A palette of vermilion

Pictures of "Boron" and "Sindoor-khela" from our neighborhood Durga Puja on Dashami :-)
Flickr Album

Shubho Bijoya from a troop of monkeys @ our terrace

BaNdor r baNdrami
Today morning a troop of monkeys came and greeted us "Shubho Bijoya" :-). There were six or seven of them - jumping, dancing, thinking, eating, playing, chasing each other -- so funny. They were sitting first on our neighbor's terrace, then they came to our terrace and jumped on to our mango tree.

I never looked up the name of these species before. Now browsing pictures on the Internet, I think they are black-footed gray langur. They are also known as Northern plains gray langur (Semnopithecus entellus) or Hanuman langur which are the species of primate in the Cercopithecidae family.

                                                            

So these gray lengurs are our distant cousin (Thanks to Pokai for pointing it out).

Here are the photos: Flickr Album

Traditional House Puja @ North Kolkata

Historical anecdotes always fascinates me and if it is about old Kolkata, then it's magical. I can listen to these old stories for hours. Surprisingly, on Maha-Ostomi I had an unique chance to visit some of those very traditional old pujas with WB tourism. The tour was fantastic. It was like going back to those old time and revisit our old Kolkata. There are few famous house-puja in North Kolkata (Uttor Kolkata) that are still carrying that old traditional style puja.  They are also known as "Bonedi barir sabeki puja" (traditional house puja). We started the tour around 8am and finished around 1pm.

First we visited Rani Rashmoni's house at Janbazar (central Kolkata). It was started around 1780. Padmamoni Dasi and her husband Rajchandra Das were the main organizers. This puja was sanctified by Ramakrishna.  He performed this puja in special "Sakhibesh" attire. Bhog is cooked with holy Ganga water.

After that we went to Chandra bari. Bharat Chandra, the head of this family, came to Kolkata from Nadia in 1781 to avoid "Borgi invasion". "Ganesh Chandra Avenue" was named after Ganesh Chandra who was one of this family members. Goddess Durga is decorated with "Daker Saaj" and it is an "Ekchala" thakur. The "Thakurdalan" was really gorgeous.

Chattubabu-Latubabu's house was next. This puja was started in 1780. Ramdulal Deb, ancestor of two famous Babus - Ashutosh Deb (Chattubabu) and Pramath Nath Deb (Latubabu) started this puja.
As a tradition, a "Neelkantha" bird (a model bird was kept inside) was set free on the day of immersion.

Next was Khelat Ghosh's house. It is one of the important "Bonedi bari"-r pujos. Many legendary musician came here and performed at this place including Ravishankar. This puja is 166 years old. The "Thakurdalan" is one of the largest of such structures in Kolkata.

Finally we arrived at "Shovabazar Rajbari". Raja Nabakrishna Deb started this puja in 1757 to commemorate the victory in the battle of Plassey by Lord Clive. This puja is performed according to the "Brihadnandikeshwar Puran". "Daker Saaj" was totally awesome. This "Rajbati" organizes two different puja at two different addresses, almost next to each other. We were given coupon for "Bhog" here. What a delicious lunch to end our trip :). The "Bhog" consists of - luchi, chholar daal, dhoka, pulao, paneer curry, chatni, papad, laddu and jilebi :) ... yessss a total yummy meal !!!

This was an amazing experience.  Especially during Durga Puja, visiting those old "bari"s in Kolkata undoubtedly added a special showcase in my memory.

Here is the album: Flickr Album

Kolkata pandal-hopping on maha-sasthi

Durga puja is like new year to us. We, the bongo-sontans*, plan everything for these five days. There is absolutely no comparison between Durga puja in Kolkata and anywhere else in the world. After 12 years finally I had the chance to do pandal-hopping on maha-sasthi day of Durga Puja. I got down at Kalighat by metro and started walking. It was a really awesome experience after so many years. It took me about five hours to cover my area of interest and finally ended up at Jadavpur thana. The entire walk made me so nostalgic. Weather was not so bad, little humid though. Mudiali, Seba sangha, Gorchha, Madox Square, Hindustan Park, Ballygunge cultural, Tridhara, Ekdalia, Singhi park, 95 Palli, Jodhpur park, Babubagan, Selimpur and others were among those. Theme based puja now a days is very popular. Decoration was gorgeous. I also tried to take a peek at the tallest Durga in Deshpriya park, but due to huge crowd the police closed it for public viewing. Smell of the street foods, road side merchandize stalls, sounds of dhaak, exciting faces of teenagers - everything was just so Kolkata-ish :) It was an one-of-a-kind experience that took me 12 years back in time, reminding me of those college days in Kolkata - our ever-special kollolini tilottoma.

