My experiences with Waterfall Model of Software Development
Agile Software Development is the latest fad. Everyone is jumping in the bandwagon and not without reason, I believe. But embracing change (aka uptaking agile) is not an easy task, when your surroundings are tethered to the archaic model of software engineering. It takes a lot to make people believe in the new way, inspire them, show them results. It’s no mean task.
So how do we develop software today? It is simple – the traditional waterfall way.
Who does what?
Business Requirements – Product Management
Functional Design – Product Management
Technical Design – Developer
Code – Developer
Unit Test – Developer
System Test – Testing
The figure is quite self-explanatory, a classic waterfall model.
Business Requirements – In this stage, the product management group comes up with requirements for the software. All requirements are grouped into a document which is the input for next stage. Say requirement can be – Ability to enter new orders in the system, when the order is entered, the system must auto-generate the order number.
Functional Design – This would elaborate on the requirements. So here screen mockups are made, interfaces/integration points with other systems are identified, open APIs are identified, reports, workflows et al are also etched out. So this effectively becomes the bible for the developer to start the design. Also in this document are mentioned, the product use cases and functional test cases.
Technical Design – Starting with functional specs, developer goes on to design the UI pages, business logic, API, reports etc. and in the end comes up with a document. And unit test cases should also be identified and documented here. Code – now things are easy, you know what to do, how to do? It’s just the matter of converting them into a workable code. So again the development team pitches in and cranks out the code.
Unit Test – what every developer hates to do?
System Test – Out of developers’ hand, the code moves into the hands of testers who start banging the system with all sorts of test scripts prepared out of the functional designs.
Here are some of the traits of the environment which is making us follow this methodology
• Large teams spread across geography
• Very huge product, with a generic behavior. What I mean here is the product is made to cater not one particular client or industry. It has a broad foot print and designed to work across many verticals. So idea is to embed as many features and flexibility as possible.
• Lot of integration points. One system integrates with at least 3-4 other systems for a complete business flow. So these integrating systems are again as complex as this system, so they would expect their integration points fairly very early in the game. That is why all this interface and API are decided during functional stage itself.
• Management get good artifacts to track the progress after each stage a 200 page word document
• Different management chain/organization strategy for the three roles – product manager, development, testing. So each of them have their own plans and time lines and schedules. So its quite natural that by a deadline testers expect the code to be ready so that they can start banging their head on the system.
• Each system can have millions of lines of code
In reality this methodology is working and riding the business, so it is fine as long money is coming to your coffers 
But it does make life painful for all stakeholders.
The first two stages are the fiefdom of one team, what they say is what is etched in the stone. But it depends on the competence of the guy in the business realm. If it’s a new domain or without much customer reference or the team is without industry exposures then things get stuck here in the requirement phase. A typical symptom is Analysis-Paralysis, where the whole team is bewildered as to what to progress, what system to build, and there are lurking doubts whether this is going to be accepted in the field? So what they typically do is incorporate all sets of wild requirements into the product and directly shoot in the feet. YAGNI (You are not going to need it) is not the mantra WNAOI (We need all of it) is the mantra. So all sets of weird requirements can creep in. But say if the domain is pretty straightforward and you have customer references at your disposal then this phase becomes a breeze and they can come up with the requirements and functional designs in a jiffy.
From there things get tricky. A functional design once gets completed gets review from developers and he heads on for making the next word document in pipeline the Technical Design.
Typical Time-allocation across the project would be something like this
So as you see always the poor developer guy is time-pressed to deliver the software, by the time he gets to know the requirements/functional designs and he reviews those documents and circles back with product managers to clarify it, his time would have started ticking away.
Typical difficulties faced by the developer
• Difficulty in imagining the whole system and coming up with the technical document
• Itching to jump into code by putting off the boring documentation job which is allotted anywhere between 3 weeks – 5 weeks time. It’s really difficult to hold the attention span for such a long time and imagine about code and write about it still not implement it. So what happens most of the times in TD and Coding starts happening hand-in-hand, many a time code first and document next. I feel it’s good to do that instead of coming up with a document lock-stock and barrel. But as the time progresses the deadline pressure looms and coding will be happening at a frenetic pace, but not documentation and design. In this frenzy of meeting deadlines detailed Unit Tests are thrown out of the window.
At the end we will have a
• Unstable code, which works very reasonably or sometimes very badly
• No documentation of design or limited and not up to date design documentation
• No unit test scripts
• Not much standards adherence to standards – what I meant was coding standards.
There are quite few standards enforced by the build system, like explicit checking of cursors/connections whether they have been closed. Using parameterized binding when passing arguments from Java to PL/SQL etc. Apart from that there is not much standards like
• Doing proper OOD
• Using Design patterns
• Inline comments etc.
Many a times what happens is that guys with procedural background comes in and writes very neat Procedural programs in Java, without realizing the power of objects. So the end result is quite guessable, system works but partially and starts bombing in lots of places.
So the originally envisaged System Test Plan schedules are goes hay wire and more and more rounds of System Tests are carried out to make the system stable.
As you see, the code moves from an unstable state to reasonably stable state thanks to multiple rounds of testing. So when it goes live in the customer place, you can expect many more bombs exploding giving sleepless nights to developers.
The biggest nightmare is for the new guy joining any team in this system. He is left on his own with no proper documentation to swim through the labyrinthine code mess to figure out what is happening. That’s the real pain point. So is this the classic waterfall – well I don’t think it’s so bad, it’s just a chaotic way of developing software. If this system is working it can be attributed to one simple reason the people – smart dynamic and energetic people who relish on thriving on this complexity and pushes himself hard to meet customer expectations and meet the deadlines.
Nostalgic trip and The tale of two festivals
April 9, 2009
Filed under Life
Tags: elephant, festival, home, kathakali, Kerala, padmanabha swamy temple, trivandrum
Last week saw us leaving to our home town – Gods Own Country – Trivandrum, Kerala. The idea behind the trip was two fold, it was the festival time in Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple near my home and it was also festival time in Thamarkulam Devi Temple which was near my wife’s home. I had missed the Shiveli (procession) in Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple for last 6 odd years and was yearning to see one, also wanted my son to have a feel of the spectacle. And my wife was more than interested in going to her home and added to that the festival in their temple. So lapping up the festive spirit we set out for Kerala.
