An unofficcial bio of a friend... a dreamer... a fighter...

It is just not the photography she is passionate about, it is nature that attracts her, and she feels one with it.

Born into a lower middle class family in 1979, Vasudha which means “the Earth” was an eternal dreamer growing up. Her interests lay in finding the meaning of her existence on this planet and the purpose she was here for, this in her own words would be “The Journey into simple existence”.

Her true calling came in the year 2007, at Calcutta while watching a documentary about the clouded leopards, not even knowing such a species ever existed, she started researching about them and found that the leopards were soon going to be extinct and only twenty of them existed. These findings deeply hurt Vasudha and triggered those unanswered questions about her existence and her purpose in life. 

Her soul began to question the mind and her thoughts went berserk looking for answers. She travelled across the country, first to Kaziranga where according to her; found the new her who she fell in love with. Her journey to Manas, gave her a purpose and the very purpose has brought her to Nilgiris where she resides and pursues her passion, Wild Life photography.  

Her work and achievements have been recognised by publications like Planet Earth, India and DNA.  I was a journalist once and I am amazed by the coverage her work gets without any PR. To learn,  She is the only woman wild life photographer living in the jungles and pursuing her passion gives me an immense sense of pride to have known her. 

She is so cut off from the world we live in… yet she is sought out... For people want to know…her story…

Vasu...

It is just not the photography she is passionate about, it is Nature that attracts her, and she feels one with it. She see’s the team work in ants. She feels motherly love in elephants. She loves the smell of the earth and she feels that that’s the fragrance she carries around. Vasudha  which means “the Earth” is on a quest to learn, not from books or people, but from wildlife and Nature in particular. It may be from a dung beetle or a tiger. She feels there is lot to learn from them and every human should understand that. Her interests lay in finding the meaning of her existence on this planet and the purpose she was here for, this in her own words would be “The Journey into simple existence”.

Devala Hatti , A tribal hamlet and the tragedy..

An eventful Saturday morning started a bit early than usual, I still sleep like a baby, so ten thirty is kinda early.. We started out to Gudlur as my friend had to meet a few tribal leaders in Nadgani and we had pick a friend on the way too.. its quite a journey through the ghats as we hummed slowly on the curves to Gudlur.. . We met the friend, filled up some fuel and head out to Devala Hatti which is a Panniyar tribal hamlet. Driving through a vast expanse of tea estates is really very dreamy.. you will not but think of those yesteryear movies and the actors romancing in tea estates...coming across bridges and little water falls. Tea pickers with their huge baskets of freshly picked tea leaves, the people from the tea factory and guards all make for the human population here with the exception of a few tourists taking pictures that families usually take :-P 


The Hamlet is a nice drive towards the interiors from Nadgani town and it is pleasantly warm compared to Kalhatty and Ooty. There are tea plantations but in the plains for a change, I came across betel nut trees too.. quite a contrast I figured. The major difference was the presence of grasslands than the Sholas ( Evergreen forests). The hills around this area had tall grasslands which is a perfect recluse for Leopards, Cheetah's and Elephants too coz they love this grass I was told by Vasu.

We managed to get to the Tribal leader Kariya's place, I had watched him on TV jus a few days ago talking about road kills in and around Masinagudi and Madumalai forest range. The guy who made the documentary was there too.. The hamlet is a handful of houses with a well and a courtyard which is the common meeting place for all the houses. The kids were full of life and very noisy as kids these days are playing around the hatti  while a few volunteers from Europe took pictures of their smiles. I saw the women dressed in their usual  tribal attire and were grooming each others hair. As my friend had things to discuss with the leader, me and Pruthvi walked towards the tea estate and lit up and had some Grape fruit we picked up by the road earlier.

We started off from there in jus a bit, and headed back towards the Hunting lodge. We have to pass through the Pykara Lake and Needle Rock which are tourists spots and you can imagine the humdrum it creates in the weekend.. it is quite crazy. We quickly moved away from there and as we were nearing Naduvattam I sighted a Nilgiri Langoor sitting by the road, this species is a black primate with a golden mane around its neck.. a magnificent specimen who is almost being hunted town to extinction for its flesh and fur. As we continued, we were in for a shock, my friend shrieked, a vehicle had knocked off an adult Nilgiri Langoor :( another road kill.. It was disheartening to see such a beautiful being.. lying dead.. motionless.. there were other Langoor's near by and we had to be vary.. this species and a couple of other species of primates eat their dead.. We had one eye on the tribe as we slowly lifted him off the road and placed him to the side of the road.. there were tears in my friends eyes as she bid a final goodbye to the soul wishing him peace as he rests.

