During an evening walk in the neighborhood, the bougainvillea blooming along a street in Besant Avenue couldn't stop me from taking photos. As I cropped one of the photos, I got this beautiful frame of an older man who walked in front of me aside from the bougainvillea, charmed!
Monday, March 29, 2021
A walk with youthful memories...
During an evening walk in the neighborhood, the bougainvillea blooming along a street in Besant Avenue couldn't stop me from taking photos. As I cropped one of the photos, I got this beautiful frame of an older man who walked in front of me aside from the bougainvillea, charmed!
Friday, January 22, 2021
Kadalur Dam – First outing of the year
I haven’t planned to go out during the Pongal holidays esp. to avoid the festival crowd, even though the government had forbidden people from visiting tourist places and beaches during the Pongal holidays to prevent the spreading of coronavirus. I went out on the Mattu Pongal day (Jan 15), and this day is usually crowded on ECR (east coast road), unlike the Kaanum Pongal (the next day), with a peak in-crowd, but the closer of tourist places left minimum vehicles on the road. Only the amusement parks were opened, with a fully loaded parking lot.
It's always a
dream to see water in the Palar river, which often looks dry, other than little
pools of water. The Palar river rises in the Nandi hill of Karnataka and runs
into Andhra Pradesh, and then into Tamil Nadu, for a length of 350 km before
merged at the sea. The dam is about 75km from Chennai on the ECR, and there’s a
signboard indicating the road to the dam (take left) before crossing the
river.
The check-dam is
built at the mouth of the river for about a km in length, and in between
Vayalur-Kadalur village, where the river meets the sea. The road passes through
the narrow streets of Vayalur village, ends at the north bank of the river, and
then a mud road slides to the dam. When we went, there were already a dozen
cars and bikes parked in front of the river, and many people were having fun by
sliding through the spillway and taking bath at the river. Despite the slippery
spillway and rocks around the dam, this seems to be a safe place to relax and
enjoy the bath as a family.
It was noon when
we arrived at the dam, and the sun was shining above our heads, so we could not
get clear pictures of the place as there was too much sunlight. I even couldn't
shoot the flock of pelicans taking flights above the dam site, and they should
have come up fishing at the dam. The water stays up to and beyond the bridge of
the ECR, which is something I have never seen before – the last flood I saw on
the Palar river was in 1997. We quickly moved from there as the sun was quite
sharp on us.
The dam is built in 2019 with funding from Kalpakkam Atomic Station and was opened by the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K Palanisamy. And the best time to visit the dam is post-monsoon, the only time when the river sees some flow of water.
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Lappy back and A short video/photo slide of Bro’s wedding
Monday, August 31, 2020
RGB Monday
Colorful row or line houses at Senbahanoor, a neighborhood in Kodaikanal.
P.s. The state government of Tamil
Nadu had further relaxed the lockdown by allowing public transportations – the
operation of busses and metro trains only within the districts and inside the
state – opening of malls without functioning of theatres and no pass for elders
and kids; and work places with 100% employers and extended time limit for shops
to be opened in evening and reopening of resorts and lodges but e-pass had been
made mandatory for visiting any of the tourist places and it will be issued by
district collectors. By this move life almost seemed to turn back to regular mode or at least within the districts the movements would be easier for the people. And for a country with high population and closely living community social distancing is a far difficult custom to follow and so far I think the lockdown had hold back people in someways and what opened in front is a challenge. People are so happy by the move but I don’t feel
for it as these relaxations cause a fear of increasing Covid cases and it is up
to people to make it safe and profitable at same.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
A Weather, Reminder of Mountains
The weather has been pleasant and cools these days (in Chennai) and it wasn’t raining either but still, the clouds, continue to seize the
sky, kept low the temperature that lures me to dream of mountains. Though not
exactly, I feel a mild cold in the air to embrace me and my mind cling to the
memories of the same feel. It’s been more than a year I visited mountains or stayed
overnight other than the home esp. this cool weather is impossible to restrain the
thoughts of Smokey Haven or what I call a bird paradise – Thandikudi – nestled
in the lower Palani hills of Kodaikanal. It was a place that wasn’t too cold as
Kodai or hot as plains but comfortable weather to stay all day out exploring
the locality of coffee and pepper plantations and listening to birds in woods.