The festival in Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple is special time for all of us living around the temple precincts. For 20 odd years I had witnessed the spectacle year after year (occurring twice a year). And at different stages of life it meant different things. In early stage at age of 4-5 the attraction around it was the elephant. I still vividly remember those days when my grand father would hand hold me and take me near the elephant. The other major attraction then was to run in front of the elephant. The run was fun with lots of kids around moving in razzle-dazzle. In the last day of the festival after Aratu its race among the deities (of Lord Padmanabha, Lord Narasimha and Lord Krishna) in the Shiveli night, so the elephant which heralds the deities with drumming has to keep up the pace and it also runs. It was easily the most fun part running ahead of a speeding elephant. As time progressed, shivelis were spent with the accompaniment of friends and what beckoned were the pristine white sands all around the temple. It was the vast play ground for us, to play police and thief, make mountains and houses in wet sand(if it rained). During those days it was a gala time of games and fun. Then as years passed, it was more of meeting with friends in a favorite corner in temple just sit and chat and debate about all the topics in the world. It was 10 days of fun and merriment, exam or no exam, homework or no homework, come what ever may we reach temple by 8.15pm and make sure we stay there till the end around 9.30pm. This trip I could not witness all the 10 days, all I could make it up was for 2 days. But still it was mesmerizing and nostalgic. More importantly, I could make my son have a hang of it, though he is just too small for assimilating it. But he was enthralled by elephant, the sounds and lights. And of course kids love sand ain’t they? He just loved running around in the sand all alone. It’s really sad this generation kids living in metros just miss out on this small fun’s of life.
The other end of the spectrum distant from my home, I also witnessed another festival for the first time in my life at my wife’s place. If Padmanabha Swamy Temple was a spectacle organized by the temple, with we being just mute spectators thronging around and enjoying every bit of it, the festival I witnessed in a small rustic Devi temple was just the opposite of it. It was a festival of the community, by the community, and for the community. Every minute aspect of the festival was done by the people living around. It was a 5 day affair and rituals steeped in traditions like Thottam Pattu. During the course of 5 days traditional singers render these songs depicting the life of the goddess. Late nights were leisure hours with various entertainment programs like Kathakali, Drama and music lined up each day. This was the first time I saw a live Kathakali performance. The performance went up from 11pm to 6am and I witnessed two plays – Keechaka Vadham and Daksha Yagam. I must say it was an experience of life time for me. I really rue now that I missed up understanding and watching Kathakali during my days in Kerala. In Sri Padmanabha Temple during the 10 day festival, everyday night Kathakali is performed from 10pm. My son also caught up with Kathakali very well and its vivid tapestry, colors and sounds enamored him. He is now daily asking can we see Kathakali? At one end I always wondered why in Temple festivals they include drama, music etc. What correlation does it have with religious traditions or anything to relate with bhakti. I was dead against this kind of madness that happens around temple all over Kerala. But now I feel, its just a time for the community to get together spend some time and enjoy. And if Kathakali and drama add to that fun and give happiness to people then why not? Again in festivals like this which organized by families living around the temple, I felt it was ok, as long as people are enjoying it and everything is within the limit. And after all these festivals are the only fillip to dying art forms like Kathakali and dramas. The last day of the festival, the goddess was heralded in caparisoned elephant and taken around the by lanes near by for para edupu and festival culminated in a shiveli around the shrine.
So it was a gala time of 7 days in Kerala this time, barring the sultry and vexatious weather. I surely look forward to travel around the same time next year.
PS:- It was mango season all the mango trees which I saw in tvm were ripe with raw mangoes, I had yummy time everyday afternoon eating raw mangoes spruced up with salt. Oh! my mouth is watery as I type this 
Reclaiming Life….
Rather an obnoxious title for a post. Well its not about reclaiming life from the nadir of disruption and maelstrom, it’s just a reflection on certain things in life which did not go well in the past year compounded my laziness and procrastinating nature.
Professional Life – It was a least satisfying year 2008 in my professional life. Year in which learnability eroded and a sense of complacency set in. The project was rocked by many storms and tsunamis and it was floating like a rudderless ship. Work really dried up and days were spent in office like being spent in browsing center. Hopping from one site to other without any direction and nor adding any value to self, it was just wasted time altogether which cannot be reclaimed. Mired by politics at top level, hampered by technological limitations and lack of good customer feedback and acceptance is a sure recipe for disaster and project failed to take off. It was a bitter experience and it was sort of repeating for the 3rd time in succession – failure, thrashing and finally scrapping of project. Five years of energy, ideas and code getting scrapped repeatedly sapped the enthusiasm, verve and energy. The inquisitiveness to learn new stuff was lost; it was like going to job daily in the morning and a it was like a mirage of being busy and engaged
Learning and Adding Value – Last year (2008) also adversely affected this aspect, virtually stopped reading technical books and were just scratching the surface of tech blogs. Lost the complete energy to learn, experiment and broaden the portfolio. This is really synchronous to the work you do, when work dries up and you have no sense of direction, it’s same with learning new stuff. It was always about what to learn? Why to learn?
Finance - It was getting contagious, lethargy crept in here as well. A good portfolio of equity thoughtfully constructed during the previous years (when Sensex was at 6k-7k levels) was just left idle in the bank and demat accounts. In stock markets it’s all about timing and planning your entry and exit. Now if you just don’t track it regularly it’s just going to be winded away. Yes I left a lot of money in the table and never booked profits/minimal losses in a timely fashion. The net result is blood bath in these bearish times.
Health – Further bad news, eating out, eating in, eating at, all sorts of prepositions you can add with eating, and factor in sedentary life result is bloating up horizontally on all sides. And naturally had to pay the price in the form of intriguing back aches which were diagnosed to be slip disk later. It’s sort of a permanent handicap which I have to carry along whole life.
Enough of bad news, is it not time to take control of life and steer it in the right path rather than leaving it adrift? I started 2009 with the right earnest, hope and energy.
