Photo Trip to Jejuri Bhandara Festival - March 2017

Jejuri is a small town in Pune district in Mahrashtra, India. Nestled at very close proximity of the Western Ghats range, this small town is the abode of one of the most revered temples in the state, known as the Jejuri Khandoba Temple.

Apart from the resilient devotees, people may not even contemplate that this hamlet can hold something really special.

This tiny little town comes alive on every new moon falling on a Monday (Somwati Amavasya). All the devotees offer prayers and celebrate holi with turmeric powder, or Bhandara, as it is locally known. Yes! You have read it right, the holi is celebrated with turmeric powder. The place becomes a Photographer’s delight where one can unearth the treasure of exceptional Indian Heritage and culture in full swing.

This year, the first of such auspicious occasions fell on 27^th March (there are two more this year – 21^st August and 18^th December). My club, Fotorbit India, arranged for a photo trip to Jejuri and I was fortunate enough to be part of this trip.

Jejuri is around 55-60 km from the Pune city so we drove to the place by ourselves. Guided by the experienced and the veteran photographer Mr Arun Saha, 5 photo enthusiasts embarked on this tremendous photographic journey from Pune. In addition to that, we had the privilege to have the renowned photographer Mr Saurabh Chatterjee with us.

Once we reached Jejuri, we could see the temple at the top of a hillock from the below (the temple was built as a temple-fort). The way towards the top is reachable by climbing a few stairs which can be tiring under tremendous heat but it is more rewarding for the photobugs, as one can capture numerous close portraits and action on the streets. One has to be cautious by not spending too much time here itself as the main spectacular event must not be missed.

After reaching to the top, one needs to manage one’s own sitting arrangement on the top of the fortification walls of the temple. The main grandeur would take place right beneath you so an unhindered view is a must.

Under the mentorship of Arun and Saurabh, we really had a hell of a time during the event.

Tips:

     

•      Once you manage your sitting arrangement, do not leave it as the place is heavily crowded and you may not be able to recover it and loose the opportunities to click some action.
•           Have head covers for yourselves and drink lot and lots of water.
•       Protective gears for the camera is a must – be ready to get completely drenched in turmeric J

Finally, be part of the next Photo tour of Jejuri organized by Fotorbit India on 21^st August. Don’t miss this event if you are a photographer and have a keen interest in capturing a unique aspect of the Indian culture.

Route from Pune to Jejuri Khandoba Temple:

Now the photos:

The Temple:

Full on Bhandara Festival, the place literally becomes Yellow all around:

The devotees touch the Palkhi to be blessed:

The other side of devotion, guards trying to make space for the Palkhi:

The Crowd when the festival is in full momentum:

The Palkhi is arriving:

And the Palkhi has arrived:

Bhandara Festival - Offering in a group:

Solo offering:

Some headshots/close portraits on our way up and down (my favorites):

Photo Drive to Tamhini Ghat in Monsoon 2016

This year (2016), during the monsoons I made a short half day drive to Tamhini Ghat. This was more of a photo drive than just winding up.

This was probably my fourth or fifth trip towards Tamhini but the place never ceases to amuse me with its breathtaking beauty. This year Tamhini received the most rainfall in Maharashtra (yes, surpassing even Mahabaleshwar), so the astounding greenery and the spectacular white streams were in abundance and perfectly complemented each other. 

We had to stop at several places and take photos to the heart's content.

Not a place to be missed during the monsoon, if you are in/around Pune.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED IN MONSOONS.

The photos are clicked without any ND or CPL filters. I used a simple gorillapod to place my 5DMK3 on top of it.

The first spot where we reached by 8 am in the morning was the gigantic waterfall just besides the Mulshi Lake.

There were some tiny waterfalls around it as well.

And I certainly did not let go of any opportunity to try various angles and focusing techniques.

All these sources of water combined into one and a gushing stream was output through the bushes.

Everywhere as far as one could see, it was green all around...covered with white sheets of cloud...

...and small streams gently flowing to its destiny...

..and some tiny beauties...

..and some marvels of nature....

..and some fauna too...

Practicing with high shutter speed....

Monsoon brings out the explorers in us....

Sometimes only sitting in the car also can bring your attention to beauties around you....

And some more greenery on our way back...

