Then, we went to Pataleshwar Cave Temple and Ayappan hill temple near Dehu Road. These two were on the radar for quite some time as we had passed these two temples en-route to many other places.

The first big trip of 2011 was a weekend trip to Murud. This set a nice precedent for 2 more trips to the Konkan region over the year. The murud trip had many beach visits including Murud beach, Kashid beach, Aakshi beach and the imposing Janjira sea fort (post pending!).

The next Konkan trip happened soon after, with a 3 day trip to Diveagar and Harihareshwar. The Diveagar beach is one of the best on the coast (among the one closer to Mumbai/Pune) and the coastal drive from Diveagar to Shrivardhan is too beautiful to be described!

In March, i went on a trek to Tikona fort along with colleagues. We started pretty early in the morning and it was a good decision as it got very hot by around 10. The trek to tikona fort is moderate, but offers wonderful views of the surrounding areas including Lohagad fort and Pavana Dam. Also, the final ascent on the stairs is wonderful.

Then, we had a get-together of friends at Splendour Country club. This was my second visit to the place (post pending!) and it is quite a mixed bag. The condition/cleanliness of the infinity pool depends on your luck, but the location is awesome.

There was a weekend when Vidhya and Akshara were out of town. So, i went on a local sightseeing trip to places which Vidhya might not come along. I went to Shinde Chhatri – architecturally good , bur was undergoing renovation, a butterfly park about which the lesser said the better and then to Chaturshringi Hill Temple, a gem of a place within the crowd of the city(posts due!).

Saturday was gone and i went for something more adventurous on the Sunday – a trek to Kalavantin Durg (post due!). This turned out to be most exhausting day of my life. But, not because of the nature of the trek. It is an awesome trek and the final climb on the rock-cut steps (some more than a metre high) is mind-blowing, particularly for the slightly-acrophobic ones like me!

The monsoon had arrived and it was time to go-green! Our first monsoon trip was to the ever-enchanting Neelkanteshwar temple. If you have never been there, make sure you do (not in the summer though). A place straight out of Amar Chitra Katha, you can not only admire the natural beauty of its location, but also learn a lot about indian mythology.

Though very scenic, i try to avoid lonavala and its surroundings during the monsoon as it gets very crowded and insane. A trip to Korigad fort where i had pass through Lonavala reaffirmed my faith in avoiding the place. Korigad fort though was a revelation. Relatively easy to climb and in midst of nature, it was a wonderful trip with friends.

No monsoon is complete without a visit to Tamhini Ghat and thoseghar waterfalls. I have been so many times to these places and yet, i am not tired of them. The visit to tamhini was, as always, combined with a visit to the broken roads of Chalkewadi windmill farms.

Then came a visit a beautiful temple in a beautiful place – hadshi temple. One photo of this temple on some forum convinced me to pay a visit and i wasn’t disappointed and neither have been all the people to whom i have recommended this temple. I have been there twice, once during the monsoon and another time just after – on a clear and sunny day.

We tried yet again on 15th August to go to Raigad fort, but our calculations proved wrong once again with a 3.5 hr wait for the cable car. So, we had to return (for the second time) with just a view of the cable car and the mighty fort beyond the horizon.

But, all was not bad with the trip. We came back through Varandha ghat and we got to see the best of what Varanda is famous for. Outstanding greenery as far as the eye can see and more waterfalls than we could keep count of!

Then finally, in October with some meticulous planning, we were able to see the king of all forts, Raigad fort (post due!). It was worth the wait, as this fort is an exemplary example of the might of the Marathas. The amount of history within the walls of his fort is amazing. We had combined a trip to Raigad with another new destination on the konkan, Karde beach.

End of 2011, beginning of 2012, lots to look forward too. Starting with a trip to Rajasthan, courtesy my company. So, what’s in plan – Malshej Ghat, Bhadandardara, Ganapatipule or Goa, some lesser known temples around Pune, Shivneri fort and more…

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. Introducing the “Pune Travel Forum”
2. Trek to Korigad Fort near Aamby valley, Lonavala
3. New Year Weekend Trip to Daman

Tickets can be obtained at all State bank of India branches in Pune or directly at the Amanora office in Amanora town. The show is on 11th Feb starting around 6pm at the Amanora Entertainment Arena. The tickets are priced at Rs 2000,Rs 3500, Rs 6000 and Rs 10000.

If you are going to the concert, i am sure that you would want to come back with great photographs. I am not too sure that cameras would be allowed into the arena, but the crowd and probably some sweet talk should enable you take in the camera. If you do manage to take in your camera, follow the simple tips listed below to get the best out of the opportunity.