Professional Life – Things had to change, change for good and that trigger happened in November, after I read “The Bonsai Manager”. That lingering feeling and inkling in me to break the comfort zone finally materialized and I finally put the papers in current team and looked for opportunities within the company. Opportunity to face new challenges, don new roles and prove everything from the scratch. So 2009 started with a fresh note, a new team, new role, new challenges, facing customer, feeling the heat of customer issues and a whole new domain. It feels a lot better now, coming home in the evening with a satisfaction of adding value to myself and doing something worth the salt.
Learning and Adding Value – When you have enough work to do, to keep you busy then naturally you get energy to read and explore new stuff. It’s like learning with a sense of purpose to assimilate ideas that you can implement in the current work, innovations which you can envisage in the current way of doing things and technologies and latest fad to be brought up in meetings and be incorporated in work. So its lot more fun now, inspite of being engaged I am able to extract a couple of hour or two to read blogs or e-books and add value to myself.
Finance – I owe this to “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. Frankly it changed the perspective with which I viewed money this far. I realized money is all about building assets and making it work for you rather than being left idle in nonchalant savings account. I have shed my lethargy now I track my stocks daily once, re-jigged the portfolio. I read a lot about stock markets, learnt how to read charts, how to trade options and futures (though never got the guts to try it out) and now I am actively shopping for stocks with strong fundamentals each day when the market crashes. It’s all getting tracked in a neat google spreadsheet doc and I plan to invest every month a significant chunk in equity markets.
Health – This I owe it to my Doctor, Dr. Raghav Dutt. He has inspired to me do regular exercise, to bring down the calories. So at least for past 6 odd months I am walking daily in the morning for 1-1.5hrs. And I have lost 9kg in the process and come down to a manageable 89kg now. The aim is to reduce further 3-4kg. But it’s going to be tough because I feel this is the maximum achievable for now, the last 3-4kg is going to difficult unless I can do severe diet modifications and resort to little bit starving. But for now I am going to pamper my stomach with regular food. So things are looking really good now, this year I also joined in Twitter and found it be an amazing source of gathering good stuff from the Net. Let me hope to continue this in the coming years!
PS:- I really love the Title, its used as the tagline by Tata Safari and I love their ads as well. And if ever I change my car I will seriously consider Tata Safari and Reclaim Life!
Kanha Travelogue Day 3
December 24, 2008
Filed under Life, Photograhpy, Travel
Tags: Kanha Travel Travelouge Wild Tiger
We made an early start at 5.30AM, to enter the park first ahead of the throngs of other visitors. Luckily being Monday it was not that crowded like the previous day. The idea was to cover as much area as possible in the first few hours of the morning. So we decided for no stopping on spotting spotted deers, no stopping for Langurs, no stopping for parakeets, herons, cormorants, lapwings, kingfishers, ducks. This summed up our mood in this cold morning – a desideratum for seeing the tiger in prowl.
We took a new track for this tourney; it was different from what we had seen the previous day. It was very thick forest on both sides and very big trees lining the sides. At one point we came across a huge tree, which the localities claim to be the oldest in Kanha more than 300 years old. It was a very cold morning compared to the previous day and without protection of the gloves our hands were all numb and fingers were buttery while clicking the camera. After almost 3hrs drive the utmost close we came to the tiger was seeing some pugmarks.
Kanha is the only forest in India, where the probability of spotting tiger is high. Part of the reason is relatively healthy tiger population in the park (around 90 tigers are roaming around) and second major reason is the “Tiger Show”. Yes the Tiger SHOW. The forest department in Kanha has a stable of 30 elephants. The peculiarity of those elephants are that they are partly tamed and partly wild. Partly wild in the sense that they have to fend themselves for food and water. Every day after the morning safaris the elephants are left open in the wild and they start grazing the forest and the next day morning the mahouts go and track them in the forest and bring them back. Coming back to the “Tiger Show”, every day morning a group of 2 or 3 elephants start prowling the forests along with their mahouts from two main points in the forest – Kanha and Kisli. The mahouts scan the potential hideouts of the tiger and if they find one, they stay there and inform the central point about the catch through a walkie-talkie. Now other elephant’s sheperd the tourists on their back to the spot for the “Tiger Show”. Mostly what happens is that the elephants that spot the tiger try to lock the tiger in the spot by surrounding it and preventing it to run away. And quickly tourist flock the spot and witness the “Tiger Show”. Some day’s even mahouts fail to find the tiger and in those days there is no Tiger Show. It was really an absurd way of seeing the tiger, which we were averse and we had decided before arriving Kanha itself that we won’t take the “Tiger Show” (yes literally it was just theatrics).
Towards the fag end of safari we were left with thoughts if not in Kanha, where else are we going to see the tiger? Should we try for the Tiger Show? That were the questions weighing our minds? Suddenly we found something – a prized catch, well it’s not the tiger but a deer. Yes a deer – the Barasingha or the Swamp Deer. Well, The Barasingha of Kanha cannot be dismissed as just another deer with beady eyes and phlegmatic looks; it’s a unique pride of Kanha. The Barasingha of the Kanha have 12 horns in their antler and in the whole world such a breed is found only in Kanha. They were pulled off from the brink of extinction and now there are just 350 of them left in forests of Kanha. And as luck would have it we saw a solitary male with full-grown antlers and we could clearly mark the 12 branches the antlers took. Through its eyes I could read it saying, “I am Kanha, Kanha is mine”.
May be what’s left for us
is some Barasingha on a hillside
we can look at day after day
and the perverse affection of a habit
that like us so much it never let go
So with the jubilation of spotting the Barasingha, we prepared for the final drive, one last chance to spot the tiger and suddenly on the way a pack of wild dogs (Dhole) jumped in front of our vehicle. They were three of them. The wild dog resembles the pictures of fox, which we see in the nursery books. The three wild dogs really posed well for our cameras and were with us running in front of us for at least 10 minutes. I’m sure all of us have the maximum number of shots of these dogs than anything else of Kanha. May be the langurs near the canteen would give a competition to the dogs in terms on number of shots.
