Couldn’t help but see this as an exhibit on display. The tree stump is a work of art and the creator’s name is painted on the grill. (Click on image to see it in a larger size)

This tree was one of the hundreds that was cut on a road in Bangalore to make way for the Metro. The place looks barren now, with a lot of construction dust all around. A war-zone like feeling, with all the victims being mute enough to not bother us.

“Are you ok?”

Many people have asked me that since yesterday. As I open my mouth to answer that once again, the next line slips in:
“Are you ok Annie?” and Michael Jackson croons with some great music in the background.

What happened was this: I was walking on the footpath of a road. A path that is meant for pedestrians to walk on.
However, someone had kept a long wooden platform on that footpath, merely to deter bikers from parking their bikes on that section of the footpath.

I was oblivious of this fact of course, and keeping my head high, I trotted along the footpath, looking around for some missing clue about our life and this universe.


Suddenly, I notice that my right foot was no longer keeping up with the rest of my body. My brain wakes up and gets instantly into first gear, detecting a pending calamity. Electric signals from my brain’s few million neurons fire relentlessly trying to get the word to my right leg as soon as possible.
The right leg, in the meanwhile, has shut off incoming communication. My brain is still frantically trying to establish organic contact. No luck though.

In the meanwhile, my body’s upper half has lost the plot and starts yielding to the by now strong strains of gravity.


My right leg finally realises its mistake, wedges itself out of the platform and signals back to the brain, “All is Ok. Move on now.”
“A little too late,” signals my brain back as it now gets into the tried-and-tested damage saving mode. Both my hands, which were until now waiting for orders from the higher ups, spring into action. With the palms hoping to cut off gravity’s intense strength, my hands move faster than my falling body, past my upper torso and prevent the ground from taking my full impact. A slight jerk in the shoulder and my brain disengages from “panic mode” and switches to the “realization mode”.


However, all is still not well. The right leg, in its attempt to get out from underneath the wooden plank, and under immense pressure from the brain to react, had put in a little extra effort which had to be passed on to the upper parts of the body. All this meant that my face now came crashing down on the stony pavement, my hands looking sideways at each other not quite knowing where this face landed from.


I now have a couple of bruises on the right side of my face, quite close to the eye. And my shoulder aches occasionally. Yet, here I am, writing this blog post and still keeping an eye out for that missing clue about our life and this universe.


Bouquets and get-well soon cards accepted for free. Just leave a comment here indicating so and you will get a reply with delivery instructions.

A few days ago, we forced our way out of leisurely slumbers to the Chitrakala Parishat institute. Veeral (cousin and a student at CKP), who was our photographer and guide told us about the Dastkari Haat which was organized in the institute and so we decided to take a look.

The place was teeming with artists and their beautiful works from almost all parts of the country. There were abstract sketches, modern clocks, Madhubani paintings, crockery made from natural stones found only in the state of Manipur, puppets from Rajasthan, Sarees (I write this for the record, upon insistence from the Mrs. of course) which were reportedly very beautiful, and a whole lot of other artifacts.

I was impressed with, and in awe of, the immense talent that our country possesses in its artisans. The people selling and showcasing their works were not business dealers. They were wonderful artists, and this reflected in the way they spoke in great length and detail about each one of their works of art. Here are a couple of the many photographs which Veeral took:
A work in wood:

Puppets waiting to be looked at:

It was an afternoon well spent.I also got to know that the Dastkari Haat Samiti might be visiting Palace Grounds next before leaving Bangalore in a few days. You might want to follow up on that and catch the troupe.

We have started a new photo gallery on The Better India.

You may join this pool and add your photos. Of course, do adhere to the overall guideline that the photos should be aligned with the ‘spirit’ of The Better India. What does that mean, you ask. Simple, I say. You may submit any photo that you believe disperses positivity and is related to India in someway. Certain examples could be a sunset in Kanyakumari, a bicycle hike you recently did in the Western Ghats, a smiling face that made you happy or children playing cricket in the Gymkhana grounds of Mumbai.

It’s been a while since this blog had some photos. So, here:

Above photo taken by Mrs. DhiOnlyOne

Some flowers up close:

The essential companions, coffee and books:

That’s all for now, ladies and gentlemen.

This is a continuation of the previous post on our short trip to Ladakh.

After seeing the Indus river on that evening, we left to see another Buddhist monument – The Shanti Stupa. The Shanti Stupa stands majestically amidst a backdrop of high peaks and the sun shone down on the monastery, giving it all a divine feel.

