Off beaten track

Mumbai, a city that actually never sleeps. It is constantly humming with the hectic economic activity that goes on almost without let up, everyone is earning a living. Every inch of the pavement is a market, suburban trains, big shops and small shops, houses in tiny lanes, people working all day and then again all night; all this and more constitute the hive that is Mumbai. Despite the swirling activity, people are kind, considerate and allowing,  they have time for you. In this maelstrom, there are tiny eddies of calm and solitude and privacy. in a three night photography workshop I gained a tiny peep into a small part of the hard lives of these lovely people.    The Beatles immortalise this in their eponymous song which says it all. "It's been a hard day's night, and I'd been working like a dog It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log" Lady Selling Fish Mumbai is a city of commerce, big business houses and street retail, all busily h...

South Africa is a multi-hued country, colourful in every sense of the word, it is beautiful everywhere and in all seasons, but my favourite is spring in the Cape. Flowers bursting in a riot of colour with dainty birds sipping nectar. These pictures are a glimpse of the views that you have to look for. The protea The king protea is the national flower of South Africa and at this time of the year it is blooming everywhere, huge and colourful.  There are many varieties of protea, some so different in shape and size, however all are colourful and pretty. Flowers Flowers Everywhere Nothing strikes you so much as the profusion of flowers and nowhere more than at the West Coast National Park. A part of this park, Postberg, is open for two months only, August - September during which it is a breathtaking palette of colour.  We went on the last few days and only the yellow remained, but  literally  in  carpets.  Waves lash the shore The WCN...

Hogenakkal Falls About180 km from Bangalore, the falls are a attractive tourist draw. Though the falls are not spectacular in themselves,  they have spawned an entire tourist industry around.  Of course as we are always wont to believe, the waters are holy, hence a dip in the falls is mandatory to cleanse one of accumulated sin.  Though a sceptic like me prefers sin to disease that the garbage in the water is likely to spread. The waters of the Cauvery, flow through two sets of falls here, a smaller one close to the touristy places and this gorge a little way in. The Upper Falls These falls are closer to Hogenakkal, here there is a complete tourist/religious township. The railing on the right is where religious are to wash off their sins.  Are those sins I see festooned on the railings? The Coracle This is the main form of water transport here.  A frame of split bamboo/cane covered by blue plastic and coated in black tar. Steered by a single oar i...

This is my second visit to the land of my forefathers, I was first posted there in 1990 as a Major of the Indian Army on deputation to the UN.  At that time Iran had just emerged from an eight year war with Iraq and the strict rigours of the revolution were in force. Twenty six years later I visited a very different Iran, beautiful, weary from years of sanctions yet keenly progressive.  This photoblog is not a chronicle of my trip nor is it a travelogue. It is not a compendium of tourist sites and their photos, there millions on the net.  Here I have tried to impart some flavour of what I saw and felt. Leaving 'Bombay' With 'Madras' further south.   The place names haven't changed in the map display.  Many years of sanctions and isolation have left their mark on many aspects  of Iran,  the aircraft, hotels, cars, all require substantial modernisation. Urban sprawl Tehran is a large city, about 16 million people live in 700 sq km. The size of the sprawl...