Laknavaram-2

A few years ago I wrote and posted about Laknavaram Lake in Warangal district. Again I visited it in 2021. I want share those pictures.  

Warangal district is now broken down and made into five districts.  There is not much change as such in this / these districts.  But now Laknavaram is in Mulug district.  The road to this tourist place has widened. The park at lake is developed.  Restaurant has become bigger.  Facilities for water sports have developed.  Good place for water rafting and cycling.  Here are few pictures.

Beautiful nature
The trees amidst water are awesome 

These pictures are taken while on boat ride

Individual can go on small motor boats

View of the buildings on the island of Laknavaram

Friends or relatives, two young women on the lake

This is how cycling is done with all precautions
The lake and its surrounding nature can be view from a different level

It is good to visit this place after good rains in rainy season.  Best is from August to December.  The entry fee and other fees are quite reasonable. 

Healthy Aging

With improved health care system and modern medicines people are living long.  People are working and learning new skills in later part of their lives.  Previously most lived a sedentary life after retirement from employment.  Of course, there are a lot more who have to work without retirement for ends to meet.  Here I am talking about those lucky ones who are employed by state or in reputed private sectors and have retirement with certain benefits and can lead a leisure life.

Yes.  After working tirelessly for long years to spend leisurely life is worth it.  But is sedentary life a happy life?  Retirement and sedentary life makes one feel the impact of biological age and boredom of inactivity leads to impassive life.  To have a happy and healthy post retirement life it is good to learn some new skill or start doing the activities one always felt like doing in younger days and could not due to pressures of family and its progress. 

Recently I had gone on a photo tour and met Ms. Aruna Berry.  She retired from state academic services few years ago.  On retirement her daughter presented her a DSLR camera and took her out for photo tours.  And now she is a passionate photographer and takes wonderful pictures.  She is also got trained for marathon races and often participates and wins.  I was very much impressed with her attitude towards life and being always bubbling with enthusiasm to learn new skills.  We had gone for Tiger’s nest monastery in Paro.  This is located at mountain cliff at 3,120M above Paro valley.  Most said that it will take at least 2-4hrs trekking up and coming down.  Aruna Berry along with her daughter and others took about 3hrs to reach and another two hours to come down.  I along with my husband took five hours to reach monastery and four hours to come down.  I understood her training for marathon races made her compete with youngsters. 

I have seen another woman who could easily be a septuagenarian at Arnold Arboretum in Boston.  She is working as tour guide here.  As she was guiding us through the important areas in the arboretum, she was moving so fast that it was difficult for me to keep pace with her.  Regular physical exercise makes one fit and healthy whatever is the age.

PC - Abhishek Singh, Professsioonal Photographer, Artist, Teacher

So whatever is the age one should strive to maintain physical fitness with good diet, physical exercise and healthy lifestyle to live happy and peaceful life till last breath.

Landscapes of Ladakh

I happened to visit Ladakh in the last week of September this year.  I had strong desire to be in the mountain ranges of Himalayas at least once in my life time.  When Nikon School of photography announced ‘Advanced Landscape Photography workshop in Ladakh’ I grabbed the opportunity to visit the place.  Though I was meddling with the basics of DSLR I decided to join the group to travel through picturesque Ladakh and pick up few tips from some of the best photographers in India working with Nikon School.

The mentors team was good and helpful.  There were four of them.  They were all friendly, helpful and enthusiastic in teaching the techniques of photography.  I did grasp few points and understood how manual settings in photography can help towards becoming a better photographer.

Here are few photographs of travel through Ladakh.

Though the greater part of journey was on well laid road

occasionally we had to travel on rough terrain

At Khardung La

This is supposed to be highest motorable road in the world

                         

Nubra valley - Cold desert with sand dunes and water bodies

formed due to melted snow

Photographers trying to capture landscapes in twilight

Shyok river

Kids waving as we are passing from a School in

Nubra valley

Maitri Budha at Diskit

Diskit Monastry

A scene in Turtuk village, the last village in India bordering Pakistan 

Pangong Tso lake

The mystic lake between India and China

Night Skies at Pangong Tso

Trying to capture morning colors

A restaurant at Pangong Tso

Clear waters of Pangong Tso

On the way from Pangong Tso to Tsomoriri

through Tsagala and Chusul

Black necked crane

The only shop seen on the way to Tsomoriri

Tractor with a flour mill at Tsomoriri

Early morning view at Tsomoriri

Tsomoriri lake in dawn

Tsomoriri village

Marmot native to mountain ranges of Himalayas

At Tsokar Lake

Photographers trying to capture Nature, Wild life and Landscapes

The person lying down is one of the mentors. 

May he wanted to capture some unique feature of horses!

Army memorial at Chusul

Last capture with NikonD on the way back to Leh

Beautiful Boston

Boston Harbor

In the month of February this year-2016, I was in Boston.  The weather was cold often snowfall.  One day there was even alert that due to extreme cold people should not go outdoors unless it is an emergency. 

My favourite pastime would be to watch through window
and click these squirrel

 Occasionally there would be sunshine but the temperatures would be very low.  Whenever I had to go out I would go in full winter wear just my eyes exposed, that too covered with my spectacles. The glasses would get misty due to my breath.  I also constantly would have leaking nose when outside. 

As it was sunny, I went for a walk along the river.
For the first time I experienced the power of wind.

Because of cold weather I could not go out much.  On sunny days I used to walk along the roads of Cambridge (stayed near Harvard square in Cambridge) watching students and other people going about their chores. 

Church in Harvard

Boston is a beautiful city along the banks of River Charles.  It is the hub of educational institutions; the world best institutes Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are situated here.  The old and new buildings of these premier institutes are architectural splendours. I had a free tour at MIT and toured alone amidst Harvard buildings.

One of the MIT buildings

View opposite MIT library

 My visits were to the museums and an aquarium.  I also visited a chocolate factory in the city outskirts. 

Cocoa pods

Here are few photographs of my Boston visit.

Museum of Fine Arts:

This exhibit impressed me a lot.  I went round and round about it.
Tried to take a photograph without my appearance in it.
But could not.

The beads of this necklace are made of human hair

Foog Harvard Art Museum:                                                                                                             

                                                                                                   

The exhibits of  modern art are awesome at mfa and foog HMA

Made with discarded articles

Harvard Museum of Natural History:                                                                                                          

                                                                                       

Glass exhibits were simply marvellous

Fossil

The mineral rock exhibits are wonderful

New England Aquarium:                                                                                                                            

Creation of sea environment in the aquarium

A colorful fish, there were hundreds of different fish

Sea horse, so tiny

Penguins having a meeting!

Feeding the penguins in order

?Coaxing the turtle to its place above

The red fruits against the lush green leaves attracted me