Far from the madenning crowds

Somethings which were not meant to change  have changed. Man has intruded upon what is not rightfully his and then is pushing the natives of the land to the brink. This change has had effects which cannot be written or spoken about.. The shots in the air have become a common occurrence as I continue my stay in the hills and the forests. Men r awake the whole night by the fire protecting their vegetables from Sambars, Bisons and ofcourse Sadhu.. The animals are trying to just get back what is theirs but are in a fix, they don't seem to understand why they are being sent away from their own habitat. They are getting closer to the cottage, We met Sadhu again, being chased away by glaring lights and of course shouts and shots in the air..He just wanted to stroll around,have a bite but he had to turn back and head deep into the woods. :( So can we blame the people, of course not.. they have been living here too.. the tribals deserve their piece of nature too, they dont have lands of their own, they lease out lands from estate owners and work 24/7 growing carrots, greens and potatoes. The earning is not much to say about and they all lead tough lives. Children have to walk to school, almost 10 kms a day. The basic amenities like electricity and water is present, and can take a beating if the weather worsens. The shutdowns take days to fix coz of accessibility, the rains throw life in the hills outta gear. People here live normal lives and their have their share of hardships. I listen to people talk bout the way they have overcome many a rainy day.. eating jus potatoes. Bringing up children and still living the hard life but with a hope of a better tomorrow.. I might be far from the maddening crowds but not too far away from the madness.

Life Aint Easy

There is something called a balance in life, some place in your journey when everything is balanced and your at your comfortable best, if somebody out there has found  that balance, give me a insight as to what is??

Every day I live, I go through an experience, Im at a stage where ive come across people and places, I have had an inclination towards some of them, some majorly influence me.. others jus left an imprint... I take the good things and move on.. coz i am like that.. m a drifter.. and let me tell you something.. evrything that seems nice is not always what it is.. one thing is for sure.. if you give up, stop lovin yourself, you are lost. There is nothing like thanking yourself to be born as human, i mean it wouldnt be the same if you were born as a house fly right.. Living whatever you are here for is what makes your journey interesting.. Everyone wants to be happy.. without problems.. but hey, you wudnt be livin then.. you would only be foolin yourself sayin you are happy.. but one is not content, one cant be content.. coz its not us.. we jus want the best of everything.. we are ready to compromise..adjust.. but we have our qualms, we take off on others, we judge each other.. livin a shallow life with shallow thoughts.

I am the most selfish human you cud eva meet, yeah why not, i like good things in life and i want to live it my way.. I dun think bout ma friends and folks before i head out to a journey, i think of me becomin one with the supreme.. i take a route which reaches to him the fastest, the forests, the hills, the ocean coz its life,, every moment there is something new coming to life in these places. I seek the hidden joys by myself n then maybe let others know.. I want my space, in the place i dwell, I want to do things at my pace.. I am selfish in every which way that is possible.. but i am livin it according to my own frequency. So am I happy..

Well.. Life Aint Easy.. :( but Im not stoppin my friend.. :)

Present State of Mind :-D

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar :
I love not man less, but Nature more...
                         - Lord Byron

Misty Calm

http://www.facebook.com/smokieswamy#!/album.php?aid=289712&id=647245934&ref=mf

In his Territory

I had the whole day to myself, my friend had errands to run and I had work, which I managed to finish in one sitting thanks to this place. Its amazing what a place can do to you, I imagine living and working in a place like this, where your creative juices just flow, Not that im creative but whatever I do involves a lil bit of it :-P but then again, reality strikes.. its just not that easy as you think. What my friend is doing needs a lot of will n raw guts. I admire her for what she is and what she wants to do.

Antony was around to have a conversation and he made some awesome potato maggi which I relished, after which he left. I was all alone now and time does stop still out here. I enjoy my space but it does get lonely sometimes. I loitered around the house, read for a while, and finally decided to take a walk and explore. The cottage is quite aloof from the main gate of the estate and no one enters the estate other than a couple of people who work for the owner. Curious to find the source of the waterfall I could hear at a distance, I walked towards the sound and found " Kalhatty falls", though just a trickle now, coz of the lack of rains this year, It must be quite a spectacle to watch when the waters full.

I strolled a little further when it started drizzling and all of a sudden It was misty all over, I was surrounded by a foggy blanket and the whole place looked surreal. Vasu had told me bout these crazy changes in weather here and to me this place seemed enchanted. I could see the mist rise from the valley below up to to me and go all the way up to the Hunting Lodge. The mountain range was quickly engulfed in white and I started to head up. I could hear a swishing sound as I neared the cottage and as I looked up to see, I stood still. It was the tusker, Sadhu at the top of the hillock just behind the house. He stood tall, feasting on the tall grass, the swishing sound was his trunk ripping grass off the ground as it it were strands of hair. My joy knew no bounds but I was nervous too. I knew I had to be quite, so I walked towards the cottage and towards Sadhu, at one curve I was face to face to the handsome fellow and I could not but stand still and look at him in awe. I was cautious not to intrude as he went bout doing what he was.. feasting. I had met the alpha male in the flesh and I was ecstatic. He looked at me once, disinterestedly... and I felt small, like a negligible part of his land. An outsider in his territory.

