If you are not a trained snake-handler, avoid fooling with snakes and do NOT ever handle with bare hands, unless it’s a serious emergency. However, if inclined to do so or you need to handle snakes for study or photography, use a snake hook or better still, a snake grabber/ tong, specially designed for the job. Nowadays, there is snake handling equipment available in the market (especially, in the Western countries), which is professionally produced. Also, one should never handle venomous snakes when alone, even if you are an expert, unless there is emergency. One must learn handling of snakes, under the guidance of a well-trained snake handler. One must store live snakes in cloth-bags, which should be made of strong cloth and check for holes and weak points along the seams. Must replace these snake bags, at the beginning of every monsoon season, as these get weaker with exposure to moisture, and a snake can tear open the bag by pushing its head through weak cloth. Avoid handling snakes for fun or `show-off’’ or to be a `macho-man’; it is not worth it. Remember, anti venom serum also can cause death (some people are allergic to serums), in many cases it may lead to complications and result in ever lasting side-effects e.g. some experts have lost limbs. So, never fool around with snakes without a clear purpose.

ADVISORY:

• Never feed a snake with live rat, when its in a cloth snake-bag. Usually, snakes avoid attacking its prey in such close places, in effort to avoid any injury ensued from the scuffle for grabbing its prey. Snake will not attack it’s prey for long, will keep lying in ambush to administer a venomous bite to immobilize the prey and rat (prey) will remain alive. It will get enough time to attempt to make an escape from the bag, by chewing a hole through the snake-bag. It happened at my place, when a Russell’s viper made an escape at my place, in August 2000.
• Snake bags should be made of dark and thick cloth which is usually meant for trousers. In the West, one gets ready-made snake bags.
• Never pin down a snake and hold from the neck, very dangerous. Unless, you are doing some serious work and it needs to grab it’s neck.
• Never indulge in any kind of conversation, while handling a venomous snake. First of all, finish the handling of the snake, which is in your hands for specific purpose and place the snake in secure place and then talk. Many snake-handlers have got bitten in such a way.
• Snakes are known for making great escapes and give surprises all the time. Beware !!!

Snake Handling Equipment: Venomous snakes should never be handled with bare hands, no matter how expert one is. There are specially designed equipment/ gadgets being sold in the international market for herpetologists i.e. hooks, tongs, gloves, shoes, bags, etc. These come in various sizes and shapes, made of variety of materials.

WORD OF CAUTION: Please do not use locally made contraptions, which you have not been tested by yourself. Try and fabricate hooks with good material i.e. a broken golf club makes a very good snake-hook. Best is to buy a tested and tried equipment produced by a branded company, its worth any price. Always, make snake-bags of dark colour cloth, as snakes love dark area to be comfortable when disturbed.

Snake Keeping: Avoid keeping venomous or unknown snakes as pets. Remember, that they pose serious hazard not only to you, but also to your family and neighbours. Also, I advise that as Indians we should NOT try keeping snakes as pets and there are a few reasons for that. First of all, it is illegal to keep snakes as pets in India, all are protected under WILDLIFE PROTECTION ACT. Only a researcher could do that to study the behaviour of snakes, even then a formal permission from the wildlife department has to be sought for the purpose. It is hard to understand the requirements of snakes, especially at different times under different circumstances, for different purpose i.e. sickness, special diet, growth, baby feed, etc. Also, in India we do not have good support system for such pets i.e. special food, equipment, clinics etc. Snakes could die easily under stress, which is caused by frequent handling and variation in temperature around them. One of the most difficult aspects of snake-keeping, therefore, is gaining the expertise required to know when things are not right; spotting the subtle differences in behaviour patterns, which indicate that the animal is struggling to survive.

In India, snake-keeping is regarded as a somewhat suspicious occupation, carried out by a few, rather weird enthusiasts. We do not have any stock which is captive bred in zoos or pet-shops. All the snakes available through snake-charmers are caught from the wild, which means depletion of environment, affecting your ecosystem adversely.

So, I would like to advise you to never keep a snake as a pet and deny him his basic `rights of freedom’, as they are NOT meant to be in captivity. Also, avoid environmental depletion.

Legal Aspects: All reptile species are protected in India, through listing in the country’s wildlife conservation legislation – Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Keeping snakes without a proper legal permission would invite an `uncomfortable place’ in jail.

NOTE: Soon, I will be selling snake tongs and snake hooks, basically to raise funds for the Snake Cell and to help snake enthusiasts have easy access to snake handling equipment/gear.