Glad my uncle built his wood houses there,
so it was always a hassle-free and home-like stay for us and it would be fun if
two more families of my uncles join the stay. I too used to the comfort of the
woodhouse or to say my uncle had built the house easily accessible by the wheelchair
so that I could visit it anytime without difficulty. He knows how I enjoy
staying into nature or travel to hills and the woodhouse was first executed
for personal use before the idea of renting happen. The weather is one pleasing
thing about this place and no matter what the season was, it never drops out of
comfort and the weather in Chennai right away is something that makes the mind think
about. Perhaps due to Aadi (the season with high wind blow, falls between
July-August) is believed to bring a successful year of rain and these cloudy
moments brings hope as the southwest monsoon had smashed this year.
I leave you with some nature and cool images
for the glimpses of the locality from different times of the visit. I love
being there any time of the season and it has something to please or offer with
the arrival of differences in nature like the migration of birds, flowering
environment and wind.
Saturday, August 08, 2020
Birds in Neighbourhood - Myna
The bird is often or to say daily found around the house esp. after the lockdown they frequent the trees in the neighbourhood. As they mostly perch on tree tops or go behind the branches I could only listen to their sounds than shoot with camera. Here is couple of shots on Myna from the past.
Myna is a commonly visible bird anywhere in India and perhaps so it is called as common Myna or Indian Myna. The bird found from Middle East to Southeast Asia is readily identified by the brown body, black hooded head and the bare yellow patch behind the eye with bright yellow bill and legs.
Linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Sunday Shots: Rain Scenes
All pics shot with mobile (iphone se) as it comes handy than looking for camera. |
Friday, July 10, 2020
Skywatch Friday: Rainbows
To say the sky's the only changing things in my life for last few months or from the time of pandemic began; sky watching has become an activity and I go out into the balcony to see the sky after I wake up and got ready and do the same before go to bed. I don’t know why I want to see the sky or at least want to see a star or anything celestial before get into the bedroom and I think it’s perhaps because of lockdown and fewer activities on road want me to look for something active even though I know the celestial activities aren't quicker.
Linking this post with Skywatch Friday
Friday, June 05, 2020
நிலா / Moon
பகலை வென்à®±ு இரவு பயணத்தில்
நிலா,
என் வான் வழியே à®®ேல்à®®ாடத்தின் வெளியே.
அழகிய à®®ுகத்தோடு இரவை இதமாக்கி
வெண்ணிலவாய் வளம் வருà®®் நிலா.
--------------- ---------------
After beating the day,
Outside the balcony – through my sky
Made the night with a beautiful face
came around as a flourished moon.
Monday, June 01, 2020
RGB Monday
A part of simple light and shadow and shades of red, green and blue on the porch of uncle's woodhouse near Kodaikanal |
Sunday, March 08, 2020
Indian Black Turtles
Sunday, March 01, 2020
Visit to Amirthi Zoological Park, near Vellor
Indian pond turtles |
Python relaxing at its room |
Golden Fox (see on the right) in its cage |
Pelicans and herons |
I really enjoyed the place despite being a Sunday; there weren’t much people around the park and only at the time of leaving found a bus full of school kids having lunch at the parking lot. Staffs at the park were kind to inquire about my convenient there, and was I able to go everywhere? The only thing that bothers me was to see fewer animals than expected. Though I don’t like seeing birds or animals in enclosed cages while they have wing to fly and legs to run… I’m at least happy to see them because even if we go to forest seeing them is doubt.
Thursday, February 06, 2020
TELC Jubilee Church (aka German Church), Kodaikanal
Dad, mom and grandma posed in front of church |