We had a stopover nearby Mulshi Dam, and the beauty simply was breathtaking with the farmlands posing with a genuine grin (read 'green') in contrast to the last year's seriously dry spell..

Finally, before our ways part until the next blog, no monsoon photoblog can be completed without such pictures as below:

Time to say good bye. 

Thank you very much for taking your time to go through the post. If you like it, please leave your encouragement as a form of a comment.

See you!!

Kaas - The Valley of Flowers in Maharashtra - Our Adventure to Satara - Part 4

Previous - Chalkewadi and Ajinkyatara

Next morning we started for Kaas early after the breakfast. Today the weather was better – the sun was still hidden behind the murky clouds but it was not raining like the previous day, which was big relief. We were a bit more enthusiastic than the day before as we were venturing to see Maharashtra's own 'valley of flowers', in fact not only flowers, but also the valley of rare orchids and flora of diversified characteristics.

The beauty of the nature unfolded pretty soon in front of us. We were climbing uphill through the roundabout roads which were bestowed heavily by the greeneries around. Through the greeneries, there were magnificent white streams of small waterfalls. The frequent green and white combinations were killer attractions on the way.

At one place, we found a lot of white flowers bloomed and the ethereal beauty of the place made us stop. Soon we found there were loads and loads of wild flowers at both the sides of the roads. Birds were chirping and water droplets fell on the ground with a gentle sound – occasional sound of passing by automobiles faded away when we entered a narrow path as a detour. The scene mesmerized us while the silence overpowered us and we just could not move.

The driver must have run out of patience since he honked repeatedly. We came back to the material world. We started towards Kaas once again.

After around an hour of a spectacular drive through the heavenly atmosphere, we reached a plateau, which was covered under a carpet of green and yellow. As long as the eyes could see, the flower beds could be seen. We were literally speechless.  The only words we could babble were ‘OMG’, ‘Wow’, ‘Gosh’.

There were no one around and we were the first to be arrived at the plateau, which was an amazing feeling.  The road seemed to be endless at a distance, while the flower beds at both the sides created a magical surrounding and it is bound to attract you towards itself, like a magnet attracts iron. We went down, very close to the flowers to have a closer look, without trampling on them.  Since it was not the peak season (which was after a couple of more weeks), the flowers, we noticed, just started to bloom. This plateau had two distinguished set of flowers – one yellow-petal-red-half-moon-in centre and another violet colored beauty.

Our driver informed us that this was not even the place we were originally looking for – we were spellbound, this place was not the famous Kaas Plateau, it was further ahead. He also informed that the after a couple of weeks, the whole place will be covered by the flowers, even the green beds could not be seen.

Unfortunately, our luck left us at that point and the rain started with heavy winds and next to zero visibility.

We drove further ahead and reached a point which was considered to be the ‘official Kaas plateau of flowers’. There was a security guard who advised us not to park there as parking on the plateau was banned. Since it was raining heavily we pleaded to him to allow us to park and we prmised that we would leave within 30 minutes after taking some photographs. He smiled and nodded after some time. That really felt like a divine bliss.

We could not actually enjoy the whole plateau since the visibility was beyond our capability to penetrate. But we could see the plateau covered by blue and violet flower beds here. A little bit of sunshine was desperately wanted but we didn’t have that luck. We spent some 10-15 minutes there after clicking some photographs of those unworldly beauties. We wanted to spend more time there but the weather didn’t let us do it.

Driving further up we reached the Kaas parking where everyone nowadays have to park the car and have to walk towards the Plateau, which should be quite a long distance to walk on. There was a small tea-stall where we had the famous ‘Wada-Pav’s and tea. The Kaas Lake was in close vicinity so we didn't want to miss that out. It was so windy and misty that tall trees looked like a bunch of ghosts standing with outstretched arms. The rain did not subdued, rather the ferocity increased and the shore of the Kaas lake was in a complete mess of mud. Taking the camera out was very risky, but we clicked some pictures of the Kaas lake, all of them came as hazed under the moisture and wind.

We came back to parking place and started roaming around a bit. The flora was amazing by the sides of the road. The greens were so pleasing to eyes. The colors of the flowers blotted all memories of the urbane society that we claim to belong to. One simply becomes the same with nature where the charm is so incredibly rustic.

Next - Bamnoli