Fancy Walking Sticks

Pushkar Fair - Fancy Walking Sticks

Pushkar Fair an annual happening just after Deepawali where pilgrims come to visit the Brahma Temple and take a holy dip in the pond. This is not limited to the holy mission of pilgrims to seek blessings of the deity of Brahma ji.

The best that digital photography with affordable cameras has given is that it has expanded photography to all genders and age  groups giving us to enjoy beautiful visuals in abundance

It attracts animal trading basically camels and horses. The large open sandy ground becomes a camp for these traders of animals. They live in the camp in the most simple way using their camel carts and even the under side of the cart is used to sleep. It gets very cold during sun down since it is a desert.

One of the best fully geared photographer at the Pushkar Fair 2012

It has attracted photographers since many years. The use od digital cameras have increased the foot fall of die hard passionate photographers and the casual hobby shooters of all ages. Today one can see a wide assortment of the finest cameras and lenses. The clothing is also utmost bizarre that help keep one from sunburn and dust. The many over loaded photographers made me do a side story on Photographing the Photographers that is available as a story. On going through the listed stories I have found 2 stories with the same title. One I shot at the Taj Mahal in Agra and the second the most recent one at Pushkar.

Earthen pots buried in the sand and the area is watered to keep the sand soaked to help chill the cold drinks and mineral water bottle to beat the heat of the mid day desert sun.

There were a few things happening on the side of the Pushkar Fair. Innovative method of serving cool soft drinks and mineral water bottles. Kulfi / Ice cream before the advent of refrigerators was also frozen in a similar fashion. 

The wonderful roof of Hotel Aroma that gave a strategic point to shoot activity on the main street of Pushkar

I had stayed at a small but strategically located hotel by the name, Aroma Hotel. In Rajasthan the general trend is to build small rooms perhaps of the use of stone slabs that have a certain length. This hotel also had small rooms but it was in a very prime location. Two minutes on either side of the door one was in midst of all the action. They had a tin shed covered roof/balcony where photographers looked down on the busy street shooting people with long tele/tele-zoom lenses.

Camels were decorated by shearing and coloring various parts of the body. Though a picture for another story to be written with images in the future by me.

Fancy decorated walking sticks that captured my interest to walk in the shop cum workshop 

Any way I do require a break before some thing to monotonous. While moving to the traders and animals arena I passed some stalls that had very colorful sticks, walking sticks displayed for sale. The make shift stalls are quite a normal feature during the fairs held in India. There was always action within the tent any time of the hour I passed by be it the hours of the day or the evening. In each of these stalls was a burner placed quite in the center of the working area of the tent space. The burner was being used to heat up the bamboos to make them straight. Perhaps this burning also helped to hold the pins being used for decoration. Some times one needs a break from shooting the similar subjects from start of the day till evening.        

The artisans keep busy creating their stock for sale to meet the rush when pilgrims come in to the town. The photograph was taken at night time.

The young boy is busy doing the chore given to him by the elders of the family

So I made my move to walk in one of the tents to gather some information and obviously to shoot some pictures of the sequence of their beautifully crafted sticks. I chatted for a while and then requested permission to take some pictures as they worked and of their finished product. They were very obliging. These families of craftsmen come and live during the ten day fair period. Initially I had a feeling that these people could be from some part of Rajasthan. To my surprise these artisans come all the way from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh every year to participate in this Pushkar Fair. I have been to Ujjain for a day trip but I think I missed seeing such crafted sticks there in the market.

The green rubber fuel supply line to the stove from one of the kerosene containers kept at a distance for safety.

All make shift arrangements with out any fancy setups or technology.

One of the members making a spindle from a wire length holding it with his feet.

The wire spindle is hung at a distance (seen near the tent wall between standing bamboo stock 

Each member is a contributor in one way or the other in making of the decorative sticks.

Simple setup of a working area

The wire being rolled on to the stick

The wire being rolled over the stick

The wire being rolled over the stick

The wire being rolled over the stick with so much precision

A longer view of the display and working area. Behind the stock in the back is the residential private area for cooking and living. Though the working area is also used to retire for the night after covering up the opening with canvas/curtain to secure their stock.

A view of finished and raw stock

Yes it gets cold in the Thar Desert at night. The small ones busy lighting up a small fire. It is more fun away from home in such a fair and believe the kids enjoy the change.

The young beautiful lady of the family seemed to have managed the kitchen and other requirements of the family. When I photographed her she looked around shyly from the sides of her eyes if any one saw her being photographed. The others sitting on the ground were too busy with their work. She loved getting the attention of the camera focussed on her.

All members of the family work together taking care of doing one or other aspect from start to finish of crafting of the decorative stick. The tent in itself was working cum residence for them. The frontage had a display of various kind of finished decorative sticks including base ball bats. One side had raw stock of bamboo lengths. The near center had a stove where these bamboos were heated. On either side sat an artisan who worked to give beauty to the bamboos. The back wall covered the residential area where there could be a make shift kitchen. I avoided going there to maintain their privacy.