What I know and can say about the Sikhs is that they are an unparallel race on this earth. Sikhs are the most brave and bold people, full of pride and self-esteem, most warm and kind hearted of all, uniquely handsome with their attire, well built; all this makes them unique. The self-esteem and pride is unmatched – you will never find a Sikh beggar on roads. They are the best when you request them for a photograph, no questions asked from photographers and ever-willing to be photographed with smile on their face.

The Sikh soldiers enjoy very special place in the Indian army, they are known as the `THE BRAVEST OF BRAVE’ and have the highest gallantry awards to their honour, won in all the battle field. The stories of Sikh gallantry are unmatched in the world. Though, I did not serve with Sikh troops, but had close interaction with them in Sri Lanka, where I served as an IPKF member for 18 months. They were bold like no one ! Their military history is full of unmatched valour and grit.  Their contribution to the British Empire, as soldiers is very much appreciated by the British, even today.

They are traditionally generous to travellers and there is no bar to caste and creed or religion, when it comes to hosting a traveller. Though, materialism and modern `rat race’ have taken its toll of that unique feature of Sikhs to great extent in modern times. If one is travelling and finds a Gurudwara (Sikh temple), and one needs shelter and food even at odd hours, just walk in and you will be welcome to be their guest. I have never enjoyed photographing any other place as much as I have at the Golden Temple; its open 24 hours, no restrictions, free kitchen, cleanliness of the highest grade, water, bathrooms, rooms to stay, etc. Since, Sikhs are very prone to political interference in their religious places as well. Most political parties reach the people of Punjab via religion and have political offices in Gurudwaras.  Off late, when I went to Golden Temple, I was shocked to face the irrational restriction for the use of tripods in Golden Temple, which is really sad.

Sikhs are workaholic, this trait has made them the most successful farmers in India and have proved it even overseas. They believe in this philosophy `work like a horse and enjoy like a king’. Also, they have acumen as transporters and they dominate transport business all over the country, they are leaders in the automobile spare-parts business as well. They are bold to explore any place on earth to make wealth.

The biggest worry of the custodians of this religion is that young generations are diluting the values which were well guarded for centuries. The menace of drugs is engulfing the health of youth in Punjab, which is affecting Sikhs as well. It has lead the youth to be casual towards values and respect for the teachings of their Gurus.

They are very interesting people to know, till you do not get on to their wrong side !!!

DISCLAIMER : This post is NOT to promote or support any religion. Sikhs are like any other subject to me, as a photographer. I have not written anything about religion here, so NO controversies please. These are my own views. Do not try to dig things out of a mole hill. All religions are respect worthy. My religion is ONLY to be a `good human-being’.

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One day in the summer of 2006, Ms Bharti Sharma, our family friend, who is a graphic designer, came to visit us. She had just returned from Egypt, after spending about a year on her professional assignment. Rajbir and me were glued to our chairs, with all ears to her travelogue narration. We got so engrossed listening to Bharti, we even forgot to offer any customary drink or something to eat to her. While listening to her, my wife and me realised that a visit to Egypt was our common dream, which remained only in our subconscious minds. Somehow, we never got around to ponder over the subject together. May be considering it a bit far fetched in our minds, or simply it just never came up for discussion. I think, most of us do drift into dreamy wishes occassionaly while chatting, but even that never happened over the numerous cups of tea, which we both love sharing to discuss life and its goodies, twice a day. We both were quite amazed over the mystery of our hidden common desire for a visit to Egypt. We discovered our intense love for Egypt only through Bharti, when we both poured our hearts to her about Egypt. Moreover, I think, we are so used to travelling in total comfort, onboard our Kingcobra (motorhome) that we never put our minds together to plan any trip to Egypt. Also, the most tricky thing is the process of choosing a tour operator, who can either shatter your dreams and make it as the most bitter travel of lifetime, or make it wonderfully memorable trip of life time. Probably, did not have the courage to go through that.

