When I say I want to travel...

When I say I want to travel I don’t mean I want to stay at resorts and go on tours with tour guides or buy key chains from souvenir shops. I don’t want to be a tourist. 

When I say I want to travel I mean I want to explore another country and become part of it. I want to discover small coffee shops in Germany and Italy and France. I want to walk on beaches in Australia and browse the book stores of England. I want to hike the Great Wall of China and go cliff diving in Hawaii I want to meet people who are not like me, but people who I can like all the same. I want to take pictures of things and places and people I meet. I want my mind to be in constant awe of life on earth. I want to see things with new eyes. I want to look at a map and be able to remember how I was transformed by the places I’ve been to the things I’ve seen and the people I’ve met. 

I want to come home and realize that I have not come home whole but have left a piece of my heart in each place I have been. This, I think, is what is at the heart of Adventure and this is why I plan on making my life one

~ reblogged

डाळकांदा

तुरीची डाळ गाळ शिजू न देता अलगद बाजूला करायची, फोडणी वर कांदा भाजून जरा तिखट आणि कोथिंबीर घालून वाफ आणली की झाला डाळ कांदा तयार! अत्यंत चविष्ट, झटपट आणि सोपी पाककृती. आमच्याकडे दर सोमवारी बनतो हा डाळकांदा, अगदी साधा, माझ्या पप्पांसारखा!

शाळेत असताना पासूनच  आठवत,  दर सोमवारच्या डब्यात डाळकांदा असायचा. मला खूप आवडायचा अशातलं  काही नाही पण काही मित्रांना खूप आवडायचा म्हणून मी पण खुश असायचो, त्यांच्या डब्यातलं पण ताव मारून खाता यायचं. दर सोमवारचं  हे मात्र ठरलेलं. नंतर शाळा संपली, डबा सुटला, डाळकांदा मात्र दर सोमवारी सकाळी ठरल्याप्रमाणे बनतच राहिला… नंतर कधी कॉलेजातून सुट्टीला घरी आलो कि डाळकांदा खायला मिळायचा, मग आवडायला लागला.

पण हा आमच्या घरी का बनवायचे दर सोमवारी सकाळी? माझ्या पप्पांचा आवडता आहे म्हणून. गेली कित्येक वर्ष पप्पा नोकरी निमित्ताने कोल्हापूर ला आहेत, निम-सरकारी नोकरी. आठवड्याला जाऊन येऊन करतात. सोमवारी सकाळी ७-८ वाजता निघालं की ऑफिस च्या वेळेत कोल्हापुरात दाखल. पाच दिवसाचा आठवडा आणि परत शुक्रवारी संध्याकाळी निघून सातारा! पप्पा दर सोमवारी डबा घेऊन जायचे, डाळकांदा आणि डाळ वांग त्यांच्या आवडीच. डब्यातून हेंडकाळू नये म्हणून डब्यात डाळकांद्याची निवड. हा सोमवारचा डबा पप्पा दुपारी व संध्याकाळी दोन वेळा खात. पैसे वाचवणे आणि बायकोच्या हातचं खाणे असे दोन्ही हेतू होते बहुतेक त्या मागे…

दर सोमवारी पप्पांना एस्टी स्थानकावर दुचाकीनं  सोडायला जावं लागायचं. आईला गाडी चालवता नव्हती येत तेव्हा. आईला गाडी शिकवायचे पप्पांचे बरेच प्रयत्न असफल ठरले.  आम्ही तीन भावंड लहान होतो तेव्हा कसे जायचे आठवत नाही पण आमच्याकडे बजाज ची एम ८० होती, दादा गाडी चालवायला लागल्यापसूनच आठवतं, तो जायचा सोडायला. मग तो शिकायला बाहेर गेला तेवा चुलत भाऊ जायचा एम ८० घेऊन, हिरो होंडा आल्यावर ती घेऊन. नंतर स्कुटी पेप आली, तेव्हा दीदी जायची सोडायला, मग मी पण गेलो मोठा झाल्यावर. गाड्या बदलल्या, सोडायला जाणारी माणसं बदलली तरी डब्यात मात्र ठरलेला मेनू … डाळकांदा! आई दर वेळी अगदी प्रेमाने डबा बनवून द्यायची. आई नोकरी करत होती तेव्हाचं  आठवत , काही वेळा डाळ रात्रीच शिजवायची आणि मग सकाळी उठून परतून डाळकांदा तय्यार, पप्पांच्या वेळेत!