Assorted sticks, baseball bats displayed for sale.

These are some photographs to give visuals to my story of the fancy sticks.

Nostalgic trip to Mussoorie

A Boarders' Nostalgic Trip to Mussoorie

The last trip to Mussoorie was great as we were able to take a guided tour of the building that housed our school. This trip was made possible as Ajit Jatania was going through a Chaar Dham Teerth Yatra (Holy pilgrimage) and had planned to skip one step of the tour. Tarjeet made it along with his wife Kanwal from Bangkok. Well she was also a student of Shishu Niketan before migrating to Waverley Convent  School (pure girls school). On 11.05.2012 from Delhi Jaspal along with his wife and daughter, Jagmohan came alone as his wife has some knee problems, while I was accompanied by my wife. I had hired a cab while Jaspal drove his own vehicle. Jagmohan was with us but he returned an evening earlier than us by train to attend office.

There was not much to do except walk around the town. On 12.05.2012 we went up the Gun Hill in a cable car. It was shocking to see the place raped like hell by such unplanned shopping sheds around the flat area shutting down all the beautiful view one could see for one the highest points that looks down towards Dehradun and other side of the mountain range where one could see snow clad mountain range on a clear day. Any way the day was not clear as it should have been. Spent some time and came down when there was some thunder with possible shower, though it did not take place.

Me and my wife Alini wanted to buy some toys for our little angels (grand children) and walked towards Kulri side. There is a Cambridge Book Depot where the author Mr. Ruskin Bond the famous Mussoorie resident sits on some particular days giving autographs on his books. There are people who interact with him. Saw a lady discussing a manuscript of her children's book with him, that she left with him to read later at leisure. There was another who, later on came to know was a film maker and was planning some film on Mr. Ruskin Bond.

I had been out to a hill station, Mussoorie in Uttarakhand, India with ex-students of a school based there. This school no longer exists there fore the nostalgia is great and we are never tired of visiting Mussoorie.

One had come from Nairobi, another from Bangkok, 3 of us from Delhi while one has been running a hotel by name and style Raj Deluxe Hotel. It is our natural choice for stay.

The rest of the friends had gone visiting the grand daughter of our bangkok friend. I really did not want to go as I wanted to meet a local photographer who has been an active trekker. Exchanging notes amongst photographers I am sure is very common around the globe.

We were engrossed in exchanging notes when one of his friends shouted for him to get the camera out while pointing at the sky right above us. Wow it was a magnificent sight here to never ever seen by me and most of the folks in the city where we stood. I was carrying my camera and took 7 frames at different exposures. I tried to get under as best as possible. It was tough as well looking directly at the Sun through the view finder. I may have captured more frames but I called up my friends to get out the cars and look up towards the Sun before the rainbow vanished. All the 7 frames I am sharing in here.

This lasted for a few minutes and I feel lucky to have captured this unique (at least for me) phenomenon.

Please note this is not a lens flare, as some photographer thought it to be

Taken using Canon 5D Mark II - Lens 24-105 mm f-4 on 13-05-2012 roughly at 12:30 Noon time

Photographing the photographers

Photographing the photographers at Pushkar Fair 

So many things kept me away from blogging and I have quite a backlog to cover up. There was this trip to Ladhak last year, then there was a tracking to the Kumaon area in Uttara Khund, India plus a tit bits here and there  that needed to be here. I need to catch up fast, hopefully I can do it.

I have just returned from one of the very famous fairs of Rajasthan, India. The Pushkar Fair is a one of those fairs that attracts hordes of photographers to it. Being there in person I do feel there would be a time when it would be a one to one ratio of photographers with cattle traders this includes amateurs, passionate and commercial photographers not forgetting the mobile phone shoots. There were the very young ones and the very young ones on the other side of the age to the young ones.

So many nationalities are found to be there in one spot of a ten days fair. Well some arrive early to catch the folks bringing their cattle, setting up their camps in the open massive desert ground. The traders come to sell camels, horses and donkeys but prominently camels and horses. It is lively through out the fair period.

This was my second visit to this fair. The last visit was quite many years back. I reached when the traders were leaving with their animals. I really have a very bad sense of direction. The evening we reached I saw lots of camels herd moving pretty fast. I thought they were reaching the fair grounds, to my disappointment  in the morning I got to know they had left the venue. The camp area was nearly empty.

This time around I was a little alert with some of my problems reduced I planned to reach in the early days when the traders come with their animals to sell. FaceBook has been quite a source of information as so many photographers have made it a business to organise photography groups taking them to so many places of interest. So many workshops are taking place as well. The affordability of digital cameras in so many models has increased the number of photographers all over the world. Let us not give a miss to the mobile phone cameras that are extensively used by many. Accounting them in the number of photographers surely they would be quite close to the ratio mentioned earlier with the traders.

