Photo of the Day

Hyderabad Blues

Silhouette against evening sky in Hyderabad. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens. Quite a few JPEG/conversion artifacts, unfortunately.

PM Team Outing in Leonia

Photographs from WinSE IDC PM team outing in Leonia on May 29th 2009. It turned out to be a fun filled day with lots of games, general chit-chat and good food.

Leonia Location

Map courtesy Leonia

All photographs below were taken with the Canon EOS 400D with either the Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 or the Canon EF-S 18-85 mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens.

Jimson, my co-photographer for the event

Mujtaba, our guest of honor from Redmond

RajK, the "Taboo" guy

Srini looks happy

Adieu, Vinay

Chilling out by the pool side

Dhruv had enough energy to splash around in the pool after cycling 50 KM to Leonia!

He's obviously a champion swimmer ...

I'm lovin it!

That's my relaxed from the Spa look

Time for some water sports

You can pry it out of my cold, dead fingers!

A perfect pass

Come to papa!

The cold coffee was truly yummy, or is that an ice cream float?

Anoop in a pensive mood

The PM team, all rejuvenated

Sravanabelagola, Belur Trip with JCD

We went on a team outing to Sravanabelagola, Belur & Halebid on 5th Feb 2009 with Jean-Claude Ducrocq, the intent of the trip was to showcase some of the rich cultural heritages of Karnataka to JCD. Making him walk bare-foot over hot rocks was quite unintentional and had nothing what so ever to do with the outcome of the proposed sale of GGE.

At the end of the steep climb (500 steps) up to Sravanabelagola

Statue of Gomateswara, 50ft high and carved off a single block of granite

Details of the intricate stone work at Belur

Standing L to R: Ambresh, Gangji, Jean-Claude, Sendhil, Pradeep, Venkat

View of the temple gopura from within

The GGE SolDel BSP-MM team with JCD. L to R: Sendhil, Benson, Pradeep, Gangji, Vipul, Ambresh, Venkat, JCD (holding the wood carving we had gifted him) & me. The only team member missing is Naveen, who was elsewhere making history of his own.

Photo of the Day

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM at 85mm. Exposure of 1/60s @ F5.6, ISO 400.

Happy New Year!

Murals on Wall

Shot in Tende, France with Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM.

Photo of the Day

Sunset at Shanghumugham beach, Kerala

Photo of the Day

Returning fishermen in Kumarakom

Photo of the Day

Patterns in the water

A water strider and its shadow taken during Kemmangundi trek with Canon EOS 400D and Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. Exposure of 1/160s @ F/7.1 with ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens at 85mm. Exposure of 1/500s @ F/13, ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Friendly neighborhood spider

Shot during Kemmangundi trek near a stream. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens.

Photo of the Day

Springside ferns

Trekking in Western Ghats is mostly through grasslands, but occasionally one has to cross verdant forest patches that spring up around small water bodies. There are lush with life - plant and animal.

Trek Report: Mullayangiri, Kemmangundi & Baba Budangiri

Photographs from a trek in Baba Budan hill range covering Mullayangiri, Baba Budangiri andother peaks close to Kemmangundi on 8th and 9th November, 2008. Kemmangundi is around 260 KM from Bangalore in Chikmangalore district of Karnataka and was the summer retreat of Krishnaraje Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore. The trek was led by Deepak & Prasanna, it was so amazing to see them trek casually through the rough terrain in slippers/flip-flops!

Mullayangiri is the tallest peak in Karnataka at over 6000 ft in height. We trekked in Mullayangiri & Baba Budangiri ranges on Saturday and Kemmangundi on Sunday. There are caves a little way down from the top of Mullayangiri, we also spent some time exploring them. Inside the caves it was narrow & damp, we had to bend and crawl through to cross several sections.

At night we stayed near Baba Budan's shrine, a cave considered holy by both Hindus and Muslims.

Water points are not plentiful along the way, typically small streams run through the forested regions along the way. Deepak was our guide and he was well aware of the water points having done the route multiple times.

We planned on trekking to Kalathi Falls also on Sunday, however dropped the plan when we realized that we were running behind schedule.

Majority of the trek route is composed of grasslands

Think forest patches dot the grasslands

Lush vegetation can be found within the forests around the springs

The trail with people ascending. In some sections the trail is well marked, in other sections it is not. So it is always preferable to take a guide along who knows the route well.

A ruined structure atop one of the peaks

All photographs with Canon EOS 400D and Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. I will be uploading a few more photographs from the trek as individual posts over the next few weeks.