The Stupa has beautiful drawings and paintings of the Buddha and other deities.

Treks are usually not my cup of tea (or kahwa, for that matter), but this place is too appealing to be missing out on long walks. We set out to go to the Gyamska valley (at least that’s how our driver pronounced the name) and were greeted by this structure at the entrance:

After what seemed like thousands of kilometers of walking along the foot of a mountain, we finally reached the much promised valley!

To make it even better, there was a glacial stream flowing right through this valley. The water was ice cold and crystal clear. And, of course, it was wonderful to drink it right off the stream as it gurgled downhill.

While I was busy during the days attending a meeting, the Mrs. got a chance to visit some Ladakhi homes. Here are some great looking pictures she took:

Our next stop was the famous Khardung La pass, the world’s highest motorable road, located at a height of 18380 feet above sea level. The road to get there was very scenic and I got to see some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen in my life:

After almost an hour of driving up into the mountains, we finally reached Khardung La.

What greeted us was expanses of white snow on the sides of the mountains and a sudden chill in the air. The snow was not as clean as I had anticipated, but I managed to dig some out from below the top layers:

Here at Khardung La there is a small restaurant that serves tea and the best Maggi I have ever eaten. Seriously, there was something different about the Maggi cooked here. Or probably it was just that the cold was too much and the hot Maggi in simmering water made it feel heavenly.

Another place we visited on our way was the Magnetic Hill. Local knowledge states that when a car is placed on a particular location on the road, in neutral, it moves uphill towards a mountain which is nicknamed the Magnetic Hill. We did see the thing in front of our eyes, but one of our guides spoiled it for us by saying that some sceptics consider this to be an optical illusion. It was too cold for me to argue my thoughts on the concept of optical illusions, so I let it be.

Our organizers had arranged for a camp outing along with lunch on the banks of the Indus. This was a beautiful moment and we got to spend hours sitting alongside the river, with our legs dangling into the cold water while the mountains watched patiently.
This, the photo on the right, was the loo of our camp. It was a hole in the ground, covered with a colourful looking tent, zip et al.

We then left to visit the point where the Indus meets the Zanskar river. The two join here and the resulting river continues to be called Indus.

After visiting the various market places, and checking out a cool restaurant called the Wonderland (cheesy name yeah, but a great roof-top seating makes up for the name), we finally had to bid farewell to this paradise of this part of the world.

Previous post on Ladakh: Ladakh Photo Diary – 1

This is a first in a series of posts depicting our Ladakh trip in pictures.

First some background. Ladakh is a province in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India. It has two main towns – Leh, considered the capital of Ladakh and Kargil. Situated at a height of over 11,000 feet above sea level, the oxygen levels here are lower compared to the cities we live in. It is close to the China and PoK borders and the famous Siachen Glacier.

In case you are planning a trip to Leh, be advised that your first day in Leh should comprise of, and only of, complete rest in your hotel room. Doctors suggest a resting period of at least 36 hours. Otherwise, you tend to suffer from altitude sickness. During summers, Leh is considerably warm and dry. There is not much of humidity so the sun can be harsh. Now, sit back and enjoy the view.

The Himalayas from the plane’s window as we flew through the mountain range on our way to Leh. Majestic and awe inspiring:

An aerial snapshot of the airport of Leh:

As we got off the plane on to the rudimentary looking tarmac, there was a slight chill in the air. Looking around, we were surrounded by mountains and the presence of the Indian armed forces was easily felt. There are various mountains which have some inspiring texts written by the various regiments. One of the mountains had the following written in white and visible from air:

Touch the sky with glory

Once at the hotel, we were asked to take complete rest to acclimatize ourselves with the low levels of oxygen. In the evening, we visited a Buddhist monastery nearby.

The person who used to run this monastery, Mr. Kushak Bakula, had initiated a lot of social and development work for the town of Leh. Owing to his great work, he had been awarded India’s Padma Bhushan title. For the first time ever, I got to see how the certificate of a Padma Bhushan award looks like:

After having spent time at the monastery, we went to a river nearby. And well, this wasn’t just a river nearby. It was the Indus river. The Indus river – the mother of civilizations in this part of the world!

It was a strange feeling to be able to dip your fingers into a river of such historical significance.

More on this trip shall continue later. Watch this space, ladies and gentlemen.

Update: Read part 2 of this trip here.

On Saturday, Mrs. DhiOnlyOne and I set out to a place called Kadavanthi which is located within the Chikmaglur district. The place is around 300 kms from Bangalore, going via Hassan, Belur and Chikmaglur.

