Amoghavarsha's Journal » Life

A new journal

amogh — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:01:55 +0000

So I did try be lazy and pushed the unavoidable but anyway here it is my new journal amoghavarsha.com/journal

I will still cross post to LJ until it works.

Also I haven’t put up any images lately though I’ve shot a ton. Here’s one for starters

In the summers, elephants spend a lot of time close to water. When we came to a waterhole expecting a tiger, we saw this guy playing without a care in the world. He was no farther than 200ft.

The Band theory

amogh — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:11:00 +0000

It was a cold august night in 2006 at the army base in Leh, and after biking for more than 4 days I was spending that time resting in my room. I was sharing my room with an army officer and every evening we would discuss quite a few things and he’d tell me quite a few tales. And this is one of the most important things he told me that night:

“I was serving in Kargil as my first posting, and that was when the kargil war broke. The times were hard and everything was a struggle, there were times when we had so much ammunition to carry that we had no space to carry water and we used to use the gunpowder box to heat some ice in it and wait till the ammunition particles settle down and then drink. I lost many friends in the war, I’ve seen death just next to me several times and when you see death so close, you lose fear of death. Losing fear of death also means losing emotions and after the war I wouldn’t emote for the next 6 years. Then came a time in life where I had to get married. And the girl was a friend for a long time and I wasn’t too sure if I’d do justice. But then since she understood me too well, we decided to get married and she over time helped me get back all those emotions. We are expecting a baby in a week and now I’m all excited about it, I’ve learnt the joy of life, family and now everything else is secondary. There’s a very beautiful theory called the “Band theory”, which I apply to my life all the time and live by. It goes something like this – Everyone is born in a certain band, a certain band in economic conditions, social conditions, emotional, career etc. We as individuals should take every aspect of our life to the next band and then you can say your life is successful. Let me explain what a band is, let’s say your father earns just enough to feed the house, that’s your economic band and to take it to the next level means to be able to do more than just feed. And this applies to everything, be it social, emotional, cultural or personality bands. Some people get too involved in one band and take it quite far and neglect the rest, like someone who’s very career focused will probably excel and increase a few bands in career while actually dropping a few bands in other aspects, may be cultural, social etc.”

What he told me then, about 3 years back is suddenly making a lot of sense. In the last 4 years of my life I’ve focused quite a bit on my career and my development as a successful individual. All through overlooking some finer aspects of life, and self-development is one of them. When I say self-development I mean development as a personality, giving importance to growing as a human, understanding the importance of being a better human being. The last few weeks of my life has been a path to many self-discoveries, as I went low on my career for a bit and focussed on other aspects of life and it has helped me to a great extent as I realize what is that I’ve missed so far. And each time I look at people who are really happy, I realize it’s this balance between all the bands of life that’s making them happy, not just career or not just personality. Well I am on this path, are you?

Welcome Maximus

amogh — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:05:00 +0000

My new ride, a 4X4 Safari dicor EX – mountain green. Been wanting this for a longtime for all my jungle travels, with 4 wheel drive and green color its just perfect for the forests. With 140bhp under the hood and a refined 2.2 ltr engine, its powerful and more fuel efficient. And ofcourse I’m not selling the zen

Decisions easily made…

amogh — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:43:00 +0000

Yesterday we were at a protest to save lalbagh, whose walls have been illegally demolished and trees illegally cut.

The only election candidate to make a presence there was Capt. Gopinath, where were the others? Busy in coffee day?

Some decisions are easily made. Capt Gopinath atleast has served the country, has had a vision to make air travel affordable and showed up for a cause which south bangalore is fighting for. For me having a “cool image” + “foreign education” + “cool dressing” doesn’t just cut, ofcourse lets not even talk about BJP

What’s been keeping me busy?

amogh — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:46:00 +0000

Quite a bit of travel, Was shooting for JLR, traveling through all there properties, loads of photographs to process. Hopefully sometime soon I should put up new pics. Some more travel ahead. You can catch more updates on my twitter

Also do any of you know of a good 3d/2d freelance animator?

Citizen matters article

amogh — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:45:00 +0000

Here’s the citizen matters article on me that recently wrote.

bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/688-amoghavarsha-wildlife-photography-photography

Have they lost it or have they yet not got it?

amogh — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:08:00 +0000

“May we live in interesting times” – The chinese curse I think has come true. The R-word has made its way across the board to everyones lives. So in these times when everyone’s try hard to keep up business, even 5 star hotels are slashing prices by upto 40%, we have some geniuses who have either lost it or yet not got the news.

1. French loaf on church street is a small little bakery shop which charges an average of 900/- for a kilo of cake, really are you selling gold?

2. via prashanthks, the prices of movie tickets and DVDs are still crazily high, I’ve stopped watching movies on weekends

3. Airline prices are still high, if they cut down their costs atleast they can make up their losses in quantity than just flying 10 ppl per flight

4. Some folks in kerala also hasn’t got any clue yet, the cgh group of hotels had a stall for food near volvo ocean race media center and a sandwich (sucky ones) costed 200/- plus tax

Can all these guys please go ahead and get a life before they shut shops?

Life update

amogh — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:26:00 +0000

A lots been happening. For starters I’m no longer with asklaila. It has been a very hard decision to quit a company where I started from day 1 of the company. Well I’ve moved on to fulltime photography and filmmaking. I’m working part time with felis. Its a new exciting phase of life I’m moving on to, where most things are new.

My last few trips to the jungles have been mostly to the western ghats, and to Agumbe. Was with the filming crew of the Nat-geo King Cobra documentary with sandesh, also got to see the hatching of king cobra babies!!! Will post a pic or 2 on that later. A photo-expedition to Agumbe went really well. I couldn’t post the details as the seats were filled even before I sent out a mailer. I’m planning to do another one soon, and will keep you guys posted.

Haven’t had time to process photos but here is the Bush frog and the Beddome’s cat snake I photographed at Agumbe.

I’m showcased on Better photography…

amogh — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:26:00 +0000

This month’s issue of better photography has showcased me and my work as a wildlife photographer. Its their nature photography special edition…

Life’s been happening

amogh — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:14:00 +0000

Very hectic schedules, have had very little time in the last couple of months. Building a career afresh in a new field can be very taxing.

My assignment with Club Mahindra took quite a bit of time, and its now over. Also conducted a photoworkshop last week. Couldn’t blog about it as even before I blogged, the seats got full. Will be conducting another one soon. Will keep you guys posted.

Loads of images from trips to Kerala, Rajasthan and Western ghats are to be processed. Will put it all up in the next 1-2 weeks