amlanroychowdhury

It was in 2017 when I was coming back from Jeddah. It was a Hajj flight and we were taking the pilgrims back to India. While waiting at the departure hall I saw that one of the Haj officials was distributing the Quran to the pilgrims. I, on some instinct, went to the official and asked for a Quran for myself. He looked at me first from head to toe and then asked me if I was a Muslim. I said , “No I am not “ . There was complete silence for maybe ten seconds and then, I don’t know what he thought, he went inside his office and came back with an English, abridged version f Quran and gave it to me. I will not forget that day. Till date that Quran is a prized possession for me. As soon as I came home I started reading it and trying to grasp the content of the holy book. The book was a little differently formatted. It had some selected Surahs and some selected Ayahs in Arabic written in English scripts in the first part and then a prose form with chapters in the second part. Quran has 114...

Nationwide and worldwide lockdown does have a tremendous positive impact on the environment. Nature itself is in a recovery mode and wildlife and birds are claiming that which respectfully belongs to them. In such a backdrop I have been photographing all the different types of birds that are visiting the foliage near my terrace in Kalina, Mumbai. Of the many different species, the Copper Smith Barbet is a bird that normally prefers to stay in the forest locales. So it was quite surprising to see it in the urban center of Mumbai and proliferating healthily. This one was a sub-adult bird that was actually playing hide and seek with me or rather with my camera and I tres to photograph it as much as I could. THE ADULT COPPER SMITH BARBET Add caption

Ths lockdown period all over the world, due to COVID 19, has changed the way people reacted with nature for good. Nature got a breather from the incessant onslaught and aggression from we the humans. Within a very short time, nature bounced back with forgiveness and taught us the Humans the importance of the symbiosis between us and the environment. I could see the changes physically, the freshness in the breath, the purity of the air, the chirping of the birds, the clarity of the night sky, the movements of the wild animals, all indicated that nature is in a happy mood and that nature has rejuvenated to a great extent. In such a backdrop it is but natural to look at all that nature has to offer in a different light and that's where I and my camera shot a series of the portfolio shots of a common crow. I had all the time to observe the bird and was awestruck by its intelligence, problem-solving skills, and its perseverance. The common crow is one hell of an intelligent bird....

From Australopithecus, to Homo Neanderthals, to Paleolithic, to Neolithic we have come a long way. We here   is the Human race or us the mere mortals. Our intelligence and our ability to comprehend and our ability to communicate has alleviated us from mere animals to humans. We developed the devastating atom bomb, we went to space and landed in moon, we are now well ahead in our plans to colonize mars, and by doing things that even two centuries ago was thought as preposterous. Somewhere in our Psyche   we have started believing that we are the creators of this universe. We are the chosen ones that can create ,destroy and create again.   In the movie The Jurassic park there was a wonderful dialogue it goes like this, ”God created Man and God created dinosaurs. God destroyed dinosaurs and Man created dinosaurs,” We mortals have started behaving very arrogantly now a days. We are trying to control nature, the ultimate force, without thinking about what nature can do ...

I was born in Jalpaiguri in the year 1961. During that time Jalpaiguri was the only town then which had a commiserate where this town had an income tax commissioner. From my grandfather, I use to hear about places like Lataguri, Odlabari, Madarihat and so on and my mother would say that one must visit these places as they are nothing less than heaven on earth. I was too young and small then and never felt the need to visit these places as I was happy to be with my grandparents. Leaving me with my grandparents my mother and father went to Garumara forest but it made no difference to me then. Then came 2009 when I was by then well placed as a flyer in Air India and got into the intoxicating hobby of photography. I went to various places, the Himalayas being one and the forests being the other. In 2017, by now I had a group of likeminded colleagues, and we visited the DOOARS. As soon as we crossed the Sevak Bridge and my vehicle turned right onwards to lataguri I remembered ...

                            We had just come to Gangtok after visiting the Gurudongmar lake, after a gruelling seven hours drive from Lachen to Gangtok we were relaxing in our hotel when we decided to go to pelling, that is eastern Sikkim. This was an impromptu decision that we took. I always love these impromptu plans because then the entire journey becomes an adventure. We checked the net and we made our reservations at a fairly new hotel that was located in lower Pelling. While driving to Pelling we visited the worlds only organic tea plantation known as the Temi Tea Garden. About this, I will write in a separate blog. The Main attraction To go to Pelling was the opportunity to see the Himalayan Peak, Kanchenjunga. Kanchenjunga is a peak which has two important sides the Nepal Side and the Sikkim Side. In Sikkim, Kanchenjunga is revered as Holy and hence it is not climbed from the Sikkim side. This peak has...

SUNSET OVER THE RIVER BRAHMAPUTRA........ .. Once one reaches Gauhati, whether be it in the morning or afternoon or any other time, a visit to the banks of Brahmaputra should be a part of one’s iteniery. Gauhati is the capital city of Assam and is situated on the banks of the mighty river Brahmaputra. The Brahmaputra is the only river in India which is revered and thought of as a male. Rest all other rivers in India is revered and thought of as a female.  In Sanskrit, the word river is connoted as “Nadi” , a female worthy of worship and reverence. Similarly, in Sanskrit, The Brahmaputra is connoted as “Nad”, a male river and revered accordingly. Once when you see the river, will one understand that the river is not a mean river .  It is one of the nine largest rivers of the world. River Nile of Egypt and the Amazon river of the Amazon rain forest are the only other two of this category.  This is also one of the longest rivers in the world. It starts ...