Kaziranga National Park

The proposal to visit Kaziranga National Park came to me as a rather surprise.  While we were having a gala time at my eldest brother’s residence in Dibrugarh, my sister and her husband proposed me to visit Kaziranga.  Though at first I had no plan, I could not resist the proposal mainly for three reasons; first, I was hearing about Kaziranga since my childhood but never got a chance to visit the park and I had planned earlier with no avail, secondly I did not want to miss this opportunity as I did not know when another chance like this will knock at my door and thirdly I just wanna click, click, click.  So, without giving it a second thought, I said yes and the date fixed was January 30, 2013.

There was no direct bus to Kaziranga.  So, first we had to go to Jorhat, around 170 km from Dibrugarh.  We reached Jorhat at around 2 p.m. and decided to have lunch before moving to Kaziranga.  We went to a nearby restaurant and ordered rice, fish curry, mixed vegetables and salads.  The fish curry was delicious and I still remember the taste.  After lunch, we hired an Indica to Kaziranga and the driver told us that it would take around 1-1/2 hours.  We reached Kaziranga at around 6 p.m.  The driver was kind enough to drop us at a government lodge, namely Bonoshri Tourist Lodge and also booked us tickets for elephant safari the next day.  The staff at the lodge were very helpful and polite and showed us a beautiful room.  In fact, we were very happy to be able to spend the night in such a beautiful place.  One of the staff requested us to be there at the pantry at exactly 8 p.m. for dinner, which we complied.  We were provided with vegetarian food consisting of rice, pulse, a mixed vegetable dish, and salads.  The food was really good and we all liked the cleanliness maintained at the pantry.  There were some foreigners also, enjoying the meal.

Before I tell you my whole experience, let me first highlight the following points about this park.

Kaziranga National Park is situated in Assam.  It is a UNESCO world heritage site of India.  It is well known for Great Indian one horned Rhinoceros.

The best time to visit Kaziranga is during winters, from November till April.  Many migratory birds also visit the park at this time.  The climate condition also remains relatively cold during this time.

Habitat:  Nearly two-third of the park’s area consists of grasslands dominated by Elephant grasses.  The park has more than 180 wetlands of varying sizes.

Brief History of the Park:

1905    Preliminary notification as Reserve Forest.

1908    Final notification of Reserve Forest.

1916    Declared as “Game Sanctuary.”

1937    Sanctuary opened for visitors.

1950    Declared as “Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary.”

1974    Declared as “Kaziranga National Park.”

1985    Inscribed as “World Heritage Site.”

2005    Completed 100 years of Conservation.

2007    Park became a tiger reserve.

Wildlife Population Status:

Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros    -  2290

Royal Bengal Tiger                               -  106

Asian Elephant                                     - 1165

Asiatic Wild Buffalo                            - 1937

Eastern Swamp Deer                         - 1168

Additionally, there are nearly 478 species of birds, both migratory and resident.

The next day, we woke up at 4 a.m. and prepared ourselves ready to explore the beauty of Kaziranga.  At 5 a.m., a car came to pick us up and the driver left us at the Western Range of the park from where elephant safari began.  It was really fun to go through the sanctuary sitting on the back of a big jumbo.  As we moved on, the sun also started to rise and kissed the whole park with her golden lips.  It was just amazing to see the sun rising.  We were mesmerized by the beauty of the park.  We found ourselves amid lush greenery.

The first thing we saw was a big rhinoceros busy eating leaves from the surrounding plants.  Then, the mahout instructed the elephant to stop.  The rhino raised his head and stared at us.  The mahout told us in a whispering voice to look at the backside of the rhino, and to our astonishment, we saw a little calf, which was also staring at us.  The mahout told us that the calf was almost 2 months old.  The sight was so beautiful.  We were lucky enough to see both the mother and her little calf from a close distance.  After some time, the mother with her little calf walked inside the thick forest and our eyes followed them till they were out of sight.  There were many tourists including foreigners who were also enjoying the beauty of the park.  We saw many rhinoceros, elephants, deer, wild buffaloes and many different kinds of birds.  The safari lasted for about an hour.

