On the way to Lavasa - PramsPhotography #145

#2017 @Enroute to Lavasa, Maharashtra, India

The above pictures were clicked while on the way to Lavasa lake city near Pune. It was during summer we visited that place. The lake that can be seen in the above pictures is otherwise full of water, in rainy and winter seasons. Since it was during summer that this picture was taken, there was very low water level and hence the landscape of the dam's reservoir can be clearly seen. Its unbelievable how the entire place is covered by water during the rainy season. 

The flower garden - PramsPhotography #144

#2016 @The Enchanted Gardens, Pune, India

Maintaining a nursery is a skill. One must know how each variety of plant needs to be nourished. We had been to a nursery, a really big one, near Pune named The Enchanted Gardens. It has beautiful flower plantations as well as many other varieties of plants. It looks pretty awesome with all the plants uncovered and the best part is one can click any number of photos there! For a photography enthusiast like me, this place is a must-go. 

Srisailam dam and the ghat - PramsPhotography #143

#2017 @Srisailam dam, Nallamala Forest, Andhra Pradesh, India

Dams are important constructions as far as farming and electrification are concerned. One of the beautiful dams located in the southern India is Srisailam dam, built on river Krishna. The dam can be reached through the Srisailam ghat road, located amidst the Nallamala forest. Reaching the dam by the ghat road is as thrilling as seeing the dam itself. Its best to visit the dam during rainy season and when the gates are lifted, at least 5 of them. The milk-like water flow mesmerizes the visitors. Hoping to click that scene one day! 

Movie: Mahanati

Director: Nag Ashwin

There is something that must be said about this film before talking about the performances, direction, cinematography, back ground score etc. While all the departments of the film have excelled in their own way, the conviction with which this film has been made is the highlight of all. Its not just that the crew have talked about their conviction at multiple occasions, while watching the movie it truly and fully can be perceived. The story of 'Savithri' itself is inspiring and the way this film has been made is yet another inspiring story in itself, which will be remembered as long as Savithri garu is remembered. Hats off to the entire cast and crew. 

First and fore most, the direction department has excelled in a big way. Its difficult to believe the fact that this is Nag Ashwin's second film! Dulqar Salman and his own dubbing have suited the most for the film. Appreciable performance by him. Samantha and Vijay Devarakonda must be appreciated for the roles they have accepted and played. Krish, Prakash Raj, Rajendra Prasad, Bhanu Priya, Mohan Babu, and everyone who has played either a small or a big role will be proud about taking part about this film. I take pride in writing about this film and I can understand the pride that's felt by every person who has taken part in the movie, including the supporting staff. 

'Mahanati' is not any other role which can be played by anyone! Its understandably not very easy to play the role of Savithri garu. Not just for the roles she has commendably played but also for all the emotions she underwent in her relatively short life span. Writing the script and dialogues for this movie is a challenge and the next and an equally challenging is to perform the title role. Kirthi Suresh has done an admirably fantastic job as 'Mahanati'. The way she has portrayed the lead role, not just by imitating Savithri garu but by acting in the spirit of the character, is going to stay in the memories of audience as long as Telugu cinema exists. Its a heart-winning performance; awards may or may not follow! 

A must watch movie for every film-fan, not just for Telugu or Tamil people. History rarely repeats in its true sense. This movie's cast and crew have succeeded in repeating as well as creating history for the contemporary generation as well as for the generations to come! 

The best way to keep any secret is by not knowing it

Women and secrets do not gel well, for long time. That's said and seen many times. Being a woman, I agree to it too. There is a typical tendency, in women especially, to share secrets with someone. If the secret is about self, it is shared with chosen people. And if the secret is about someone else, that as well is shared with chosen people, but this time round the number of choices is more than that of the first case. This cannot be generalized though. There are women who are best in keeping secrets. I consider myself as one of such women, to the best of my knowledge of the secret-keeping behavior that I know of myself.

What makes someone best in keeping secrets?

The answer is simple to say yet hard to follow. Its the commitment. The commitment one have towards either the person of whom the secret is, or of the situation the secret of oneself belongs to. When someone confides in, there is a high probability that he or she believes in the person confided into. A belief that the 'secret' won't be revealed to a third person. Keeping secrets is the matter of respecting that very belief. Its a game in which one must choose to stick to the matters and keep the secret to self, at least as long as its not publicly known. People with high commitment towards the person confided in are most likely the best secret-keepers. They stand by the belief with which they have been told what's told. 

How one can be such committed?

