Photo of the day - "Corner"d Idol

A temple in Manali had an idol at the corner which was a bit strange

Photo of the day - Rs 500 will be fine

A writing on a huge rock at the foothill of Skandagiri, near Banaglore

"SMOKING ALKOHAL DRINKS OR PLASTIC ITEMS DO NOT ALLOWED

IF USED RS 500 WILL BE FINE"

( I am glad they didn't write "WAY TO HELL" at the bottom)

Forest dept says "500rs will be fine". Traffic Police says "200rs is fine". Police constable says "anything is fine". How many pockets have we filled like this? How much of this will go to govt. 

First place, why do we break rules? Why do we dirty the places? When I went to Skandagiri for the first time, it looked much cleaner, there was lesser crowd and decent crowd.  The 4th time (and the last time) I had been there the place had completely changed. There were people asking for parking charges; there were people forcing us to take the guides though we knew the route. Most of the way up towards the top of the hill was littered. To add to all this, the top of the hill was like a fish market. Bottles around, bonfires in few places, loud music on the hill and few drunken people screaming and dancing. I believe because such people are there, more exploitation happens.

Though I know these things will never vanish, but still hope that people show some mercy on such places and leave them alone. Hope they get some manners. And finally, hope that we never get to see such a display again :-)

Photo of the day - Roses on Valentines Day

Bed of roses

I have never celebrated it; never knew the meaning to celebrate it only on Feb 14th; Never attempted to know the reason, why this day has been given so much of importance. I am not promoting or demoting valentines day with this post because I am just clueless about the meaning of this day. 

On this day whether love gets its appreciation or not, Roses are surely sold costly :-)

Photo of the day - Kalyani

Kalyani in Bhoganandishwara Temple in Nandi Grama

Photo of the day - Intriguing Reflections

Intriguing Reflections

A pothole displayed such a reflection where I could see the Sun on the left, A tree popping up from the bottom left corner, dark clouds in the sky as an eagle flies high in the sky, and finally a cross kind of a post on the right of the frame. What else can I say, Intriguing Reflections!!

Photo of the day - New Beginning

The fields submerged in the golden light of a beautiful morning

After every dark evening, a new day arrives. A very old saying, still holds true anytime. Bitter experiences and bad times startle the calmness of life. We always have gone through tough times, every one has. Every new tough situation still makes so much of impact. It seems impossible to overcome these problems. The best thing is to look back and realize that you had gone through such situations before and also managed to pull yourself out of it. Every time we cross this hurdle, we are more experienced and possibly be more matured. 

Look forward for a new day, a new beginning and bathe yourselves in the golden light of life.

Photo of the day - Priceless Expressions

A small kid at Dhankar Monastery with chocolates in hand and an intriguing expression on the face

Childhood is something which is the most enjoyable phase of life; no stress; no tension; be happy with what you have; no specific reasons for smiling; no specific reasons for crying. But still we don''t remember whole of our childhood, do we? Only a handful of moments are still in memory.

Photo of the day - Descend

A small Sunbird descends down for a leaf; the morning light spread all over the grass behind

Photo of the day - Hope

Beautiful flower stands out in a cluttered bush

No matter what the current situation is or whatever worst situation comes in, there is something lives in everyone (and it should), called as hope. Whenever I feel or hear about his word called "Hope" one dialogue from the famous "The Shawshank Redemption" movie comes to my mind. 

"Hope is a good thing; may be the Best of things; and no good thing ever dies"

It is so rightly said. It is always a difficult thing to hope for the best when everything around is falling apart. But every individual, whether aware or not, always carries a hope that things will be better, more beautiful or anything that they are hoping for and that drives everyone's life.

Photo of the day - Passion of an artist

An artist, sits in Cubbon park to paint a live scene

Being a photographer, I would have thought what's the point in sitting and painting when I can just click the same scene and move on. But still, the art has it's own place. A photograph and a painting of the same scene, talks two different characters altogether. Artists have great passion and there is so much to learn from them. Sitting in a park where he might get the crowd staring at him, still without being conscious making that painting is such a wonderful job. 

PS: Photographers are also artists when they use the camera in an artistic way. I hope I become one in few years. :-)

Photo of the day - A Pure Bliss

Grey wagtail at the shores of a beautiful lake

Spending idle time sitting along the lake, listening to the recurring sweet music of the small tides in the lake hitting the shores, the trees making sounds because of the breezy winds as the birds also chirp.. a pure bliss.. we keep longing to experience such an atmosphere. The more we experience, the more we are attracted towards it again and again. Man might have invented millions of interesting things but nothing can beat God's creation of beautiful nature.