I was quite amazed when Rajbir was expressing her wish to visit Egypt repeatedly, like a child does, to Bharti. And we pulled our chairs closer to Bharti to hear her with curiosity, like babies hear interesting story of fairies, and it gave us a feeling as if we were inching towards Egypt. I looked at Rajbir in amazement that how come I never knew about her this dream and wish for a visit to Egypt. As we had set out on a journey through Egypt, day dreaming, with lively narration by Bharti, we often interrupted her with volley of questions. I am sure, many times Bharti must have had headaches with us, as our questions and curiosity were that of kids. Now, I did not want to have a rush trip to Egypt, which is usually organised by a tour operator, you miss so much in that regimented group tour. So, I was trying to discover if there were other options like that of staying with one of Bharti’s friends in Egypt, who could accept us as `paying guests’ for two to three months. Bharti also gave us a brilliant idea of hiring an apartment in Cairo and stay there for three to four months and capture Egypt in our minds and with cameras as much as we wanted and at our own pace. This plan swept me off my feet and I was already soaring high in that dreamy world, day dreaming like I never did before in my life. I was gasping in awe and dream, I was getting restless and wanted to fly to Egypt anytime. All of sudden, Bharti got a call from her mother and she left for home, abruptly. We could not conclude anything concrete about our plans for Egypt, as we wanted some more info from Bharti. And thereafter, we could not meet Bharti till she got married. Should I say `Bharti left us in doldrums about Egypt’. That night, I could not sleep as I only dreamt about Egypt the whole night. But it seems, when you are passionate and madly in love for something, God gets on your side. Exactly, at this point a miracle took place. One day, I got a mail from Mr Sushil Gaur, whom I had met briefly at Haldwani (now in Uttrakhand state of India) at my cousin’s place, while travelling in our Kingcobra. After few months or a year, Sushil wrote me a mail that  eversince he saw me at Haldwani, he has been wanting to communicate with me. He said that he envys our life style, as he sees us swaying with the wind of life and enjoyed every whiff that came our way. Sometimes, even we wonder and enjoy about the will of God, that how exhilarating life we have been blessed with, so far, indeed.

Finally, Sushil fixed up a photography assignment for me with Eastmar Tours. The notice was too short to organise myself and my family for the Egypt tour. I realised that our small kids did not have passports and my own passport had expired. As I mentioned, when God is happy with your work, if passionately done, He decides to be on your side always. I wanted passports in four days and I could not dream of getting our passports before two weeks at least, by any means. As I was wondering how I will get all the passports, I got a phone call from Mr Ashwani Attri, a good photographer friend, who was the Accountant General of Haryana at that time, to meet him for something. On meeting, I asked if he could help me in getting the passports and he did, as he helped me in a proper legal way through proper channel and got me passports within four days, in `urgent category’. As it had happened too soon and too quick, Rajbir often said that she will believe about it only when our aircraft for Egypt will take off from Delhi. And one day soon, we were airborne for Egypt!

We, as a family, did a great memorable trip to Egypt, stayed in Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, the best was Nile Cruise. It was organised by Eastmar Tours. They have superb Nile cruise ships named as RA-I and RA-II. On our arrival on-board RA-II, we were pleasantly surprised, we had not expected it to be so mesmerising atmosphere on the ship. We had great views of the River Nile, right from our cabin itself. I must say Nile cruise is really an experience which one should never miss in life. I met many wetsern tourists on the same ship, who told me that its `dream come true’ tour for them. They all had heard a lot about Egypt and dreamt about the River Nile all their life.

I must appreciate that Eastmar has a great Chef and his team in the kitchen on board RA-II; food is superb and very hygienic (in fact certified). And that is what one wants on a tour, good safe food, good comfortable room!

I am told Eastmar Tours is the oldest tour operator company in Egypt, since 1939.

I am planning to organise photo tours to Egypt, soon, alongwith Eastmar. I have proposed Eastmar Tours to make all the arrangements for a good photo tours. If anyone desires, please contact via email wildhiss@gmail.com

In the photo galleries below, you will see all the photos of Egypt by me. I must say, its a highly recommended tour for anyone, even a 90 years old can do these tours.

Dervish Dance/ Sufi Dance Video

MORE ABOUT EGYPT

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St. Augustine

I love travelling!

My father has been my best teacher and trainer, before I set out on `solo flight’ in life. In fact, he taught me more than what the Indian army could about how to live with self-esteem and honour. He grilled plenty of civic sense first and made me good human being. He has been my trainer for developing my personality through various ways. I am amazed how he learnt all that, as he has been only a school teacher of a government primary school, where there is no scope of any exposure to an atmosphere which could instill this kind of character or personality in a teacher.

