

It was only in the evening, I was able to come to the ghat side again… children were playing cricket, guys were flying kites, it came back to life again..

On a distant ghat, little far from the crowd; kids from the alleys have come together to dive into the water and chill.

One of the kids named Kalim got very enthusiastic when he got a glimpse of my camera. I was not in the position of making a choice thereafter. He was shouting at me from different locations and I was running one step to different one to click his diving photos. It is always fun to work with children and they truly made my afternoon!

As the evening approached, people started to gather near the main ghat, Dashashwamedh. The evening prayer (arati) at the main ghat is something which needs special mention. It is a spectacular thing to enjoy and relax for around an hour. It is very systematic and I find it mystic too. I have been watching the arati number of times; in fact all the time. The priests keep on changing some parts of the process to give a new flavour all the time. This time I saw that the young performers were wearing different colored clothes. People from all over the world are experiencing it everyday. They even participate in some of the chantings at the last phase. Another interesting thing to notice is the increasing number of camera or handycams. Last time I have not seen so many photographers; this time I was having a tough time to get a corner.

To be continued…

1. Wanted to go to Sealdah, got a wrong train and got down only at Park Circus.
2. Got a train soon after for Sealdah but missed the train for Gobardanga.
3. Anirban shouted for the next hour and we boarded the next train.
4. Started discussing about wide angle when train reached at Bidhannagar.
5. Anirban tried calling home but phone got disconnected.
6. Took decision within moments and got down at Birati.
7. Next train to Gobardanga was after 20 minutes.
8. Went straight to Anirban’s place, took the lens and got the next train.
9. Took some test shots at Gobardanga. The lens rocks!!

So, is it clear? I bought a Tokina 12 - 24 F4 (IF) DX II wide angle.