As we were making our retreat we came to know that the elephants, which had started from the Kisli point, have spotted some tiger and the show was on. But luckily this was not a trapped tiger, the tiger was just there resting beneath the foliage and we can go on elephant tops to the spot and see the resting tiger. Sounded exciting and we bought tickets for elephant safari and took the gypsy to the spot. As always we were the last to reach the spot and already around 10-20 people were eagerly awaiting their turn on the elephant. We patiently waited for our turn and hoped that tiger won’t run away and then the moment arrived. Off we went up the ladder and took our positions in elephant top. To reach the spot we needed to cross a narrow stream and do a steep ascend. The elephant slowly junketed in the path amidst thick growth of wild grass and shrubs and tooks us to the spot. It was the climax, the show down and the moment of truth. What we first saw a tigress sleeping lying down deep inside the bushes. The bushes itself had grown very thick and appeared in the shape of a den. We were standing in the mouth of the den and the tigress was sleeping barely 2-3 metres from the mouth of the den. It was unperturbed by the sound of the elephants. It was in a deep slumber and it had chosen this sweet spot under the thick cover to escape the soporific afternoon heat. Wait is there anyone else also in? Well yes there he is – a cute bubbly little cub. He was at his playful best, hopping around his mother, suckling milk from his mother then running deep inside the shrubs hiding away from us. Then again he runs out watches the elephant and the commotion outside with his twinkling eyes and then drinks some more milk and then start jumping around. What a wonderful sighting it was? In zoo we see tigers so lethargic and archaic fully covered with mud and dirt, and here in nature its just the other way, both the tigers were spotless, pristine golden yellow color with soft white in their underneath. The cub through its tawny eyes gave an innocuous and inquisitive flickering gaze that reminded me the gaze of the poet
Some mute animal
raising its calm eyes
and seeing through us
and through us
This is destiny….
Yes, this was the destiny for us in Kanha, the destiny of the seeing the tiger in its wild best. On the return were told that the above tigress had 4 cubs. With that our stint in Kanha came to a close and we packed our bags and bid adieu to this beautiful jungle in Central India. But its not over yet, jungle never fails to surprise you. As we were departing and were about to exit the gates of Kanha to Nagpur in our Indica, off from nowhere a huge Indian Gaur (wrongly refered as Bison) jumped in front of our car. It stared at us for a second and then made path for our exit. It was a huge beast easily 5 feet tall, this was the first time I was seeing such a huge Gaur. Maybe it was there to say us “Good Bye & Safe Journey”. And then started the long drive back and barely few minutes on course I was overcome by sleep and was napping sitting in the front seat. May be 2 more minutes had waded by then I heard a sudden squeak of the brakes and others behind started shouting snake, snake! By the time I woke up and peered out it had gone, seems like a cobra was there on the road. After that the whole journey sleep never evaded me, even though I tried hard for it and the rest of the drive was spent in reliving the moments spent in Kanha in my mind.
The next day we reached Hyderabad and departed with a resolve to be at Ranthambore next year. Lets see who all are game for it?
PS:- The two poems in this post are inspired from German poet Rainer Maria Rilke whose work I read in the book “The Hungry Tide” – Amitav Ghosh.
The poem on Night in first post is also Rilke’s work which I found in Internet
And poem on Meadows is out my own wild imagination
Kanha Travelouge – Day 2
A long day awaited us – and it began at 6AM. It was pretty dark and the moon cascading back in the western sky bathed the milieu in its dim white light. I was really surprised to see the hive of activities as soon as I got off the dorm. Almost 30-40 gypsy’s had congregated in the front awaiting the access to the thickets of the forest. It was a huge crowd, but Kanha is no small jungle spreading over 1000 sq.km., once inside the park this crowd petered out soon in different directions. So in that way you never feel that the place is stuffed with too many people.
The first sightings in the forest were the mist- yes like white cotton rolls, mists muffled the entire jungle. From any point of vision, you see a layer of white mist floating 10feet above the ground and we were as if sliding below the umbrella of the white bodies. It was easily the best landscape that nature can offer.
In jungle its always like this – long hours of exploration in stoic silence with no activity and suddenly there is a burst of activity which lasts for a few seconds or may be a minute then the cycle turns back to long hours of inactivity. The key is to have patience, eyes wide open and ears too wide open. It’s not just the destiny; the journey itself is so thrilling and has lots to offer. So the first few hours of safari were just for assimilating the beauty of kanha, the mysteriously snaking game trials, the tall sal trees, golden grass and small creeks and rivulets. Amidst this drive at the background of our mind is the thought lurking out, will there be a tiger when we take the next turn? So in a sense its like a novel, where at the end of page is a suspense to be broken only in the next page, similar is the experience while driving through the winding paths of Kanha, where each turn of the track held us in suspense and anxiety as to what comes next?
As time waded by morning sun billowed in the eastern horizon, and rays of sun streaked through the branches of sal trees forming tunnels of sun rays piercing the trees and striking the ground. The scene was reminiscent of Robert Frosts Poem “Stopping By Woods”
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Safari is not just about Tiger spotting; there are many other things out there too beautiful, too artistic in nature to be missed out. Those lovely birds in chimerical colors whose morning ragas dazzle the settings. Be it Redwater Lapwing, Plum Headed Parakeet, Kingfisher, Black Headed Orieol, Herons, Whistling Ducks, Indian Roller we never allowed it let go. Every minute sound was explored and we made our guide stop the vehicle and ask which bird is that? Luckily the guides in Kanha are masters of their trade, even the faintest call made them aware of the birds.
Two hours of criss-crossing the tracks of Kanha, took us to the meadows. Meadows the easily the most beautiful part of Kanha Park.
O! the meadows the beautiful meadows
Natures filigree at its best
Revealing a platter of colors
Bathed by golden sunlight
Crimson, Gold, Yellow, Green
All had its shade in the steppes.
The deers grazing at a distance
Bringing a brownish tinge
The groups of peacock
Adding a bluish hue
O! the meadows the beautiful meadows
It was in the meadows that we spotted a family of Jackals, warming itself in the first rays of sun. Kanha Meadows – the astonishing landscape of nature, the drive through it was easily the best part of morning safari. We rounded up the morning safari around 11.30pm, without seeing our stripped friends, but our spirits high after seeing the nature’s beauty and ofcourse all those colorful birds and deers – and at the end the first stint in forest was aptly named the “Morning of the Jackals”.