Its my father who initiated me into travel and active outdoor life. His perception about life has been far beyond average Indian parents. Its with this outlook that he trained me to be prepared to take on life on my own without any kind of external support, which most of other Indian kids always depend on their parents for every small thing. Unlike Indian parents, he had set a deadline for me to become self-reliant to earn my living. I still hear echo of those words often – Suresh, do not think this will go on forever, as fun while living on father’s money. He further said very firmly that he will not support me beyond 20 years of my age and he made it very clear to me in just few words. Often, Indian parents keep supporting their children all their life, keep interfering in their personal life often. They keep their kids under their own `protection umbrella’, so much that they never grow out of this `parental cocoon’. Now, I realized that how lucky I am to have father who groomed me well to be self-reliant. He made me bold to make my own decisions. My father supported me for whatever best education, diet, basic amenities he could afford. But he never asked me about which subjects I have opted for in college and he let me have freedom to set my own course in life. When I had just stepped into my college (S.D. College, Ambala Cantt.) for graduation in arts stream, at the same time I was also contemplating for professional colleges which could guarantee me a job after I complete my education. In those days, there weren’t much wider options for jobs and professional courses as are nowadays. My father told me that he is not going to impose any of his choice of profession or any professional education on me, I was free to make my own decisions. All this training took place so smoothly and quietly that I never realised, it made a me a man.

Since, crime was less in those days, life was much safer for a 15 years old boy, I travelled alone for long distances in overnight trains. Soon after I passed my tenth class, I travelled alone to other cities to seek admission in professional courses; travelled by overnight trains alone, explored life and liked it, made my own arrangements for travel and stay. It was unheard of  an Indian family, extending freedom to explore life to a raw lad of just 15. This phase changed my life and was a silent turning point in my life and attitude, changed perception to a great extent towards every aspect of life. Basics of cooking were taught to me at home, respect for elders drilled, respect for the system and the society was a must, teachers were the most respected, etc. Also, my father always encouraged me to buy good books other than text books, which was not a common practice around me. After exams, I was given money to fund my small projects i.e. I made my own guitar, a small television which was fitted with a slide projector (projector was made by me with local lenses), etc.

I remember, eversince I started walking, my father used to take me along for morning walks, exploring old buildings, temples, grave-yards, mosques, culture, jungle, etc. We used to walk long distances, go on bicycle trips, made me self-reliant, inculcated self-confidence in me, as a routine. He also motivated me a lot about the value of good health; its my father who could convince me so well against smoking that it had everlasting impact on my mind. In fact, my father encouraged me for anything good in life, never discouraged even if it had cost him extra money.

All these had prepared me to become a good traveller and fired quest for wanderlust, adventure and to enjoy the wonders of nature from close. I was enticed by the Indian army with the opportunities it offers to travel and pursue adventure, partly the influence of army cantonment in my town. My father never forced me to join the Indian army, but he had won my impressionable young mind with the library books about `war heroes’ of India. All things put together, these developed a very strong desire in me to join the Indian Army, not for a job but it was to be a soldier and had no second option in my mind.

I strongly believe that travel shapes one’s character and personality, inculcates a great amount of self-confidence, one starts respecting all cultures and religions, becomes more civic, makes you humble, realise the value of every small thing, one starts to respect even the smallest denomination of currency, fuss about anything is defused, respect for life and all the living things – making you a good human being above all.

I have been lucky to have got married to my `lady love’ Dr Rajbir Kaur, who is a Sikh by religion, but we both respect humanity and life more than religion. I never imposed anything on my wife, she took to traveling like `fish to water’ and that was a great asset to both of us towards a happy married life and towards our family. I have met some men who love traveling but their wives hate it; I think they have no idea how much of great fun of real life they deny to themselves and this makes life very drab and dull for both.

Its very easy to enjoy life – just be a good human being. And travel does that !

Blessed are those who love travelling !!!

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Snakes, however, play important environmental roles in the fragile ecosystems and can play a very important role in agriculture. They control the population of harmful rodents and pests, thus helping people. Though sometimes dangerous, snakes can be useful, and, as any living creature, they have the right to exist.

In spite of being the most dreaded animal, snakes evoke curiosity like no other animal on earth. I have observed that people love to look at snakes, even when they scream and shiver with the sighting of a snake. Snakes have always been on the centre stage of special attention in the folklore and mythology, all over the world. On seeing a snake, reaction varies from screams, detestation, advocating the extermination of snakes from earth, worship, urge to touch and feel, etc.

Snakes never harm you, unless they perceive threat from you, when you move too close or you step on them. They are like a naked electrical wire, maintain distance and you are safe; both are very useful to us.
Basically, it’s the lack of information which leads to fear and chaos. I have experienced that if people are given the right information, their fear will be reduced and the confrontation will be converted into being more friendlier.

