A different kinda trip

I was in a bit of a funk.

A vague sense of restlessness had crept up in me.

For a variety of reasons, all very genuine and nothing I am complaining about, I had opted out of a few international photo trips after my Hokkaido trip. The months for the rest of the year lay ahead fairly devoid of any plan to go anywhere.

“ I have nothing to look forward to,” I groused melodramatically, eliciting a reaction of a potent mix of incredulity and exasperation from my long suffering wife.

I think I have could have done a better job of articulating my frustrations :)...plus, of course, demonstrated a better awareness of my own privilege.

Then... the funk spreads.

I became unhappy about my photos. I started feeling that my images were trying too hard to be different. Some might be pretty, some of them might be dramatic, but I was feeling that they had lost a simplicity that I would have liked them to have.

A few years back I had written down my Purpose behind my photography. What was I wanting to achieve through my images ? Occasionally, I go back to it and tinker around it and I have found it to be a good compass to measure my journey. Reading it again, further strengthened the feeling that I had drifted away from what I had penned down then and what I still believed holds true.

I was still not very clear about what I need to do but I felt that I was focusing too much on getting dramatic images and missing out on communicating the beauty of a scene in front of me. There needs to be a good balance and I seem to moved more to one side. But I wasn’t sure.

Being unclear compounds the funk.

That was the reason that when work dictated a trip to Pune, I thought it might be a good reason to run away for a couple of days to Bhigwan.

Bhigwan is on the Pune-Sholapur highway, around 2-3 hours from Pune depending on the day and the time of the day you are traveling. Its located in the backwaters of a dam and the shallow waters along with the open grasslands have ensured that there is a good number of birds here, both who have called it their home and those who drop in for a visit during their migratory flights.

Two days at Bhigwan, under the open skies, in the hills, during the monsoons seemed like a good tonic. To be outdoors, to be in the wild and to enjoy just the feeling of being out without any target list, without any goals. To just enjoy the pure feeling of being out.

In the open grasslands on the other side of the highway, there have been regular sightings of foxes, hyenas and wolves. I have never sighted a wolf and thought that it would be rather cool to see one. And if we don’t get the wolves, the birds are always there.

What a delightful two days it turned out to be!

We took a turn from the highway and were soon weaving our way through narrow, typically unremarkable roads and atypically devoid of serious bumps. Around us lay houses in no particular symmetry, many of them with cows and buffaloes tied in the courtyard. A temple popped up along the way as they are wont to, the ubiquitous shops came and went, lined with the usual colourful sachets and jars in front and wall paintings on the side walls of the brand that was currently investing in rural markets.

People were either lying on charpoys outside their homes, either staring up at the skies or sitting in small groups presumably catching up on the days’ happenings. A boy, around two years of age, clad in only a white sleeveless singlet sat on a bright red tricycle and studied me very intently. He did not bother to respond to my friendly wave and big smile. The night was cool and when I looked up, the stars were out undimmed by any ambient light.

Early next morning I was off on my safari.

It had rained a few weeks back and that had resulted in a generous sprouting of green grass all over the hills. The blue skies stayed more or less unblemished during the time I was there but the rains had left the temperatures a little cooler than usual. I had gone on weekdays and hence there was only the odd safari vehicle that I encountered.

Open blue skies. Green rolling hills. Pleasant weather. Clean air.

Pure bliss.

I was using the camera without any target image in mind. I can’t remember the last time I did that.

I chased different foxes and idly wondered how I could create a good image of them in their surroundings. I lay on the ground waiting for a sandgrouse to pop up. ( It didn’t ). I took pictures of a quail with a dreamy background. A pipit hopped nearby and I enjoyed taking pics of it busily strutting around. I waited watching a hare crouch cautiously near a bush till it ran away. I walked around fields watching munias and silverbills feasting in a sea of yellow. I stopped to watch with a smile the baya weavers zip in and out of their artistic nests. I hurried up and down the edge of a steep ditch trying to get a good frame of the rather majestic Eagle owl as it changed its perches and waited patiently behind bushes for the Indian owlet to step out of its comfortable home.

Many of these were images that I had stopped taking.

It cast a wary eye on us.

Evidently, we didn't measure upto his safety standards

A rock bush quail sits with a pensive air about it

While another seems to be in a jolly mood

One of those trips that I would shoot anything that looked good...this pipit seemed to be in a tearing hurry, the bokeh looks deliciously irresistible

This is such a majestic bird...the Indian Rock Owl peers, well, owlishly at me

Framed !!!

This was such a happy scene...stalks swaying merrily, munias and silver bills gorging themselves silly, beautiful light and gorgeous colours

This sight reminded me of kids on a swing...the gaya weaver along with its creation swing gently in the breeze

It was a delightful trip in more ways than one. I, an incorrigible food agnostic, enjoyed the delicious homecooked local cuisine that was served. I sat on the steps outside my room and listened to the mournful mooing of the cows and the grunts of the buffaloes and the bleating of the goats, while the stars twinkled merrily above me.

And yes, I also saw a wolf.

I learnt that the wolf population which was rather substantial last year had dwindled to just about three of them, which seemed a little weird since there isn’t any shortage of a prey base in these hills. I wasn’t too hopeful of being able to see them. Three of them spread across this vast area would require more than a sprinkling of good luck to get a sighting.

What can one say ?

One evening as we were driving around aimlessly hoping to catch some subject with about half an hour of light still remaining, we saw her. It was the matriarch and she was calmly lying down, head hunkered down on her forelegs. My first wolf.

I have often heard the words ‘intelligent eyes’ when wolves are described. As I looked through the camera, the focus point searching for the matriarch’s eyes, she lifted her head to study us, the intruders, and those words came back to me. There was something deeply wise in the calm, composed manner that she studied us, looking at us intently, sizing us up and then deciding that we pose no threat.

There she lay...my first wolf !!

Alert yet calm as she sized us up.

She departs after giving us one last look...those eyes....!!!

She spent a good half an hour or more with us. She was comfortable with our presence and often came reasonably close to our vehicle before turning away and walking into the deepening gloom.

However, before doing that, she gave us an unforgettable experience.

A little after we first sighted her, she turned away from us and raised her head to start howling. She started at a low volume before it turned into a full throated howl. Curiously, at no point did it seem as if she was straining. Only occasionally, did she look straight up in that classical pose of howling wolves that we would have seen in comics from a young age.

The sound of her howl swept through the hills, hovered over the green grass, nudged the leaves on the trees, rippled over the numerous water bodies and returned desolately without eliciting an answer.

It was magical.

My guide told me - "I have had 200-300 sightings but have listened to a howl only once before." My my...do I feel fortunate ! What a haunting experience !

I didn’t return from Bhigwan with any more clarity than I had when I reached there. But, just a few hours in the midst of nature was enough to bring about a sense of peace and quiet.

Open blue skies. Green rolling hills. Clean air.

It works.

Try it.