A2B Park at Mamallapuram

Early this month I took a ride on ECR (east coast road) just to pass some time and travel but later nearing Mamallapuram, my parents instantly planned to visit one of my uncles who wasn’t well there. To those unknown, Mamallapuram is my grandfather’s hometown and many our relatives lives there and it is a 7^th century sculptural town renowned for its stone carvings from many single rocks or monolithic. But I’m not here now to describe the town or its popularity or UNESCO status instead want to share some pictures of a small park at the entrance of the town belong to A2B, a popular restaurant chain.

We stopped at A2B to buy some sweets and snacks as we visit our uncle there, I liked their simple park with walk paths, green lawns and many palms to make it look so green and beautiful with bordering flowering shrubs. Dropping parents at uncle’s house we moved into the town for some glimpses and caught at traffic, since it was Sunday the places were all thronged by tourist. We quickly exit at the other end and turned back to uncle’s house.

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Rock Paintings on Critters

During the wait at the toll gate on ECR (east coast road) in Chennai, I used to take photos sometime on the plants and rock paintings decorating the medians that separate the lanes for vehicles to pass through the collection booths. I here share couple of photos shot at the beautiful rock paintings on critters – different kind of butterflies and a turtle/tortoise and lizards – from two different stops at the toll gate. These paintings are there for more than a decade (without fading) and sometime I try to capture them depending on the vehicles movements and pace and my interest.  The butterflies above were shot with iPhone and the tortoise below was a camera shot.

Linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS

Skywatch Friday

Last Sunday I went out for a drive on ECR (east coast road) after long time and I could see many changes en-route, which I took last while travelled to Kodai in March. We made a drive till Mamallapuram and amazingly the entire road was empty and was unlike a regular Sunday, where people throng at various amusement and tourist spots along the scenic highway. Perhaps, this unusualness is because of the early Red Alert by the Indian Metrological dept. warning that Sunday would witness heavy rainfall across the state should have put off planning a weekend trip by many. But the warning was withdrawn on Saturday and the Sunday was quite a pleasant day, and as we drove out by evening it wasn’t hot and the sky was far blue with clouds making lovely presence. About 6pm the sun hides away, leaving back some pretty and colourful twilight skies what you could see in the photos and as we come across the Great Salt Lake area, the sky opens up for great views and the palms scored well at foreground.

Linking this post with Skywatch Friday

RGB Monday

Captured this sketching from a banner placed at a petrol bunk on ECR, promoting an international school and I find the colors used on the simple drawing of a girl swinging from the tree branch has red, green, blue to suit the meme.

Mangoes ?

During a drive on ECR (east coast road) we come across some farm houses and found this tree thrive with fruits inside a fenced house. I actually thought the fruits were mangoes and this was shot last summer, so due to the season I was thinking it was mangoes until showing it to my grandma today to make sure but she told it wasn’t mangoes. The fruits were hanging a lot from the tree and what u sees is just a branch of fruits hang close to the hand and can be plucked even sitting from the SUV, but we didn’t do that to get unnecessary scolding from the security.

Do anyone know the name of this fruit species?

We also come across this (pic below) simple wooden gate, leading to an abandoned or uncared farmhouse or land, worn out its white paint.

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On New Year Occasion

A year has end and begin peacefully with great joy spread across, though nothing turned significantly different, a refreshing feel enters the vein as we accelerate into a new year, wishes and hopes bring new cheers into the life. The New Year eve was spent as usual in front of television; apart checking my cousins in next-street to greet on the occasion and receiving calls from other dear ones as we were awake till 1 am. News channels were live from different places on the sprite of New Year, and the beaches in neighbourhood (Marina and Elliot) was thronged by people and being a resident of Adyar, we could clearly hear the resound of rushing vehicles, blasting fireworks and aloud greetings   of New Year.

The colourful peacock Kolam in the picture above was drawn by my aunt in front of their house (and also our native home in next-street) which I shot at the New Year night. Due to very low light I couldn’t get clearer picture and I also used flash which went over exposed I feel. My mom also drew Kolam in front of our house but it was a simple one and uncoloured. For those unknown, Kolam is a pattern drawn in front of the houses, a traditional custom followed by the people of India and Kolam is a cultural identity of Tamil people and drawing colorful Kolam in front of the home is considered as auspicious and a sign of welcome during the festival seasons and events.

