Sometimes one cant help lazy Sunday mornings slipping into exciting afternoons, what with a hyperactive husband and with his sudden penchant ( substituted with obsession sometimes ) for wildlife fotography !!! With the thought of Ranganthittu and migratory birds just cropping up in his mind over morning tea, myself and my MIL were made to down our teas n biscuits, skip bath n breakfast and pack up n get geared for the foto camp. A quick reference in the net about storks n cormorants n egrets induced enough curiosity in me to greet them face to face n hence not complain about the rigour of last minute packing n travel. Geared with cameras n lenses n books on birds n other paraphernalia , the trio felt confident enough about the day ahead.A filling breakfast at kamath n a reasonable buy from a pottery shop nearby , found us women all the more energized for the trip.
The pleasant weather , the sweet smell of earth with the slight drizzle , the cool breeze on the face, all this accompanied by the assortment of Elvis Presely n Elton John was quite exhilarating. To top it all our Zen was zooming at 90kmph …I always wait for the light vehicle to take off at such speeds…atleast there should be some levitation of sortsJ.At one point , to beat the strong yearning for a siesta , I started a random discussion on DSLRs and how baffling and confusing they can be after appreciating the simplicity of a point n shoot camera n blah n blah, and to make the conversation sound important , read out an instruction from the manual on why one shouldn’t try looking at the sun through the lens which might actually burn the lens and result in loss of vision. Prateek didn’t bat an eyelid before quipping “ It is still fine to lose vision but the lens can take quite a toll on your wallet” ….errrr…so much for sympathetic husbands!!!...
One more leg of uneventful driving and then a dearie truck kissed our dearie zen and my dearie hubby got into a heated discussion with the locals , while I just sat through the cacophonous spate of Hindi n Kannada ! With a grim face (cos of the dented boot!) and a few more arguments and justifications , we reached Ranganathittu.Well, one should acknowledge that , it indeed is a pleasant destination for the city-dwellers after the drabness of just crows and sparrows . Our elaborate accouterments , widended a few pupils in the crowd and also threw a few questions towards us , on whether Prateek was an ornithologist. One has to have borne the brunt of being the wife or girlfriend of an hobbyist experimenting with cameras n lenses to chuckle at such loaded questions!!
A boatride around all the islets gave us enough time and proximity to capture all that we wanted.Storks and egrets and cormoratns all over the place!!!..So many of them…It helped us come up with some brilliant pictures.A perfectly timed rain gave us enough time and some sweet milky tea , enough energy to get into the car and head towards a brightly lit Brindavan gardens.
In all it was a great trip, but for a few close shaves on the way back too!!
The pleasant weather , the sweet smell of earth with the slight drizzle , the cool breeze on the face, all this accompanied by the assortment of Elvis Presely n Elton John was quite exhilarating. To top it all our Zen was zooming at 90kmph …I always wait for the light vehicle to take off at such speeds…atleast there should be some levitation of sortsJ.At one point , to beat the strong yearning for a siesta , I started a random discussion on DSLRs and how baffling and confusing they can be after appreciating the simplicity of a point n shoot camera n blah n blah, and to make the conversation sound important , read out an instruction from the manual on why one shouldn’t try looking at the sun through the lens which might actually burn the lens and result in loss of vision. Prateek didn’t bat an eyelid before quipping “ It is still fine to lose vision but the lens can take quite a toll on your wallet” ….errrr…so much for sympathetic husbands!!!...
One more leg of uneventful driving and then a dearie truck kissed our dearie zen and my dearie hubby got into a heated discussion with the locals , while I just sat through the cacophonous spate of Hindi n Kannada ! With a grim face (cos of the dented boot!) and a few more arguments and justifications , we reached Ranganathittu.Well, one should acknowledge that , it indeed is a pleasant destination for the city-dwellers after the drabness of just crows and sparrows . Our elaborate accouterments , widended a few pupils in the crowd and also threw a few questions towards us , on whether Prateek was an ornithologist. One has to have borne the brunt of being the wife or girlfriend of an hobbyist experimenting with cameras n lenses to chuckle at such loaded questions!!
A boatride around all the islets gave us enough time and proximity to capture all that we wanted.Storks and egrets and cormoratns all over the place!!!..So many of them…It helped us come up with some brilliant pictures.A perfectly timed rain gave us enough time and some sweet milky tea , enough energy to get into the car and head towards a brightly lit Brindavan gardens.
In all it was a great trip, but for a few close shaves on the way back too!!