After a quick bite (rather heavy ) we were off again, on a trek through a walk-trial. We set out with idea of a 2km walk, so avoided taking any guides with us. But the walk really prolonged and we just started exploring farther and farther. On the labyrinth paths the first sighting was bone of some animals, perhaps killed by the predator. Unperturbed we further walked down the track chattering idly. This was when we first encountered signs of a big cat. The pugmarks of a leopard is what we chanced upon first. But pugmarks weren’t quite fresh so we just casually analyzed it and further went on and found a set of relatively fresh tiger pugmarks imprinted on the sand laden track. An intent dissection of the pugmarks made us realize it was a male tiger on prowl. In a herd, somehow we get a sense of false confidence, which again made us go in further. Further down the line again we saw more pugmarks, this time there were two tigers one male and a female. It was marked all around the place. Were they mating? Mating tigers can be dangerous if we cross their path and antagonize them. This was the time when fear congealed in our minds. Frankly for me it was not a stomach churning experience. After reading enough of Jim Corbett and Keneth Anderson, I believed that tigers and leopards never attack humans unless they are man-eaters. Also tigers and leopards never walk around that much in the daytime and their hunting hours is well after the sunset, even for maneaters. The only animal I really feared was the sloth bear, a stupid creature that attacks anyone whom it comes across. But again bears are nightriders and it was very rare to spot a bear in the heat of the sun. But you cannot be complacent in the jungle; the written rules and norms, which you may have read from the experts, can never be vouched as 100% true. For instance my friend Kunal seems to have spotted Sloth Bears in the heat of afternoon sun in Srisailam. I was really puzzled to hear that tale. At the moment we had two choices either to turn back or just take a chance and complete the rest of the trek as fast as we can. We decided for the latter (yes, we are in the herd) and walked further. There we came across two people repairing the track. We asked them about our findings and they said there was a tiger in that area and the pugmarks, which we saw were from the morning-walk of the tiger. So quickly we asked him for a shortest path to get out and he guided us on a path to take us out.
After coming out of the walk sound and safe, it was time for the evening safari. A long journey criss-crossing the tracts of Kanha amidst the hubbub of the birds and deadpanned looks of Cheetals at various junctures. Our friend – the King was still elusive. Then came something which really lifted the spirits and set the mood for a showdown. A passing jeep from Forest Department told us that they had seen a tiger 1km further down. It was just crossing the road when they spotted it. Off we went, at a blaze. I nearly made up my mind the moment has arrived and thought we would be the first to reach the spot, but on reaching the location a pall of gloom set in instantly. There were about 15 jeeps already crowding the spot. Seeing the sight of so many people I was shuddered, I knew the hoodoo of missing the big cat is going to continue. There were a group of people who were really there shouting on top of their voice and cheering to see the tiger. The tiger it seems was hiding in some near by bushes. I knew it would never come out and try to avoid this mad crowd. Stupid people don’t they know that the first rule in Jungle is to maintain absolute silence? I was really perversed by the sight I lost all hope of seeing it. Then there was a sudden excitement in the air and crowd started giving wild exclamations. I couldn’t see anything, all I was watching was the big Indian Ghost Tree which stood there blocking my view to the spot where tiger was supposedly be. It seemed tiger had moved away from the bushes and went deeper inside. My friends Alosh and Mohan saw a silhouette moving, which they were sure to be that of the tiger. I said may be it was just the wind moving the grasses . Then there was sudden commotion in the air caused by incessant barkings. It was the wild dogs barking, I guessed may be the wild dogs came in vicinity of the tiger and started barking panickly and tiger might have left seeing the dogs. Again I didn’t see the wild dog either, Mini (4th member of team) saw 2 of them running around. In jungle the only animal capable of attacking a tiger is the Wild Dog. They come in packs and their team work is their strength. That was the end of the tiger show, we returned still with our eyes wide open to see the same tiger on the way back. But that was not be and by 6pm it was pitch dark and we retired to our dorm.
Day 2 pictures from here to here.
Kanha Travelouge – Day 1
December 17, 2008
Filed under Life, Photograhpy, Travel
Tags: Kanha Travel Travelouge Wild
As my friend Proto said today “I’m Lucky to explore wildlife”. Yes “I’m Lucky” to have a wonderful bunch of friends and great family support to venture out in the wild year after year for the last 5yrs. Yes it all started in 2004 with Corbett, followed up with Gir, Sunderbans, Melghat and finally this time the dice was cast on Kanha for 2008.
Life is lived in Transformations. Yes Transformations ephemeral or eternal. I always believe spending time in the wild is a transformation – an ephemeral one A total shutdown from the materialistic urban life a climb down from coziness and comforts of modern life. Time well spent in rustic forest shut out from electricity, mobiles, phones, tv, news paper and other paraphernelia of modern living. With this transformation binge in mind we set out to explore the wild in percincts of Kanha.
The journey to Kanha was an ordeal in itself, a 250km drive from Nagpur. A back breaking drive, where highways were literally mud tracks strewn with stones, where each passing vehicle would bolster up a stand storm hitting you hard remniscent of the satellite landing in earth in Wall-E movie. But this is what is the soft underbelly of India, where we harp on making foray into the innards in Moon, at the same time we fail to make a decent road line for numerous people living in our villages. Luckily we had a great driver who manevoured the torturous tracks with much panache and pious and made the ride bearable and took us to the destination safely, inspite of the hiccups on the way.
The stay had been arranged in Tourist Hostel run by MP Tourism. It was coming at a paltry rate of 490/= per head for a night, including all food. We were given beds in a dormitory, the dorm itself comprised of a room with 8 beds. For the rate and ownership the service was just amazing, the rooms and bathrooms were spic and span, food was mouth watering yet simple. This is the only property inside the forest; rest all private resorts (read costly) were located in the peripheries of the park well outside the wild. The Hostel itself was set in a picturesques locale, overlooking it was a vast meadow and a distant small pond where birds were frequenting for quenching their thirsts. The building itself looked like an old bungloid from outside. On reaching there itself we were given strict instructions not to venture out around the building and the only path thrown open was a brief walkway to the canteen.