The sounds of nature

The thing that strikes you most when you are in the midst of nature are the sounds. The birds in the morning, the wind throughout the day flirting with the trees, the bumble of a bumblee bee dancing on glass, shouts of men trying to scare off monkeys or boars in the valley below or the many sounds that insects make.. and Oh yes, the exited tourists whistling and howling by the road which leads to ooty. You can hear the sounds so loud and clear. As if they are right there in your head.

I jumped at the sound of a shot in the air the first time I heard it, they usually shoot an air shot to ward off any wild animals who get too close to the farms or estates I was told. The sound of a gun shot is like a crack in the sky, its almost man made thunder. I am getting used to the three to four air shots in a day and cant help but wonder how it might sound to the animals.

As we took a walk in the estate and the wet path lead us to a small reservoir and a natural stream flowing downhill. The sound of a flowing stream has something that soothes me immensely, im sure it does to a lot of people too. Standing at the bridge listening to the gentle gurgling of water was indeed very peaceful. On the walk back through the trail , we came across elephant dung at a few places, signs that Sadhu is around... somewhere in the hills.

The sound of rain is pure bliss and is even special when you walk under the foliage of trees overhead, it creates a music very rare, I am loving it here and was more than happy to get drenched in the rain on the way back to the cottage. The sounds continue to haunt me as the night sets in, the crickets and the frogs creating a harmony of sorts as I drift to sleep tuned into Indian ocean rendering Ma Rewa.. at the faintest volume, just perfect so it blended with " Sounds of Nature".

Hunting Lodge

I finally met my friend who was waiting at Thatneri, It had stopped raining as we walked downhill to the cottage, we spotted a few spidey's and bull frogs on the way to finally reach the place. It was dark but the silhouette of the Nilgiris opposite the cottage is just spell binding, we are at the center of a hill overlooking the landscape. Ooty is to the other side of the hills facing the Hunting Lodge, the flickering lights of vehicles on the Ooty road look magical as they ascend the hills. The traffic comes to a standstill at 9, though the vegetable trucks can be seen tackling the curves. Its suddenly night and there is a lull about the place.. that's when the silence sets in, only to be broken by the music from wind chimes, creating a sense mystery about this place.

I can feel the cold now, I have to wear slippers to keep myself warm, as we sipped on some hot coffee, Vasu spoke bout the tusker who visits the cottage, and the last sighting was the morning of the day I arrived. How I wish would be lucky enough to see him too, Im gonna be around, so hopefully I would get to meet " Sadhu".

I had only eaten in the morning and was quite hungry, and talking bout food, the freshest of fruits and vegetables are grown right here on the hills, so im in for a treat :-P. After an awesome dinner of spicy rajma and paratas. I found myself a nice corner to look at the mist covered mountains beyond and listen to a waterfall somewhere in the distance with a smoke. Ah.. can it get more peaceful than this. Yes it can, said my friend, just wait for the day to break.

My space here is a lovely room with a window which opens out to the valley, a cosy little room which would be home for a week. I was reading More Twisted by Jeffrey Deaver, a collection of short stories which is quite riveting. I just wanted to catch up on a few pages before i crashed. I heard something, a flutter of wings, and there it was. a bat flying right across my face, I ducked under the blanket, only to lift my head out in a bit and whooosh again.. the bat just missed my face, I stayed longer inside the blanket this time around and slowly crept to shut the lights and close one door, keeping one open so it could fly out. I could hear it flutter around for a while before it flew out but not before giving me a.... " Welcome to the Hunting Lodge" look :-D

From the mist.. to the clouds

I was finally gonna be visiting The Hunting Lodge, Vasu's Abode De Awesum :-) this journey to the mystic hills of Nilgiris was long pending.. my last visit to the hills was bout 6 months ago to the other side, Masinagudi.. I remember driving up to ooty and Vasu showin us this place from a distance and saying " Im gonna be livin ther!!" Live.. She is.. to the fullest.. n yaaaay m glad im here.. I had such an interestin journey.. I took the wrong bus, which took me like five n a half hours thru Gudlur and then to Naduvattam and then to Sholur. I had to get down at a sign saying " Sholur panchayath , Welcomes You" as per Vasu's instructions :) i spoke to a few co passengers n they were all so friendly, its something with the people living in the hills, Innocence.. they are always warm, welcoming and when your new to their land, they make sure you are properly guided to your destination.. I truly feel the hill people r the last of the " Good People" that are left today. They are inquisitive, want to know what brings you to their land.. and guess what everyone knows n speaks Kannada, I never felt so good, I mean I cant speak or understand tamil..everyone speaks Badaga in these parts of the hills,but were happy to converse with me in Kannada which made my hike in the hills a good one.. Badaga which is the local dialect and a the one of the largest tribes have a history of 400 years. I finally reached Sholur and I had to hike for another km before I could meet Vasu n the hike downhill for another 3 kms to reach the house.. The weather had changed immensely throughtout the journey, from being pleasant to cold to misty and finally to rainy n wet. I met Ponnanna on the way and he worked at Sophia Estate which is where Vasu resides. So i was at all times with company, safe n being taken to a world away from the buzz of humanity, to a place where the mist kisses the clouds.