My mission is to remove the fear of snakes from the minds of people and save the snakes. The Snake Cell is a unique step in this direction and undoubtedly has been effective, so far.

MISSION: SAVE INNOCENT SNAKES AND IGNORANT PEOPLE, WITH MY CAMERA

In the recent past, it has given us enough warnings, but our intense greed for materialistic world, makes us overlook all that. Recent recession is also one of the warnings, which is the result of our own follies, everything in over speeding mode – over over exploitation! I do not need to explain what kind of uncertainty we are facing, for everyone is aware. It will be over and we will live this recession, but its also a serious warning against our greed.

Everything on this beautiful planet Earth, has lived in synch and harmony with each other, except Man. All forms of life exploit resources provided by Nature, for their existence. So far, Man also lived by exploiting all the natural resources, but unfortunately, our desire to accumulate materialistic comforts beyond our needs has lead man to follow disastrous path. Now, all wise humans accept this fact, in unison.We could have always lived by burning wood and using wood for whatever we need; but never followed the rules of the `Kingdom of Nature’. Now, our irresponsible attitude of over-exploitation of natural resources has lead us all to a point where we scream to each other to not to use wood and what not. We are good at eyewash, lip-service, being selfish and greedy only; hard to mend our ways. How foolish we are ! Wood is one of the best and unique gifts of nature to us, there is no substitute to it, neither man has been able to make one. If we use wood judiciously, only for our needs, there will never be a shortage of wood ever on this earth. If we need it a bit more than our requirements, then we can always grow it commercially on both sides of roads, etc. The trouble has compounded, as we over-exploited our jungles and never replenish them. In fact, man can never replenish anything made by Nature, these virgin forests have taken millions of years to evolve. What we could do best, leave Nature alone to do its work !

Man should learn how to be sustainable consumers of our natural resources, even of man made materialistic things. Man should learn how to consume wood, paper, water, energy, and all its resources as a responsible living being on this earth. Also, generate less pollution, which is tarnishing the beauty of our beautiful planet. This earth belongs to all the denizens of this planet and creatures of Nature, not we alone.

“Of what I call God, And fools call Nature”, Robert Browning

Nature

nature is full of colors
with beautiful scented flowers
if your’e in a forest or a park
its nice even in the dark

nature is full of beasts and birds
with so many shrubs and ferns
its mountains are very high
they almost touch the sky

nature has its deserts
and nature has its plains
at times its sunny
sometimes it rains

nature is so pretty and bountiful
with snow covered peaks and sounds so beautiful
when people destroy nature, remember
we need nature for our future.

a poem by Rishi Menon (11 years old)

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Flowers are one of the most fascinating subjects for artists, and photographers have always been attracted by these wonders of nature, like bees do to flowers all the time. It’s one of the best ways to bring the beauty of flowers to you through photos, without killing them. A plucked flower lives only for a while, but a photographed flower lives far longer and with more grace and pride. My father never allowed us to pluck flowers, as kids. He always emphasised that flowers are to be admired on the branch of it’s own plant, its like killing someone. In India, flowers are offered to gods and goddesses in temples all the time; whereas my father has been vehemently against it. He has always wondered that how do people justify this criminal act of “killing’ so many flowers and then offering to God who makes them. Will He like this act of being cruel to His nature? And I agree with my father in total. Well, at the same time, I also would not deny the fact that in this world we live by exploiting nature and flowers have given livelihood to many millions of people.

Here, I will try to share my experiences about flower photography with you all, though, more through my own flower photos. Also, I will try to share some experiences in words, as most of you would be keen to know how a particular image was created.

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Petals

a poem by Amy Lowell

Life is a stream
On which we strew
Petal by petal the flower of our heart;
The end lost in dream,
They float past our view,
We only watch their glad, early start.

Freighted with hope,
Crimsoned with joy,
We scatter the leaves of our opening rose;
Their widening scope,
Their distant employ,
We never shall know. And the stream as it flows
Sweeps them away,
Each one is gone
Ever beyond into infinite ways.
We alone stay
While years hurry on,
The flower fared forth, though its fragrance still stays.

MISSION: SAVE INNOCENT SNAKES AND IGNORANT PEOPLE, WITH MY CAMERA

We all know that `an image is worth thousand words’!  I say that a good image is worth million words! Isn’t it?

So, I decided  to accomplish my mission by educating people about snakes and snakebite, basically to make them comfortable with the presence of snakes, through good quality photos. I strongly felt that good photos will project snakes as beautiful creatures and handsome, thus hoping that the hostile attitude of common man may get friendlier towards snakes after seeing their beauty through my photos.  So far, I have been encouraged by the remarks and comments of the viewers of every quality snake image I have shown to public through my websites, blogs and others forums on internet.

