New VLOG, worth a watch from Shahpura Lake and Tekri, Bhopal

Have a look at new VLOG walk into nature from Shahpura Lake and Manua Bhan ki tekri, done by You tube channel, 'From the Eyes of Anil' If u like it SUBSCRIBE From the Eyes of Anil 

Bhopal mela, some snippets

Bhopal mela is an annual fair at Bhopal. Like every year it has thousands of people from in and around Bhopal visit the mela. This year it had thousands visitors, though unexpected rains in Bhopal in last few days have affected the 'foot fall'. Like every year mela has its usual stalls, merry go round, and off course fair attraction this year is temple made in form of Somnath temple for the mela.

Though for last two days, furniture stalls are on strike as stalls provided by mela authority were not strong enough to protect display furniture from rains and it got drenched. Furniture stall owners are demanding compensation for the 'loss' and there seems to be deadlock between the two !, hopefully should get resolved soon.

Rahman in Bhopal

To mark M.P.'s foundation day, a cultural event is being held in Bhopal's Lal Parade Ground. A R Rahman, maestro himself would be performing at the event. 

Here is his picture (Courtesy Gagan) rehearsing at the ground !

Last minute touches to idol

With Navratra's round the corner, one can see artists giving last minute touches to Durga idols at various places in Bhopal. Festivity start tommorrow when one will find hundreds of puja pandals across the city...

Soothing sunset

Sunset, a blaze of colour in the sky @ bhopal (pix @anil gulati)

Ganpathi Visarjan at Bhopal

It is the last day of Ganesh Utsav and people across India, and in Bhopal immerse Ganesh idols at various places. Above pixs are from Shahpura Lake in Bhopal. Several street processions are being taken out in Bhopal and thousands of idole are immersed at different spots, though adding pressure of pollution to Bhopal lakes, which are life line of the city.

Kaliasoot dam water reservior

Kaliasoot dam at full tank level in Bhopal

Protest in Bhopal & Jal Satyagraha at Gongol

Yesterday thousands of people who would are getting affected due to rising water levels in Omkareshwar & Indira Sagar Dam along with activist groups from Bhopal demonstrated at the State’s capital. They are calling urgent attention to the demands of 'Jal Satyagrahis' are protesting by sitting inside neck deep water for the 15^th day. The protest march in form of rally went from the Yadhgar Shehzani Park till the Lilly Talkies in Bhopal to express their solidarity with the Jal Satyagrahis.

Protest at Bhopal

Jal Satygrah at Gongol

Jal Satyagrahis, around 50 people from Omkareshwar Dam affected village of Gongol are sitting inside water along with activist of Narmada Bachao Andolan Chitaroopa Palit for the past 15 days condemning the increase of water in dams causing submergence which is indeed a serious violation of human rights as well as honorable Supreme court’s directions. 

Demands of the Omkareshwar dam affected villagers who are sitting for Jal Satyagraha are reducing the water level from 190.5 to 189 meters, complete rehabilitation of the oustees by providing land for land to the farmers, house plots for certain people and other facilities. The demands also include an amount of Rs. 2.5 Lakh for the landless poor and also complete rehabilitation of the 5 villages.       

                                                                                                                  

On the other hand the demands of the Indira Sagar dam affected oustees who are also sitting for Jal Satyagrahis are to reduce the water level to 260 meters as per the Judicial directions for complete rehabilitation of the villages which are affected by the Dam. The villages which got submerged include Raiyath, Joonapani, Karanpura.

भुट्टा हो जाये !

वर्षा की फुहारों में गरमा-गरम भुट्टे और उसके विविध व्यंजन खाने का एक अलग ही मजा है। भुट्टा ग्रेमिनी कुल का एक प्रसिद्ध धान्य है।आयुर्वेद के अनुसार कच्ची मक्का का भुट्टा तृप्तिदायक, वातकारक, कफ, पित्तनाशक, मधुर और रुचि उत्पादक अनाज है। भुट्टे में पौष्टिक तत्व कार्बोहाइड्रेट प्रचुर मात्रा में पाया जाता है। इसमें मुख्य रूप से प्रोटीन होता है। भोपाल में तो आज कल बरसात का मौसम है, जिसमे भूना हुआ भुट्टा खाने का मन करता है। आइये फोटो से देखें इसके कुछ रंग ।