अगदी गरिबीतून शिक्षण पूर्ण केलेले. घरची परिस्थिती हलाखीची असल्यानं पप्पा शिवणकाम करता करता शिकले . आजी सांगायची, रात्री उशिरा पर्यंत शिवण करून सकाळी उठून अभ्यास करायचे परीक्षेच्या वेळेस. परिश्रमांचा चीज झालं, सरकारी नोकरी मिळाली, शिवणकाम चालूच होतं. माझी आई मात्र पप्पांची निवड, लहान पणापासून एकाच वाड्यात राहिलेले. लग्न झालं आणि आम्ही तिघे पण झालो समीर, स्नेहल आणि  मी शेंडफळ - शकुन. पप्पांची शकुनी गणपतीवर फार श्रद्धा. साताऱ्यात असले कि दररोजच जाण ठरलेलं. गणपतीला आवडणार गूळ खोब्र त्याचं पण फार आवडत. आजी सांगायची लहानपणी खोबऱ्याची वाटी पळवून पसार व्हायचे, आणि फस्त करायचे. माझे पप्पा पण शेंडफळ, पाच भावांच्या पाठचे. म्हणून चालत असेल कदाचित.

पप्पा अगदी शिस्तप्रिय. घरात अस्ताव्यस्त काही पडलेलं त्यांना आवडत नाही. शुक्रवारी संध्याकाळी आमच्या घरात उचला उचलीचा कार्यक्रम ठरलेला,जेणेकरून घर नीटनेटक दिसावं. तापट स्वभावाचे, जरा घाबरूनच असतो आम्ही त्यांना. पण आमच्या तिघांच्याही शिक्षण व इतर मागण्यांसाठी  पप्पानी कधीच हाईघाई केला नाही, हवं ते सगळं पुरवलं. सोमवारच्या संध्याकाळी पण घरचाच डबा खाल्ला त्यांनी.. गेली कित्येक वर्ष. 

दादाचं शिक्षण झालं, वहिनी आली, मी शिकायला बाहेरगावी गेलो, दीदी लग्न होऊन सासरी गेली, पप्पा आजोबाही झाले… तरी नोकरी मात्र कोल्हापूरलाच होती, सोमवार-शुक्रवार चं जाणंयेणं ठरलेलं. डब्यातही तेच  - आईने बनवलेला डाळकांदा.. वयाच्या पन्नाशी नंतर पण पप्पांचं  कोल्हापूर काही सुटलं नव्हतं. दादाने चार चाकी घेतली, तरी देखील पप्पांना सोडायला दुचाकीवरच जायचं कोणीतरी.

गेल्या २ वर्षापूर्वी कुठल्यातरी ड्रायव्हिंग स्कूल मध्ये जाऊन आईला पपांनी दाखल केलं. स्वतःची कामं चटकन करता यावीत म्हणून आई पण शेवटी दुचाकी चालवायला शिकली. मग आता तिचं अजून एक काम वाढलं, पप्पांना गाडीवर एस्टी स्थानकावर सोडायला  जायचं. तीही सगळं आवडीने करायची डाळकांदा आणि मग सोडायला जाणं. पप्पानाही ते आवडायच, कधी पासूनची त्यांची इच्छा पूर्ण झालेली, आईने गाडी चालवायची.

१६ एप्रिल ला पप्पांचा आणि दादाचा वाढदिवस झाला, त्याच दिवशी सुदैवाने दादा-वहिनीला दुसरी मुलगी झाली. पण हा पप्पांचा खास वाढदिवस होता, ५८वा !  ३० एप्रिल ला निवृत्ती, कोल्हापुरातला आणि नोकरीतला शेवटचा दिवस असणार...

काल सोमवार होता, खूप वर्षांचं गणित अजूनही तसच होतं… आई-पप्पा सकाळी लवकरच उठतात. पप्पा शकुनी गणपतीला जाऊन आले निघण्यापूर्वी. सोडायला येण्यापूर्वी स्वयंपाक करताना पप्पांनी आईला  सांगितलं, "आजचा डाळकांदा छान कर."   पप्पांना भरून आलं होतं, सोडून आल्यावर आईने फोन वर सागितलं.

खारट.

