Flamingoessssssss.......

Flamin-goes to be renamed as Flamin-never-there, is the conclusion of our adventures. I really do not know who got the thing into our groups collective head to go in search of birds that too the two legged variety with feathers, I should have traded it for the without feathers variety … but as they say “kisine khadda khoda hai to kisi ko girna bhi jarori hai”

Waking up at 5 in morning [yes, I can do that, so what if the alarm was going off for so long, it sounded more like an project manager during appraisals] and making it to 6 at Thana qualifies me for an lifetime achievement award, Devdatta was on time [his time] and we were in kurla, Manjusha place in 20 minutes.

I do not know, if Devdatta knows some short cuts thru time-space but after the ride, I can sure crack the fear factor series on AXN. After a hearty breakfast of thalipeth-butter and tea/biscuits [yummy] we started for uran and Devdatta got control of the wheels and the first question he asks was can someone tell him, if the steering wheel is straight. Manjusha owns the car but she know as much about it as she may know about an Eskimo, no offence meant Manjusha but it seemed like fun sitting in the backseat watching Devdatta asking her where he could find so and so control and she telling him to make an effort and if he so much cared for a measly brake or a gear he better find it himself.

We reached uran after a nice and uneventful drive, stopping off in middle of road or going to the left and right of road depending on where Rama wanted to click a snap, all traffic and holdups coz of us doing the crazy stuff not being our problem after all it is not everyday that we go out in search for flamingoes.

Uran should be renamed “ONGC” everywhere we went we found something to do with ONGC and no flaming-@$&*. Manjusha & Rama almost got us on the front pages by insisting on clicking snaps in a restricted zone and getting the CRPF and locals on our tracks. It is good, I was with them and with my decent nature and “guni porga” looks they believed us when we said we were chasing “gulabi pakshi”. We almost got reported to the police by the locals but for one school teacher who had heard of the gulabi birds and chose to believe us.

The locals were very cooperative in misguiding us and always made it a point to suggest an alternative spot where we could find the flamin-damn-bird. Maybe they wanted to rid of us naïve city folks who assume the birds are like the starlets we see on TV, always ready to pose even in front of a camera cover. All said and done after visiting Uran, Karanja, Phonda [for Devdatta the names must have sounded like puran, karanjya, bhonda] we headed for karnala. We thought at least that is the place where we can redeem ourselves so what, if we did not see flamin-bloody-birds we will click all other birds and the flamin-not-goes will feel jealous.

Devdatta has two passions in life, one is food and other is thinking about food. We got ample proof of that on the trip where he was planning the trip based on eating joints he knew along the way. After the flaming-joke disappointment and a very sad Devdatta [not coz of the birds but coz not finding a good eat out] we made it somehow to datta snacks and gorged on vada, khichdi and buttermilk. Karnala was a short drive away and getting there was again punctuated by discussions on devdatta’s ideas for what we were going to eat on the return journey.

Karnala is a bird sanctuary and we hoped to click birds and pass them of as the “birds which should not be named”. The place has nature trails and trails to a fort in its midst.
As we were on a mission, we decided to skip the fort and go after birds. Manjusha was not helping matter by calling out loud to birds as if they know that when they are called out they should stand in line and get photographed. Some time soon after walking, rather climbing for quite a distance, we [Manjusha and Rama] came to the conclusion that we had got on the wrong trail and we were in fact heading to the fort. After much cribbing and many clicking opportunities on the way we somehow made it to a ridge where we came across a group of scouts who told us the fort was almost an half hour climb more. I and Devdatta decided that we were going to turn back, Manjusha and Rama wanted to conquer the fort and hence they went on.

Climbing down was another task in itself with rain and all the muck we were sliding down, it helped coz we were coming down at a speed much faster than the climbing speed but also needed to take care that we do not prove medicine wrong by coming down with more bones than with the number we went up with. Devdatta contributed to the ditches in the climb down by choosing to fall, Manjusha and Rama when they were coming down could see the impact and may have immediately guessed that only Devdatta could have fallen down there. I guess Devdatta wanted to make the way down the trail a bit easier for Rama and Manjusha to follow, by leaving behind impressions in the earth at regular intervals. After a brief [kshan bhar] stop at a vishranti ghru and Devdatta being extremely disappointed for not getting his fave “chiken” we headed back for home.
All in all even if we were not able to find the flamingoes, we clicked ourselves and had fun…its flamingo’s loss at the end of the day. Where in this whole wide world will they get another chance to be clicked by us great self proclaimed photographers?