On January 1^st I went for a short ride on ECR (east coast road) and checked the Kovalam beach in evening. ECR being a scenic stretch of entertainment, there was heavy traffic on the road because of New Year and all entertainment hubs were crowded includes the toll gate with longstanding queues.  While parked at the beach, I find the sky beautiful and took some photos using the iPhone and I tried panorama and was really amazed by the light and colors of the sky. The setting of sunlight caused a great effect on the image, to only find a glowing sun as we moved out of the beach area and it continued for some time on the ECR before we took turn to The Great Salt Lake area, off the ECR.

It was such wonderful to see sun setting on the west and moon rising on east at same time. Being a full moon day, the moon was also at its full glory just like the reddish sun. Though I was taking photos on iPhone, I couldn’t get great details on both and the mild hazy winter weather took control even though the twilight sky was interesting watch throughout. Hope you enjoy the photos above and below on full moon.

Blue Gate

No, this wasn’t shot at Greece… but at our graceful ECR! The pretty blue gate belong to a beach house off east coast road (ECR) in Chennai, and if you take a closer look at the picture (click for enlargement) could see the blue sea between the gates which blocked by the pillar. The twisting of tree with green leaves, beside the gate, leans prettiness to blue and white combo.

Linking this post for  Good Fences by Gosia 

Gates alike and a pretty house

I’m always passionate about nature but lately I also grow interest on architecture, sculptures and anything that comes out in art form. Nowadays, wherever I go I look around for interesting buildings, structures and fences and gates includes the watch out. In recent time I happen to shoot many various aspects of buildings. Thanks to Instagram, a platform I am more active now and the instant and easy uploading and editing option inspire me to post many photos relevant to same.

Today I share a couple of gates with few similarities. First, both the gates here have a similar design and one (pic above) was painted white and the other in Ivory coat made difference by shades. Second, the gates were belonging to the restaurants and cafés, named Star and Embrace.

Star is a newly opened mini restaurant come ice cream centre on the road to Palavakkam beach off ECR. And Embrace comes on the ECR (east coast road) close to Delhi Dhaba and both were café alike restaurants and nothing to say more. Additional to the gates I like to include a house which I found very pretty on the road leading to the Palavakkam beach.

Actually it was the colors that attracted me but at close I also enjoy the modern architecture of the house and the colors differentiating the different aspects of the house. 

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Amusement park’s gate and gateway

The yellow gate and the wall is a cropped version of the photo I shot on the façade of the first amusement park of Chennai, VGP Golden Beach and Universal Kingdom. There you could see someone taking photo on the gate or selfie, but I don’t have logic for him to take selfie with road behind him from where I shot this, from the slowly moving car.

Past the main entrance I got to shoot a blue gateway, belong to the same amusement park with parking lot inside. I had no idea about the gateway until Google down to know it’s a gateway to the Snow Kingdom, a part of the Universal kingdom, a family amusement park. Actually I decided to shoot this gateway for its beautiful architecture and coated in blue and white. The fence along also has a nice wave design.

Apt to the name of the amusement park (Universal Kingdom) the entrance has a wonderful look of a realm which I will post on some other time. 

Linking this post for  Good Fences by Gosia 

One fence, two different birds

During an outing last year, on ECR and near Kovalam, I come across these tiny birds skipping here and there on the fence of a farm house. If you remember the Gloriosa Lily, the state flower of TN, I shot along with a fence? It was on the other side of the farm house I found these birds. The little birds have been very active then and I had to click number of shots to get these few shots on the birds. I actually thought, before observing the photos in detail, the birds (in photos below) belong to same species of birds. Though having a shade of yellow, the first two are Purple Rumped Sunbirds (male ‘n’ female) and the last one is a Common Tailorbird.

Purple-rumped sunbird 'male'

The purple-rumped sunbird is an endemic to the Indian subcontinent and like other sunbirds; they are small in size and feed mainly on nectar but sometimes take insects, particularly when feeding young. The males are brightly colored, whereas females are olive above and yellow to buff below. Males are distinguished easily from the purple sunbird by the light colored underside while females can be told apart by their whitish throats.

Purple-rumped sunbird 'female'

Both the genders of the sunbirds are tiny at less than 10 cm long, and have medium-length thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues adapted for nectar feeding. Actually I was bit confused with the female Purple-rumped sunbird, which looked alike Little spider-hunter, but I was only sure after studying the detail.