समुद्राचं पाणी…क्षणात पुढं येतं , रुक्ष किनाऱ्याला ओलावा देतं , लाटांच संगीत ऐकवतं , कधी शंख-शिंपले देतं  तर कधी मोती… आपलसं होतं …. भरतीनंतर ओहोटी येणार  हे मात्र आपण विसरूनच जातो जणू… पायाखालची वाळू सरकते तेव्हाच भानावर यायला होतं!
ओहोटीच्या समुद्रकिनारी उभा आहे मी,  अगदी पायाशी खेळणारं पाणी..  दूर चाललंय आणि मी मात्र घट्ट मनाने दूर  जाणाऱ्या पाण्याकडे शांतपणे बघण्यावाचून काहीच करू शकत नाही .. अगदी क्षितिजापर्यंत.

Kinaara

Celebrating New Year evening in beautiful coastal part of India especially Goa is a silent wish of every young person, at least nowadays! We (me and Anuj) couldn’t celebrate it there, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t celebrate it. ;)

Being part of a bird watching group ‘Warblers and Waders’, we visited many places in and around Trivandrum along with professionals. When we joined at Hassan, we were desperately in search of a similar kind of group to roam around and spend weekends in a better way. A few weeks later, we came to know about the trekking group in our own workplace. Fortunately they were planning a beach trek from Gokarna to Kumta in the first week of January. And we decided to join them within no time, as they said, this was going to be the last trek of this season! We were quite excited about this trek after reading a lot on the internet about it. No doubt, it was better than any other commonly fantasized New Year celebration!

As it was the first trek with colleagues, and we were the only two non-kannada members, the journey to Gokarna was a bit boring. We left Hassan at around 10:30pm and reached Gokarna by 6 O’clock. Bun-tea at 3 near Jog Falls followed by the 60km ghaat section was the only exciting part of the journey. And yeah, we came to know about the Explore-India expedition by our trek-organizer. He has travelled to many states in his own car! #Respect

 Gokarna is a small but famous place, crowded with many foreigners and Indian devotees. I couldn’t resist myself having a photo-walk there. We were pretty surprised to see so many hotels and restaurants there. We saw a man playing the long Australian Pipe like instrument. We had a peaceful darshan of lord Mahabaleshwar followed by a breakfast in ‘Pai Restaurant’. On the way to beach, we collected some cow dung cakes for the bonfire in the night. 

We reached our starting point ‘Gokarna beach’ and started the trek at around 11 am heading south of the beach. We were looking like a Lagaan team as few of us were carrying towels on the back. Anuj’s binoc was complimentary to my camera; people wondered how old it was! We climbed the first hill, which was quite easy. Once on the top of the hill, a wonderful landscape was seen. Beach at the back, grasslands in the front and deep sea on the right! Foot-trails were always found throughout the trek. We got view of the beautiful Kudale Beach in a few minutes. We climbed down the hill to enter a village just before the beach which was inhabited by foreigners mostly. We entered a restaurant from the back side and scared a few foreigners by our backdoor entry. “Where did they come from? Did they come from the sky?”, asked one of the bewildered foreigner. Kudle beach hardly had any Indian. 

Hill climb#2 was less easy, and it again gave a feel of Lord of The Rings. We entered a park which descended onto the Om Beach. Ultimate View! Next was the Half Moon Beach. Undoubtedly awesome! We moved on. A snake fell in front of Anuj from the tree and slithered away into the shrubs. To reach the next i.e. Paradise beach, we had to negotiate both the hill and the sea rocks. We had lunch on one of the sea rocks. Paradise beach was also small, but every beach in the trek was unique! Hill climb#4 looked a little tough, which it was. The plan was to reach the harbor, get ferry to cross the river and reach the Nirvana Beach (long beach). It was visible from far but reaching there was a bit difficult. We had a Swades style ferry to cross the river. We reached the Nirvana beach around 5:30 pm. It was ultra-awesome long beach with no tourists at all. It was almost sunset time. We gathered some firewood for the campfire. Anuj says, I was following like Gollum. But I got some catchy snaps on the way. We saw a beautiful sunset. I went for a dip in sea after the sunset.