Its not difficult. At the same time, its not easy either. It takes a lot of integration at personal level to keep secrets. What's told to us is told with a certain understanding and we must simply keep ourselves up all the times to maintain the same. Moreover, its none of our business to keep talking about someone else's secrets, especially when we know that the other person would like to keep it to less audience. Also, I feel its matter of time and holding up for a little while. There are weak moments when we tend to share secrets with others, generally people who are close to us, and might not be close to the ones to whom the secret belongs to. If we can hold up for a little while during that moment and talk of some other topic, its easily forgotten and the tendency to share is gone for sometime. Instead of that, if we hang on to the temptation and continue the talk, in no time we end up speaking out about the secret that we know of others. 

At times I feel, the best way to keep any secret is by not knowing it. While this is not possible in case of the secrets related to ourselves, at least this holds true when we apply this to the secrets related to others. I agree that we cannot always avoid knowing secrets. Our personal integrity must pitch in at many moments to maintain the secrecy. However, the secrets that we often 'pull' from others can be stopped at least and we can stay away from them being known to us.  This holds true more for women and less for men, arguably because women tend to know about others more as they are generally willing to maintain relationships, and men tend not to know much about others as for them, maintaining relationships on emotional terms, not in professional terms, is of less interest.

Its always better to keep the secrets when we know them and its further good not to know them, if we feel that we are not the best secret keepers.

Movie: Bharat Ane Nenu - An ideation workshop?

Director: Koratala Siva

Trailer was not released for this film. Except few dialogues, the CM's oath and the songs, nothing much about the film had been revealed before its release. However, it was well communicated that the film would be a political drama. A young and handsome chief minister of the combined Andhra Pradesh state was said to be the protagonist. Posters revealed the protagonist's looks and no doubt they were extraordinarily stylish. 

Movie starts on a slow narration and I waited really long to see the narration picking up the pace; rather, there was no much pace as expected. Mahesh Babu's dialogue delivery has become so monotonous that I didn't expect much before watching the film and it proved to be for my good. I watched the movie months later to its release so I had read many reviewed of the viewers, my friends, film critics etc. Everyone boasted the film and the direction. I could barely appreciate either the narration or the story line. It felt as if I attended an ideation-workshop! Only ideas were touched upon and no scenes of their efficient execution had been framed in the entire film. 

One may say that the movie need not be in all practical angles and that we must watch a movie like a movie. That's a right point. After all, its a movie and a fictional story. Nonetheless, because its said to be a political drama, there must have been few things that audience could connect to. Few scenes must have been addressed the reality of political careers of politicians. Political dramas based movie plots must run, for at least few pieces of the story, closer to the lives of people and the politicians. This angle is entirely missing in the movie. Not sure how this became such a big hit, as they say. Well, the times have gone when a movie's fate is decided based on the audience pulse. It's all about the collections now, which means figures, which can be arrived at or manipulated in many ways. Hope people genuinely liked this movie and there was no manipulation required! 

The windmills - PramsPhotography #142

#2016 #2017 From train, somewhere in Andhra Pradesh, India

The first picture is of cooling towers of a factory that we passed by. The rest of the pictures are of windmills which we passed by train in somewhere in Andhra Pradesh, India. I felt a deep desire to go near by the windmills and click but the moving train didn't allow me to do so. A few months later, I fulfilled this wish when we visited Satara on a trip. 

Sajjanghad and Thoseghar falls - PramsPhotography #141

@2017 #Thoseghar falls #Sajjanghad, Satara, Maharashtra, India

While the last picture shows the famously known Thoseghar water fall, the landscapes are clicked from the back side of the Sajjanghad fort, in Satara district, Maharashtra. There was unexpectedly great view from the back side of the fort, which we were least aware of and as we walked through the fort we got there. The windmill is from the near by windmill farm and this is the closest picture of a windmill I ever clicked; a wish of a life-time as it used to be felt deeply within! The windmills look so small from a distance but they are huge as we get to see them close by; really huge. 

The Vajrai Waterfall - PramsPhotography #140

#2017 @Vajrai fall, Satara, Maharashtra, India

The Vajrai waterfall near Kass Plateau in Satara district, Maharashtra. To view this water fall in this particular view, we almost did an adventure. A lady from a near by village took around 50 rs per person and took us through a small-trek, not up the mountain but down. It felt very hard and risky while going but after getting to see the fall, we felt it was worth risking. 