Below one is known as Common tailorbird. I only remember the name of the bird from the school text book and haven’t seen alive before, perhaps due to its tiny shape (size from 10 to 14 cm and weigh 6 to 10 grams) I couldn’t observe or captured well.

The common tailorbird is a songbird found across tropical Asia and it’s popular for its nest made of leaves sewn together. Although shy birds they are (a common resident in urban gardens) usually hide within vegetation and their loud calls are familiar and give away their presence. This passerine bird is distinctive in having a long upright tail, greenish upper body plumage and rust coloured forehead. 

Linking this post for SATURDAY CRITTERS and Good Fences by Gosia at Looking for identity  

Gloriosa Lily – The state flower of Tamil Nadu

During my Sunday outing last weekend, I was surprised to see the state flower of Tamil Nadu – Gloriosa Lily – which I was looking for some time. Alike it’s other common names including flame lily and fire lily; the flowers bloomed like fire flames on the fence of a farm house near Kovalam.

Kaanthal, the flower called in Tamil, has six tepals each extends up to 5 to 7.6 cm long and generally looks bright red to orange and sometimes with yellowish bases. I found two flowers; one with yellow base and the other quite bright red makes nice difference between the young and old that exhibits wavy margins.

Gloriosa is a perennial herb, native to much of Africa and Asia, climb or scramble over other plants with the aid of tendrils at the ends of their leaves and can reach 3 meters in height. Despite its showy and ornamental flowers as it was cultivated worldwide and also as a medicine, the plant is poisonous and toxic enough to cause human and animal fatalities if ingested. 

Linking this post with Floral Friday Foto  and contribute to Good Fences conduct by  new hostess Gosia at looking for identity blog

ECR – A Highway Ride

Last week I was on ECR (east coast road) to a temple festival in Mamallapuram with family and it was my travel on this road after some long time and the road wasn’t almost 4 lanes (highway) unlike now when I travel last, but was under extreme widening. The transformation from a pretty 2 lanes to advanced 4 lanes with high divider brought lot of changes on the look, locations and landscape. Though ECR is an accident prone road and due to increased traffic, such large scale development is needed but I always go for the former, the scenic double lane road which keeps me inspiring no matter how many times I ride.

ECR is one of my favourite routes, not that we stay close to the road and have been frequently hit, I feel pleasure every time I take a ride on this road bearing the cool sea breeze. ECR is packed with entertainment centres and amusement parks to keep one occupied and lately number of showrooms and cafés adds fun to the scenic highway. Except weekends, the ECR is mostly traffic free once crossed Muttukkadu, from where the ride is almost close to the coast of Bay of Bengal with Casuarina groves for company.  I usually hate riding on national highways mainly because of the bare scenarios that make feel bore… even getting a shadow is rarely evident.

Though ECR doesn’t bear many trees to provide shadow or to cut off, but still feel the widening has affected certain aspect of the scenic road. I find the new elevated bridge across the Muttukkadu backwaters got back the undisturbed, picturesque view across the estuary which was latterly hindered by a water pipe that transports the purified seawater to the city purpose. Coming to the road ways, undoubtedly we need smooth roads and protected lanes to travel from a place to another. And in today’s uncontrolled vehicle population (and pollution) road winding is the only option to let all vehicles and drive crash free. But what really happening is the four-lane encourages rash driving, where the need to care about opposite vehicle is almost absent. I wish the ECR comes under speed control, which is the only way to bring down the accidents.

The photos here were shot during the course… And I linking this post with Good Fences

It’s Summer

Sunset @ Muttukadu backwaters

Summer brings a sigh of relief
with schools enclosed for vacation
students chose to chase their passion
like gushing water in search of roots.

While summer curse to scorch
the compassion of sea breeze bless,
blissful moments to surpass
with flock of birds flag off to home.

Summer brings up the memories
that neither forgotten nor went down
with multiple layers adding on latterly
the calm afternoon winds up the dust.

Summer breaks the age barrier
where everyone likes to have ice creams,
fruit juices and tender coconuts
cool down our entire system.

Like every season that has an essence
summer delivers radiant sunshine,
where shoot, unripe fruits and flowers
regenerate under the natural hood sun. 

Though summer being a dry season
there isn't scarce for happiness,
and when the back itches for scratch
the urge for mountain's dew become firm.