Late evening we checked in and freshned up. Later in the evening the moon rose and the waxing bright light from the moon bathed the milieu. It was just after the full moon day and finding the moon amidst tall sal trees bathing the forest with its white light was a mesmerizing sight. Known as we are the Shutter bugs, we lost no time in capturing the moon amidst the trees and in a jungle setting. The night sky in jungle is pristine devoid of the pollution, presented a good time to graze the stars and shooting stars and ofcourse the moon. The setting reminded the poets words
Night, full of newly created stars that leave
trails of fire streaming from their seams
as they soar in inaudible adventure
through interstellar space:
How, overshadowed by your all-embracing vastness,
I appear minute!
Yet, being one with the ever more darkening earth,
I dare to be in you.
8.30pm time for dinner, pangs of hunger had conquered us and it was excaberated by the day long starving (on way to Kanha you don’t get any food apart from samosas in Tea Stalls) after consuming just morsels of Samosas. It was time to commit the sin of Gluttony, a sin, which left the Canteen staff awed and dismayed, and what not? A 4-member team eating 40-45 chapathis and quantities of rice spiced with dals and curries that too without paying anything? Adding to the assault was demanding sweet in the end. At the end of the eating binge, the only feeling we had was probably this was the last time they were going to offer this plan of 490/= rupees with unlimited food.
As time waded by the cool breeze of the forest wasped by our faces and it was becoming colder by the hour. With nothing much left to do it was time to doze off the night and jumpstart early the next day in the expedition to venture out in the woods.
The Mango Tree
Mang
Mango Tree tall and big evokes a strong sense of nostalgia in me, for much of my life in childhood was spent under the precincts of big mango trees. We were fortunate to have neighbors who had 5 big mango trees with lithe branches in their garden providing much succor and shade to near by roads and houses.
Kids of Chottupura (our locality) virtually grew up under the shades of mango trees. Our evenings were spent under these giant trees. The galli cricket or table tennis or just chit chat the avenue always was facilitated in the shades of mango tree. Come summer the mango trees provided an anodyne milieu for starting our game in sultry heat at 2pm. The Mango Trees have witnessed it all, the thrilling cricket matches played with much verve and passion, the little skirmishes off the field and who can forget the Chottupura slapgate? The Bully Proto slapped the innocuous Natraj under the mango tree. The slapgate of Chottupura snow-balled to a big controversy and was settled out again under the Mango Tree. I vividly remember the outrageous parents and neighbors of Natraj protesting and walking to Proto’s house to tame the bully. Unfortunately the bully never had compunction of his deeds. Stalemate prevailed and no action took place on the field for next couple of days, Proto was unofficially banned. But then things cooled down and back were the boys for action and fun under the mango tree. Summer was also the time of mangoes raw and ripe. Miscreants attacked the mango trees with stones and aimed high at the perching mangoes. Passer by had torrid time evading stones falling on their head or mangoes falling on their heads. We bore the brunt as an old house with tiled roofs the tiles broke when the stone fell on them. But it was all taken in stride because having mango trees burgeoning over the roof outweighed these small hardships.
I was really lucky to have access to mangoes high on the branches by just a grasp of hands from my terrace. Have a look at this picture.
Raw mangoes cut into slices peppered with salt – a real mouth watery stuff. Later part of my year during graduation and post graduation mango tree played a major part in my studies providing a bevy of convenience and a comfortable study arena. During study holidays early mornings and much of the evenings were spent in the terrace under the shade of mango tree reading and working on the subjects. It was as if the Mango Trees providing a cornucopia of energy and inspiration to slog out long hours.
Ok, why these entire mango talk now? Is it just that summer is bringing in the mango memories, well No! When I moved to my apartment in Hyderabad, we had a mango sapling at one of the corners of our compound; it was reminiscent of the giant mango trees which I was used to, infact like a stripling of those grand daddies. I was ecstatic; I was dreaming of the days when it would bloom out and become tall and strong providing the shade and comfort. I was waiting for the day in which raw mangoes would be borne out of it and I can pluck those to revisit the good old days of eating raw mango peppered with salt. Till yesterday it was there on the corner growing more than 12ft high and daily I would check its progress. Alas! today its no more, the lust and greed of human mind has cut its life short. With a stroke of axe it has fallen and rooted out and I have given it a poignant farewell. All this for building a shed for drivers, oh! Man you just could have sat on the shades of Mango Tree rather than under an abestos sheet. But in today’s world there is hardly any sense prevailing…..for such magnificent trees to survive.
Hopefully someday I too will own a piece of land and plant a mango tree!
Melghat Adventures – II
5AM three of us were up and gearing up for a tête-à-tête with the Tiger. Out of the bed and blanket cover, I felt a chill assuaging into my body. The bittering cold had taken control of me with a thud and my body was trembling and teeth’s were clattering, I couldn’t walk and I hobbled towards my bag and added two more layer of clothing on to my mane. 15mts on I came in terms with the environment. And then started our wait for the jeep to arrive which was supposed to be there at 5AM. Waited, waited and as each tick passed by I knew our chances of spotting animals were coming down. Usually day break and evening are the best chance to spot animals especially deers and bisons. They would generally be holed up near a water hole for the first drink of the day and might be wandering in search of food. By 5.45AM our patience had ran out and we decided to walk out from Guest House to the main road 3km away. Still darkness all around, we started our walk with a small torch aiding us. 20mts on we reached the main road and the first rays of sun were speckling out in the distant horizon. With nothing much to do there, 3 of us took our cameras and started focusing the crimson dawn. It was also one of those days where moon was also lighting up the sky along with the sun. And with the power of 12x zoom at disposal, we got some awesome shots of moon and crimson dawn, teak wood trees reflecting orange lights from the burning sun. An hour passed and the crimson dawn warmed to an golden yellow day and still no trace of our jeep. Despondently we waited and finally we decided to walk back to the guest house and when we were about to reach our room, came the zooming sound of a motor. Our jeep had arrived well 3hrs late. We gave our mouthful and started our safari.