The picture from the USA - PramsPhotography #139

#2016 @Seattle - Redmond, USA

These are some of the pictures from my trip to the USA. We visited Seattle and Redmond in December 2016. My liking towards check has lead me to click the beautiful chess board displayed for sale in a shop. Then the birds on a roadside, freely moving and searching for food probably. The next click is through the front wind shied of the car. The picture is of hanging bridge, which I was told would adjust its height based on the water flow. We could of course glance it once but couldn't see it in more waters! 

Around Aurangabad - PramsPhotography #138

#2017 around @Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India

The first picture was clicked at the Ajanta caves. That was a beautiful while flower just drenched in a drizzle. The next picture, the camel, was clicked on the way to Aurangabad from Ellora caves. The last one is the view of the Daulatabad fort from a near by ghat way. This is the scene that inspired us to trek up the fort and view things from there! One such view is captured in the last picture; the train passing through the fields; this one was clicked from the top of the fort. 

View from the Tikona fort - PramsPhotography #137

#2017 @Tikona Fort, Maharashtra, India

When we trekked the Tikona fort, it was cloudy and rainy. Throughout the trek, it was raining and when we reached the top, suddenly climate was calm, windy. The scenery that we saw from the fort was amazing. The clicks above are from the fort up there. Since the clouds fell apart, there was a gap created and the shadow of the same got reflected in the Pawana lake, as can be seen in the top three pictures. We cloud see the shadow in lake moving time to time, as the clouds moved around. The picture with flowers, tractor and the water falls are clicked while we were on the way to the fort. 

Drive through the Golden Valley - PramsPhotography #136

#2017 Golden Valley, enroute to Tamini Ghat, Maharashtra, India

We had driven through the Golden Valley in two seasons. Once in summer and another time in winter. The landscapes are such exhilarating to drive through and to click from car. Some of the pictures clicked in such way are posted above. The last picture was clicked during our visit in winter, at the same location as that of the one shown in the third picture above, which was clicked during our visit in summer. It was bit lonely drive both the times and there couldn't be a better time to click the pictures. 

The cute dolls - PramsPhotography #135

#2017 Pimpri-Chinchwad, Maharashtra, India

Bought these cute dolls for a function at office. Clicked the pictures of them at the shop as the shopkeeper arranged them in an adorable sequence. I have one of the dolls on my desk at office. Every time I look at it, I recollect the beautiful time I spent clicking these dolls on the day we purchased them. 

Sapna Ranch - PramsPhotography #134

#2017 Sapna Ranch, Maharashtra, India

While the concept with which the Sapna Ranch has been established and is being run is owned by its founder, I must say that his intention to bring change in the way children learn through experiential education is commendable. I sincerely hope this kind of education is going to change the course of things in future in India. The above picture were clicked when we visited Sapna Ranch, a place which is close to 100 km from Pune and in the western ghats. The big cat is one of the main attractions and the Himalayan rocket stove shown above is made by a volunteer as we were told. A good place to visit, especially with kids. 

Visit to beaches of the Arabian ocean - PramsPhotography #133

Harihareshwar is one of the famous beaches on the western coast line of India. There is an old Krishna temple there which we visited on the evening on day 1 of our stay there. By the time we reached, it was sunset time. Its very common in western coast line to see the ocean coming forward and receding. The sunset click is from the scene where ocean came forward in the morning, some water remained after it receded by evening. 

Diveagar beach is known for its flat playful sand on its bank. We reached there while we were on the way to Harihareshwar. We spent may be half an hour there, enjoyed the soft sand, low tide and then I got to click a fisher boat at a distance. 

To reach Harihareshwar, there were two routes. One, to go by road and it would take few hours and a distance of around 70 km on a road in not so good condition. Two, to take ferry to cross the sea which would take 15 minutes and then go to Harihareshwar by road. The distance would reduce by at least 35 km. We took route two. When we were on ferry and crossing the sea, we saw the bird shown in the above picture following our ferry for a long time. It was fun clicking it. 

All the above clicks are from the Nagaon beach, 12 km away from the Alibaug beach. 

On the way from Alibaug to Nagaon beach, there was this lotus pond next to a temple. A few number of pink lotus flowers were there in the pond. Couple of the flowers were clicked; one, a flowers just floating on water as the rest of its portion is immersed in water; second, a lotus bud which was about to open up! 

Kollaba fort is built in the ocean, its half a kilometer away from the bank. When the ocean comes forward in the morning, one must take either the horse cots or a motor boat to reach the fort. 

#2017 Alibaug, Nagaon, Kashid, Diveagar, Harihareshwar beaches, Maharashtra, India