Spot-Billed Pelicans @ Kovalam

The couple of pelicans in the photos below were shot at the backwaters of Kovalam, about 30 km from here on the ECR. Pelicans are among the many birds visit this backwater area and the ones that supposed to be migratory birds has been spotted no matter what the season was.  I have seen pelicans, painted storks and other water birds like pond heron, little cormorants, egrets… during many a time I crossed the backwaters on ECR.

(click images for enlarge)

The pelicans that were shot from a bridge across the backwater channel on the road led to Fisher-mans cove are spot-billed or grey pelicans. The birds of large inland and coastal waters breed in southern Asia from southern Pakistan across India to east Indonesia. At the distance they are difficult to differentiate from other pelicans in the region although it is smaller the spots on the upper mandible, the lack of bright colors and the greyer plumage are distinctive at closer look.

Kovalam aka Covelong is a fishing village and holds a beautiful curvy beach, which has lately become a favourite spot for water sports and activities esp. surf! Kovalam has a surf school and conduct international surf competitions and many young fishermen from the village has transformed to surfers. 

Linking this post for SATURDAY CRITTERS

Surprise Inlet

During last month’s outing on ECR, we were redirected through Kalpakkam Township perhaps due to some road work on ECR. But I was really glad for this diversion that takes me around the beautiful and peaceful environment of the Kalpakkam Township – which was created for the employees of Madras Atomic Power Station, and this is the second time I come across this place after 2012. And what I find wonderful this time was the exit of a backwater channel into the sea.

During my former visit (click here), the backwater lake come channel was disconnected from the sea by a sandbank and viewed pretty clam in absence of anyone, even being a noon then but the place looks like a mini beach now. Perhaps because of the diversion, many people pass the way stop sometime to enjoy some gentle moment around the bank. Few locals where fishing on the mouth of the channel, using a fibre boat and some throw bait from the bridge along the channel.

I was surprised by the sight of sea waves flowing into the channel and this is first time I was very close to an active inlet where sea merges with a river/channel. I also admire the beautiful curves created by the sea waves on either side of the shore and looks like this change was due of recent rain and flood that let more water into the channel to break away the sandbank and other barriers. The tree roots and barks on the shore make certain it was the cause of flood.

The mouth area also has a small park with benches to sit and relax by watching the seashore or emerged beach. This place had already impressed me and I wanted to go around the backwater area in my wheelchair (on the platforms laid around) and also the ambiance of the township with number of trees for shadow is a delight to pass. With the new park setting and the opening of channel into the sea want me to go there again and inspires my already existed wish. 

Fence and gated field

Last month I went for an outing with family on ECR (east coast road) and came via GST (grand southern trunk) road and during the ride across countryside, I find some gates and the above one was opposite to where we had our lunch (that we brought from home) beside a village pump set and well.

The closed gate seems to be the entry to the paddy field that was fenced around, perhaps to protect from cattle or marking their plot and field. The gate with lush green paddy fields inside insist me not to miss the opportunity and being a devote of Good Fences meme, by Run aRound Ranch, wants me to capture it for the series. 

RGB Monday

Like my previous post on RGB, here is another colorful image that comprises red green and blue.

These are colorful concrete flowerpots that kept to sale on ECR! The image expose mild motion as it was shot from moving car. 

Row of Boats

Few weekends back I was at Kovalam beach on ECR and we stopped there for a while when coming back from Mamallapuram on a brief ride come outing. Kovalam being a huge fishing hamlet and being Sunday evening the boats were parked a lot along the shoreline. The day was hotter when we hit the road by noon but evening become slightly cool as clouds form around the sky when we reached Kovalam.

It was time between 4-5pm so there weren’t enough crowds at the beach but there was constant rise as we wait future and before move out of the area, to avoid getting jammed since this is a beach where lot of people from Chennai’s southern suburbs would visit for mild entertainment. Here are some photos on the fishing boats that parked nearly along the curvy shoreline and as I haven’t took my camera that day, the picture were captured from my sister’s (cousin) Smartphone.

A private beach house off ECR

While driving past few private beach by-lanes on ECR, I find this house and the gate (perhaps made of planks or steel) prettier to capture. The house was outstanding from the many others structures through the traditional kind of architecture and exterior that carries red brickwork. The hip or gable tiled roof is another interesting aspect of the house that has arch windows and portico and balcony supported by pillars.

The other sides (above and below) of the same house

Linking this post for Run a Round Ranch's Good Fences