• Avoid using Compact Cameras, the point and shoot type. They are slow to start up, slow between photographs and have a shutter-lag. Even the latest point and shoot cameras suffer from these drawbacks. If you want good photographs, go the SLR way. Better still, go for a digital SLR so that you can immediately check whether the photo you captured is good enough for your liking.
• Use High ISO. Most of the concerts would have sections of the stage well-lit, but the rest of the area would be dark. There will always be some kind of a spotlight on the artistes on stage. But this light is not enough to get a good exposure. So, use a higher ISO to get a good picture in spite of the little light. Avoid ISO 1600 as it can get too grainy. But, take many practice shots to get the exposure you like. A high ISO would help you get photographs like the one below where you can see the lights from the all the mobile phone cameras in use.

  

• Use Shutter Priority Mode. I have had good success with Shutter Priority mode on many low-lit situations. You can customise the shutter speed based on your capability to hold the camera still. Using the program mode will make the camera try to get the best possible picture and in most cases (for concerts), the shutter will be opens for many seconds! Override this and use shutter priority. The Big Ben photo below was shot from a running open-top bus. I used a shutter speed of around 1/20s (don’t remember exactly) and ISO 1200.

  

• Use a Zoom Lens, unless you are a good friend of the rockstar and manage to get a seat on the stage. Of course, not having a zoom lens would give a different perspective of the concert like the first photo below. I carried both the 18-70 and the 70-300 lenses with me and i switched them from time to time to take different views. From the first photo, you can kind-of guess where i was seated – far away from the stages and yet, with the zoom lens (and some cropping), I managed to get some decent close-ups of Bryan Adams.

  

• Don’t use Matrix Metering. If you don’t understand what I am saying, then it is time you take out your manual and look up on this. Matrix metering will work for many landscape shots but will mostly fail in concert shots where a small section is brightly lit and the rest are almost pitch-dark. Switch to Spot Metering and meter for the person whom you want to take (if you want to get the rockstar in focus).

  

• Obviously, Flash is useless. Ok, in some situations I am wrong. When you want to take a photo of yourself standing in front of the dimly-lit stage, you need to switch to the night-portrait mode or if you don’t have one, manually enable the flash so that you are also well-lit. But, in other situations when you want to take the photo of a far-away rockstar on a stage, a flash is useless as it can light up, probably a few feet away from you. Worse still, if you have any object close to you, it will show up in your photograph in deathly-white. When i was in egypt, i had been to the sound-and-light show at the pyramids (first photo below). At that time, i had the “relatively ordinary” Nikon Coolpix 2500. I put in on a tripod, disabled the flash and let the camera decide its own exposure and I got pretty decent pictures. There were people around me pointing their cameras at the pyramids and shooting in auto mode with the flash. All they would have got is the chair in front of them with a white colouring!

  

Even if you follow these tips, you might not get it right the first time. So, practice a lot (another reason to move to Digital-SLR cameras) when the local artist comes on stage before the main act. Find the correct exposure (shutter speed/ISO) needed to get a decent image of the rockstar.

Hope you find these tips useful. Feel free to add more in the comments. Would also love to hear about your shooting experiences in music concerts.

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Shri Kanifnath Maharaj was one of nine teachers in the Navnath Sampradaya, a Hindu Parampara who believe that Rishi Dattatreya, an incarnation of the Holy trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva to be its first teacher (Source: Bhatakanti). This temple is dedicated to him.

How to go to Kanifnath Temple from Pune (magarpatta city): There are two ways to go from Magarpatta. Either go to Saswad and then to Kanifnath (slightly longer) or go through Kondhwa Road (beautiful ghat section in the middle). The map shows the second option which i think is the easier and the more scenic option. Go towards Big Bazaar. Take the left after the one next to Big Bazaar. This is the Prince of Wales Drive. In the next major junction, turn left to go on Kondhwa road. After this keep going straight for few kms. You would come to a junction where the left goes towards Saswad, the right goes to the highway and the straight goes into the hills. Keep going straight. If you are unsure, ask for Bopdev ghat, dont ask for Saswad. People will direct you to the Saswad road if you ask for Saswad though the Bopdev ghat road also goes to Saswad. After the ghat, you will see a big board for Kanifnath on the left and then it is a straight road to the top of the hill. One of the landmarks could be the plane-shaped water tank we saw on the way!

View Larger Map

Once on the top, you get a beautiful view of Pune city. You have to climb around 20-30 steps to reach the temple from the parking or take your vehicle on the road (bad road) to the right of the parking to reach the back of the temple.