One of the photographers,Mr. Jasminder Oberoi, I had been having an interaction only in FaceBook was traveling by bus to Ajmer then from there Pushkar about 10 kilometers by taxi. So I had my ticket booked in the same bus run by the Rajasthan Government. He was also doing a conducted photography trip though his under studies were reaching Pushkar from different cities. Another group he would have come in on the 24th of November 2012. He had booked his accommodation quite a distance away from the camp grounds. I was lucky to have got my accommodation just 3 minutes from the main action area. The Aroma Hotel was good enough for the stay. The owner was very friendly and helpful. I had my stay planned till the 24th but due to an urgent meeting I had to cut short my visit and spent only 3 days and 2 nights. In the hind sight I feel it was enough, but in a photographers life nothing is enough where photo opportunities are multiple.

Still one feels getting stale where one needs to get away for a short break to restart shooting. Of the ten days the last four to five days lots of pilgrims come for the holy bath in the pond where the Brahma temple is situated. It is only one of its kind temple in India, though our temple in Garhganga is another that has a Brahma Temple. Do not why but temples dedicated to Brahma are not there as we find of other deities.

It was great to have met Sanjay Narain an old photographer friend in the morning while I was returning to my hotel room after a failed search of a sports wirst band for my strained wrist. A full day we spent together shooting plus early morning hours of the next.

Well next day evening came across another photographer Mr. Dalip from FaceBook. It was nice to have had their company.

There was so much of photography equipment that I have never seen in my life being in action. It was pretty interesting so I started photographing the photographers in between looking up my images. All these are grab shots that I like to share in this blog. I am sure many would be interested to visit this fair next year.

Photographing the little boy who was very shy
and the parents tried to make him come out to be photographed

Photographing the little boy who was very shy
and the parents tried to make him come out to be photographed

Reflections in water

Reflections in water

Reflections in water

Reflections in water

Lots of sand makes it tough to walk

On the look out for a frame

There were many who wanted a photo taken
the they would demand money

There were many who wanted a photo taken
the they would demand money

Where to go and shoot was always a question disturbing the lensmen

Cashing on the strategic view point

Cashing on the strategic view point

A group of a conducted photography tour

A group of a conducted photography tour

A group of a conducted photography tour

One does require a few bodies with different lenses to avoid changing lenses

Today it looks odd to me carrying so much of gear,
but did the same when I was young

He is fully geared up for dust and heat

He is fully geared up for dust and heat

After many announcements could the organisers
get the photographers off the main center of action

Lovely and beautiful couple who enjoyed the action from a height

After many announcements could the organisers
get the photographers off the main center of action

After many announcements could the organisers
get the photographers off the main center of action

After many announcements could the organisers
get the photographers off the main center of action

After many announcements could the organisers
get the photographers off the main center of action

After many announcements could the organisers
get the photographers off the main center of action

A young lady in action capturing the beautiful fleeting moments

After many announcements could the organisers
get the photographers off the main center of action

After many announcements could the organisers
get the photographers off the main center of action

Something not clear, it seems

She was being photographed, just got two guys framing her

He was doing video and was guiding what and how these guys were to act

He was doing video and was guiding what and how these guys were to act

He was doing video and was guiding what and how these guys were to act

He was doing video and was guiding what and how these guys were to act

He was doing video and was guiding what and how these guys were to act

He was doing video and was guiding what and how these guys were to act

Some video guy on a trolley

Enjoying a comfortable drive around the camp area

Compact gear 

One young boy came over dressed and made up as Shiva

One young boy came over dressed and made up as Shiva

One young boy came over dressed and made up as Shiva

One young boy came over dressed and made up as Shiva

One young boy came over dressed and made up as Shiva

One young boy came over dressed and made up as Shiva

One young boy came over dressed and made up as Shiva

What caught my eye was the way this gentleman sat/lay in the camel cart
with the same pose and expression.
I shoot single frame and there was enough time that lapsed but he remained in the same pose.

What caught my eye was the way this gentleman sat/lay in the camel cart
with the same pose and expression.
I shoot single frame and there was enough time that lapsed but he remained in the same pose.

What caught my eye was the way this gentleman sat/lay in the camel cart
with the same pose and expression.
I shoot single frame and there was enough time that lapsed but he remained in the same pose.

What caught my eye was the way this gentleman sat/lay in the camel cart
with the same pose and expression.
I shoot single frame and there was enough time that lapsed but he remained in the same pose.

Colorful

Posed captures

He noticed me shooting them shoot the man with camel

Photography no more a men's domain

Photography no more a men's domain

Like on a wild life shoot

Like on a wild life shoot

Like on a wild life shoot The guy following the cart played music, it was really great view

Like on a wild life shoot

Like on a wild life shoot

Like on a wild life shoot

Every photographer seemed busy previewing their shots. The suspense of the film era is gone.

Every photographer seemed busy previewing their shots. The suspense of the film era is gone.

Every photographer seemed busy previewing their shots. The suspense of the film era is gone.

Every photographer seemed busy previewing their shots. The suspense of the film era is gone.

Hungry eyes for images