FREEDOM ATLAST

I don know how the experience in hell will be but if someone asks me if i had experienced hell, i will definitely say i experienced hell with people in chennai for the last four months coz of my grave mistakes. i was finding a good reason to leave chennai. finally in another 12 days exactly i will be off from this dump next few months i will be working on BBC/NGC assignments with felis creations ( www.feliscreations.com ) i am very happy that i will be taking few years break from my college and working on what i love, wildlife, forests, photography and filmmaking.
the fuji exhibition will be in chennai on april 9th. i will write a seperate post about it soon. stay put for more happenings :)

TENDERNESS AND TRUST

Enjoy this image till then.last april i made this image in my backyard at my native place. however troublesome this guy was, the mother didnt let him down. I always love to shoot primates, elephants and bears. the emotions they show is out of the world. somehow i nowadays feel i can converse with animals i shoot :) guess i am going mad

cheers,

ram

current mood: happy

NATURE, ART AND LOVE

i got a call from my friend, a well known musician asking me to come to his house immedaitely When i went to his house and he was soaked in tears. when i asked wat was his problem he told that his x lover has been engaged to another guy. he was giving a beautiful philosophical touching words which made me think a lot. people, its not just a philosophical talk given by a guy in such conditions. It makes us think a lot. excerpts from watever he spoke:

History has a lot of bizarre patterns of love failures, which apparently implies that only the guy eventually become the losers. Rite from romeo-juliet, devdas-parvati, anarkali-salim to every single tom dick and harry we find on streets have found love broken up due to usual and unusual reasons. But the common pattern that I observe, is that its always the guys who ruin their lives thinking about their lost love and its mostly the girls who end up as parent driven puppets or people who find love almost instantaneously after their long drawn “ I will be single for ever, Its you or noone” speeches. Statuory warning: for people who disagree with me, please mail me historical details, articles, fiction, facts proving me wrong and I bet u r gonna give google a run for its money :) ( No offence meant )

I like to change sides here and state that the guys are really stupid and they are ruining their lives thinking about their lost love and the girl’s being very clever creatures have mastered the art of “moving on” .They have moved so far that they have circum navigated the globe six times whereas the stupid guys moved on to the nearest liquor shop or to the next phase in his life where his main aim is to stay away from her memories.

Let us take a classic example of a boy and a girl who are madly in love with each other and due to usual “unforeseen family circumstances or unusual break ups” they decide to end their relationship and what succeeds can be predicted by any onlooker. The story will most probably go like

a) Guy-girl breaks up. Guy takes to alcohol. Girl engages in a sob-fest for a temporary period of time and starts acting clever :)

b) Guy-girl break up: guy goes abroad, throws away all his loved ones belongings, tries to stream line his life based on one bottom line “ I have to avoid her memories”

c) Guy-girl break up: girl takes to alcohol, guys moves on with another girl,girl grows a beard and meets the guy after two years. The guy has two children and one girl child is apparently named after the lover ( are u shocked? Are you flabber gasted? )

If u are really shocked or u laughed at option ‘c’ you have accepted my theory indirectly which is the one possible way. If u find at option ‘a’ amussing pack your bags and move to Bollywood. and so jokes apart. Inevitably whether we like it or not the girl moves on( no she doesn grow a beard!)and the guy doesn’t( oh yes! He does grow a beard)

I seriously like to ask this question. Wat is love and trust in its most pure and unadulterated form?

Answer:

1) when u throw a three year old child up in the air and catch it, it smiles having the trust that u will catch it again.

2) the unconditional love given by a mother to a child irrespective of how the child treats her.

3) Any art form

God is not visible. He does not reveal himself directly. But we feel his divinity. Don’t we? That is because he has created nature, art and love as his representations in this world. Such a divine spot has been allotted for love. With these being the case how can we even think of polluting it? Me being a connoissuer or art, I can raise my voice to stop the pollution of nature and art. How can I raise my voice against the pollution of love?

The reason why god gave love such an important part in our lives is because of the fact that bonding between any two entities is only possible through it. If u ask me art has been showering its unconditional love on me since the day i was born on this world. Sometimes I reciprocated it. sometimes I did not. Did my impudence ever affect the unconditional love art has been showering on me. The answer is no. It has created an unbreakable bond similar to a bond between mother and a child and, me being the irresponsible child of my loving mother ( art) so I guess now your are clear with what I meant before.

Love between humans has to condescend through all barriers void of pollution if that situation happens. It can be equated to my love story with art. But the unfortunate and the bitter truth is that humans are humans. We are wicked, evil, fickle and we strive to destroy every single bit of the innocence that we have left in us. In the process we are deluding ourselves coating sugar to these bitter facts. Love is one which has its divine place and we as humans should keep its divinity intact. I don ever think that is happening. The biggest mistake I have made and I regret doing it is believing that no matter what happens, love can be so unconditional between two human beings.

I was completely moved by watever he said. i guess this will imply for people who are truly in love and not for people who fake in the name of love.

