Into the world of angels - 1

Account of a interesting one day trip to Ranganatittu...

Team: Sandy, Anand, Shre, and myself

"What the ...the birds are so very quick ma'an. I see their image in the camera, and then click. In the small delay between clicking and the image being taken, the birds vanish from the frame," said a frustrated Anand, holding his Nikon digicam.
We were sitting on the small boat on the silent lake of Ranganatittu, a little more than two hours drive from Bangalore, on the Bangalore - Mysore highway. Ranganatittu is famous for the migratory birds, from all over the world. ('America, Europe, Australia, Africa, Antartica' says the dark guide cum boatman, in khakis. Antartica???!!! Looks like the Cheif Minister's ventures to attract tourism has been successful )
"Try estimating where the birds might come, in that short delay, before they come, and then click," I gave a useless suggestion.
"Correct," he turned back towards the birds.
The next time he clicked, he was able to capture that bird, in great details.
Well, the useless suggestion worked. :D

Soon Sandy, Anand, and myself, armed with digital cameras had taken hundreds of pictures of birds in various activities. Birds feeding their young ones, birds flying, birds fighting, birds looking out for mates, birds sneezing, birds caughing, birds shitting (we would have recieved some of them down below, but for timely dodging). The leader of the pack, Shre, was more careful in taking pictures with his huge SLR camera. He was very selective. He would only shoot if the birds would send in a special request for their picture to be taken by him.
At the end of the forty minute ride in the boat, I announced my score, which had passed a hundred. Sandy and Anand had beaten me by a huge margin. Shre announced his score like disappointed Sehwag, 'Thirty'. But he was smirking to himself like Tendulkar, about the naive trio who had taken hundreds of pictures, not enjoying nature like he did, and take only selective pictures.

Ranganatittu had been a dream for many years now. A boring boat ride in the wrong season, while in highschool, had created confusing ideas about the place from me. All I did see then were few casual birds resembling crows and sparrows, and some lazy crocs who refused to respond to the most hilarious sardar jokes which my classmate was blurting out on the boat, non stop. Was this the place adored by all the photo enthusiasts who had been taking heartcatching pictures of exotic birds?

This time, few friends who had been there just two weeks back, had assured us that we could expect the world, out of a visit to the paradise. The March - April were the nesting season for the migratory birds. As usual we planned to start from Bangalore, by six in the morning, and lived up to the plan by leaving Bangalore at seven. The usual reasons of early morning hot water issue, the missing socks issue, the non starting bike issue were there, including the issue of the pet dog losing sanity. Err..... sorry..... the other issues were a repetition of the last time, but the dog issue was skipped this time.
(And none of us even have pet dogs :D ).
The shockingly good road towards Mysore gave few problems to the ace man at the wheel, Sandy. A quick breakfast at the quaint restaurant 'Kamat Lokaruchi' and we were zooming away towards the chicks....oops.... birds.

The ruthless Sun was on his way to compete with Kariena to become the hottest star, when we reached Ranganatittu. An unnoticable road to the right of the Bangalore - Mysore highway, 6 kms before Mysore, led us to the place. The turn was so much unnoticable that it seemed like the tourism ministry had taken extra care to chip off the paint from the weak board announcing Ranganatittu. For photo enthusiasts, here is a small bit of info. There is a manned railway junction immediately after the turn, and vendors who make a living out of selling munchables while waiting for the train to pass ( 5 minutes approx). One can get some interesting shots here.
On reaching the place, one can go in the regular boat tours, getting a ticket for Rs 20. This is the boring boat tour that I spoke about earlier, and you can go for this, if you want to write a similar blog later in your life. Or, you could opt for a private boat tour, which charges you Rs 200 per boat tour (not per head).
"Camera sir?" the guard asked for the tickets for our cameras dangling from our necks.
"Yes," I replied.
Not sure if the digicams Sandy and Anand were carrying were still cameras or video,"Video camera?" asked the guard,
"No, Audio Camera," came out instinctively from Shre. The guard took our money with a forgiving look of one who has seen lots of excited young men with first time SLR cameras ;-).
Each still camera costs Rs 20 each, for the tickets.

The private boat started with only four of us. Before a minute had passed, we were moving past the tiny island in the lake, swarming with exotic birds, with orange beaks, reddish brown necks, and pink plumes for tails. "They are painted storks from America," the boatman/guide declared.
Oh! God. These birds had flown down all the way from the other part of the world???
No visa required. No wasting time for flight tickets deals on Orbitz.com.
As the boat moved up the lake, more of the birds were revealed.
There were the herons, the egrets, and the asian bills.
The boat moved through a narrow path surrounded by chirping, and quacking birds. The ambience was angelic, as we suddenly found ourselves amidst the nature, the wild flurried with acitivity. The boat sailed by the side of rocks where smaller birds dipped their beaks to gulp water from the lake, and the bigger storks magestically spread their wet wings for drying.
Click! Click! Click!!!
The boat, began to move towards a small gap in between the swarm of bent trees.
One of the two herons on a curvy branch of a short tree gave us a hurried glance, and took to flight. The other heron was destined to be a star. It sat there, as our cameras clicked away to glory.
The boatman pushed the rough roots of the trees protruding out into the lake, to guide the boat into the swamp.
As the boat moved through the swamp, scraping against the roots, we were surrounded by the mysteriously shaped trees, and bird nests. The chirping and the quacking of the birds reached a new high. It seemed right out of the sets of Jurassic Park - III.
Slowly, the boat emerged out from the swamp to the clear lake, and I could get a clear shot of a Painted Stork perched on the topmost branch of a tall tree. It stood there, like a lonely guard on a secluded light house, looking out into the horizon. Its house back home would have been ravaged by the cold winters of the sub zeros, and the devilishly white snow.
Slowly, the boat began its sail towards the shores, as we tried to capture last few pictures of the beautiful creatures.
A small token of appreciation of a hundred bucks to the boatman and we were done with the boat ride.

So, is that it? Does it end here?

Nope, not for the ones with the little adventure in blood. You could take a small time risk(against the authorities) by moving to the watch tower on the other extreme side, opposite to the entrance. There is a small broken bridge (purposely broken to prevent visitors from going to the watch tower) on the way to the watch tower. But, on observation, one can notice that the depth of the lake below the bridge is not more than a few inches, and one can wade across it, barefoot.
The view of the birds on the giant cluster of trees from the watch tower is worth the risk :D

A short walk back to the parking lot, and we threw ourselves into the black Santro Xing, which now resembled the steaming idli ovens of the darshini fast foods. 'Put on the AC, Sandy' I screamed. Sandy, the owner of the black idli oven ran his fingers over some of the controls of the AC. But, that did not make much of a difference, and our car soon resembled the hot and sweaty compartment of 'Titanic' fame. Minus the palm print on the glass.

The car sped off from Ranganatittu onto the Bangalore - Mysore highway.

The heat, the sweat, the sunburns, and the slow boat ride were not something that we endured to get those rare glimpses of the exotic birds. They only added to the exciting experience amidst the angels.

Hope you had a good time living with me, my brief experience.

Read the rest of the interesting story at Kokkrebellur on your next visits to this space.

with warm regards,
Teju