The unique thing about this temple is that the main shrine is in a closed room and only men are allowed to enter it. It is not just walking through a door! There is a small opening, probably a little more than a foot in either direction through which you (only men and topless too!)have to crawl into and also come back the same way as you are not supposed to point your foot towards the shrine. No photos were allowed so i dont have any, but it was interesting watching people of all sizes and shapes get into the shrine. Plan your trip such that you reach the temple around sunset as the evening light is just great on the temple as there are no other hills around. We did the usual stuff, lot of photographs , chai-bhel at the shops outside and we were back to Pune within a few hours. Hari and Akshara also had a separate photograph session on their own. Check out those photos here.

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. A short drive to Dive Ghat near Saswad
2. Neelkanteshwar temple between Panshet and Khadakwasla
3. Visit to the Bhuleshwar Shiva temple

I have, on multiple occasions, heard friends remark that a friend of theirs had been to “some” place “some” where and that it was very good. Then, i start off tracing this “friend” in the hope of getting more details about this place. If all of us (and our friends) can share such information on a single forum, then we don’t have to unnecessarily strain our memory cells to remember “who was it that talked about a good route to Pavana dam, in one of the  birthday parties i attended last year”!

But, there are dozens of other forums already. Why one more? Actually, there aren’t, at least to cater to the specific need of people wanting to visit places close to Pune and Mumbai. Most of the existing ones are deep inside huge travel websites like tripadvisor and loneleyplanet with just 1-2 line comments from some stranger somewhere. Most of the visitors to my blog are friends and friends of friends. If we start putting in info on places we visit (as part of a family trip, project event etc) and start inviting our friends also to do so, we would have extensive information on lot of places, information that is first-hand and not just the 3-4 line copy-paste description available on travel websites.

So, go on to the forum, get yourself a login, start writing about your trips and also answering other’s queries. And, please forward this information to your friends too.

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. The year 2011, in travel

If you are in Pune on December 5th (Sunday), make sure to go and see the Pune international marathon. Also, a good opportunity for photographers in town! Click on the map below to see a bigger resolution map.

For more details check out the official website of the Pune Marathon here.

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Magarpatta City celebrates Diwali every year by lighting candles all along the inner circle and also by having a fireworks display. The fireworks display is very good and lasts for around 15 minutes. Today (Nov 3, 2010), we are going to have the fireworks/candle lighting within the city. Last year, i had gone to the terrace on Tower 2 for taking photographs of the fireworks. I had also taken my tripod for the long exposure shots. The view from the top was awesome. The fireworks were being lit from the top of the water tower at a distance which gave a good opportunity for wide shots including the other buildings.

On the day of Diwali, we got together at a friend’s place for the usual dose of sweets and savouries “imported” from the south! Akshara (below photos are from 2009, 1 yr ago) enjoyed the festivities and of course the photo requests from friends and family.

Akshara hadn’t reacted too well to the cracker sounds on the day of the Magarpatta fireworks, so we restricted initially to the “softer” stuff like sparklers (Kambi Mathappu), Flower pots (busvaanam) and Wheels (Thara Chakkaram). Later when she got used a bit to the sound, the bigger and louder ones came out. Got some some nice photos too, in the light from the sparklers.

After we exhausted ourselves with the crackers, we started “forcefully” finishing off the remaining sparklers. Then i suggested guys to start “painting with light”. The photos below are taken with a long exposure (10-30 seconds) while the person draws the shape. Why is it that people always start off with the heart shape when asked to paint something with sparklers? Then, people started trying their names and their spouse’s and kid’ with the warning from the wives that they wouldn’t be allowed back into the house without them getting the name right If you notice the last photo below, there is a gap between each letter. it is a single photo (no merging). Let me know how you think this photo would have been taken.

Looking forward to tonight’s show in Magarpatta. Hoping to capture some good panorama’s with the sweep panorama feature in my new camera (Sony DSC TX5).

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. shaniwar wada – the palace fort inside Pune city

The Aga Khan palace, also known as the Gandhi National Memorial,  was on the list of places to visit for more than a year, but somehow the proximity to our house meant that we always pushed it for a later date. Finally, we did visit the place , coincidentally, on Oct 2nd. The Aga Khan palace holds a significant place in our freedom movement. After the start of the Quit India movement, Gandhi, his wife Kasturba and Gandhi’s secretary Mahadevbhai Desai were under house arrest in Aga Khan palace for nearly 2 years.

The rooms in which Gandhi and his wife stayed during the two years have been converted into a musuem. Many of the articles used by Gandhi are on display. Also, on display are many rare photographs taken at that time.

As it was October 2nd, there were many schools that had brought their students for a tour of the place. The rooms and the gardens were decked up for the occasion.

In the 2 yrs they were here, Kasturba breathed her last. A small samadhi has also been made next to the palace for Kasturba Gandhi.

