Frozen valleys of Zanskar

It was a great feeling to see the whole Ladakh valley up from the flight. It was as if the whole aircraft was entering a snow capped dreamland. Huge valleys white-washed with snow and frozen rivers cutting through them. As we landed at the Kushok Bakula Rimpochhe Airport at Leh, there began our journey in the cold desert of the Ladakh valley. We transported ourselves to the point where river Indus meets with Zanskar and there began our trek on the frozen Zanskar and our journey into the wider Zanskar valleys. Wintered river, gorgeously frozen still, carries the river underneath cutting through the wider walls of the gorge. Every waterfall stands still and every drop of water freezes to form a layer of Chadar. Words may not justify the views and photographs may not justify the feel from the place. So let me not say any more about what I witnessed; and let these photographs from the valley do the job.

(click on the photographs to enlarge them)

Nimmu- Where Indus Meets Zanskar

Entry point where Zanskar flows into meet Indus

Tilat Sumdo - Our first campsite

First experience of Chadar at Tilat Sumdo

Chadar all the way up to the next campsite Shingra Koma

Second campsite - Shingra Koma where Zanskar takes a big turn

Wider gorge on the way to Tibb

Snow fall makes everything look beautiful. At Nerak campsite, this was the sight early in the morning.

The landmark of the Chadar trek - Frozen waterfall at Nerak

Snow capped valleys at Nerak and the Zanskar river

Chadar, the river and the sedimentary rocky layers of the gorge on the way to Tibb

Tibb  - a campsite that means shade

Sunrays hitting the chadar at Shingra Koma

Early morning view at Tilat Sumdo

A frozen waterfall territory on the way to Nerak

First light creating a silver lining on the rocks opposite to Nerak village

On the way back to Tibb, the blue sky welcomes us 

View from hotel Auspicious at Leh

View through the poplar trees overlooking Stok Kangri mountain range from hotel Auspicious

Poplar trees of Leh and the cold desert of Ladakh valley

Cheers,
Srikanth

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Chadar Chronicles

We are just back from an amazing long pending trek on the frozen Zanskar river. The trek is widely known as Chadar. We had registered through India Hikes, a well known trekking community and their main objective is to document the trekking information so that others get benefit out of the same. Me and my friends liked the whole concept of documentation and decided to record some videos during our trek. This made the whole effort very interesting and we started liking our documentation assignment along with the beautiful experience of walking on Chadar. Here are some of the videos that we recorded, with appropriate narration and information about the trail. Hopefully it helps people to understand the trail better.




Cheers,
Srikanth 

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Cheers,
Srikanth

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Doon town and passionate people

The best thing happened to me in the past few months is my visit to Dehradun. Everything about the trip was so positive and absolutely great. Thanks to my official work, I got to do a bit of personal work as well. There was nothing on my agenda till I mentioned to my friends saying I'm going to Dehradun for a couple of days. Instantly they came back with suggestions to visit a few bookstores/publishers in Dehradun. And I got a list of books to be bought from Dehradun in no time. I got very excited about the activity and tried to plan my visit in such a way that I do this small piece of work without disturbing my official schedule. Of course there were some more activities that got added to my to-do list in Dehradun including my mom's request for Ganga-water-in-a-metallic-tumbler-from-Haridwar.

We landed in Dehradun and my colleagues who traveled with me agreed to accompany me for a short visit to Dehradun town before checking into our hotel at Haridwar. So, four of us reached the lovely town of Dehradun in the Doon valley on the foothills of Himalayas. It did not take too long for us to search for the book store I was desperately looking for; I saw the old (perhaps 50 year old) sign board of Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Sing Publishers (BSMPS) through the car window and asked the driver to drop us off. I requested my colleagues to go around the place and do anything they want to for a few hours; but they all chose to come with me to the bookstore. 

I was very frightened by looking at the building with a doubtful mind that the bookstore is either closed or got shifted to some other place. To my surprise I was wrong. I entered through the old wooden door and saw a functioning printing press; the people at the press assured me that I was at the right place. It was a huge old building which was getting ready for renovation and we started searching for the bookstore across all the 3 floors.. We took almost 15 minutes before we spoke to a person who came out of a small room full of books. And he assured me that whatever I was seeing is a 'bookstore'. And that's how I met the owner/Managing Director of BSMPS, Mr Abhimanyu Gahlot and his father Mr. Gajendra Gahlot; the two passionate people who publish only botany related books. It was quite interesting and inspiring to know that they publish botany related books because they are very passionate about botany. Some of the well known botanists have published a lot of books through them. It was a great feeling for me to be there and hear stories from them and witness their passion. After going through their catalog of books, our tiny books list grew bigger and pockets much steeper of course! 