*bongo-sontans = bengali-kids

Here is the map:

Here is the album: Flickr Album

Voyageurs NP and Porcupine Mountains SP

Day 0 and Day 1

Labor day long weekend is the last long holidays before Thanksgiving. This time I thought I would visit Minnesota. So I planned a trip to Voyageurs National Park. It is about 10hrs drive from my place. As the name suggested this park is primarily built for accessing through boats. As I could not do much of the water activities, I thought a visit to a very popular state park in Michigan - Porcupine Mountains State Park (a.k.a Porkies) would compensate that :)

I did few hiking trails in Voyageurs. Most craziest things were colorful mushrooms. They were everywhere. I was really fascinated by their gorgeous colors. Not many ppl actually were hiking in those trails, so I enjoyed the serene beauty of mother nature. It has been raining during that week, so the color of the leaves in the trees, color of the moss and of course the smell of the soil after the fresh rain were spectacular.

To my surprise, two of my old friends (who now live in Minnesota) agreed to join on a very short notice. They brought a bbq kit with them and after our hike we enjoyed bbqing in a picnic area. Oh! yes, it was lamb :)

I camped in the Echo lake area. As usual I got there when it was dark :P When I started to put my tent down, it started to drizzle. After an hour that drizzle became a thunderstorm. My poor tent somehow survived the whole night (I was surprised). I never realized that it could rain so hard !!  This national park has five pack of wolves. So sleeping inside my tent with thunderstorm outside and listening to wolves howling -- it was quite an experience !

Next day I met Tim, Bret and another friend of them. They were from northwest side of Minnesota.
Tim and Bret were actually taking preparation for their upcoming marathon. I also met with the only bar owner in the town, Dan. He was very nice and kind enough to let me use his telephone to make a call.
Here are the pictures from the park Flickr Album 

Day 2 and Day 3

Next day I drove another 5.5 hrs to reach Porcupine Mountains State Park in Upper peninsula, MI. This is a state park right next to lake superior, the largest of the great lakes in North America. It was five already, so I quickly put down my stuffs in the designated camping spot and started hiking so that I can see some waterfalls.
The campground was beautiful. It is in the west side of the park and called Presque Isle campground.
But again thunderstorm came to sing with me but this time with a larger musical band. Around 2am in the morning I discovered that I was floating with my sleeping pad inside my tent, water everywhere. I was cold too. So I had to abandon the plan to sleeping inside the tent for rest of the night. Instead I went and slept inside my car :)
Next morning I did few hikes. Among them, Lake of the clouds was really pretty. Around 3pm I got really hungry and was looking for food inside the park. But I was unable to find a place to eat. I planned to drive a bit outside (towards Silver city) and discovered an awesome roadside food stall "Curbside Kitchen". Foods were delicious. This was a homemade food joint that run by Nancy and Bob, who were super nice.
After that, I went to the beach along the superior lake and Iron river. The color of the water at the junction were really cool. Then I went inside the park again and did my final trail to the summit peak observation tower to take a look at the park from high above. It was very beautiful. I could sense that the fall has started and the color of the leaves will begin to change soon. Undoubtedly, this park will be a gorgeous place to witness the fall colors. I got back home around 12 am and with my leftover lunch I finished the day with a great dinner :)

Here are the pictures from the park Flickr Album

Air & Water Show, Chicago

I went to the 57th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show (August 15 & 16, 2015) [official link]. Amazing skills were shown by those brave pilots. It was really an awesome show.

Here is the Flickr Album. 

Seattle - Cityscape

Last week I was in Seattle. It is a beautiful city with an old touch.
The roads, markets, food reminded me of Kolkata. I roamed around the city and took some pictures.
There are so many interesting people all over the town. Musics and street foods were very cool !!
I really enjoyed my stay :-)

Here are the pictures: Flickr Album

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park is located in the state of Washington, in the Olympic Peninsula.
The park has many regions: 
Pacific shorelines, Alpine/sub-alpine areas, Temperate rainforest and Valley.

Here are the pictures: Flickr Album

Square Roots Festival @OTS

Old Town School Of Folk Music organizes this Square Roots Festival every year over the weekend (This year 10th-12th July).
Lots of music, musical workshops, performance, kids activities, foods, shops !!
Flickr Album 

Taste of Chicago

Flickr Album for Taste of Chicago at Grant Park

Independence day celebration @ Chicago

4th of July Fireworks display at Navy Pier. We gathered at Adler Planetarium's ground to catch sight of it :-)
Here are few pictures:  Flickr Album

IL Beach State Park

It was more like a wild flower trail. Flowers were gorgeous :)
Here is the album  Flickr Album

Great Plains @ Western South Dakota

I was planning to go to Badlands since I moved here in Chicago area. But somehow it was not happening. But this time, I got company and we drove to South Dakota finally.

Our goal was to visit Custer State park, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and of course Badlands NP.
We saw lots of wildlife both in the state park and in the national park as well.
We had to face rain and cloudy sky multiple times but due to crazy light and shadow setting some of the pictures turned out very interesting.

It was a long drive but paid off really really well :) Badlands is a beautiful gorgeous national park and perfectly justify its name :) [ I am giving it a nickname - "Bindaas Badlands"].