Accompanied with a guide, we started our safari in the one of the open game routes. A few minutes on our guide spotted pug marks of sloth bear and bisons. We were excited to see the pug marks of sloth bear. My friends were inquisitive as to whether it had passed the track 5mts ago or 10mts ago and exploring/ruing the possibility of seeing/missing the beast. But thanks to Kenneth Anderson I knew it was impossible to spot a bear in broad day light. Bears are more of nocturnal in nature and they hunt for food in the night and when the day breaks they recline to their resting place. So possibility for spotting the sloth was nil. But our day had begun in a good note; the feeling of walking/driving through the jungles where sloth bears live was exhilarating. And a few meters on we came into the first sighting of the trip. A giant Indian Gaur (aka Indian Bison) was standing on our path. It gave a stare for 2 seconds and slowly cleared the path for us. It was a magnificent sight. Alas! I was precariously perching on top of the jeep and I couldn’t capture the Gaur on my frame.
The rest of the drive saw our eyes and ears wide open to capture the faintest of movement or feeblest of sound, but nothing happened and we were out of the game drive. But something more illustrious waited outside. A pack of langurs on the road side were visibly excited and making a huge hue and cry. Jungle law tells when langurs are excited; the predator is on its foray. It can be a tiger or leopard. We hoped that the elusive predator would deign to make an appearance. But the party was spoilt pretty fast when a group of grass-cutters arrived in the scene chattering on their way. Whatever little hope faded away and the langurs fell silent signaling that striped or spotted wonder has run away, stealing away our luck.
Rest of the day, we went on trial after trial to various spots inside the forest, Raipur a tiny hamlet inside the forest, Bichu keda phata, Kuwapatti and much more. But we couldn’t see anything other than trees. As the day imposed itself, we were picturing beautiful spots deep inside Melghat forests, each spot vying itself to be a picture-perfect wallpaper setting. On the way Alosh and Kunal got something to show their natural instincts and bring out the Mouglee in them. As the day unwounded, long bumpy drive on top of a jeep had started taking a toll on our back and to try our luck again we decided to drive the same game route which we took in the morning.
Barely had we entered the track, we were greeted by 3 Bisons having water on a small water-hole. This time I was on a vantage position to shoot them. Adding color to this graceful setting was a mischievous langur sitting on top of a tree above the Bison. On seeing us the langur got excited and started making strange noises and slowly descended down the tree and teased the bison. Seeing the langur coming down and making strange noises, the Bison seems to have got fidgety and swish! it heralded a charge and ran across crossing out path. And being in a too good position I could capture the running bison on my camera. It was the moment of the day, it would have been moment of my life if the bison had decided to take a turn and run towards us. But as nature would have it ran away from us and leaving us in mirth. Here you see the Bison standing, after being teased by langur it runs,runs and runs. Here is the naughty langur which was instrumental in unfolding the drama. In the back of langur you can also see the Bison staring at us.
These events made up for the dull day (dull only as far as animal spotting was concerned). As we trudged forward lady luck smiled on us and we could spot more families of Bisons and a solitary Sambhar as well.
The adventurous journey of day 1 was streaming to an end as Sun started billowing on the western horizon and by 6pm we were back in our hut after a tiring day. On the trial we heard from our guide that there was a Machan in the back of our guest some 2km away and it was used during animal census where the enumerators would stay there for a day or two to count the animals coming to the waterhole near it. As always our irrational excitement overpowered us and we thought of taking a plunge and started marching towards it and god knows may be to stay on top all night. Time was nearing 6.30pm and the darkness had made its cover all around. Barely a kilometer in the track, we had some eery sound in the bushes, some thing was creeping or crawling. Was it a tiger or leopard is it going to pound on us from the back? After witnessing the power of 1000kg bison a little bit earlier during its run, our fears were compounded, was it a bison ready for making it charge? A dilemma, a double-mind strapped us and none of us exchanged any words but 3 of us unanimously were walking back to the safety of our rooms.
That was end of day 1 in Melghat, day 2 had more exotic plans, this time no jeeps but a trek, a 15km long trek through the forests and our guide would arrive at 6AM tomorrow to start the trek. Who knows may be we are going to cross our path with a tiger or leopard or may be a sleeping bear? Only time will tell…..
(To be continued)
Melghat Adventures – I
Thanks to a geographically diversified coterie at workplace, I get to visit different parts of India in the pretext of attending marriages. Being a wildlife and nature aficionado, I prefer the marriage itinerary to be packed with a visit to wildlife sanctuary near the venue. Earlier it was gir, then sunderbans and now is the time for Melghat, pre-cursor attending a marriage in Nanded.
Melghat Tiger Reserve located in Amaravathi District of Maharashtra is relatively less-known tourist resort. Thanks to which, much of the forest is unperturbed with crazy tourists and pepsi cans and bisleri bottles. A 13 hour bus drive from Hyderabad took us to Amaravathi, the heart of Vidharbha. From Vidharbha another 1hr drive takes us to the shanty town of Parathwada. Much of the journey from Amaravathi to Parathwada criss-crosses killer cotton fields skirting on both sides of the road. As a first time visitor to this part of India, I was having a mixed feeling passing through Vidharbha heart lands – where every tick of two-and-a-half hour culminates in a farmer suicide. My mind was perplexed and I was curiously gazing out of the window on the villagers and their homes, trying to read the misery on their face. An amalgam of shame, sadness and discontent was brewing on my mind, the overwhelming thought – how venal and insensitive we have disintegrated to?