Read my today's travelogue on a place called Thattekere near Bangalore here: Thattekere Lake - RagihaLLi - Bannerghatta

Photo of the day - The ultimate support

 

A small monkey vehemently looks at the people, while the mother climbs the tree, assuming a threat from the nearing people. 

I don't think anyone would disagree, if I say that mother is the ultimate support for anyone on this earth be it a human being or any living creature. It is something that never breaks or vanishes; something that we all hold on to in our toughest of the times; something that is guaranteed to see us through. 

Just thought I will add this thought too from a friend Sushil (Comment in the same page) :

"I think defining/expressing what mother means to someone is impossible, its something which can be only felt. Priceless."

Photo of the day - "Another busy morning"

Another busy morning

The drive on NICE road, Bangalore early in the morning will be an enjoyable one. With the recent findings of small outing places around Bannerghatta area, there have been regular drives on this road.

Photo of the day - "Priceless"

A small tomato, plucked from a farm in the outskirts of Bangalore

It is strange, isn't it, how small things like this suddenly make their presence and value felt. Recently with the food inflation going high, everyone has been talking about the vegetables and prices. Probably only during this time, most of us realize, what all vegetables mom brings home. The other day in one of the hotels or some other place, I heard a person shouting on someone who dropped a small bag of vegetables."Do you know the price of this?" In a way I feel it is better, once in a while such a thing should happen where everyone starts valuing smallest and cheapest of the things. It can also be a campaign for food saving. ;-) 

Photo of the day - "Come to Me.."

Come to me, and I will give you rest!

Some people say they get peace of mind; some say, they get their wishes fulfilled; some say, they get their problems solved;  few say they can come out of their "insecure feeling" zone; everyone has their own reasons to go to the doors of almighty and pray. It looks terribly strange to the atheists, for sitting and praying and believing in something that doesn't exist.

Do you believe in God? Have you faced a situation where, you felt there was no way out and the only way was to pray? Do miracles happen all by themselves or they are the results of intense prayers? There will be a question bank around this matter but answers can only be mere speculations. End of the day, I believe, it is up to the individuals, and it should be respected by each other.

Photo of the day - Simplicity

No noble thoughts attached with the photo of the day! If you have anything please comment.

Photo of the day - Latest Addiction

Grey Heron sits on a small rock in the Manchinbele reservoir, near Bengaluru

Bird watching and bird photography has been my latest addiction. I have never got up early in the morning to attend the classes during my college days, but there is a very little struggle nowadays getting up early that too on weekends for the most exciting thing of bird watching. I didn't know that there are more than 300 species of birds sighted in and around Bengaluru. I've been exploring a lot of places for birding. It has been going good. 

Watch out bangalorecaptured.com for all the birding places in and around Bengaluru. 

Photo of the day - "The Waiting"

A girl standing at the edge of a water fall seemed like waiting for someone

The hell broke loose; the surrounding turned turbulent; standing on the edge of the death; the wait seemed never ending, for her.

Waiting is always an exciting thing when it comes to waiting for a special occasion; or waiting for your dream job or dream home or some materialistic attraction. Waiting can keep one on the other extreme too. When one waits for something (or someone) that never seems to come back, the waiting puts a lot of anxiety in the person. Knowing the fact that a thing will never get back to you, have you ever waited? How long can a person wait for such a thing? Is there a threshold? Doesn't life take you along and eventually break the connection between you and the wait and set you free?

If you see, we always wait more desperately or eagerly for something which we lost during the course of life than for something which we never owned(but have a wish to own)! If we weigh the importance of something which we desired to have, it is weighed more only before receiving it and/or after losing it.

Photo of the day - "I am not a philosopher"

Today for a change I am posting one of the photographs that my friend Lawrence shot. All the credit for this wonderful photograph should go to him. I personally liked the pic a lot :-)

While I am posting photographs and writing few thoughts around them, few people have started thinking that I have become a philosopher. Nope. I am not a philosopher and I don't deserve to be one. I have just lived a small part of my life so far, so I can think and write only from the perspective of the stage of life I am in right now. I am yet to see more of life, yet to gain a lot experience, yet to learn a lot from others. 