PS:- the musician didnt intend to hurt anyone and he is not a male chauvinist
cheers,

ram

current mood: depressed.

working 20*7

off late i have been working like a mule. spending hours studying photography,filmmaking and wildlife. lot of surprises coming up soon :) its already 5 AM and i am still working on how to improve my working style and skills. i get to YM and i am welcomed by my friends:

pras: you?
pras: :)
pras: cant believe man
ram: yes dude, its me.
pras: when i see ram getting up so early my comp is acting weird dude

abhi: dude how come so early? its gonna rain cats and dogs man

sara: grt ram! someone had started to work on academics...

wat??get used seeing me up even at 6 AM . nowadays i am available online almost 24 hours...

cheers,

ram

current mood : thinking

EMOTIONS, PHOTOGRAPHY AND WRITING

Recently when i was in periyar i discovered that i can even write songs :) i found out that any form of art is reflection of what our mind thinks. when u r in a good mood, energetic and happy, u tend to make images that show happiness and vibrant colours. if u r sad and depressed, its reflected in the images we make.
when i was trekking in periyar, i sat down on the river bed late in the evening to try my hands on writing. The distant call of a white cheeked barbet and the sound of cicadas echoed across the forest. The silent sounds of the periyar river was soft. The moon gradually rose up from the hills of western ghats. Till with the sudden sharp call of the sambhar, the wind is suddenly still and the barbet stopped calling. i started writing emotions and finally it shaped up like this.

"Why can't I speak when I have so much to tell?
Why can't I write when I have so much in mind?
Why can't I sing when there's music in my heart?
Why can't I dance when there's rythm in the air?

Too many words left unspoken
Too many things left undone
Why can't it be and why can't I?
For all I know this pain deep inside
Took the gladness from my heart.

Is this the pain of missing you?
Is this the reason behind it all?

Hear the agony of my heart
Longing for you and for your touch
Feeling your love, feeling your face
Missing your sweet talks and care

When will the waiting ever be over?
For as long as we are apart I can never be whole
Oh! My Dearest Love
I just want you to know
That my heart is aching because
"I'M MISSING YOU!"

think i should give up photography and start writing poems. any comments? :) currently writing an article on emotions and photography. hope i will complete it soon and post it. stay put.


cheers,

ram

current mood: exhausted

PERIYAR DIARY

After a long gap of nearly one and half of years I went to my home, periyar Tiger reserve. after going there i found that people who truly love us will never leave us and forget us. it was an amazing feeling to be welcomed by people who know me there.I was there for the “ PERIYAR INHERITANCE” book launch but I had sometime to go into the field for few hours. I reached periyar expecting rains but it was completely dry. First few days I just wandered in the rainforest without camera. A cloudy day, little bit of drizzle, great hornbills flying above like a jet, barbets calling, suddenly a surprised barking deer flees away after seeing me. It was completely silent but in periyar each centimeter of land with be teaming with some activity if u observe keenly. From termites to tigers periyar supports very rich wildlife. Haven for butterflies, birds and plants. I just felt completely relieved from weeks long work. The book launch went very well. Dr. anish Andheria gave an awe inspiring talk on periyar and western ghats. It was attended by people from varying interest and the nature club members along with us.

Srilankan frogmouth ( Batrachostumus moniliger )

Next day I trekked with my camera. The morning was dull and hazy. Bird activity was normal. Racket tailed drongos flying in front of us and lands in a trees chasing small minivets and common rose finches. A white bellied treepie was busy feeding on a coral tree. A little above a brown pygmy woodpecker was keenly concentrating on pecking and chiseling the bark looking for insects and tiger signs were quite promising. Anish explained me about analyzing scats and signs left by a tiger. It was amazing to know about everything. A few hour walk with him threw light into garbology and analyzing nature’s sign language.

Wynaad laughingthrush ( Garrulax delesserti )



Ramnath chandrasekhar :)

After a few kilometers walk, rajan sighted a pair of srilankan frogmouth. This is my first sighting of this elusive spirit of the rainforest. I tried to photograph this pair which was close to 12 feet but shutter speeds dropped to 1/3s and lower. But to my luck, sun just opened up for few seconds and it lit just the female bird through the canopy. Made some quick shots and continued trekking. On our way back we had a very good opportunity of a close encounter with the Wynaad laughingthrush, a rare endemic bird of western ghats. I managed to get some pics in the low light but it became just a record shots. Periyar never forgets to reveals it beauty to me I guess. Everytime I go there I find something special. I decided to spend 20 days in may just in periyar to explore the core areas completely on foot. My last two days in periyar I was completely sick with temperatures soaring at 105 degress and a severe septic ulcer but everything just vanishes when I was trekking in periyar. Next few days I took complete rest in my native before getting back to work in Chennai. Waiting to get back to periyar again.

BIRDS SPOTTED:

1)white bellied blue flycatcher
2)white bellied treepie
3)Srilankan frogmouth
4)Hill myna
5)Malabar grey hornbill
6) great Indian hornbill
7)Jungle babbler
8)Wynaad laughingthrush
9)White cheeked barbet
10)small minivet
11)common rosefinch
12)Brown pygmy woodpecker
13)scarlet minivet
15)Racket tailed drongo
16)Bronzed drongo
17)Malabar whistling thrush
18)Yellow browed bulbul
19)Crimson fronted barbet
20)Grey junglefowl
21)Stork billed kingfisher
22)pied kingfisher

cheers,

ram

current mood: energetic

ATLAST, SITE IS UPLOADED

finally after few months, i had time to upload my site. gujrat images has been posted in the new images category and a separate gallery for my personal favourites. check it out

here is the link

http://www.ramnathshekar.com/new.htm


cheers,

ram