Kaziranga National Park

Before sunrise
Kaziranga National Park

Rhinoceros
Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Hi dear!!
Kaziranga National Park

Way to heaven begins at
Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Before sunrise
Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Sister with family
Kaziranga National Park

Sister with family
Kaziranga National Park

Elephants
Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park

After the elephant safari, we returned to our lodge and had breakfast.  It was about 8 a.m. and we were discussing about our next step, whether to go back home or stay one more night in Kaziranga.  As we were busy discussing, one of the staff members told us to visit Western Range of the park.  We inquired about it and found out that it would be through a jeep and we could go deep inside the park.  We were thrilled to know this and went out to hire a jeep.  After buying the ticket, we boarded the jeep and started moving towards the forest.  Thick jungles and bushes everywhere.  Of course, there was a road but in a very bad shape due to frequent floods in the summer, as a result we were moving very slowly.  As you may recall, in the Eastern Range, we were pleasantly welcomed by a mother rhino and her calf, but that was not the case here in Western Range.  We hardly crossed half a mile when the driver suddenly stopped the jeep, saying there was something under the bushes beside the road.  We also heard some noise and suddenly saw a very big rhinoceros coming toward the road.  The rhino stopped and looked at us irritably and perhaps was ready to hit our jeep.  The driver shouted at it very loud and also banged the door of the jeep with his hand.  The rhino seemed scared and ran toward the thick forest and vanished.  The rhino was hardly 15 feet away from us and we had a narrow escape.  Needless to say, our hearts were pounding real fast.  Anyway, we continued our safari and saw, apart from rhinoceros, elephants, deer, etc., many beautiful birds, like pelicans, geese, ducks, kingfishers, shanks, storks and so on.  We also saw an eagle in the nest with her little chick.  We also could pluck some berries from nearby trees and enjoyed it very much.  The jeep safari lasted for about 2 hours and we all enjoyed it very much.  The same day we returned home very much satisfied with the trip.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

How to Prepare for Exams

Journey to the Spiritual World

Meet the English Talkers

Mysterious World

Useful Softwares for Your PC

Photo Story 3 for Windows

Now a days almost everyone has a digital camera and many people enjoy photography as a hobby.  Whether you are a professional photographer or not, you must have mounted up a huge number of photographs over the years that now it has become very difficult for you to keep track of them.  Many are in your memory cards, CDs, DVDs, and hard disks and there are times that you delete old photos in order to make space for the new ones.  Now it is time that you arrange them in order and I recommend you Photo Story 3 for Windows to do so.

Photo Story 3 for Windows is a photo organizer software that you can use to view, manage, and edit digital photos.  It will allow you to make a video from your still images and it can be played in Windows Media Player.  In short, it will make your still images move like a video and it is really fun to see them move.  Through this software, you can import and arrange pictures, add titles to pictures, add voice narration to pictures using a microphone, add motion, and add music per your choice.  You can also arrange the pictures in such a way that it conveys a meaning or tell a story and viewers will definitely find it interesting.  You can make short videos out of the still images that you have.  You can start with photographs of a birthday party at your home, family reunion, or a trip.  This software is very user friendly and even a child can use it.  You can download it free at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11132.

Windows 7 users can also use it but should follow the following:  On desktop icon for Photo Story 3, right click, go to properties, click on compatibility tab when box opens, tick in Run this program in compatibility mode, then on dropdown list select Windows XP (service pack 2).  Click apply button on right hand bottom.  Click on icon to run Photo Story 3.  That’s all.  Now, you can use it in Windows 7 also.