Looking forward for more of life  (Photo Courtesy: Lawrence Mesquita)

I am trying to relate few thoughts with the photographs. The photographs are really not taken with any thoughts associated with them. The thoughts are attached to the photographs after they were clicked. When I looked into my archives, I found the photos are dead without any story associated with them. So I started  putting together the photos and the thoughts. I am also glad to hear that a lot of people have liked the way this blog is going. Thanks people! Your encouragement will keep me clicking more and let the thoughts around them flow.

btw, my friend has given me an image which makes my Travel Blog look perfect now where the title, caption, image and the content, all of them fit together the best. Thanks Lawrence!
(http://prashantattrips.blogspot.com/)

Photo of the day - A Couple on a travel

A couple in Udaipur, City Palace, Rajasthan seemed to be looking through some map

Going places and exploring the world is a pure joy. What is life without the travel? I can't imagine. If you have a companion who shares the same interest then the journey would be even more interesting. Some travelers I met and spoke to during my travel all these days, were very inspiring. I spoke to an elderly woman, who had a wish to step in most of the countries on the earth. She made her dream come true by exploring the South African wildlife; SA being the last country in her list. She said she has carried loads of moments from her traveling experience.

I too have a wish to travel as much as possible. Traveling keeps my life going. I hope it continues this way till the end.

Photo of the day - "Fly High"

 Fly High

Set no restrictions to your dreams or desires; let them fly high; at the same time, make no compulsion that all of them have to come true, else it will follow a huge disappointment. The rule is simple. When you can fly high, there is a risk of falling down too. The way we dream of success, we should be prepared to handle the failure too. I know, it is easier said. We are always taught how to set the goals and how to chase them, how to dream, how to set expectation etc. The history gives us tons of examples of such stories. How many of us were taught how to handle failures? I think knowingly or unknowingly this part is left to the individuals. It is strange to see how different people take failures in different ways. People who thought big but were never prepared for the worst, go to the extremes of ending life. On the other hand there have been many real life inspirations around me, where I saw people were strangled by failures again and again yet they came out fighting every time, and now they have made their life big! If you see, handling failure talks a great deal about an individual's strength than becoming successful.

Photo of the day - "Basic Needs"

A father and his son in a hurry to get one of the basic needs, water, in a village nearby Bengaluru

Fortunately few of us don't have to struggle so much for basic needs but still there are people struggling everyday for water, food and shelter. If we can't go and help them, we can at least help ourselves by saving water and food. 

Recently I saw an arrogant youth, in a railway station, pulled the tap off because it was not working and he wanted water desperately. He didn't have the courtesy to put it back. The gush of water was flowing all over the platform. Is it the education that lacks or common sense? Should we open a school for teaching some common sense too?

Photo of the day - "The Road Ahead"

The Road Ahead

What lies ahead, is always a mystery! We can plan tons of things for our future or "The Road Ahead". However the Life has it's own curves and deviations. There will be no other option than going it's way.

Roll back few years of your life and think about what you wanted to become or how you wanted to see yourself in the current stage of life. Weren't you curious and used to imagine how your future would look like?  I used to. Honestly, today I am not what I wanted to become, but I also don't have any regret for it. May be I have just chosen one way of living a life. Take it as it comes. The other way is to spend half the lifetime planning for future. Both have pros and cons, but I like it when it is like a treasure hunt; adventurous and exciting. :)

Photo of the day - Solitude

At the peak of solitude

Recently when I went for a photoshoot in the outskirts of Bangalore, I came across a lady, who was sitting along side the lake; I thought she must be with her boy friend or there must be some family; but I was wrong. She sat there all alone, not with iPod or mobile phone around her ears. She just appeared to have gone out to enjoy being isolated from the materialistic world.

We all live in a world called as "influencing world". What we have done so far or what we decide to do, most of them, are influenced by various things around us like family, friends, or situation etc. Have you ever thought of what you really want? When was the last time you spent time with yourself? Have you ever enjoyed talking to yourself? 

All through life we give so much time to others but a very little for ourselves. Solitude, sometimes can be rejuvenating for the mind and body. It is not loneliness but a self-imposed disconnect from the society. It will unveil the true self. Be a good company to yourself, and go to the peak of solitude to explore the unexplored.

Photo of the day - A Conqueror

A Conqueror 

Never wait for tomorrow to do the things you have always wanted to do. Now is the time. When you have an opportunity, go and conquer those things. Few of the things which always hold us back in pursuing our passions are money, responsibilities, and relationships etc. Deep down the heart if you think about it, none of these are going to get affected but we will still hold ourselves back. One of the quotes from Hitch has always inspired me - "Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away"

I have had plenty of such moments that took my breath away. On the adventure front, there were quite a few. When I did parasailing for the first time; when I did a rafting in the river Ganges when it was flowing wild; when I jumped off from a good amount of height into the river Ganges; When we finally reached Gomukh after 18kms trek; when I found a Leopard walking just about 30-40 meters away from me when we were walking in the jungle; the list goes on. One of the several things that are in my list is to do a bungee jumping off Bloukrans Bridge in South Africa, the world's third highest bungee jump. What is in your list??