Mr. Gajendra and his son Mr. Abhimanyu at BSMPS bookstore, Dehradun

After that brief visit with a promise to return back in a couple of days to collect all the books, we left from Dehradun and reached Haridwar for dinner. It was a fun time to be at IIT Roorkee for our annual campus recruitment event and perform the interviews throughout the night. Well, how many occasions do you think you will get to interact some bright students until you announce the results at 4 am in the chilly weather of 3 or 4 degrees C? During our free time, we did visit Haridwar and witnessed the beautiful Ganga in her pure form and walked around the holy town with a tourist tag on our forehead.

As promised I had to go back to my new friends to close our books order before I took my flight back to Bangalore. So, instead of staying back at the hotel in Haridwar, I decided to stay at Dehradun. I got a few hours to visit the Forest Research Institute and its amazing tree museums. It was worth every minute of sleep I saved to rush back from Haridwar to Dehradun post our recruitment event.

I was so moved by Abhimanyu and his father Gajendra's passion and on top of that,  it was a bit too much for me to receive their kind hospitality as well. Every minute I spent with them, I was absolutely overwhelmed by their kind gesture. They are truly amazing people I've met. And the whole experience of me visiting Dehradun grew richer because of them. And because they thought we are also passionate about botany, orchids and such stuff, they were  kind enough to give us some discounts and ship the books to Bangalore free of cost.

Uploading here are some photographs I could click during my short visit to these places. (click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Forest Research Institute Museum , Dehradun

Forest Research Institute established in 1905

FRI Campus

                 (Orchids on the trees at FRI)

Ropeway overlooking the magnificient gangetic plains ferrying passengers to the Mansi Devi temple at Haridwar

The valley on the way to the Chandi Devi temple

Haridwar town seen from the Mansi Devi temple

 (Some flora around the valleys of Chandi Devi temple)

Ganga in its purest form enters the civilization at Haridwar

The ghats all along the Ganga. Fortunately its not as filthy as Varanasi

Cheers,
Srikanth

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first happy blooms

Well, it has been a fascinating journey so far since the time I developed my interest in Orchids. It all started because I loved photographing them in the wild. They are the most beautiful flowers I've seen. I wondered and was very curious to know more about them and since then, it has been a very interesting journey for sure. These days I don't just photograph them, I also try to know more details on every species I come across and read a bit as well. I am also lucky enough to run into good people who are passionate about orchids and I am glad to have my association with them. I also became a member of The Orchid Society of Karnataka and it has been a very good learning experience for me to interact with many orchid lovers. Somehow, I never had the courage to grow orchids at home, perhaps I was worried I would kill them. But then I thought growing orchids at home will be the only way to learn more about them technically, so I decided to grow them and got a few hybrid plants home and potted them a year ago. Initially I did a lot of mistakes (not that I am not doing mistakes now) and saw many leaves drying/burning up; and never had any hopes of good blooms from them at all. Monsoon arrived sooner than I expected and I just left the plants to get treated by nature in its own way. Slowly I saw many new spikes/leaves coming out and one fine day I was ecstatic to see a bud as well. Perhaps, I learnt how to water them better after that and I was happy to see more buds in all the plants. Even now, I do not think I have understood them better, but I am trying my best to save them at least. Being a novice in growing orchids, I was absolutely delighted when I saw these blooms at home. Hopefully, one day I will be confident enough to tell myself ~ 'go ahead and buy those lovely plants' and take care of them as well. These blooms are the first happy blooms at home.

Phalaenopsis hybrid

Loved the velvety texture and the color

Equitant Oncidium ~ Lava burst (Dancing lady)

Equitant Oncidium (Dancing lady)

Dendrobium hybrid

Dendrobium hybrid about to open up in full

Cheers,
Srik

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Govindanahalli-Kikkeri-Hosaholalu Day Trip

In our usual way of celebrating our Canadia Trust's foundation day on 2013 December 08, we visited the following heritage sites with some great food, education and much laughter. As always it was a great one day trip and only few of our team members could made it. We took the less traveled roads that went through rolling hills, valleys, villages, small towns and indeed it was a very relaxing drive. Presenting here are some of the panoramic photographs of these heritage sites that are currently under Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) maintenance.

(Click on the photographs to enlarge them)

Panchalingeshwara Temple at Govindanahalli

The unique Panchakuta design at Panchalingeshwara Temple, Govindanahalli (Rear view)

Panchalingeshwara Temple with 5 gopuras (one being restored currently) 

Brahmeshwara Temple at Kikkeri (looking east)

Brahmeshwara Temple at Kikkeri (looking north-east)

Lakshminarayana Temple at Hosaholalu (looking east)

Wall carvings at the Lakshminarayana Temple, Hosaholalu

Lakshminarayana Temple, Hosaholalu (Rear view looking South)

Cheers,
Srikanth

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