Btw, the guy below is Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III. He was the one who built the Aga Khan Palace in 1892

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. shaniwar wada – the palace fort inside Pune city

Click here to see a bigger version

No wonder i saw a party being held in the narrow lanes next to our apartment. The neighbourhood Istriwala (the guy who irons/presses your clothes) just realised that he is famous enough to be individually mentioned and even be considered a landmark on Google Maps. I guess Google Earth watches his movements everyday and adjusts this landmark depending on where he parks his cart on the road. Wow, that is pretty intelligent!

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To know about the route to Bhuleshwar temple from Pune, check out the post from my first trip.

This time, i went a little earlier in the day around early evening. So, there was sufficient light inside the temple for me to photograph the statues. If you look at most of the statues inside the temple, they would have mutilated heads or legs. It seems that these statues were broken by the Mughal invaders centuries back when there were on an expansion spree.

Akshara was sleeping during the drive up to the temple. But she woke up on hearing some drums being played outside the temple. Even though she was half awake, she was very cooperative with our various photo requests

My new camera, Sony DSC TX5, has a sweeping panorma feature which is pretty cool. Click on the photo below to see a much bigger version.

Similar Places Around Pune:

1. Visit to the Bhuleshwar Shiva temple
2. Visit to Baneshwar shiva temple
3. Kanifnath temple near Saswad

Once upon a time, there existed the Katraj Snake Park. Then, slowly the park expanded it horizons by bringing in other animals and expanded into the Rajiv gandhi zoologicl park also known colloquially as the Katraj Zoo. The zoo also has a lake within it premises.

Route to go to the Pune Zoo (From Magarpatta): Go to the Solpur road, keep going towards Swargate, at the swargate signal, turn left towards Katraj. Keep going straight. After a while (a long while), you should see the zoo on your left.

View Larger Map

Go to the Pune Zoo only under the following conditions:

• If you have never been to any half-decent zoo before. One can literally count the number of animals in the zoo.
• If you want to have your morning walk/jog in the presence of few dozen deers. With an entrance fee of 5 rupees, it is the best bet for a good run amongst a bit of greenery. Of course, avoid anytime after the mornings, as the place gets thronged with whoever has 5 rupees change in the pocket.
• If you love to see deers and more deers. The ratio of deers to other animals is around 92.5 to 1. Maybe, other animals were obtained under special packages such as buy a tiger, get 20 deers free.
• If you want to test the limit of your big zoom lens or to test your ophthalmologist’s claim that you can identify objects at farway distances after your recent eye operation. I have a 200 mm lens and it proved to be extremely difficult to get decent shots of the animals. It is easy to recognise animals if they move around. Imagine a bear lying still around a 100 m away..Half the crowd was playing a trasure hunt trying to spot the location of the bear in the compound. This is the first zoo i have seen where the elephant is kept around half a km away from the viewing area. We could get to see the trunk and tail of the elephant (at least that is what we thought those were!)
• if you are studying any course in design and want to get examples of how not to design things. The design of the pune zoo is a marvel in itself. When you enter the zoo, you can either turn right or left. On the left, you will find monkeys, snakes and other smaller creatures. The board towards the right says “Elephant” prominently. Akshara is very fond of elephants and hence we turned right. Bad decision!  We walked on for almost 200 metres and were yet to come across the first animal/cage! The road on the right goes past lot of enclosures for almost 1.5 kms. Each enclosure is at least a 100 m apart and every second enclosure has deers. Unfortunately, the elephant was the last. But, we were ok. Akshara didnt seem to mind seeing a deer every second second! Then came the bad news! The only way to get back to the start/gate of the zoo was to walk back the entire 1.5 kms as the road finished at the lake and it looked like swimming across the lake was not an option. Maybe, the zoo authorities wanted to ensure that you didnt miss any deer. This proved to spoil the day as my parents. already tired from the long walk had to now walk back. There was mini-tram service and that looked to provide an easy way. But, this was not a hop-on-hop-off service. It took a group of people around the zoo and then took them back. With just a few trams and few hundred people, the waiting time at the start is something not worht mentioning.

Some photographs from our trip.

Akshara didn’t seem to mind, as there was always some animal to watch and she was being carried or driven around in a pram.

But, even in such a zoo, i found few takeaways. There were boards kept near many enclosures which explained the roots of the names of animals and also the differences between antelopes/deers and turtles/tortoises. The difference between turtles and tortoises was a cool thing to know.

There is also the boating facility on the katraj lake. Surprisingly, there were no life jackets or life guards around.

The highlight of the zoo was this enclosure which had graves for the dodo and the Indian Cheetah and a proposed one for the Tiger. The message was strong and direct. I stayed next to this place for a fewminutes and it was funny listening to the comments of people ranging from “Oh, this must be the place where they bury dead animals” to “Oh, a tiger died recently?”.

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