The road is surprisingly very good for long stretches and the weather played the perfect host all the way long. Stopping for some excellent idlis midway, we reached Kadavanthi at around 2:00 pm.

The place where we stayed is located atop a hill and set amidst a huge coffee plantation. Needless to say, coffee bean smells abound here. The cottages were located on a slightly flattened out land which overlooks the expanse of mountains, valleys and low-drifting clouds.
This is a picture of our cottages which have benches on the opposite side, facing the valley.

One of the apprehensions I always have about such forest-y areas is the kind of creepy crawlers that I might have to encounter. Of course, Mrs. DhiOnlyOne too has such apprehensions but at least she has a daring and strong husband to rely on. Me? What can I rely on? Except try and pray fervently for nothing to crawl on my bed in the night or to fall on my back while I am not noticing. That fear of course does not deter me from photographing some never-before-seen bugs and insects.

The evening brought with it a bonfire, barbecue and some beer on the hills. (That last phrase does not refer to the quantity of beer, but more on the location of its consumption). After some decent homely food (which was so homely that it also had brinjal on the menu – and I dislike brinjal, if you didn’t get it), it was time to allow the crickets outside to take over your peace of mind.

Thankfully, we didn’t encounter any insects until the morning dawned which made us realize that we are amidst nature, and goddammit, we should have a stronger sense of acceptance – insects, spiders and what not. So, early morning armed with my camera I managed to ignore some of the butterflies twittering around and took in this view of the mountains. After this, it was a short trek to the top of a mountain (through some really dense forest area) and clicking of some more photographs to make the huffing and puffing seem worthwhile. We also had a dog following us and we were told her name was Ruby. I managed to crack a joke that if this dog fell on the railing, it would be “Ruby on Rails“. No one quite got it and that is one of the dangers of being geeky to the point of being funny. Mrs. DhiOnlyOne was still recovering from the shock that the husband she relied on was himself running away from all the scary sketches made by the forest trees. Probably humour wasn’t on her mind, not quite yet. Anyway, I managed to get back from the trek in one piece and was the first to the breakfast table.

Post breakfast, we had to bid adieu to this lovely place (yep, I slowly started falling in love with the concept called nature and forests) and we set off to see the historical temples of Belur and Halebid. Civilization is always nice. This is the entry to the temple at Belur, along with the majestic flag set up by the people who built this place (who else eh?).

The Halebid temple, located just 15 Kms from Belur, has a lot of carvings eroded or destroyed.

The huge statue of Nandi has been spoilt by many visitors who have scratched and left marks on this work of art. In fact, take a look at this picture where some one appears to have practiced his/her geometry on the nearest canvas available.

Most of the sculptures on the walls of these temples are, simply put, beautiful.

Nature showed us her best while we stayed at the coffee estate. Belur and Halebid’s temples seemed like our entry to the superior creative judge, if present, and showed that creation is not just Nature’s forte. We are now back in good old Bangalore, a lot more refreshed than what we had hoped for! Enjoy, ladies and gentlemen.

Running out of a word supply, I fall back on photos for this blog post.

This time its shots I took of various objects around home.
The two colours that are usually present on almost any religious functions:

Window stoppers:

A Lone Guard:

Closeup of an artifact:

Enjoy.

The weekend gone by saw us on another trip, albeit a shorter one. This time we headed towards the coffee plantations of Coorg. The place is beautiful, as we had anticipated of course. But what struck me is the amount of greenery that this area showcases. I have been to trips and forest treks earlier (no, I am not the trekking kinds, but have landed up in such places by chance) and nothing has come close to the amount of dense vegetation that Coorg has.

Upon reaching our accommodation, we took a walk around the place. There are numerous flowers around which I had never seen before.

The large number of green plants and trees come with their own share of insects, bugs and other small crawlers.

Towards evening the clouds decided to get into a sombre mood and congregated over us. It rained heavily and there was little left for us to do than be cooped up in our rooms and watch the rain drops fall defiantly on the tree leaves and grass blades, bending them in the process before collapsing into puddles of water. The thunder roared in acknowledgment of this task well done.

The rain cleared just as quickly as it had begun, and the darkness was slowly swept away by the never-tiring and all pervasive rays of the sun.

We spent another day in this place before heading back to the highways infested by cars, trucks and other automobiles. However, in a strange way, I am always glad to be back in the city and its accompanying pollutions. Nature and all that is great yeah, but only for a few days for me. I need my daily dose of cacophony, chaos and life.
Have a great day, ladies and gentlemen. The week has begun.