Raining Bhopal

पर्यटकों के लिए खुशखबरी! केरवा डेम लबालब

भोपाल। पिछले दिनों हुई बारिश के बाद राजधानी से करीब 15 किलोमीटर दूर स्थित केरवा डेम पानी से पूरी तरह भर गया है। इसके गेटों से पानी छलककर बह रहा है।

अगले 48 घंटे में भारी बारिश की चेतावनी : शहर में रविवार को दिनभर बादल तो छाए रहे, लेकिन बारिश नहीं हुई। मौसम केंद्र ने अगले 48 घंटे के दौरान राजधानी में भारी बारिश की चेतावनी दी है। इधर, पिछले 10 दिनों में हुई अच्छी बारिश से शहर और आसपास स्थित डेम व तालाबों का जलस्तर बढ़ गया है। रविवार को बड़े तालाब का जलस्तर 1664 फीट पर पहुंच गया। वहीं कोलार का जलस्तर भी 545.5 मीटर हो गया है। कलियासोत डेम का जलस्तर 497.5 मीटर तक जा पहुंचा है। फोटो : अनिल गुलाटी

http://www.bhaskar.com/article/MP-BPL-kerwa-dam-is-full-of-water-3648346.html?JAIF-7=

Rakhi ...time in Bhopal

Rakhi being sold at shop at Bairagarh in Bhopal

Bhopal skyline

Bats on Bhopal skyline in the evening

Adventure sports at Bhopal

Bhoj adventure festival is onway at Bhopal. Here are some snippets of the festival, which has parasailing, bungee jumping, dragon boating, banana rides and many other adventure sports which are being organised at Bhopal's kaliasoot area.Festival started yesterday and will go on till Feb 21, 2012.

Lokrang snippets !

Here are some pictures from Lokrang, festival being held at Bhopal from Jan 26- Feb 1, 2012.

Pictures @ anil gulati

Surya Namaskar

Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan performing Surya Namaskar at Bhopal.

Madhya Pradesh is aiming at registering itself in Guniness Book of World Records in multi locational aerobic demonstration by  around 60 lakhs children performing Surya Namaskar in MP on January 12, 2012. Also seen in the picture is Manoj Jhalani, then Secretary School Education  Department.

Last sunrise of 2011

Last sunrise of 2011 as seen from Bhopal 6.30 am - 7.15 am

Bhopal back waters @!

Agony of the burning tree !

Picture courtesy - Gagan

This old tree at Bhopal crossing near Bhopal talkies was burning from inside from last two days. No one cared.  Locals here say that they had informed the fire brigade yesterday but it came today afternoon. Fire Brigade tried to control fire but somehow the tree is burning from inside and one could see smokes still even after many litres water had been thrown over and inside the tree. Pictured at 3.00 pm !

Happy diwali

Dusshera at Bhopal

Bhopal marked Dusshera with festivity, while idols of mother godess were being immersed in the nearby lakes of Bhopal ....and in the evening it was burning of effigy of Ravana at various places in Bhopal. Have a glimpse of it ..

Ravana effigy at Bittan Market

Ravana effigy at TT Nagar

Ravana effigy in fire at Nehru Nagar

Fireworks which followed after Ravana effigy was lit with fire

Idols of mother godess being taken for immersion at Prempura Ghat

Picnic @ Kerwa

Bhopal has been lucky this time; it had ‘bounty full’ of rains. Today was another pleasant day at Bhopal. It was combination of weather, cool breeze, over shadowing clouds, intermittent light rains - a perfect day to soothe ones senses. Kerwa was perfect destination to be around. It is around 8 kms from Nehru Nagar, on the outskirts of Bhopal.  Drive to kerwa was smooth, crossing over few trucks carrying Ganpathi idols, with drum beats, loud music, with popular songs, and roars of slogan which added to the flavor.