Parathwada was a picture of typical India, with a dilapidated bus station, shabby roads and flith all around. From Parathwada, began the journey to Melghat which almost 900m above sea level. This was the best part of journey passing through bucolic settings and innumerable hair pin curves and breath-taking views. Our stay was booked in Forest Guest House at a place called Kolkas. A two hour topsy-turvy ride through forests and mountains left us in Kolkas. The only proof that we had indeed landed in Kolkas was a sign board which read Kolkas Guest House, Turn Right. Rest apart it was dense forest all around, the conductor while getting down pointed his hand and said walk down 3km you will find a guesthouse and with that bus chugged away. No sign of human civilization, no concrete structures, no electric poles….. just trees, trees and more trees with a road in the midst winding away. The first thing I did was to check if there was a mobile signal, the Nokia was blank. No GSM, No CDMA – welcome to Jungle Land. Then started our trudge on the 3km path in search of the guest house. On the way was the first sighting of the trip – a beautiful golden red spider, resting on a labyrinthine network of web between two trees. Out popped three digi-cams to capture this fascinating handiwork of the spider and the spider itself. I was struggling for 1minute, to get a shot, the spider just couldn’t be figured out through the lens. Thankfully the photography connoisseur in the midst helped with the hint of Manual Focus. So with the mode set I harried my lens in search of the spider and finally caught it through the eyes of the camera. Click! Click! Click! The camera had kick-started for the first time in this trip and on its way to capture the magic of mesmerizing Melghat.
A 20mts walk took us to Guest House, resting on the banks of River Sipna, it was an idyllic setting to unwind one-self and recharge. The guest house is manned by a two-man army and the rooms were pretty shabby and bathrooms were awful to say the least. But outside the room was the lap of nature, pristine, atoned with green, rustling with the sounds of birds and winds gracing the trees. So for once we forgot what’s inside and our souls were kept wandering outside while physically our body was cozying in the warmth of two layer blankets from chilling cold outside. But let me accept here for just 200/= for a suite for 3 persons together per night, what we got was supreme luxury.
The first rude jolt of the trip occurred here, when the two-man army welcomed us and told you are stuck here if you don’t have a vehicle. As I mentioned earlier, since it’s not much hyped destination, there are no private resorts and those who wish to do safari had to have their own vehicles. A pall of gloom descended on us, then started a series of debates, interrogation and quizzing the guys, finally we worked out a plan to sent one of us along with a guy to the nearest village and find if we can get a vehicle. My dear friend Alosh, took up the charge and thankfully the guest house had a bike. They set out in dark, yes darkness at 5.30pm to Semadoh which is 14km from Kolkas. Semadoh is a small village which has a couple of tea stalls and a phone booth. Dropping a new one rupee coin can make you talk for 20sec to outside world. I sent my SOS message to home through my messenger Alosh. While me and Kunal had a hot water bath and comforted ourselves in the confines of the bed, Alosh battered the cold and brought back good news. He got a Commander jeep for the whole day next day for 1500/= and our adventures were to begin next day at 5am.
Inside Guest House was resident a family, and the only source of food here was their home. They prepared us a simple yet sumptuous dinner and we were having the first proper food of the day at 8pm after the long arduous bus journey. 9pm, with nothing much better to do in a forest, we crashed to bed dreaming about tigers and bears and an eventful day awaited us in the horizon.
(End of Part-I)
Srisailam Trip – 2007
After an ordeal of a trip in the summer of 2005 smothered with some fine memories it was time for another Srisailam trip. This time it was a packaged tour from APTDC. The deal worked out to be 660/- per head inclusive of conveyance and stay in an uber cool resort in Srisailam for one night, altogether I felt it was a dandy of a deal.
Off we set on Friday, Aug 17th an early morning start with overcast sky and benign weather promised it to make it a picture-perfect trip. So I loaded my camera with fully charged batteries and a neatly formatted 2GB card to capture every bling of nature. The travel itself is very pleasurable as the destiny. Srisailam route criss-crosses rustic villages and Nallamala forests which houses Nagarjuna Sagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve. Nallamala forest is the hotbed of Naxal movement and the forest covers are profuse hide outs of naxalites. An avid watcher can easily spot monkeys, deer’s and wild boars enroute to Srisailam.
Srisailam is on a hill top about 2800mts above sea level. Going from Hyderabad one has to hop from one mountain to the second one through a gorge which houses the Srisailam dam between the two mountains. The beautiful spectre of nature unravels when one descends the first mountain pass through a narrow bridge to start the ascend of the second mountain. The bridge runs parallel to the dam at least a couple of kilometers away. Standing on the bridge embers of tranquility engulfed me; all around lustrous tinge of green from the skirting mountains lent a mystic charm to the place. The river – which is a sangam of Krishna, Tungabadra and Bhima rivers – underneath was in full spate thanks to the copious rains and shutters of the dam were open aiding the cataclysmic flow. The sight of water gushing-seething-scuttling out from the dam was mesmerizing and it really pulled everyone into a thrall.
Our first stoppage was at the dam view point. Enthralled by the spectacle everyone was out with their cameras and truly a photographer hidden in everyone was blooming out. Sheets of water were cascading down the dam walls and once it cascaded down, from the sheer pressure the sheets of water ricocheted and transformed to a shape of parabola made from droplets of water. The water gushing looked like infinite lustrous white beads of pearl roiling down in a chain. Because of the sheer force of tumbling water the whole milieu was draped with tiny droplets of water as if an artist has stippled the canvas of nature with tiny white pearls. The atmosphere was engulfed with these sprinkling droplets and from a distance it was as if writhing vines of steam emanating from a hot water stream. It really made my day I was gasping and swooned by these splattered water droplets and splashing river traversing amidst the silent mountains.
The next stop was Panchganga which is a small waterfall amidst thickets of forest cover. A very tranquil and serene place and its believed Sankaracharya scripted Soundarya Lahiri and Sivanand Lahiri sitting here. Our next stop was Padal Ganga which also is the backside of the dam or the reservoir. A rope-way takes one to the bank of the reservoir and a boat ride through the water was a riveting experience to behold forever.
Coming back to Srisailam the destiny – the abode of Lord Mallika Arjuna Swamy, Srisailam holds a high pedestal as is one among the 12 Jyothir Lingas in India. The idol itself is half concealed underneath the earth. One of the most amazing traits of this temple is devotees are allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum and are allowed to touch the main idol itself and one can ever perform pooja on the main idol in their own, which is not allowed in any other South Indian Temple.
Next day morning after a nice darshan and sumptuous breakfast we embarked on the return journey another joy ride through the natures lap bequeathed with charm and greenery. Most of my pictures which I shot in this trip were taken sitting in the moving bus on the return journey and to my surprise they have come out very well, truly capturing the natures best with tactility and are here to stay refurbishing my memory – a poignant travel memoir.