When it was dark, we all sat down and were discussing about the past treks and trips. The air was still windy and it was getting darker. The camp fire was lit. We opened our dinner packets, and enjoyed it. The stars were now visible and there were literally countless of them! ‘I havn’t seen so many stars inside the Orion’, Anuj says. He saw a couple of meteors too. We all arranged bedding on the beach and tried to sleep. Wind almost stopped and there was only sound of waves (Kalloli, in Assamese <3). I was asleep around 9 in my sleeping bag. Anuj had a little problem sleeping, as there was no wind. The moon rise was at 2.

           We got up at 5am and started walking in moon-light. Amazing feeling! We also saw the boats of fishermen going into the open sea one after another. Two coastguards enquired about the purpose of our visit and warned about the sea. The light from the east was increasing and at around 6:30 am, the sun rose. We covered major stretch of our trek till 8am (around 6km). We had breakfast on the southern end of Nirvana beach and headed towards Kumta which was beyond 3 more hills. After crossing the first hill, came an unknown beach. No tourists at all! Totally unexplored! The next hill was the toughest to cross. We had to go over the sea rocks. Huge sea rocks! A few of them were dangerously slippery. After the second hill came another big beach. It was peaceful except 2-3 fishermen handling their boats. We crossed the next hill, and reached our desired destination Kumta, where our Tavera was waiting for us. The return journey also included a bath at a small waterfall at ‘Apsaraconda’ and visits to Murudeshwar Temple and Shringeri Math. We finally reached Hassan at around midnight driving through dense fog in the Ghats on the way.

~ Shakun and Anuj

U t t a r a y a n

            As I said in my welcome post, God has moved me a little north nowadays. Two years back, when I was in Bangalore for my internship, we were not having personal vehicles. So, Nandi Hills Sunrise couldn't be planned. This year, the day before Sankranti, I had planned for Bangalore. An hour before catching a bus, I realized that my bike is due for second servicing after some 500km. I changed my mind, and had a nice, long and safe ride to Bangalore. It was followed by an early morning trip to Nandi Hills which is one of the best Sunrise Points I've ever seen.  We were among those hundreds of people, who witnessed the first day of Uttarayan at Nandi Hills!

             Sharing some of the clicks.

A magnificent view from Nandi Hills

After the Sunrise

A beautifully built Gallery

It was quite hectic to drive back to Hassan, as I had slept for hardly 5 hours in last two days, and was driving continuously. I somehow managed to reach safe. Thanks to the tea-shops on NH75! And yeah, Bike is ready for servicing :)

~Shakun

haven't yet thought of it..

“There is no happiness for him who does not travel!”

Thus we have heard. Living in the society of men, the best man becomes a sinner therefore, wander! The fortune of him who is sitting, sits; it rises when he rises; it sleeps when he sleeps; it moves when he moves. Therefore, wander! ~ Rigveda

I just follow the advice though don’t have idea about other advices in Rigveda. Yeah, I love to travel and I photograph. I’m having a few extra pounds on me, but that’s not the reason why I follow trekkers and friends. I just love to appreciate subtle poetry between lights and shadows, I click them, I capture them for lifetime! I love to work on the subjects on the streets, also on the stills of nature. It just takes a little long. I also love to appreciate and photograph flora and fauna.
 

My first camera! It was a Kodak film camera (don’t remember the model, but it is safe in some cupboard at home). I bought it from my pocket money when I was in secondary school. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford my second camera. And obviously my Pappa didn’t gift me a DSLR, I had to plead for that hundreds of times when I was in second year of my graduation! Though he is not happy with me spending more time with it, I’m sure he appreciates my clicks when he silently visits my facebook profile. Anyways, thanks Pappa for the camera. I’ll definitely make you feel proud some day. Thus I started my journey with my Canon in June’10! I wholeheartedly thank my best buddies Siddharth and Avdhoot for giving me preliminary inputs for starting up with it. It would have been difficult without them. 

Thanks God for splendid Sahyadris where I was born.Thanks God for making me stay in his own country for four long years. I could capture a little beauty of his creations so far.  He has shifted me to a little north, and I’m exploring Karnataka now. I’m sure he’ll make me wander! It was a trend after the famous ‘Three Idiots’ to ask every DLSR owner why he doesn’t leave engineering and be a professional photographer. No doubt, I was also asked the same questions many times. What I can answer them is, ‘Haven’t yet thought of it, let me wander!’

I wholeheartedly welcome all of you to my travel and photography blog! Hope, you people like it :)

Shakun