I am sure, this endeavour will save the snakes from being misunderstood, as most dreaded animals. There are reports that in pre-independence India, British government promoted extermination of venomous snake species from certain areas, though it turned out to be a futile effort. This indicates how hostile we can be against innocent creatures, without even making an attempt to understand our neighbours,  who cohabit this beautiful planet Earth. I do not blame the commoner squarely, as he struggles to muster for basics for his living. It’s the government agencies who have to organise the right type of educational material and effective strategy, which has had glaring failures in the field of  `nature conservation education’ so far. For the will to do quality work is missing at all levels in the government department of wildlife.

My endeavour will be to bridge the gap between  `INNOCENT SNAKES, IGNORANT PEOPLE’, through well written literature containing good information about snakes alongwith good quality images; common man needs it the most, to join hands to `SAVE OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET’.

Finally, I said, “What the heck, why I can’t do photos of snakes, so what if I am poor at this stage, if I start now then one day I shall create good snake photos”. That was enough to motivate me. I started trying my hand with snake photography, while using rescued snakes,  and as the time passed by, with practice I started getting reasonably good photos, ever since I have been improving. I am happy with the results.

Here, I would like to advise you to be careful about buying any camera equipment `on line’, especially the one you have not used before, one must refer existing users of equipment, first. I bought Canon macro lens 180mm L series and a 2x converter to compliment it, alongwith a Canon Ring Flash MR 14-EX. Soon, after some photography with snakes, I discovered that ring flash had no role in snake photography for me. Also, I realised that snake photography can be done with other lenses i.e. tele lens, wide angle lens, etc. Most people think that snake photography means macro lenses.

Now, I love doing snake photography, though I have a long way to go, before I can make my snake photos stunning for quality. I am dreaming to do some quality shots for the `snakes & snakebite poster’, which should be able to attract and stop any onlooker with its quality of images and get them read the text.

In the past, whenever I posted my snake photos on my Flickr account, I used to get mails from viewers, who were curious to know how to go about snake photography. And I was quite surprised that there wasn’t much on the subject on the net. Therefore, I decided to publish about this subject on the internet, in stead of writing individual mails. Be rest assured that I have explained all about snake photography on my own blog and websites, as much as I know, nothing has been hidden. I love to share my experiences and knowledge with everyone. So, this will be a sincere  endeavour to disseminate knowledge about snakes through my Canon.

Snake photography is not at all difficult, provided you know the snakes well (like you are supposed to know your subject well, in any branch of good photography), one should have a competent snake handler for the snake shoot, follow the safety instructions, suitable camera equipment, etc.

Many Flickr viewers have commented on my snake photos there that I am gutsy, bold, brave and what not. I do not agree with all that. Fact remains, when you know about snakes well and about the consequences of snakebite, you are more scared and respect snakes more ! Its a matter of practice and knowing your subject, keeping in mind the safety.

Good discipline is the key to snake photography!

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Rajasthan

The Thar desert with its rolling sand dunes and blinding blaze of summer heat, logically one expects to be driest and vegetable wise most barren state of the country, devoid of great forests or mighty rivers, to be noticeably poor in its wild flora and fauna – the reverse is proved true by Rajasthan having two tiger reserves (under Project Tiger – Asia’s most successful conservation story) and the most famous water-bird sanctuary in Asia. This rocky and rugged arid land divided into two by the world’s oldest hill range Arravali – with its unique and scanty vegetation hosts variety of the desert animal life – tiger, panther, hyena, chowsingha, neelgai, sloth bear, sambhar, desert cat, chital, chinkara, black buck, water fowl, jungle fowl and many species of migratory birds too.

Rajasthan is a treasure trove for travel photographers, as it renders wide spectrum of opportunities with the colourful dresses of folks and folk art, fairs & festivals, handsome people with superb features for portraits, amazing buildings (forts, havelis, palaces, villages), mesmerising landscape, rich culture, etc. I have met many international photographers and travellers who love to visit Rajasthan every year, they have fallen in love with Rajasthan. I have been lucky to have got posted in Rajasthan for one year in 1989, while I was in service.

Now, I love travelling in my caravan (named as Kingcobra) in Rajasthan, the best way to travel in this region. Trust me, no other means of travelling has match to a caravan in these plains, where people and terrain is good for safe travel.

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