We camped for 2 days - one night at state park and another night at Badlands. Both campsites were very nice and well equipped. There was light/medium rain in the night while we were at our tent trying to sleep. In fact rain sound was rather relaxing and helped us to sleep well :) [or we were extremely tired, who knows ]

On the second night of our camping we had to eat outside of the park. There is a tiny city [population is only 67] called Interior. We went to a local bar [Horseshoe bar] and owner baked us a pizza :) and there were 7 people in that bar [ so ~10% of total population :P]. We met two other persons there - Martina and one of her friends [Carmelita ?]. They informed us about a good breakfast service in the park and we had that in the next morning and that was pretty good.

We reached home at 3:30 am after a 12-hour drive :) Altogether we had to drive 2000+ miles in this trip :) 

Here are the picture albums:

Custer State Park: Flickr Album

Badlands National Park: Flickr Album

Also check out Abhishek's album on Flickr : Album

Mount Mitchell State Park @NC

Blue Ridge parkway is one of the beautiful driveways in the East coast. We went to Mount Mitchell State Park/Black mountain area last week. We camped one night at the state park and another night at Curtis Creek (in Pisgah National Forest). Weather was wonderful.

We met two very interesting persons - David and Dennis.
David is an adventurer, photographer, blogger and nomad (according to his card). He is traveling with his motorcycle.
Dennis volunteers to host in Curtis Creek campsite. He practically lives there with his family.

Here are some pictures:

Flickr Album

Macy's Flower Show @ Chicago

Macy's annual flower show at Chicago was a very interesting flower show - an art-style theme based. They named it - "ART in BLOOM". Below are the artistic styles that they displayed with map.

It was a indoor show with really really bright lights. So the color/contrast adjustment in camera was a nightmare for me. But anyway here are some pictures. I really liked the concept of this show.

Flickr Album

Orchid Show at CBG

Chicago Botanic Garden had an Orchid show. Here are some pictures Photos - Flickr

The Big Island of Hawaii

I had a chance to go to big island of Hawaii earlier this year (4-12th Jan).
It is an amazing place with the active volcanos, green landscape, shoreline, colored beaches (black/green/white/yellow) and of course fascinating people. To me it is like a compact form of our Earth :) in miniature version.
It was a very nice trip and my first time to any island.
My friend Emily was my travel buddy with whom I did multiple cool trips before. Check out her travel blog for details on this trip. We had lot of fun there.
http://vegandtravel.blogspot.com/2015/02/happiness-in-hawaii.html

We camped at four different places to explore various unique parts/features of this island.
Some of the unique experience that I had -  volcano hiking, swimming with sea turtle, swimming with dolphin, spotting whales. There were so much to do in a single trip.
Weather was super good !!! [specially when u compare the same time in Chicago :P]
I really enjoyed the beautiful green landscapes, tropical fruits, tropical flowers, colorful birds. All of the campsites were next to the pacific shoreline so we caught beautiful sunrise on few days :)

I tried to capture whatever I could but honestly it was too much for a machine.
You have to be there in order to appreciate the true beauty of the mother nature.

We met many interesting people on island -

Debra - She was in charge of the parking lot of the hotel I was staying at Kona. On the first night, I got there late at night and could not find any place to grab food. She was the person who gave me the address of the place that was open at that late hour and told me to try Katsu chicken. Although I ate pizza that time but I tried it later and found that it's a very nice dish and very similar to small Chicken Cutlet [friends from my state will know this :) ].

Our first Coconut man [forgot to ask his name] - who was in Chicago many years ago [what a coincidence !] and he still has a poster from Chicago Blues festival !!!

Ethan - our second coconut man [this time we asked his name]. He and his girlfriend (who is from Vermont) were volunteering in a local farm. He truly understood the type of the young coconut we were looking for. It was very refreshing.

Von - She runs a local restaurant where we had local fish curry, Indian style. She was very nice to give us some advice on sightseeing but I think she was too worried about safety on campsites in general.

Travis - I named him "The rocking ranger" of Volcanoes National Park. He was an awesome storyteller. We stood there and listened to his talk which was mostly about geographic/geologic/historical information on Hawaii volcanoes. His father was a surfer in the island and his childhood was spent on this island, so he had lot of stories to share and I was really mesmerized by all of his short stories.

Dan - On the last day of camping we met this person. He was in charge of the camping ground. On all other campsites, we could not find any body to show our permit. So I was excited to find one person to show the permit at last :) He showed us a good place near camp to watch dolphins and in the morning I saw there a flock of them swimming. He also suggested to go to Two-steps for snorkeling.

Well now the pictures. I arranged them in 3 parts.
First set is from my dslr.

First set - Flickr

Second set consists of photos from my underwater camera while I snorkeled. 

There are many great places to snorkel but we found two-steps (Honaunau Bay at South Kona, near city of refuge) is one of the best places to go for. Many locals have suggested that one too.

Second Set - Flickr

Finally in the third set, I have few underwater videos. Here is the youtube playlist link -

Short video - Youtube

UT/AZ trip

I visited Arches NP/Capital reef NP/Canyonlands NP/Moab/Monument valley and Saguaro NP with my three friends. It was an awesome trip. Although little cold, but views were just simply stunning :-)

Flickr album

Cloud Gate

This is Chicago's "Cloud Gate". [with 60D/10mm]. From two different angles.