Young boys laded with red ‘gulal’ and in their own ‘masti’. One could see a big group of over 100 young schools boys returning from kerwas in long line probably after day’s trek. The drive from the start of Kerwa dam to eco-tourism spot was like going in jungle, though it had narrow drivable, but is curvy. On both sides of the road it had trees, and shrubs. Lantana plants dominated the road side, with butterflies hovering around the little flowers.

The road about kilometer and half to eco-tourism spot has number of blind turns, which needs care while driving especially when you have few vehicles going up and down. One could not drive in the eco-tourism spot as the gates were closed. ‘Gush of flow of water’ was had submerged the bridge at the gate. Though few youngsters tried to cross the submerged bridge as water was till knees height, few returned back as surface was slippery surface and gush was powerful, and this could be risky. One could see many earthworms on the surfaces at the gate crawling in the wet mud.

Best option today was to be at Kerwa bridge road or visit at MP tourism ‘picnic @kerwa’. For entering into picnic@kerwa one has to pay a ticket of Rs 5 per person, which is not expensive especially as it includes parking fee for your vehicle. It gives you awesome view of the Kerwa and hillocks around it. It has nice eating joint, and benches to relax if you don’t want to eat at the joint.  The hut with stairs at picnic@kerwa gave a nice look of the water filled kerwa and its opened small gates, with water gushing out and on other side hillock covered with green trees.

Clouds, cool breeze, water filled bodies soothes one senses, roars of slogans, drum beats as one immerses Ganpathi in lakes added  to the flavor, with only pain being for water filled lakes, as they get chemicals and non-recyclable materials in them.

- Anil Gulati

Eco friendly Ganpathis at Bhopal

Ganesh Chaturthi is here. Bhopal celebrates with all its colours. One can find Ganpathi idols for sale in all markets and on street corners of Bhopal. Today onwards one will see hundreds of pandals across the city.  Majority of Idols on sale are Plaster of paris based with chemical colours but thanks to growing awareness on environment, ecofriendly ones are also on sale.

Eco Friendly idols are the ones made of natural mud and should have environment friendly water soluble colours, so that they do not do harm to the water body when they are immersed. NGO Kala Vihan Art and Welfare Society is selling them at Bittan market of Bhopal. On sale are many variants. Smaller ones are made up of mud and attached to the real coconut or just mud and water soluble colours. To make the popular and provide them in numbers an NGO had trained idol makers in this. For bigger idols they have to added paper to give strength and made them attractive. But majorly it is clay, water soluble coloyrs and all will dissolve in water, shares Preeti Bawa of Kala Vihan. ‘They are 20 % expensive but will not harm eco system. Smaller ones you can immerse it in smaller ponds or tub Bawa adds.

Similarly another NGO Narmada Samagara is selling idols made of mud. They are also made up of mud and water soluble colours and are priced at Rs 51.00 and Rs 101.00 respectively. Hopefully this awareness on eco-friendly Ganpathi’s will grow…and help save Bhopal’s water bodies.

 

Last minute touches..Ganpathi at Bhopal

Idols getting ready for Ganpathi puja

Idols getting ready on bhopal roads...

Bhopal rains

Bhopal's safe roads ?

These are just few snippets, of traffic on one particular day during summer ...

From a withered tree, flower will bloom one day !

Bhopal @ March 2011

Bhopal activist - Satinath Sarangi awarded

Satinath Sarangi, social activist who is fighting for rights of Bhopal gas disaster victims has been awarded "The Week Man of the Year Award". Sarangi, an MTech engineer-turned-activist, was presented the award by Union Water Resources Minister Salman Khursheed at a function held in Delhi on Friday. As per PTI reports Satinath Sarangi said "the Bhopal tragedy was not just a gas leak.It was a leak in the system. What I see is the microcosm of what is happening across the world.". Deepak Tiwari, Principal Correspondent of The Week based in Bhopal wrote about him as the 'Engineer who has been fighting Union Carbide for 26 years' and was on cover page of 'The Week' magazine recently. (pic courtesy Prakash Bhai (Prakash Hatvalne)

Statue of Raja Bhoj

Statue of Raja Bhoj on rampants of Fategarh fort in upper lake of Bhopal. The statue installation started a debate on naming Bhopal as Bhojpal which is being resisted by many in Bhopal.