For me, the real beauty of photography is that it can tell a story and evoke an emotion in a concise, powerful, single image.  Presentation of photographs makes a lot of difference.  Even some not-so-good-looking photographs can prove beneficial if you carefully place them in between photographs to convey a meaning and you can do this in Photo Story 3 for Windows.  Before making a video using still images, you should first think of a story and then put relevant photographs, music, etc., in a folder.  Once you have the story ready and arranged all photographs accordingly, open Photo Story 3 for Windows and start making the video as you like using the various features that it presents.  After getting enough exposure to this photo organizer, it would not be very difficult for you make videos and gradually you will feel more comfortable and you can just sit down in front of your PC and dish out wonderful videos without giving it a second thought.  You can take some help from this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtB6_D_toVQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=137s

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

How to Prepare for Exams

Journey to the Spiritual World

Meet the English Talkers

Mysterious World

Useful Softwares for Your PC

Camera and Photography - A Brief History

In ancient times, technological advances were not supported by science, but nomadic people were still curious and wanted to capture images of animals, trees, men and women, etc., but they had no means to do that.  All they could do was to sketch and paint the things they liked on rocks.  These rock paintings are mainly consisted of animals like bison, deer, goats and human hand prints and found all over the world and oldest known rock paintings are approximately 40,000 years old and found near Santander, Spain.  So, it is obviously clear that the process of capturing images started a long time ago.  However, it is very difficult to say who invented the camera.  In actuality, it was not invented by a single person.  Through the centuries, many scientists and philosophers used different methods to capture images.  According to the history, camera obscura is considered as forerunner of camera.  This camera obscura was used by Greek mathematician in his experiment in 6th century.  It was a dark box in which light was entered through a pinhole forming an image on paper.  A muslim scientist, Ibn al-Haytham, first used the basic concept of camera and wrote about it in his book “Book of Optics (Arabic name Kitab al-Manazir) in 1021 and he used a pinhole or lens to focus an image on a surface.  The camera obscura was later used by Joseph Nicephore Niepce, a retired French army officer, and made the world's first true photograph of a scene in 1826.

A 32,000-year-old painting.
Grotte Chauvet, France

This is the world's first photograph
and is called View from the Window at Le Gras,
taken by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1826.

This is the first photograph of moon,
taken by John William in 1839.

This is the first view of Earth
taken by a spacecraft from the vicinity of the Moon
on August 23, 1966

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

How to Prepare for Exams

Journey to the Spiritual World

Meet the English Talkers

Mysterious World

Useful Softwares for Your PC

Mother Nature and People

I never forget to take my camera along with me whenever I am out on a trip with my family and friends.  Needless to say that I am addicted to taking photos of whatever catches my eyes, especially the beauty of nature that God provides in abundance.  Moreover, it is a stressful world we live in and everybody needs a healthy dose of pampering to rejuvenate their mind and body from time to time and I use my photo-taking hobby as a stress buster and this is one of my best stress-busting activities among others.  It gives me immense pleasure to take photos of my near and dear ones, my friends, nature, animals, birds and so on.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Lunar Eclipse on December 10, 2011.
The Moon turned brown.

Women love to be photographed, didn't I say that before??

Four Sisters.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

How to Prepare for Exams

Journey to the Spiritual World

Meet the English Talkers

Mysterious World

Useful Softwaresfor Your PC

Tell A Story

Presentation of photos in a proper way goes a long way toward making them highly attractive to others and oftentimes can even be presented in a funny way to make others laugh.  In this chaotic and stressful world, a tad bit of fun makes a lot of difference.  If you are taking photography seriously, try to share your views with your friends and near and dear ones.  They are the ones you are very close to and you perhaps see them every day and their advice is really important to you.  Always keep some printed photos in your album, in your drawing room so that whenever someone comes to your home can see the photos and appreciate your work.

Use a group of photos to tell a story or to give your audience some amusement.

AFTER

BEFORE

Is there a man in the window
looking at us?

Not a man, it's a ghost..

Oooops!!  Not a man, not a ghost but a bunch of bangles.

When we shifted to a new flat few years back, I saw what looks like a man in the next building window.  I took the camera and zoomed in a bit, then it looked like a ghost with eyes and a hook-like tooth and when I took a closeup view, I was amazed to see that it was nothing but a bunch of bangles giving the appearance of a man from faraway and a ghost.

So, my advice to you is take photos of whatever catches your attention.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

How to Prepare for Exams

Journey to the Spiritual World

Meet the English Talkers

Mysterious World

Useful Softwares for Your PC